Sci/Tech
Psychology as we know it is a relatively young science, but since its inception it has helped us to gain a greater understanding of ourselves and our interactions with the world. Many psychological experiments have been valid and ethical, allowing researchers to make new treatments and therapies available, and giving other insights into our motivations and actions. Sadly, others have ended up backfiring horribly — ruining lives and shaming the profession.
10 Psychological Experiments That Went Horribly Wrong
Science
Hidden Fingerprint of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Finally Found | Nuclear Weapons
After 50 years of searching, physicists have spotted the fingerprint of radioactive plutonium, revealing the secrets of this complex molecule behind nuclear weapons. The researchers found the "plutonium signal" using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which is often used to peer into the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. Their findings, detailed in the May 18 issue of the journal Science, could help scientists and others figure out the relative amounts of different types of plutonium (and its many compounds) in nuclear reactors , for instance.Environment
Okay, this is just freaky. We know LED lights are versatile enough to be used for practically anything, but LED contact lenses? Really?! Yes, as it turns out, really. University of Washington researchers have figured out how to implant semitransparent red and blue LED lights in contact lenses, for the purpose of receiving and displaying data in sharp visual images and video. This means wearers will literally be able to watch TV or view photos that are projected directly onto their eyeballs.
LED Lights Make Augmented Vision a Reality | Elemental LEDucation
Planets
Earth
Newly discovered wall writings found in Guatemala show the famed Maya culture's obsession with cycles of time. But they also show calendars that go well beyond 2012, the year when the vanished civilization, according to popular culture, expected the end of the world. "So much for the supposed end of the world," says archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, lead author of a study in the journal Science , which reported the discovery on Thursday. Discovered in the ruins of Xultun (SHOOL-toon) , the astronomical calendar was unearthed from a filled-in scribe's room. While about 7 million Maya people still live in Central America today, the "Classic" Maya civilization of pyramid temples had collapsed there by about 900 A.D., leaving only a few birch-bark books dating to perhaps the 14th century as records of their astronomy, until now. "The numbers we found indicate an obsession with time and cycles of time, some of them very large," Saturno says.
Newly discovered Mayan calendar goes way past 2012
This page was made on Wednesday 9 th May 2012 Last updated at 07:47 A 'ghost town' is being built in America to test out the latest technologies such as renewable energies and terrorism security systems. It'll look just like a city with roads, houses and buildings - but no one will live there.
CBBC Newsround - 'Ghost town' being built in US to test new technologies
By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | 08 December 2009
12.08.2009 - Social scientists build case for 'survival of the kindest'
Space
Android integration comes to your car's mirror [w/video]
Just when you thought manufacturers couldn't cram any more technology into a vehicle, CES rolls through Las Vegas to show off all-new levels of car-bound gadgetry. A company by the name of Rydeen hopes to produce a new range of stereo head units that run the Android operating system. The double-DIN units partner up with a touch-screen enabled rear-view mirror serve up all of the relevant applications we've come to know and love from our Android devices. Currently, Rydeen says it's just using the touchscreen rear-view mirrors as research tools, though a production version may hit the market by 2013.
Computers
Intermission: The Robots Can Now Fly and Juggle at the Same Time - Technology
Researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control in Zurich have developed flying robots that can juggle ping-pong balls in midair. The whole scene is tracked by an overhead motion capture system and the robots are controlled by a pair of computers. Like nearly every cool advance in robotics, this research is being pursued with military applications in mind, which is kind of a bummer. Why can't we just have science in the service of racket sports? <p style="text-align:right;color:#A8A8A8"></p>
It's something you would never expect to go missing, but one of the world's brightest glow-in-the-dark mushrooms has been rediscovered after an absence of more than 170 years, according to USA Today . The bioluminescent shrooms had become a Brazilian legend of sorts.