Snowflakes Up Close: A Small, Fragile World If you’re one of those people who likes to ponder things while looking out a frosty window on a cold winter day, these pictures will clear up one of those long standing wonders: each snowflake really IS unique. Some look like roman columns, others circuit boards or spaceships. Taken under high magnification using a microscope, these images bring a fragile and beautiful world into view. See Also HARMFUL VIRUSES MADE OF BEAUTIFUL GLASS They say that every snowflake is different. Source: akirathedon.com Known in some circles as the most amazing man in the universe, he once saved an entire family of muskrats from a sinking, fire engulfed steamboat while recovering from two broken arms relating to a botched no-chute wingsuit landing in North Korea.
What the? Soviet Surgeon removes his own Appendix! » Cryptoworld This is truly amazing, I’m sure similar things have and will happen, but this took place in 1961, in the middle of a blizzard! 1961, Soviet surgeon removes his own Appendix In 1961, Rogozov was stationed at a newly constructed Russian base in Antarctica. The 12 men inside were cut off from the outside world by the polar winter by March of that year. In April, the 27-year-old Rogozov began to feel ill, very ill. He recorded in his journal that there was only one option, he had to operate on myself or he would die! I did not sleep at all last night. Amazingly he operated mostly by feeling around, resting every 5 minuets to recompose himself before continuing. I worked without gloves. Remarkably, two weeks later he was back at work, and lived until 2000, when he died aged 66. Source: Antarctica, 1961: A Soviet Surgeon Has to Remove His Own Appendix
7 scientists killed by their own experiments When we think of scientists and researchers, a passion for discovery, not a penchant for daredevil antics, is usually what comes to mind. Yet many a researcher has faced injury, illness and even death in the name of scientific breakthroughs. After all, when dissecting the mysteries of plague and plutonium, it doesn't take much for things to go terribly wrong. Whether through naiveté or simple slip-ups, these scientists all met their death because of the experiments they were conducting. 1. Carl Scheele (1742-1786) The genius pharmaceutical chemist discovered many new elements, most famously oxygen (even if Joseph Priestley did publish his findings first and get all the glory), as well as molybdenum, tungsten, manganese and chlorine. 2. Upon learning of the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, California girl Elizabeth Fleischman Ascheim gave up her job as a bookkeeper and enrolled in electrical science school. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Related stories on MNN:
Here Be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking Scientist creates lifelike cells out of metal Scientists trying to create artificial life generally work under the assumption that life must be carbon-based, but what if a living thing could be made from another element? One British researcher may have proven that theory, potentially rewriting the book of life. Lee Cronin of the University of Glasgow has created lifelike cells from metal — a feat few believed feasible. The discovery opens the door to the possibility that there may be life forms in the universe not based on carbon, reports New Scientist. Even more remarkable, Cronin has hinted that the metal-based cells may be replicating themselves and evolving. "I am 100 percent positive that we can get evolution to work outside organic biology," he said. The high-functioning "cells" that Cronin has built are constructed from large polyoxometalates derived from a range of metal atoms, like tungsten. The metallic bubbles are certainly cell-like, but are they actually alive? The early results have been encouraging.
Download Graphic Images from the Hillis/Bull Lab Return to "Download Files" Page You are welcome to download the following graphic image of the Tree of Life for non-commercial, educational purposes: Tree of Life (~3,000 species, based on rRNA sequences) (pdf, 368 KB) (see Science, 2003, 300:1692-1697) This file can be printed as a wall poster. Tree of Life tattoo, courtesy of Clare D'Alberto, who is working on her Ph.D. in biology at the University of Melbourne. The organisms depicted in this tattoo are (starting at 4 o'clock and going around clockwise): (1) a cyanobacterium (Anabaena); (2) a radiolarian (Acantharea); (3) a dinoflagellate (Ceratium); (4) an angiosperm (Spider Orchid); (5) a couple species of fungi (Penicillium and a yeast); (6) a ctenophore (comb jelly); (7) a mollusc (nudibranch); (8) an echinoderm (brittle star); and (9) a vertebrate (Weedy Sea Dragon). Here is another great Tree of Life tattoo! Cover of Molecular Systmatics, 2nd ed Here is yet another version from Hannah Udelll at the University of Wisconson-Madisson.
Electromagnetic Coilgun Doesn't Need a License Robert Wilsford created an Electromagnetic Coilgun from some very common items that can be found easily on the websites, so you can also try this and make a nice gadget sitting at your home sweet home. I like guns a lot, but we can’t keep them at our homes without a license but this gun doesn’t need any license such as the Steampunk Coilgun. Well! If you are arsenal lover like me, needless to say, you would dare to make this gun. The outer body of the coilgun is made from wood, plexiglass and metal while in the interior electromagnetic coils have been used coils to push a ferromagnetic projectile (here round ball like bullet of steel) at a great velocity through a barrel. In tools you would need a Solderer, Pliers, Wire Cutters, Wire Stripper, Scissors, Glue Gun and a Flat Head Screw Driver. In case you are interested in doing more cool experiments, you can make Clockwork Crocodile Is the Steampunk Age Reptile, or Steve Jobs Cheese Head. Via: Hacknmod
Eun-Gyeong Gwon & Eun-Jae Lee This one’s kinda hard to swallow so take a deep breath, open your minds, and pretend it’s 2100. I CONTACT is essentially a mouse fitted to your eyeball. The lens is inserted like any other normal contact lens except it’s laced with sensors to track eye movement, relaying that position to a receiver connected to your computer. The idea was originally created for people with disabilities but anyone could use it. Designers: Eun-Gyeong Gwon & Eun-Jae Lee Bzzzzzzz After he’d been stung by almost everything, entomologist Justin O. Schmidt created the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a four-point scale comparing the overall pain of insect stings: 1.0 – Sweat bee: “Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.”1.2 – Fire ant: “Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming.
7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics The universe is full of weird substances like liquid metal and whatever preservative keeps Larry King alive. But mankind isn't happy to accept the weirdness of nature when we can create our own abominations of science that, due to the miracle of technology, spit in nature's face and call it retarded. That's why we came up with... #7. What do you get when you suspend nanoparticles of iron compounds in a colloidal solution of water, oil and a surfactant? A ferrofluid is a liquid that reacts to magnetic fields in trippy ways that make you think that science is both magical and potentially evil. Tell us that didn't look like the birth of the most sinister dildo ever. What happens is that when a magnetic field is applied to the fluid, the particles of iron compound inside align to it. What the Hell is it Used For? Ferrofluids have a lot of pretty mundane uses, from lubricating and protecting hard drives to providing heat conduction in speakers, but their primary use is in looking cool. #6. #5.
25 Amazing Electron Microscope Images All the common objects are kinda boring when you look at them, but the situation changes when an awesome Electron Microscope comes in the scene. I mean, take a look at the Salt and pepper image. Isn’t it cool? Is like you’re eating massive stones and pieces of wood. Next, check out the 50x zoom of human eyelash hairs image. Computer hard disk read/write head Magnification: x20 at 6x7cm size. Salt and pepper 20.000x zoom-in on a CD The larva of a bluebottle fly Picture: EYE OF SCIENCE / SPL / BARCROFT MEDIA 1000x zoom-in on a vinyl disc The eye of a needle, threaded with red cotton. Magnification: x16 at 35mm size; x32 at 5x7cm size. Mascara brush Magnification: x4 at 5x7cm size. Coloured scanning electron micrograph of a cat flea Refined and raw sugar crystals Magnification x85 at 10cm wide. Guitar string Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of “superwound” guitar string (piano wire design). Common housefly Picture: EYE OF SCIENCE/SPL/BARCROFT MEDIA Toothbrush bristles Velcro Used dental floss
The microhydro plant My little paradise has a stream that provides enough water flow and head to run a small turbine, to provide electricity to my home. While writing this, the microhydro plant is being implemented, and here are some photos of the process. Since I usually like to start at the end, the first thing I built is the controller: It is an implementation of Jan Portegijs' "Humming Bird", with some changes and adaptations. The largest cost of the plant, by far, is in the piping for the rather long penstock. A smaller number of pipes were stored closer to the turbine site. Only for the last part of the run, where the pressure exceeds 2 bar, I will use blue class 4 PVC pipe. To change from the low slope run of the white pipe to the much steeper run of the blue one, a change of direction is required. My neighbor Gabriel and his son took the hard work of digging the channel. The open channel has a rounded cross section and runs with a very small slope. The flat area is where the forebay will be built.