What’s weirder than a naturally caffeine-free coffee plant? How about a two-foot long insect? Or perhaps a ghost slug. They are all featured in a list of the 10 strangest species discovered around the world in 2008. The list is the work of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, and is [...]
In the following video, International Space Station Science Officer Don Pettit demonstrates gyroscopic spin stabilization via the help of several portable CD players which, in microgravity, are spinning and, at the same time, not spinning. [Via Neatorama]
In the following video presentation, behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.
In 2002, Technorama, a major science center in Switzerland, asked Ned Kahn to create an aluminum facade for its building, consisting of thousands of aluminum panels that move in the wind, teaching its visitors about air currents and the complex patterns of turbulence caused by them. [Via OhGizmo]
Ok, maybe it’s not exactly amazing, but it looks fun nonetheless!
By Jimmy Rogers (@me) Contributing Writer, [GAS] Few things in science cause as much public confusion as the Theory of Evolution. While a number of great resources have already effectively elucidated the concept, including a video I’ve embedded in this article, I think it is valuable to repeat and expand upon these resources in a public [...]
By Sterling “Chip” Camden Contributing Writer, [GAS] Today marks the official launch date of Wolfram|Alpha, a “computational knowledge engine” from Wolfram Research. The stated goal of Wolfram|Alpha is “to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.” Simplistically, you ask it a question and it gives you the answer – along with a [...]
It’s that time again… If you have been reading [GaS], or any other blogs for that matter, you know that there will soon be a new version of the Microsoft operating system. Now are you curious if your faithful machine can handle Windows Seven? You are? Then we have a little application for you!
Produced by Christopher Hendryx as his thesis for the department of Computer Animation at the Ringling College of Art + Design, Oxygen is a really cool 3D animated short featuring Oxygen as our main hero, with various other elements thrown in as supporting characters. Now, if all chemistry classes where this interesting, I guess it [...]
By Jimmy Rogers (@me) Contributing Writer, [GAS] Seems that this week’s science stories are all going to the physicists. Between 8:00PM and 11:00PM (EST) TONIGHT, a “Minotaur I” rocket should be visible to the entire Eastern seaboard of the United States. It is being launched from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia (the state where I [...]
By Jimmy Rogers (@me) Contributing Writer, [GAS] Maybe you’ve heard about the recent controversy over the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. This device, probably the most complex machine ever devised by man, has been the focus of much debate because of its potential to do two things. Be an enormous waste of money Create a black [...]
By Jimmy Rogers (@me) Contributing Writer, [GAS] So you’ve been wandering around town all day in your plain, boring surgical mask. Don’t you wish it matched your swanky clothes? Would you prefer it if it frightened nearby children? Well never fear, the internet can once again solve all your problems! Gizmodo has reported on these awesome [...]