At the end of October 2011, Thomas Senkel of e-volo made the first manned flight with an electric multicopter at an airstrip in the southwest of Germany. The flight lasted one minute and 30 seconds, after which the constructor and test pilot stated: “The flight characteristics are good natured. Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot”. This could be the future of flight, piloting a device as simple as a car.
[Youtube]
Got brown eyes but want them blue? Unfortunately, you can’t do this right now, but soon, thanks to Lumineye technology, changing the color of your eyes could be as easy as counting to 20… but only if you have $5000 to spare.
[Via TechEblog]
Now if only everyone would be as open as this guy when it comes to medical research, I guess the world we live in would be very different…
How does cancer know it’s cancer? At Jay Bradner’s lab, they found a molecule that might hold the answer, JQ1 — and instead of patenting JQ1, they published their findings and mailed samples to 40 other labs to work on. An inspiring look at the open-source future of medical research.
Further Reading:
–Cancer Explained: The Cure for Cancer
–Novel Approach Scores First Success Against Elusive Cancer Gene
Six men have “returned to earth” after spending 18 months on a simulated mission to Mars. Meanwhile the latest spacecraft to make the journey for real has arrived at Cape Canaveral.
As we noted at the half-way stage, the Mars500 project featured six men spending 520 days in a mock-up spacecraft in Russia, matching the time a real return journey and mission would take. Three of the crew donned spacesuits and spent 10 days making journeys outside the craft into a darkened room full of sand designed to simulate the Mars surface.
The aim of the experiment was to learn more about the physical and psychological effects of the isolation from the real world, along with having to share a space with the same five people for well over a year. It also tested tactics for choosing equipment to make the journey bearable. As well as having specially designed gym equipment, the crew had a Nintendo Wii and Guitar Hero, along with a mini-greenhouse for growing fresh vegetables.
The men were taken into quarantine after “landing” but initials tests suggest all are in good health.
The BBC notes there are discussions to carry out similar tests on the International Space Station, such as introducing communication delays of 20 or more minutes to simulate the effects of being closer to Mars than Earth, or restricting crew members to particular areas of the station to simulate the even closer confinement of a Mars shuttle.
There’s no immediate prospect of a manned mission to Mars as, even if the duration of the journey was manageable, there’s currently no way to be certain of protecting a crew from cosmic radiation. However, the unimaginatively named “NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory” rover vehicle is only a few weeks away from beginning a trip to the planet where it will spend one Martian year (687 days on Earth). Its mission is to explore a crater with a 3-mile-high mountain.
Michael Bay is an American film director (as if you couldn’t already tell by the baseball cap, headphones, and huge American flag) known for his huge-budget, fast-paced, explosively explosive films. Critics around the world are united in their distaste for his films, yet they continue to earn boatloads of money both at home and abroad. This infographic by Jeffery Frankenhauser takes a look at what his films are about and why they keep making so much damn money.
Richard Hartel, Ph.D., professor of food engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison boils a mixture of sugar, water and corn syrup at temperatures over 300 degrees Fahrenheit to produce hard candy. The video demonstrates how the molten liquid candy cools to form what from a technical standpoint actually is a glass. Unlike window glass made of silica, this tasty glass is made of sugar.
[Via Neatorama]
Everyone loves Tintin, but wouldn’t it be so much better if it was super dark and gritty?
Thanks Patrick!