Month: April 2010

Fiber Photovoltaics

The new solar cells are made from millions of miniscule plastic fibers that can collect sunlight at oblique angles – even when the sun is rising and setting.

T-shirt body armor

Researchers drastically increased the toughness of a T-shirt by combining the carbon in the shirt’s cotton with boron – the 3rd hardest material on earth. The result is a lightweight shirt reinforced with boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks.

dipping in a boron solution results in a fabric that’s lightweight but tougher and stiffer than the original T-shirt, yet flexible enough that it can be bent.

Usain bolt is 30 years ahead

he pushed the 100m world record down as much as usually happens in 30 years. and he didn’t even try that hard. what if he gets serious?

Bicycle Maps

Wow, nyc++. 50km more bike paths in 2010, bringing the total to > 1000km. Bike commuting increased by 66% in the last 2 years alone.
2021-10-23: Over 2200 km now.

Air Marshal Effectiveness

the us are spending $200m per arrest. predictable result: next year will see huge numbers of people arrested and a back-slapping agency report how the cost / arrest has fallen drastically.

Nomadic Plants Robot

Vegetation and microorganisms live in symbiosis inside the body of the Nomadic Plants robot. Whenever its bacteria require nourishment, the self-sufficient robot will move towards a contaminated river and ‘drink’ water from it.

Anoxic metazoa

This is the first evidence of a metazoan life cycle that is spent entirely in permanently anoxic sediments. Our findings allow us also to conclude that these metazoans live under anoxic conditions through an obligate anaerobic metabolism that is similar to that demonstrated so far only for unicellular eukaryotes. The discovery of these life forms opens new perspectives for the study of metazoan life in habitats lacking molecular oxygen.

these are the first multicellular organisms that live without oxygen.

U3-X

for tourists who can’t be bothered to stand on a segway.

28K kmh Aurora flight

someone on ISS taking a picture as it flies through an aurora borealis.

McMansion Downsizing

after the cameras have gone, homeowners struggle to keep up with their expensive new digs. Bigger, more lavish homes have come with bigger, more lavish utility bills. And bigger tax assessments.