Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - 7:35am
We write a lot about invisibility cloaks 'round these parts. Ever wanted to see one in action? Well, here's your chance, courtesy the researchers over at the University of Texas at Dallas.
science stories
Monday, October 3, 2011 - 8:16am
It's only been in the last few years that things like mental pictures and memories as signals in our brain have become accessible, measurable, and even recordable. An article in Nature this week reveals how memories are actually quantized into little sub-second chunks, and the researchers did it by 'teleporting' rats.
Monday, October 3, 2011 - 7:29am
Zombie movies almost always work. Maybe because they are a perfect metaphor for our latent fear of civilization's disintegration. Or they're just good at playing up our repulsion of the icky-yicky that is the inside of our bodies.
Whatever the reason, we're fascinated with all-things-zombie. For example, the blog-o-nets were recently all abuzz with a real-life-creepy scientific paper regarding "zombie caterpillars." Specifically, the report detailed how a virus infects a gypsy moth caterpillar's brain and forces the insect to climb to the top of a tree and remain there (a healthy moth will only ascend at night). The virus then "melts" the poor creature into a drippy goop that litters the forest floor to infect more unfortunate victims.
It's part Body Snatchers, part Living Dead — and real.
But this oozing zombie moth is far from the only example from the annals of science that feature once-living creatures that still mange to lurk about. Here, we present some strange, but true examples that might only be described as the living dead. Or the dead living. Whatever--it's freaky real zombie stuff.
WARNING: If you are a squeamish person do NOT watch any videos linked or embedded in this post, but feel free to read on--words won't damage you. Too much.
Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 1:30pm
Not too long ago we showed you 15 of this year's best electron microscope images, delivered unto the world by the Oregon-based microscope makers at FEI. Well, you'd never know it, but there was actually something missing from that gallery: the gruesome and horrifying bug close-ups.
DVICE writer and bug-o-phobe Evan Ackerman wouldn't include the gross critters, no matter how amazing and otherworldly they looked. Well, I will.
Here are 25 scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of everyone's favorite creepy crawlies like you've never seen them before. How many can you click through before you get the willies? I saved what I think is the weirdest and grossest for last.
Now, without any further delay: tonight's nightmares, brought to you by DVICE.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - 1:32pm
Brain implants promise a lot of things, from combatting mental degradation caused by age and disease, to boosting the output of some already healthy gray matter. Far fetched as it sounds, researchers and Israel just took a step toward that glorious cyborg-filled future with the successful installation of a synthetic cerebellum in a rat.
Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 11:45am
Nothing can travel faster than light. It's one of the fundamental constants of our universe, and as such, it's kind of a big deal. We've got a bit of an issue here, then, since scientists at CERN have just announced that they've spotted some subatomic particles blowing past the light speed barrier. Physics, we have a problem.
Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 10:19am
How much bubble wrap does it take to survive a jump from that high? One Reddit user posed the question, so Wired decided to find an answer. The answer, and funny image that comes to mind, probably won't surprise you too much. It is a crazy hypothetical idea, after all.
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 1:32pm
We're all familiar with the idea of metallic life forms like sentient robots, but somewhere out there, metallic life may have actually evolved just like organic life has here on Earth. A Scottish research group is out to prove this is possible by creating reproducing and evolving synthetic cells made entirely out of metal.
Monday, September 12, 2011 - 12:01pm
Back in high school, the most boring classes were the science ones — especially physics. It's not that learning about the Earth's forces was uninteresting. It was the teachers who put me to sleep. Now, if I had videos like this auto-tuned explanation of atoms and subatomic particles, I'd have paid more attention.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 11:45am
Science: is there anything it can't do? Dr. Jason Steffen, a scientist at Fermilab, got frustrated with how inefficiently airlines board customers. So he used simulations with a Monte Carlo optimization algorithm to come up with a better way.
