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A Keyboard Made for the Masses

2017-10-13T16:44:00.001+05:30

It’s easy to look at something industrial and appreciate its chamfers and clean-edged aesthetic details. What about when you run your finger along it? It’s probably not as nice to feel. Youngdo Choi has set out to enhance the textural service the keyboard often leaves behind in the form of Braille Book – a keyboard for the visually impaired – emphasizing the sensitive feeling through one’s fingertips.

One Chare Built for Two Butts!

2017-10-13T16:41:00.001+05:30

Have you ever arrived somewhere with a friend but there’s only one chair? What about a waiting room with more strangers than seating? Instead of playing an awkward game of finders keepers, you can all have a comfy place to sit with the Dividi chair. As the name suggests, this clever design divides into two distinct seating solutions, transforming from a backed chair to a stool and traditional Japanese zaisu.

New Drug Slows Progression of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration

2017-10-13T16:36:00.001+05:30

An international team of researchers has found a way to slow the progression of an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible, severe vision loss in Western countries.

Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people over the age of 50. Image credit: Pexels.

Non-violent Non-silent World War Pen!

2017-10-12T21:43:00.000+05:30

Inspired by an era embroiled in war and espionage, by a time that saw the birth of incredible tactics and technology for military purposes, the GP1945 Bolt Action Pen pays tribute to humanity and its evolution post World War II. Made from memories of an undeniably violent past, the GP1945 was actually envisioned to be a recreational tactical device that one could enjoy but also use to save lives.

A strange cross between tactical and recreational, the GP1945 is a pretty remarkable pen. Made entirely from machined titanium, the pen features a bolt action mechanism that is reminiscent of the loading of a rifle. Putting its past aside, the action of the pen almost feels like an addictive fidget toy today, that’s highly entertaining to play with. Plus, with its titanium construction, the mechanism will never break or fail and promises to last a lifetime.

Does the NASA Mars Rover look familiar?

2017-10-12T21:32:00.004+05:30

From the looks of it, not Elon Musk, but rather Bruce Wayne may just be the first person to conquer the red planet. This prototype of the NASA Mars Rover definitely has a Nolan’s Batman vibe to it that no one can unsee. Built by Parker Brothers Concepts for Nasa, this absolute beast was designed to dominate any sort of terrain while in the quest for samples and information about the planet. Those wheels alone are 50 inches in diameter and 30 inches thick!

The Martian Batmobile (just what we like calling it) comes with an electric motor, 700 volt battery, and solar panels to help it move across the planet’s terrain.Designed to have a two-fold purpose, the Rover can actually be split in two, when required. The frontal cockpit can detach and go on scouting missions, while the back half, a laboratory can be left behind for research purposes.

Parker Brothers Concepts are known for their unbelievable work in the auto concept domain. If you remember the Tron Light Cycle from TRON: Legacy, the Parker brothers were the ones to build an actual working model of it (which is street legal and available for sale, FYI). The Mars Rover Prototype however is sadly just a prototype that may not visit Mars (due to lack of funding), but the good news is you may just see the Rover in action on a major television show in the near future! They won’t tell anyone which, for confidentiality reasons.

Designers: Marc & Shannon Parker (Parker Brothers Concepts) for NASA.

Children’s Clothing, Built to Last

2017-10-11T23:00:00.000+05:30

Petit Pli is like nothing I’ve seen before – designed to fit children from the ages of 6 to 36 months, Petit Pli grows with your child. The children’s garment is a holistic solution to a ‘growing’ problem – literally. The Petit Pli is windproof, waterproof and all things childproof.

The Petit Pli compensates for the drastic growth during a child’s earliest years. It’s known that children grow up to 7 sizes in their first 24 months after birth which equates to a lot of wasted clothing. The design of the Petit Pli is wonderful, it’s a cross where function and form collide to create a timeless get up. The versatile waterproof shells are pleated in such a way that they can grow bi-directionally to custom fit a range of sizes. Currently with a patent pending, Petit Pli’s technical materials and custom pleated design make for a lightweight, robust article of clothing, essential for any new parent. A genius piece of design and a gorgeous outcome that will have everyone wanting to get their hands on it.

Designer: Ryan Mario Yasin of Petit Pli

Much More Versatile than Apple Pay

2017-10-10T22:15:00.002+05:30

I LOVE technology. I absolutely do. Ever since I was a child… But I know better than to put all my eggs in one basket. Phones have a great camera, but I know where to draw the line. I won’t take professional photographs with it. I have a mirrorless camera for that. Phones are great for texting, but I’d never type out these articles on them. My trusty laptop is my true workstation. Similarly, with mobile payments becoming the new thing, I’d love to be able to tap my phone and make payments, but I’m going nowhere without my wallet. There’s just an elegant simplicity and an aspect of culture to having a leather or fabric product that stores cash, cards, and a bunch of notes/receipts.

Buy Now

So instead of integrating payment solutions into your phone, why not fuse the two in a more literal way? Distil Union’s Wally Junior is a wallet that literally sticks to the back of your phone. Using a special adhesive that glues the wallet to your phone or phone-case’s backside, the Wally Junior can hold banknotes, credit cards, or even visiting cards, giving you versatility in its compact frame. Plus with the signature pull-tab, the wallet allows you to access your cards/notes with both speed and style. No more bulging one-inch-thick wallets. Store what you can on your phone, and for everything else, there’s the Wally Junior!

Designer: Distil Union

This Could Be the End of Personal Vehicles

2017-10-10T22:08:00.001+05:30

Altern isn’t quite a bus, but it’s not quite a train! Instead, this transportation hybrid takes the best qualities of both to maximize the existing urban architecture within cities. Specifically, the system runs on roadways as buses would with intermittent stops at designated locations. However, the autonomous, electric system consists of multiple passenger units (similar to a train) than can automatically join together to make more room for passengers.

Depending on the time of day, traffic, and demand, the smart-linked system can adapt to accommodate demand for faster, more efficient rides! It’s likely that something like this could altogether replace personal vehicles within cities.

Designers: Mikolaj Nicer, Blazej Bacalski, Jakub Maciejczyk & Grzegorz Szczupal

New book offers a peek into the mind of Oliver Sacks

2017-10-08T22:35:00.000+05:30

Essays in ‘The River of Consciousness’ tackle evolution, memory and more

WANDERING MIND In an anthology of wide-ranging essays, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks celebrates the beauty — and mysteries — of the world and the people, animals and plants that inhabit it.

The River of Consciousness
Oliver Sacks
Knopf, $27

The experience of reading the essays that make up The River of Consciousness is very much like peering into an ever-changing stream. Pebbles shift as the water courses by, revealing unexpected facets below.

The rise of respectful robots

2017-10-08T22:30:00.001+05:30

Someday, when droids walk among us, they’ll probably be polite pedestrians.

MEEP MEEP This courteous new robot avoids obstacles and oncoming foot traffic as it weaves through a crowd.

A new robot has the mobility of R2-D2 and the manners of C-3PO.

This knee-high, self-driving bot abides by social protocols as it weaves through foot traffic: keep right, pass left, respect others’ personal space. The machine, presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Vancouver on September 25, paves the way for robots that could one day navigate sidewalks to make deliveries or transport people through hospital hallways.

Ancient humans avoided inbreeding by networking

2017-10-06T00:07:00.001+05:30

DNA from 34,000 years ago suggests hunter-gatherers left home to find mates

ANCIENT NETWORKERS DNA from four Stone Age people — including the two shown here as they looked when excavated, top, and at the time of death, bottom — suggests that hunter-gatherers have long formed groups with few close relatives. Aside from discouraging inbreeding, that social structure encouraged cooperative ties among groups and rapid cultural advances, scientists say.

DNA of people who lived around 34,000 years ago reveals an especially lively social scene that may have been a key to humans’ evolutionary success.

Much like hunter-gatherers today, ancient Eurasians married outside their home groups and formed webs of friends and in-laws vital for eventually building cities and civilizations, a new study suggests.

Much of the world’s honey now contains bee-harming pesticides

2017-10-06T00:04:00.001+05:30

Global survey finds neonicotinoids in three-fourths of samples

NOT SO SWEET A global survey of honey found neonicotinoid pesticides in most of the samples. That suggests honeybees are bringing the chemicals back to their hives.

Neonicotinoid pesticides are turning up in honey on every continent with honeybees.

The first global honey survey testing for these controversial nicotine-derived pesticides shows just how widely honeybees are exposed to the chemicals, which have been shown to affect the health of bees and other insects. Three out of four honey samples tested contained measurable levels of at least one of five common neonicotinoids, researchers report in the Oct. 6 Science.

Why it’s good news that Pluto doesn’t have rings

2017-10-05T00:11:00.000+05:30

New Horizons’ next destination might be ring-free, too, promising a safe passage for the spacecraft

LOOKING BACK New Horizons took this rearview image of Pluto’s hazy atmosphere after flying past the dwarf planet in July 2015. The spacecraft’s team was also looking for rings, but didn’t find any.

Pluto has no rings — New Horizons triple-checked. An exhaustive search for rings and dust particles around the dwarf planet before, during and after the spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015 has come up empty.

“It’s a very long paper to say we didn’t find anything,” says team member Tod Lauer of the analysis, posted online September 23 at arXiv.org. But the nonresult could help scientists understand the contents of the outer solar system — and help plan New Horizons’ next encounter. The spacecraft is now on a course to a space rock in the Kuiper Belt, another 1.5 billion kilometers past Pluto.

Proton size still perplexes despite a new measurement

2017-10-05T00:10:00.000+05:30

Latest experiment sides with subatomic particle having a smaller girth, but discrepancy remains unexplained

SHRIMPIER STILL A new measurement supports the idea that the proton is even smaller than its already-teeny textbook value. To measure the proton’s radius, scientists used lasers (apparatus shown) to jolt hydrogen atoms into higher energy levels, the spacing of which depends on the proton’s size.

Nonconformists could take a page from the proton’s playbook: The subatomic particle is once again resisting scientists’ attempts to size it up.

Everyone agrees the proton is tiny: Its radius is less than a femtometer, or a trillionth of a millimeter. But scientists still don’t agree on exactly how small it is. A new measurement supports the case for a smaller proton, physicist Lothar Maisenbacher and colleagues report in the Oct. 6 Science. But “in some sense, it deepens the puzzle,” says Maisenbacher, of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany.

Ancient boy’s DNA pushes back date of earliest humans

2017-10-04T23:14:00.000+05:30

Homo sapiens may have emerged as a genetically distinct species as early as 350,000 years ago

DEEP PAST A new comparison of ancient and modern human DNA concludes that Homo sapiens emerged earlier than typically thought, perhaps around 350,000 years ago. African San people, such as these, belong to a genetic line that originated roughly 260,000 years ago, researchers estimate.

A boy who lived in what’s now South Africa nearly 2,000 years ago has lent a helping genome to science. Using the long-gone youngster’s genetic instruction book, scientists have estimated that humans emerged as a distinct population earlier than typically thought, between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago.

Radioactive material from Fukushima disaster turns up in a surprising place

2017-10-04T23:07:00.001+05:30

Some of highest levels of cesium-137 contamination are in groundwater under nearby sandy beaches

RADIOACTIVITY DETECTIVES The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, shown in the background here in 2016, was damaged in 2011 by an earthquake and tsunami. A new study shows that a surprising amount of the plant’s leaked radioactive waste has made its way into groundwater underneath nearby beaches.

Six years after the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan, radioactive material is leaching into the Pacific Ocean from an unexpected place. Some of the highest levels of radioactive cesium-137, a major by-product of nuclear power generation, are now found in the somewhat salty groundwater beneath sand beaches tens of kilometers away, a new study shows.

Six in seven contact lens wearers take unnecessary risks with their eyes

2017-10-04T23:02:00.002+05:30

Rinsing or storing lenses in tap water is not a good idea

SAFE SIGHT Contact lens wearers can be lax about practicing good hygiene habits, according to a new survey. In some cases, the risky behaviors can lead to eye infections.

People in the United States who wear contact lenses share an eye-opening characteristic. Roughly 85 percent report regularly taking at least one risk when wearing or cleaning their lenses. In the Aug. 18 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe results from a 2016 national survey of more than 6,000 people.

Castaway critters rafted to U.S. shores aboard Japan tsunami debris

2017-10-04T22:59:00.002+05:30

Close to 300 living marine species traveled on debris from the 2011 tsunami

STOWAWAYS Pelagic gooseneck barnacles cling to a boat that got washed out to sea after the 2011 tsunami in Japan and floated to the U.S. coast. A new study catalogs hundreds of species that have made this ocean crossing.

The 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan’s coast cast an enormous amount of debris out to sea — way out. Japanese marine life took advantage of the new floating real estate and booked a one-way trip to America. From 2012 to 2017, at least 289 living Japanese marine species washed up on the shores of North America and Hawaii, hitching rides on fishing boats, docks, buoys, crates and other nonbiodegradable objects, a team of U.S. researchers report in the Sept. 29 Science.

The rise of agricultural states came at a big cost, a new book argues

2017-10-04T22:52:00.002+05:30

Mobile groups traded health and happiness for settled societies

BITTER HARVEST Early agricultural states that formed in Egypt and elsewhere were fragile creations, not least because of crowding, epidemics, droughts and popular resistance to taxation and conscription into armies, contends political anthropologist James C. Scott in his new book.

Contrary to popular opinion, humans didn’t shed a harsh existence as hunter-gatherers and herders for the good life of stay-in-place farming. Year-round farming villages and early agricultural states, such as those that cropped up in Mesopotamia, exchanged mobile groups’ healthy lifestyles for the back-breaking drudgery of cultivating crops, exposure to infectious diseases, inadequate diets, taxes and conscription into armies.

South American Medicinal Plant Compound Shows Anti-Cancer Stem Cell Activity

2017-10-03T23:18:00.000+05:30

Damsin, a natural compound isolated from the South American medicinal plant Ambrosia arborescens, has been found to inhibit the growth of cancer stem cells, according to new research.

Ambrosia arborescens is a species of plant native to the Andes from Colombia south to Bolivia. Image credit: Dick Culbert / CC BY 2.0.

“Cancer stem cells can be considered as the most dangerous type of cancer cells, as they appear to have an inherent resistance to the chemotherapeutic drugs used today,” said Lund University Professor Stina Oredsson, corresponding author of the study, published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Early Human Habitat, Recreated for First Time, Shows Life Was No Picnic

2017-10-03T23:09:00.000+05:30

Scientists have pieced together an early human habitat for the first time, and life was no picnic 1.8 million years ago.

Scientists have pieced together an early human habitat for the first time, and life was no picnic 1.8 million years ago.

Our human ancestors, who looked like a cross between apes and modern humans, had access to food, water and shady shelter at a site in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. They even had lots of stone tools with sharp edges, said Gail M. Ashley, a professor in the Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences.

‘Nutcracker Man’ Gave Us Genital Herpes, Study Says

2017-10-03T23:02:00.000+05:30

New research from the University of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes University predicts which species acted as an intermediary between the ancestors of Homo sapiens and those of chimpanzees to carry the herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2) — a human herpesvirus found worldwide that causes genital lesions and more rarely causes encephalitis — across the species barrier.

Meet the Hominin Species That Gave Us Genital Herpes

2017-10-03T22:57:00.000+05:30

This is a cast of a P. boisei skull, used for teaching at Cambridge University Credit: Louise Walsh

Two herpes simplex viruses infect primates from unknown evolutionary depths. In modern humans these viruses manifest as cold sores (HSV1) and genital herpes (HSV2).

Unlike HSV1, however, the earliest proto-humans did not take HSV2 with them when our ancient lineage split from chimpanzee precursors around 7 million years ago. Humanity dodged the genital herpes bullet - almost.

Somewhere between 3 and 1.4 million years ago, HSV2 jumped the species barrier from African apes back into human ancestors - probably through an intermediate hominin species unrelated to humans. Hominin is the zoological 'tribe' to which our species belongs.

Biomechanics are developing surgical screws from donated human bone material

2017-10-02T22:53:00.000+05:30

Biomechanics from TU Graz, are developing surgical screws from donated human bone material for foot and jaw surgery together with surgebright, a start-up from Linz, Austria.

Wind turbines rise into the sky on enormous feet : The strength test

2017-10-01T22:41:00.003+05:30

Summary:
Wind turbines rise into the sky on enormous feet. To ensure these giants can reliably generate electricity for many years to come, the iron processing industry must manufacture their massive components in a stable, resource-saving and yet cost-effective way. However, material inclusions such as dross are often unavoidable while casting. Researchers are currently working to detect and analyze such material defects.

Wind turbines rise into the sky on enormous feet. To ensure these giants can reliably generate electricity for many years to come, the iron processing industry must manufacture their massive components in a stable, resource-saving and yet cost-effective way. However, material inclusions such as dross are often unavoidable while casting. Fraunhofer researchers are currently working to detect and analyze such material defects.