Category Archives: science/nature

Death Star Firepower

Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 by Beanbag

This article goes into quite a bit of detail and determines how much power the Death Star would have had in order to destroy a planet. So if we can’t use melting energy or vaporization energy, how do we determine … Continue reading →

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A Sixth Sense for a Wired World

Posted on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 by Beanbag

An article at Wired News says that implanting a small magnet in your fingertip allows you to sense electromagnetic fields and metallic objects through your finger! According to Huffman, the magnet works by moving very slightly, or with a noticeable … Continue reading →

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Infrared Goggles for Under $10

Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 by Beanbag

This is quite an interesting article on building a pair of cheap infrared goggles and how they work. At one point I started wondering just how much IR light a human eye could see. After all, if the infrared light … Continue reading →

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Searching for the soul in the machine

Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 by Beanbag

A new research initiative seeks to discover what type of society might evolve with millions of software agents. Future disaster victims rescued by robots may perhaps owe their survival to the software agents currently being prepared for life in the … Continue reading →

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Digital Camera Noise Fingerprints

Posted on Sunday, April 23, 2006 by Beanbag

Researchers can use the noise profile of digital camera sensors to identify whether a set of images came from a certain camera. From MetaFilter: Every original digital picture is overlaid by a weak noise-like pattern of pixel-to-pixel non-uniformity. Although these … Continue reading →

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The Balance of Risk

Posted on Friday, April 21, 2006 by Beanbag

Damn Interesting explains risk homeostasis. Let’s suppose your child wants to take a martial arts class. Being a conscientious parent, you check out the local dojos and find two good places. Both are suitable and well equipped. Both practice fighting … Continue reading →

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Jumpy eggs caught on camera

Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 by Beanbag

Apparently a spinning hard-boiled egg can make small jumps into the air. After two years of work, with a purpose-built steel machine wired up to high-speed cameras, microphones and electronic sensors, a team of Japanese researchers has finally proved that … Continue reading →

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Mighty Optical Illusions

Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 by Beanbag

This blog has a great collection of optical illusions. Check out this fantastic piece of sidewalk chalk art: Link (via MAKE: Blog)

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Lake Peigneur: The Swirling Vortex of Doom

Posted on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 by Beanbag

Ever wonder what happens when you open up a huge underground cavity beneath a lake? Early in the morning on November 21, 1980, twelve men decided to abandon their oil drilling rig on the suspicion that it was beginning to … Continue reading →

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Black holes: The ultimate quantum computers?

Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by Beanbag

New work argues that Hawking Radiation could carry information out of a black hole. If we are able to control the process, we could even turn a black hole into a gigantic computer. From New Scientist Space: Nearly all of … Continue reading →

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Mind Hacks: music, wine, and will

Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 by Beanbag

Interesting article about a study from the University of Leicester. You go to the supermarket and stop by some shelves offering French and German wine. You buy a bottle of French wine. After going through the checkout you are asked … Continue reading →

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Blue Light Makes People Alert at Night

Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 by Beanbag

An early study suggests exposure to blue light at night can help perk you up. Not much in the way of detail in the article on what the level of exposure was, or what the possible long-term effects might be. … Continue reading →

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Why Fat Tastes So Good – The Sixth Taste?

Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 by Beanbag

Mmmm…fat. Nutritionist Philippe Besnard of the University of Burgundy in France has found that the 10,000 taste buds on the tongue seem to include a type that specifically responds to the flavor of fat. If confirmed, it would be only … Continue reading →

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Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 by Beanbag

Hilarious look at how movies violate the laws of physics. Long but well worth the read. Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and … Continue reading →

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