You’ve also probably heard of the Symphony of Science, a project by John Boswell and some other guys. The project is beautiful in that it combines the learning of scientific concepts with music, which is a winning combination in my book. I think I discovered them early last year, and shared a Symphony of Science video with you guys as well.

If you have not checked it out yet, then I suggest that you do. They have a new release, which will catch your interest if, as I said earlier, you like watching BBC documentaries. The new release is dubbed The Greatest Show on Earth, which you may recognize as the title of Richard Dawkins’ book. The video features Sir David Attenborough himself, British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor Bill Nye.

The music may not particularly impress, but the concept of the Symphony of Science is catchy. The footage from the following videos will definitely catch and hold your attention, though:

• Richard Dawkins’ “There is grandeur in this view of life” speech
• BBC Life
• BBC Planet Earth
• David Attenborough’s First Life
• Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
• Bill Nye Evolution episode

Enjoy the video!

Time Cloaking Device

Physicists from Cornell University have made another step towards turning science fiction into reality when they successfully implemented a time masker, which works by altering the flow of light. This feat is based on a basic principle: humans see things happening around us via the light that reaches our eyes. By speeding up one part of the light and slowing down another part, the physicists were able to make it appear as if an event didn’t happen!

Think about it as a gap or “hole in time where an event takes place”. That is how Alexander Gaeta, a co-author of the study, explained the time cloaking device. I don’t know about you, but if you read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, it kind of reminds me of balefire, a forbidden weave because it erases the existence of a person, thing, or event. While that is rather different, the gap or hole in time brings balefire to mind.

In any case, what the Cornell physicists have done is groundbreaking. This is the first time that humans have been able to hide an event in time. The possibilities are endless. I hate to say it, but the first thing that comes to mind is someone being able to steal an artifact from a museum without being seen or detected. Then again, the researchers have only been able to make the time cloaking device work for a fraction of a second. I doubt that even the fastest thieves would be able to pull something off in that time! And being able to extend the effects of the time cloaking device is not that easy. Even the scientists behind the project admit to that. Still, this is proof that it can be done.

Who knows where we will be a few years from now?

Pleistocene Park, anyone? Scientists from Japan and Russia are close to being able to clone woolly mammoths. Did these people learn nothing from Michael Crichton? Woolly mammoths roaming freely in the Siberian tundra could give a whole new meaning to Attack of the Clones.

Kinki University in Japan and a mammoth-centric museum in Russia’s Sakha Republic say that they’re close enough to cloning the hairy beasts that it will happen within the next five years. It’s all thanks to some mammoth bone marrow discovered inside a preserved thigh bone. The marrow is in such good condition that scientists believe its cells could be implanted into elephant egg cells, which would allow elephant mothers to carry baby mammoths until they’re ready to be born. (But isn’t there an error in that logic? Elephants aren’t as big as mammoths, so wouldn’t a baby mammoth grow too big for an elephant’s womb? I’ll leave unsaid the rather gory mental image of how that scenario would end.)

What do you make of this? Should mammoths be allowed to return from extinction? If so, why? (Just because it’s cool, or because of some presumed scientific applications?) Or is playing God best left in the hands of the big guy upstairs?

DNA Plushies

Having a teddy bear when you 20 plus or 30 plus is one thing, but having a set of these DNA plushies is a whole different thing. I discovered these DNA plushies on Kickstarter, and I just knew I had to post about them. (Aside: I do love Kickstarter!) The project of Jun Axup, the DNA plushies are not only cute and come in different colors, but they also bond magnetically where they are supposed to bond in real life! How’s that for scientifically sound DNA plushies?

You may not know the ins and outs of DNA – I don’t – but the idea of having these plushies is a cool one. They can not only serve as decoration, but in case you throw a party at home, you will have at least one conversation piece. And if you put them on your desk in the office, you are sure to catch the eye of that geeky person you have been wanting to talk to for eons.

Let’s do a quick review about DNA, shall we? According to Axup:

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the most fundamental component in our biology and is composed of 4 bases: Adenine (green), Thymine (red), Guanine (black), and Cytosine (blue).  Furthermore, the bases interact with each other via hydrogen bonds (accomplished by magnets) to form base pairs.  Adenine and Thymine form a base pair via 2 bonds while Guanine and Cytosine form via 3 bonds. 

To give you an idea of the size of the DNA plushies, take a look at this photo.

DNA Plushies Size

Petri Dish Hamburger

I apologize upfront if some of you might get offended at some points which may be politically incorrect!

You know how there are some groups who think that eating meat is inhumane because of the way the animals are bred and killed? I honestly think that the arguments are not enough to sway me, and not only because I like my meat. Now torturing animals is another thing, but farm-bred animals meant for human consumption is another thing.

In any case, this is not a matter of ethics or political correctness. It is a story that boggles me as I write. If you think that McDonald’s is evil because they are “mean” to the cows they breed for the meat, but you like your hamburgers, then science might just have a solution for you in the near future: nothing less than petri dish hamburger.

The mere thought of eating meat that grows out of a lab dish is enough to disconcert me, but I am sure that if I think about it, many other things that I ingest will disconcert me as well.

Mark Post of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands has come up with what could be a potential solution to the world’s humongous need for meat. He has been able to culture meat in the lab – in petri dishes, of course. He says that this could be a possible replacement method to provide for our need for meat, as opposed to having to breed and slaughter animals. The vascular biologist also points out other advantages such as conserving energy, land, and water, not to mention the positive effect on emissions.

Carnivores like me are probably already mentally retching. As much as I have tried to grow a liking for veggie meat and other similar substances, I just cannot come to terms with it. If this is your concern, Post says that his petri dish hamburger is way different from the fake meat that we have today. In fact, the petri dish hamburger product is just like real animal flesh. Now what doesn’t that make me feel better at all?

How about you? What do you think about this development?

More about the technology from Reuters.

Lee was interviewed at the New Scientist, where she talked about her mushroom death suit, which is part of the Infinity Burial Project.

The premise: we live in a culture of death denial, where the norm is to preserve – albeit temporarily – the bodies of the dead with materials such as formaldehyde. She talks about the negative effects of this practice on the environment and people.

The solution: toxin-cleaning edible mushroom to eat the body.

The method of delivery: mushroom death suit.

Mushroom Death Suit

Mushroom Death Suit Diagram

This is really interesting, but I have to admit that I am feeling my stomach stir as I write. Lee’s ultimate goal is to increase awareness for her cause – environmental stewardship that does not necessarily end when you pass away. I applaud her for that, but I think I will stick to my original plan – the hottest of fires. I may be acting like a wuss here, but isn’t fire just as environment-friendly as the mushroom death suit?

Crave companionship?  Do you find yourself lacking in love and absent affection, or do you simply need a good hug?  Finally, thanks to Japanese robotics engineers, a hug will always be at the ready with the Sense-Roid HugBot.

Combine the Sense-Roid HugBot with another Japanese creation, a mood-matching cat ear headset, and your emotional state may improve despite the fact that another’s opinion of you may take a serious hit.

The Sense-Roid HugBot was developed by a student at the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, and is described as:

“The Sense-Roid is essentially a sewer’s dress form–a mannequin torso, in other words–that wears a very particular jacket or vest. The user also wears a jacket, and when the two articles of clothing connect, they being to inflate with air and vibrate in ways meant to simulate a real hug.”

“In fact, the Sense-Roid mimics the pressure from the user’s hug, so in a way, hugging it is like hugging yourself. It detects the precise nature of the hug with micro switch sensors, then reciprocates in real-time. There are no known plans to make the Sense-Roid any more than a prototype.”

Sounds warm and cuddly, no?   If the description doesn’t grab you (pun intended), perhaps the “loving” video demonstration below will.

Forgive me if I’m creeped out by the concept and the video, but if I need a hug and can’t find a willing partner (highly likely), don’t expect me to ever turn to the Sense-Roid HugBot for a loving embrace.

What do you think of the Sense-Roid HugBot?  Odd or awesome?

Popular Science

Spitting to some, including yours truly, is disgusting.  That said, we’ve all sent saliva flying from our mouths at one point or another for a variety of reasons.  Some spit to display disdain, others spit when eating seeds of some sort, while many shun spitting altogether.  New scientific research however shows that spit may hold a very important place in society, determining one’s true biological age.

Researchers at UCLA have discovered that DNA from one’s saliva changes as an individual ages.  A building block of DNA undergoes something called “methylation,” altering its appearance over time which can be utilized to pinpoint a person’s age.

According to the research, spit can pinpoint age to within five years, making it by far the most accurate age test yet found.  A finding of this sort has many real-world applications, most notably in identifying victims of crime by law enforcement.

UCLA researcher Dr. Eric Vilain:

“Our approach supplies one answer to the enduring quest for reliable markers of aging. With just a saliva sample, we can accurately predict a person’s age without knowing anything else about them. While genes partly shape how our body ages, environmental influences also can change our DNA as we age. Methylation patterns shift as we grow older and contribute to aging-related disease.”

Testing  saliva from 34 sets of identical twins between the ages of 21 and 55, and  31 men and 29 women whose ages ranged from 18 to 70,  using only two genes from the more than 3 billion comprising the human genome, the researchers were able to arrive at a fairly accurate five-year estimate for each person’s age.

While not perfect, the scientific breakthrough could result in solving more crime, disease prevention, and more.

What other areas could you see age determination by spit impacting?

i09

It’s just another geeky Monday, but I still wish it were Sunday! (Or Saturday for that matter. The weekend just swooshed by without me realizing it.) At least reading material abounds online which makes up for Mondays. Take this article title “20 Things You Didn’t Know About DNA” from Discover Magazine.

Now, not everyone would go around parading their interest in DNA and stuff like that, would they? This list is then the best thing to come along since – well, name whatever you think the best thing is. You can now have all your DNA questions answered without having to actually ask them! Instead of listing down all the facts (you can go to the original article for that), let’s do this a little differently.

Who discovered DNA?

The most common answer would be James Watson and Francis Crick, perhaps, but go to a geek trivia event and you’ll probably hear the correct answer: Friedrich Miescher. He was a Swiss physician and biologist. “He isolated various phosphate-rich chemicals, which he called nuclein (now nucleic acids), from the nuclei of white blood cells in 1869 at Felix Hoppe-Seyler’s laboratory at the University of Tübingen, Germany, paving the way for the identification of DNA as the carrier of inheritance.”

So what about Watson and Crick? They were responsible for deciphering the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953.

Got your facts straight now?

Just how much DNA do we have in our body?

This question didn’t even occur to me until I read the answer – if uncoiled, the DNA in all our cells would go 10 billion miles. That’s from Earth to Pluto – and back.

Humans have the longest genome, right?

Wrong! Compared to the Paris japonica, a flowering plant native to Japan, the human genome is pitiful. The plant’s genome has almost 150 billion base pairs – 50 times more than ours.

Other interesting facts about DNA

Here are some more snippets of trivia which you can spew out the next time you have a conversation with friends. Alternatively, you can make an ingenious Facebook status out of them.

• Telomeres, sequences of DNA at the tips of chromosomes, get shorter every time a cell divides; when they get too short, the cell dies. Some scientists are trying to extend life by extending the telomere.
• Bad news if you’re a mouse: Scientists at Osaka University recently developed mice that are especially susceptible to DNA copying errors, seeking to increase the rate of mutations and see what new traits appear. – I say good news if one of your dreams is to become a mutant. Then again, it may not happen in your lifetime since the results are so far limited to short-legged mice, mice with fewer toes than normal, and mice that chirp like songbirds.
• Remember that “worm” at the bottom of a tequila bottle? Scientists at the University of Guelph in Ontario showed that DNA from the worm (actually an agave butterfly caterpillar) traditionally placed in bottles of mescal leaches into the liquor. – Uggh.

For more DNA facts that you might not know (and would like to know, even if you don’t know/want to admit it yet), read the article in its entirety.

Photo via Cruel Queen

If there’s one thing missing from this world it has to be electronic cat’s ears that perk up or flatten according to one’s mood.  Fortunately humanity no longer has to wait for such a splendid creation to arrive thanks to Japanese inventors.

All one has to do is attach the fur-covered device to one’s head and the ears are programmed to react to your mood.

The toy, known as Necomimi, features brainwave sensors and depending on your mood, the ears flatten or stand at attention just like those of a real cat!  Splendid, I know.

Neurowear’s Kana Nakano:

“We were exploring new ways of communicating and we thought it would be interesting to use brainwaves,” said Neurowear’s Kana Nakano.

“Because the sensors must be attached to the head, we tried to come up with something cute and catchy.”

The video below shows the prototype Necomimi, developed in black in white versions (what no calico?) using a sensor produced by a company in Silicon Valley.

Tomonori Kagaya, a member of the team behind the product:

“Brainwave sensors used for medical equipment cost several million yen, but falling costs have allowed people like us to seek interesting ways to use them.”

Neurowear has yet to set a price for the Necomimi, but hopes release the product by the end of the year.  The question is, will you buy one?

BBC

The two elements have been observed for many years now, and apparently, they have been produced in the lab as early as 1999. However, the committee that governs chemistry and physics have taken their time to make sure that everything’s in order before formally proclaiming the two elements.

Elements 114 and 166 are currently the heaviest elements in the periodic table, with the atomic masses of 289 and 292. Both elements are highly radioactive, although all their properties have not yet been determined.

So who are the guys behind the production (in the lab) of these elements? Two teams from the opposite parts of the world have collaborated and have gotten the governing body’s approval: the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Now it is said that the Russian team gets most of the credit for this work, so the chances are that elements 114 and 116 will have Russian names.

The chances are that the Periodic Table will not be updated any time soon, so I hope that whoever created all those cool Periodic Table thingamijigs will make updates soon. After all, we’re also after accuracy, aren’t we?

Via Physorg

Robots have yet to best humans in solving a Rubik’s Cube, but they are making inroads concerning social media and are becoming more human-like everyday.  Disconcerting to say the least.

Standford researchers have announced the creation of wearing a solar-powered, super-sensitive, chemical-sampling skin-like covering for robots.

The indvidual we can thank? for the new robotic covering is Zhenan Bao.  His work has resulted in development of a stretchable solar cell system which can shrink and expand along two different axes, perfect for artificial robotic skin, prosthetic limbs and possibly clothing.

According to Fast Company:

“The latest advance has seen Bao adding a corrugated microstructure organic solar cell layer into the skin. The clever folding in this layer allows it to be stretched along two axes…by up to 30% beyond its original length. This lets her coat pretty much any human-like joint with the skin and still have it collect enough solar power to run its sensor array, even when the skin is stretched and distorted over complex joints like elbows. Cleverly, the flexible solar array is connected into a circuit via a liquid metal electrode, which conforms to the particular shape of the solar cell at any particular moment.”

Using the skin provides are possible, future, robotic leaders with the ability to power-up using the sun, have human-like touch sensitivity, and to have super-human chemical senses.

Scared?  Yours truly certainly is.

Certainly robots are neat, especially when they’re mowing our lawns, vacuuming our floors, or assembling machines in a factory.  That said, a robot with an unlimited power supply and senses described as “super-human” is disturbing.

What do you think?  Should the researchers implement use of the skin on robots or utilize the creation solely for better prosthetic limbs and clothing?

I find it sad that children and teens of today mostly have no clue as to who MacGyver is. Or if they do, they don’t really grasp just how amazing that unassuming guy was and what he stood for.

The good news is that there are still people left in this world who know very well just who MacGyver is, and they embarked on a project that will help you relive those glory days – maybe even introduce them to the younger generation.

Enter MacRecipes. Never mind that it may remind you of mac and cheese, or even something related to the magical devices also known as iPads. This site will give you hours and hours of nostalgic moments, and hours and hours of your own be-like-MacGvyer time.

Need to know how to make fake blood? You’ll find it in Recipe 199, which is taken from Episode 66. Going on a desert trip and want to make sure you can find electrical power in case of an emergency? Check out Recipe 90. All of these recipes are labeled by episode, and you even get a short summary. (You’ll definitely yearn for the TV series again.)

Not all the recipes have clear instructions – that’s the only disappointing thing, but then again, maybe that’s where your inner MacGyver has to come into the picture. After all, he would want you to figure out some things for yourself!

Within five days he reached the $1000 pledged and by the end of the pledge he raised $6144. With that amount he created It’s Alive! The Universe Verse: Book 2. An illustrated book about the origin of life on Earth. There is an online version available and a free PDF to download. If you prefer paperback you can buy it for $15.95.

As someone who was bored at school in science related classes I can say that The Universe Verse Book is awesome. Even as an adult now I enjoy reading it and learning things about our origin I didn’t know until now. The text reads easy and memorable.

The universe started out tiny and dense, it expanded and cooled, becoming immense, growing each moment in size and suspense.

If you like me are fan of “The Big Bang Theory” and Dr. Sheldon Cooper, learning these basic knowledge about the Big Bang and the origin of live, will help you understand Dr. Coopers yabbering at times.

The book makes an awesome and educational gift to kids that are into science, planets and space. I know of a four year old boy who will be delighted with this book.

The possibility is based on a notion dating back to 1971 when Berkeley electrical engineer Leon Chua arrived at the idea of a theoretical electronic component, “memristors.”

Memristors modify electrical currents depending on signals received, similar to transistors. The difference with memristors is that their behavior is based on how they were last activated.

Memristors, finally developed by scientists at Hewlett Packard using titanium dioxide in 2008, Indian scientists writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, outline how a memristor can now be manufactured using the blood of a human. Not only that, but the scientists in Gujarat explain how they have been successful in making memristors out of modified human blood cells.

Using a macroscopic experiment with a 10 ml. test tube of human blood at 37 Celsius (the average body temperature of a human) and two immersed electrodes connected to measuring electronics, the scientists were able to determine blood’s resistance varied in reaction to the applied voltage polarity and size, and the effect was “retained” for at least five minutes. Follow-up tests, displayed similar, positive, reactions, indicating the memristor effect was present even when flowing blood was used in the experiment.

What this means is that the scientists concluded they can create microscopic devices which, when used, would behave similarly to microscopic memristor manufactured by semiconductor materials akin to those in silicon chips.

Next, the scientists plan on creating a a micro-channel version of the flow memristor device integrating several to carry out particular logic functions. Success with these tests could lead to circuitry linking human tissue and nerve cells to electronic devices, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye.

While still in its early stages, the idea that humans could be outfitted with bioengineered blood cells which interact directly with electronics is both amazing and frightening. Every advance in science invariably could lead to one using something designed for good in dastardly ways the creators never envisioned possible.

What do you think? What positive and potentially negative, effects could the technology described above have when implemented?

SpaceDaily

Firefighters are, in my humble opinion, some of the most courageous individuals that walk the earth.  Consistently putting themselves in harm’s way, anytime, anywhere, to protect their fellow citizens is something worth everyone’s gratitude.

Currently firefighters are left with few options when it comes to battling a blaze, the most common method employed being a heavy hose spouting water.  If scientists have their way, fighting fires with water will soon become a thing of the past.

At the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, Harvard scientists unveiled a method of suppressing and extinguishing flames without using a single drop of water.  Employing a 200-year-old observation noting how electrical charges can affect the shape of flames, the scientists developed an electrical wave “blaster” that could usher in a new, high-tech way of firefighting.

It works by connecting a  600-watt amplifier to a device resembling a wand which turns an electrical current into a beam.  After creating an open flame a foot high, the scientists put the flame out with their electric wave blasting wand.

Using a device like this would allow firefighters to put out fires, and clear flames from a burning building, providing entry into an enclosure in order to rescue those trapped inside.  Moreover, the scientists also see traditional water sprinkler systems being replaced by flame snuffing electrical pulse generators.

If successful, not only would firefighting be easier and safer, but it would reduce water damage caused by today’s firefighting methods in addition to firefighters no longer needing to use tremendous amounts of water to extinguish a blaze.

What do you think of the scientist’s plans for firefighting’s future?  Have you been the unfortunate victim of a fire?  What caused more damage, the fire itself or the water used to put the fire out?

Popular Science

Fans of Star Wars and Star Trek no doubt dream of the day when a 3D, 360-degree, on-demand, immersive, digital environment is made a reality for any and all who want it.

We’ve covered how MIT, using a Microsoft Kinect, has created a holographic image replicating the iconic scene from Star Wars where Princess Leia’s cry for help was beamed from the bowels of R2-D2.

In line with that project and the desire for a 3D, 360-degree system, PhysOrg reported on a 3D fog display, but the system lacked the 360-degree experience.  Now, new technology from Japan may soon make the dream of a 3D, 360-degree environment, a reality.

Researchers at Osaka University in Japan have created a 3D and 360-degree display projecting images from various angles onto a cylindrical, fog, display.

In doing so, the project provides a combination of multiple-point of view projectors,  with the cylinder allowing for a display that is 3D regardless of which side of the object you view it from.

To create the image three projectors are needed, making the project in its present form less than perfect for mass production and consumption.

The Osaka team believes the technology, when perfected, will have mass appeal both in the areas of entertainment and healthcare.

Unfortunately, any joy experienced by those industries and consumers alike will have to wait until the 3D, 360-degree display is more refined.

What do you think of the researcher’s project?  If made available to consumers and businesses, would you want one?  What real-world application(s) do you envision the project could impact?

PhysOrg

Tell me honestly – do you sit through the intro of the show every time you watch it or do you skip the intro? Here’s my confession for the week – I sit through it every single time and I even try to sing along. (Yup, I have been told one time too often that I watch TBBT too much.)

In any case, for those of you who have enough time on your hands and are detail-oriented enough, here is a compilation of every single image in the intro section of TBBT. Believe it or not, there are 111 images shown in that seemingly short span of time! It took the guy 2 hours to put this thing together. Unfortunately, the entire image is too large to show in the post, so I just got a snippet. If you click on the image below, though, you can view the whole thing.

I stumbled upon another set of images, wherein the intro of TBBT is dissected. It was done by Harald Kraft about a year ago. The post is more detailed and each image is taken separately, but there are only 109 images included. Here is a sampling of what awaits you.

You might have already figured it out, but this is Christopher Columbus.

This one is Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii.

This is radiolaria, which is a kind of protozoa.

Tell me that isn’t worthwhile reading!

If you’ve been to a party, out to a fancy establishment, or been to a store selling wine, no doubt you’ve encountered a “wine snob.”  Wine snobs are those who not only consider themselves experts in the world of wine, but aren’t afraid to share their “expertise” with anyone and everyone surrounding them.  They’re a “wonderful” lot to spend time with.

Lest you think humans are the only species afflicted with wine snobbishness, a group of researchers at Japan’s Hiroshima University decided to train mice to tell the difference between different kinds of wine.

According to the researchers:

“We examined performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors by Y-maze behavioral assays. Thirsty mice were initially trained to choose the odor of a red wine in the Y-maze. After successful training (>70% concordance for each trained mouse), the individual mice were able to discriminate the learned red wine from other liquors, including white wine, rosé wine, sake, and plum liqueur.”

Pretty impressive, for mice.  The research continued, this time the focusing on if mice could tell the difference between types of red wine:

“However, when the mice were tested to distinguish fine differences between 2 brands of red wine, their performance significantly varied among the individual trained mice. Among 10 mice tested, 2 mice were able to discriminate between the red wines (>75% concordance) whereas 6 mice failed to distinguish between them (50-67% concordance, where chance could be assumed to be 50%).”

Humans – 1, Mice – 0.

Evidently the only reason behind the research was to determine if the attention of mice could be altered through learning experiences.  Seems like a complete waste of time to me.

What do you think of the research?  What merit, if any, does it have and are there any real-life applications you see where society may benefit from a world with wine-smart mice?

iO9

If you have a penchant for washing your hands, and you have an appreciation for all things microbiological, then CleanerScience’s Etsy shop will be a treat for you. This shop’s tagline “…Making Science a Little Cleaner” is the perfect description of the soaps on sale. This shop specializes in soaps in Petri Dishes, with each soap representing a bacteria culture. The idea is very simple but brilliant, and the soaps are actually very cool to look at! For those concerned with the safety of the items, you will be happy to note that the soaps are made with a naturall hypo-allergenic coconut oil base. Different soaps have different scents, but you can also request for unscented ones.

The person behind the soaps is Sara Jezierski, who says that she had the idea for the soaps after she took a class in immunology. Indeed, the idea of using “bacteria” soap to wash off real bacteria has something to it. From the infamous E. coli to red blood cells (yeah, they’re not bacteria, but they’re still cool) – you can find the perfect soap to match your mood (or health problem). I have no problems in gathering enough motivation to wash my hands – it’s the opposite, in fact – but if you need something to entice people to use soap and wash their hands, these will certainly do the trick.

If you order, you will get a tag with each soap, which starts with “This petri dish soap is designed to look exactly like what you’re trying to wash off: bacteria! This particular soap is modeled after [bacteria name]…”

To order – and I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to, visit the shop. They deliver worldwide!

What your eyes see is the face of Affetto, a new child robot platform.

Created by Hisashi Ishihara, Yuichiro Yoshikawa, and Prof. Minoru Asada of Osaka University in Japan, Affetto has the ability to make realistic facial expressions, allowing humans to interact with it (why would you want to?) in a more natural (oxymoron?) manner.

The spawn of Prof. Asada’s JST ERATO Asada Project, Affetto is the result of advances in “cognitive developmental robotics,” an area of robotics determined to to understand human intelligence using robots.

Affetto, modeled after a one- to two-year-old child , will be utilized to study early stages of human social development.  Earlier attempts to do so have failed due to the lack of a realistic child-like appearance and incorrect facial expressions.  This has led to to robot caregivers not attending to the robot in a natural way.  The last sentence seems so odd, but yes there do exist robot caregivers attempting to interact with robots in natural ways.

Desire to see how Affetto can interact with caregivers?  Check out this video:

Did the video scare you at all?  Are you frightened by some of the advances in robotics, such as Affetto and his future companions?

This photo is of Siberian Actinobacteria, which is supposed to anywhere from 400,000 to 600,000 years old. Ancient is an understatement! What’s even more amazing is that these organisms live in permafrost and they do DNA repair even in that state!

This is La Llareta, or Yareta. Is it a rock covered in moss? It may look like it, but it is actually a shrub which has so many tiny branches packed together. The green color is actually its leaves. It is said that the branches is so dense that it can support you if you stand on top of it. This shrub can be found in South America – 15,000 feet above sea level!

This tree is located in Sweden, and has been there for about 9,550 years old. It’s called Spruce Gran Picea.

Going to the United States, you’ll also see really old living things. This is a clonal colony of Quaking Aspens, which are 80,000 years old. If trees could talk, I wonder what stories they would tell!

Here is another really old tree – a Japanese Cedar which could be anywhere from 2,180 to 7,000 years old. That gnarly bark is so beautiful, don’t you think?

Rachel Sussman’s work perfectly underlines the fact that we are but a small part of this world, and that leaves me amazed on this Friday morning.

Holographic images are fast becoming a reality thanks to a group at MIT’s Media Lab, and a hacked camera sensor from a Kinect gesture-recognition system for Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

According to a story in New Scientist, Michael Bove and his team at the  MIT Media Lab have, in a few short months, increased the frame rate of their project by a factor of 30, from one frame every two seconds to 15 frames per second.

How does Star Wars tie-in to the project?  Graduate student Edwina Portocarrero donned a Princess Leia costume, recreating the holographic projection plea for assistance made famous by Carrie Fisher.

According to Bove,

“The real holographic image couldn’t match the resolution achieved by special effects in the movie.  Princess Leia wasn’t being transmitted in real time. She was stored” in R2-D2′s memory.”

The MIT Media Lab demonstrated their work using computers which created a 3-D profile of the scene and data, resulting in the hologram.

According to New Scientist,

“Bove’s group started with an array of 16 low-resolution infrared cameras, spaced evenly along a metre-long line. Computer processing combined the images to generate the data needed for the 3D holographic projector at the rate of 15 frames per second.’

While anyone has access to a Xbox 360 and Kinect to hack, the holographic projector is an item custom-built by MIT over a decade ago by Stephen Benton and his students.

Bove believes the project will only get better,

“If the software gets faster we can show up to 30 holograms per second.”

Bove and his team are currently engaged in the process of creating a more compact and higher resolution group is working holographic projector.  An item Bove feels will be cheaper to manufacture and result in better holographic images than what the group can produce at present.

Are you a Star Wars fan?  How grand do you think the work of the MIT Media Lab is after reading the above and watching the video below?

This is exactly what John Boswell and company have done. With their project Symphony of Science, they aim to share scientific knowledge and philosophy using music. It’s simple but it’s brilliant!

Now who would have thought that you would see and hear Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan (among others) give mini lectures through song? Don’t believe it’s possible? Watch the video for yourself.

There are many videos in the Symphony of Science series, each focusing on a specific scientific principle. I also like this video with Sir David Attenborough. I have to admit it is kind of weird hearing his voice in this form, but I still think the video is pretty cool.

Wow factor aside, I can already see how these videos can be used to catch the attention of people who may have an aversion to scientific lectures. While the videos probably can’t hours and hours of reading and lectures, they can provide a good start. Yes, that’s the teacher in me speaking.

If you like those two videos, there is more where that came from – the Symphony of Science web site. Can you think of a better way to pass time on a slow Friday?

Say what you will about Google‘s empire growing too big and dominant over the web, but every now and then they do something… awesome. (Yes I know, “awesome” is the world’s most over-used word, but in this case it’s perfectly applicable.)

Google has cooked up an amazing idea: they’re holding the world’s first-ever global Science Fair. Scientists, Google believes, should be rock stars, every bit as celebrated and championed as athletes and musicians. And I couldn’t agree more. Young people between the ages of 13 and 18 are now invited to come up with ideas for a submission, and then create a free Google website where they show their work.

Think science fairs ain’t all that? Just wait until you see who’s sponsoring and judging the Science Fair. It’s a group comprised of some of the most brilliant and some of the coolest cats in the world. The Science Fair’s four official sponsors, aside from Google itself, are — get this:

• CERN: the uber-genius think tank in Europe responsible for the Large Hadron Collider which (so far) has not destroyed the universe.
• The LEGO Group: aka, creativity incarnate.
• National Geographic: world-famous magazine known as NatGeo to its friends.
• Scientific American: the 160-year-old, longest-running magazine in the U.S.

The judges are an eleven member who’s-who panel of all-star scientists, including:

• Vint Cerf: aka, He Who Fathered the Internet. (Insert your own Al Gore joke here, I’m fresh out.)
• Rolf-Dieter Heuer: whom I know nothing about, except that he’s the head honcho at CERN, so he’s got to be like, the genius that geniuses fear.
• Dean Kamen: inventor of the goofy-but-neato Segway Human Transporter, as well as hundreds of other devices that “help people live better lives” (according to his bio).
• Kary Mullis: the man who invented the DNA technology back in the early 90s that now allows for DNA manipulation in everything from forensic science to genetic cloning. Did I say “man”? I think I meant “evil genius.”
• Peter Norvig: Google’s Director of Research — an artificial intelligence enthusiast who’s also worked for NASA and Berkeley’s famed Science Department.

If you’re under 18 and ready to change the world, note that all registrants must enter by April 4th of this year, and entrants who submit videos may be highlighted on Google’s Science Fair YouTube Channel. The prizes up for grabs include scholarships, LEGO and Google goodies like Mindstorms robotic sets and Chrome notebooks, internships with CERN, LEGO, and Scientific American, and a grand prize that will send the winner and one guardian to the Galapagos Islands to explore wildlife with National Geographic Expeditions.

For the latest info, I recommend following the Google Science Fair at @googlescifair and facebook.com/googlesciencefair.