Quadrocoptor Heralds Rise Of The Machines

This is so cool it's almost scary:

We don't know whether we should be terrified or overjoyed. We've just come across a video demo from the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab that shows an autonomous quadrotor helicopter performing "precise aggressive maneuvers." And trust us when we say, nothing in the foregoing sentence is an overstatement -- the thing moves with the speed and grace of an angry bee, while accompanied by the perfectly menacing whine of its little engine.

These things totally remind me of the miniature forerunners of the hunter-killers in the Terminator flicks, and they're autonomous to boot:


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Transgenic Spider-Goats

Just imagine the scientific and commercial applications of this:

ON a farm in Wyoming, USA, goats are being milked for their spider webs.

And if that sounds bizarre, molecular biologist Randy Lewis claims that within two years, spider silk milked from goats could replace your body's tired or strained tendons and ligaments - maybe even bones.

Professor Lewis and his team at the University of Wyoming have successfully implanted the silk-making genes from a golden orb spider into a herd of goats and are now, finally, producing one of nature's strongest products in useable quantities.

Here's the longer video explanation:


Science has been lagging a bit in providing me with the self-driving cars and jet-packs I was promised in its fiction as a lad so I always get excited about surreal advances like this one. I can only hope that a genetically-modified, vodka-lactating cow is on the scientific horizon. Think of the steaks...

OK Go: This Too Shall Pass

Regular readers might recall that I loves me some Rube Goldberg machines. This video by OK Go features one of the coolest and most elaborate I've ever seen (good song, too):


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[Update: I just rewatched the video. Regarding this reader's comment and my subsequent response, at approximately 2:40 in take note of the pile of destroyed television sets in the background. Have I mentioned that I love this kind of shit yet?]

Picture Of The Day

Looking at pictures like this never gets any easier:

Newly released photographs show what a damaged World Trade Center tower and its collapse looked like from a New York Police Department helicopter as it flew nearby on September 11, 2001, in New York.

The aerial photos were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which had collected the images for its investigation into the towers' collapse.

A couple of the images show one of the twin towers burning after a hijacked airplane had flown into it. Others show it collapsing, and the rest show the clouds of debris and dust spreading below after the towers crumbled.

Each of the 12 images offers a rare look at what the devastation looked like from above.

That day is still so fresh in my memory, it's hard to realize that it's been over eight years already. If you're interested, you can read about how I spent 9/11 here as well as my bitching about the excruciatingly slow and bureaucratic process of building the Freedom Tower here.

MacGruber (MacGyver Parody) Trailer

I always liked the SNL sketches featuring this character (I was a huge MacGyver fan as a young lad) but I'm not sure if the few one note jokes that make them funny can sustain an entire movie, although I am grateful that they didn't waste a "disarm a bomb using only a paperclip, a rubber band and a hockey ticket" joke in the trailer. Plus I now know what an "Upper Decker" is:


Val Kilmer just keeps getting tubbier and tubbier, doesn't he? I think that I'm going to stop saying that people constantly tell me that I look like him. And perhaps he should change his call sign to "Ice Cream Man". Zing, score one for "Goose"!

Picture Of The Day

This is how they used to build zeppelins back in the 1930's. Can you believe this shit? Still not quite as crazy as that skydiving pic but I'd wager that an accident would be just as deadly.

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Reclamation Of Flight 1549 From The Hudson

A time lapse video of the recovery of Flight 1549 which crash landed in the Hudson river last year in the middle of New York City, piloted (and all lives aboard saved) by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. The coordination and effort it took to do this in these icy conditions is truly impressive:


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Why Men Shouldn't Write Advice Columns

Sorry, Sweetheart. Fuel pumps are a bitch.

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Rotating Kitchen Art Installation

Interesting:

Zeger Reyers’ “Rotating Kitchen” — currently on display at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf’s “Eating the Universe” exhibition — will be rotating nonstop from now until February 28th, 2010.

I like it, but I'll bet the beginning is the best part:

Picture Of The Day

This is one beautiful photo:

You're looking at the 253.2-foot Delta 4-Heavy lifting off from launch complex 37B at Cape Canaveral, and yes, that's actually a photograph. Good thing the camera was remotely triggered by photographer Ben Cooper, who used sound activation to snap this shot while he was safely ensconced 3 miles away.

We feel sorry for that camera, though, whose lens was destroyed. The good news is, the camera itself somehow survived this hellish inferno as the world's tallest unmanned rocket roared away from its launchpad. This is such a spectacular photo, we thought at first it was an illustration. Nice work, Mr. Cooper.

Now imagine what it must feel like to sit on top of one of these bad boys as you ascend into space. Too cool.

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World Trade Center Towers Collision Simulation

The attacks on 9/11 were obviously a tragedy but that doesn't make the science involved any less interesting:

National Geographic has a fascinating simulation of why the US World Trade Center towers collapsed after the planes hit them on September 11 2001.

It's part of a program investigating "science and conspiracy".

Basically, it's because the fuel in the (nearly-full) tanks caught fire, which weakened the columns, which bent slightly, which meant that the roof - and other floors- fell in.

We know that from the real-life example, of course. But it's interesting to see it demonstrated here. Not, of course, that this will satisfy the wingnuts who think it was a conspiracy. Their loss.

But sometimes this is what engineering is about: figuring out why things happen after the event. (Other videos on the National Geographic site ask whether controlled demolition could have done the same job, and whether the hijacked planes were replaced by planes carrying explosives. Enjoy.)

I'd seen the raw video simulations from the Purdue data a few years ago but this is the first time I've seen it compiled with narration and a technical explanation:


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In Praise Of The Sci-Fi Corridor

Den of Geek features what they describe as the very nerdiest piece they've ever put up:

There's a moment in every geek's life when one goes for the 'communal hug' on a pet-subject and finds oneself unexpectedly out in the cold.

The piano player stops playing. The landlord shakes his head as his eyes head heavenward, and he slinks away to rearrange the crisps. The lonely sound of a misdirected dart is all that haunts the otherwise silent pub. And it's definitely time to get your anorak.

"You like what...?"

Corridors in science-fiction movies. I love them.

...Corridors make science-fiction believable, because they're so utilitarian by nature - really they're just a conduit to get from one (often overblown) set to another. So if any thought or love is put into one, if the production designer is smart enough to realise that corridors are the foundation on which larger sets are 'sold' to viewers, movie magic is close at hand.

I'd never really considered it before but I have to agree: The corridor is an integral piece of any decent science-fiction set and this article offers a comprehensive analysis of some of sci-fi's greatest classics. You'll know if you're a true geek/nerd based on whether you actually click through to read it.

Cutting Edge Prosthetic Arms

I've showcased and discussed prosthetic limbs before here, here and here because I find the science of changing and even enhancing our bodies with technology quite fascinating. If the unthinkable ever does happen and I require a prosthetic limb myself someday I imagine the hardest decision will be whether to go shiny-new Anakan style or old-school Luke:


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The World's Second Largest Aquarium Tank

From TYWKIWDBI:

The main tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The 'Kuroshio Sea' holds 7,500 cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water. The music accompanying the video is "Please Don't Go" by Barcelona.

It's a beautiful and majestic sight. I think one can't help but have a moment's dismay at the loss of freedom for these creatures that were previously cruising an unlimited expanse of ocean, but perhaps if displays like this draw the public's attention to the wonders of the ocean, then that provides sufficient justification.

Watch it full screen for maximum coolness:

Picture Of The Day

An array of cutting-edge solar collectors in Albuquerque, New Mexico (click picture to enlarge):

Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers™, the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.

“The four new dishes are the next-generation model of the original SunCatcher system. Six first-generation SunCatchers built over the past several years at the NSTTF have been producing up to 150KW [kilowatts] of grid-ready electrical power during the day,” says Chuck Andraka, the lead Sandia project engineer...

The modular CSP SunCatcher uses precision mirrors attached to a parabolic dish to focus the sun’s rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the piston inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.

Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing thinks that the array resembles the works of Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. I agree but I personally think that it could use some more apples and derby hats as well.

Fly-Powered Plane

This has to easily be the most traumatic and confusing thing that's ever happened to this fly:


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Kinetic Wave Sculptures

Otherwise known as cool moving art:

Reuben Margolin, a Bay Area visionary and longtime maker, creates totally singular techno-kinetic wave sculptures. Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reubens artwork is diverse, with sculptures ranging from tiny to looming, motorized to hand-cranked. Focusing on natural elements like a discrete water droplet or a powerful ocean eddy, his work is elegant and hypnotic. Also, learn how ocean waves can power our future.

I've posted about kinetic sculptures a few times in the past but these are almost hypnotic in their movements and lightness:

The Flyak

A kayak with hydrofoils. This is an inspired bit of engineering:

Earth View From The International Space Station

Continuing with the space theme by pure coincidence, a look at what you'd see looking out the window of the ISS:

This movie starts out with opening the port shutter in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) and then switches with time lapse view to Endeavour's left window looking at the JEM showing one orbital day pass with solar array motion and shadow motion. The solar panels rotate relative to the ISS so that they track the sun. One image taken every 15 seconds and played back at 5 frames per image.

Hell of a view, huh?

The Cajun Crawler

This thing is both fascinating and creepy at the same time:

If the Segway's current movement mechanism and cast of characters astride them wasn't keeping you up at night, the Cajun Crawler should seal the deal. Based on the work of kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, the Cajun Crawler holds up a Segway-style platform with a scary collection of steampunk-like mechanical legs, which can scurry across a floor with surprising agility. The project was built by a team of folks at the University of Louisiana, who do not know the meaning of fear.

Skip to 1:00 to see the machine in action:

I posted a video of Theo Jansen's hauntingly beautiful kinetic sculptures on this site over a year ago.