Lithuanian-American artist Ray Bartkus recently painted a beautiful mural on the side of a building in Marijampol?, Lithuania. It may seem abstract at first glance, but when you look at the reflection in the water near the structure, it all makes sense.

As the artwork reflects on the water, the pieces interact with the landscape; swans float by and swimmers dive in. While the image is digitally altered to better show the effect, it probably looks just as cool … Read More → "Upside-down mural makes sense when reflected on the water"

Move over kale and almond paste, tortillas are about to become the new superfood, but not because they’re great for your body.

They’re a superfood because you can use them for more than just wrapping, chewing and swallowing- tortillas can make sweet music if you use a laser cutter to etch grooves into the smooth, floury surface.

Behold the power of the almighty flour tortilla!
via Read More → "Playable record made out of an uncooked flour tortilla"

In a forthcoming paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, neuroscientists at Emory University have, for the first time, mapped the sensory and motor systems of two dolphin brains. Unlike most mammals, which process sound in the temporal lobe, the dolphin auditory nerve is wired to both the temporal lobe and the brain’s primary visual region. And that connection could help explain the animals’ … Read More → "New brain scans show how dolphins use sound to see"

The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra (called Das erste Wiener Gemüseorchester in their native German) is an Austrian group that makes the instruments they use out of fresh vegetables. Since their founding in 1998, the group of musicians, visual artists, writers, sound poets, and other artists puts on 20 to 30 concerts a year. They even hold the record for the most concerts by a vegetable orchestra.</ … Read More → "An orchestra made entirely from vegetables"

A team of researchers from the Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) has conducted a study involving the use of communications modules secreted by stem cells to help limit the damage caused by a heart attack. The team performed tests on mice, with extremely promising results…

The results were extremely promising, with the stem cell exosome mice exhibiting improved heart function, less scar tissue, lower levels of programmed cell death and better capillary … Read More → "Researchers use stem cell exosomes to induce hearts to self-repair"

Get set for a live-action version of Transformers, as the company behind giant Japanese robot Kuratas has accepted a duel challenge from upstart US challenger MegaBot. However, it’ll only fight on one condition: Combat must be hand-to-hand with no guns. Kuratas has been around for three years and even went on sale for $1.35 million at one point. Since MegaBot was only just completed, the Japanese company … Read More → "Giant Japanese robot will fistfight America’s MegaBot"

A British graffiti artist’s year-long battle with a local council – and how that squabble transformed an otherwise unremarkable brick building – has been recorded in a gloriously amusing photo series.

The anonymous Mobstr, who runs a website that “documents images of work found on streets and other locations by persons unknown”, gave Mashable permission to publish the series here.

“I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years,” wrote Mobstr in an introduction … Read More → "This graffiti artist’s ‘experiment’ with the authorities escalated hilariously"

Designer Chao Chen has been developing and working with a material that has an unusual type of shape memory. It changes shape when wet, and goes back to the original shape when dry.

The only thing cooler than that is the actual application of the material.
via Yanko Design

Read More → "Sculptures that change shape when wet, return to original shape when dry"

The Brazilian city of Piracicaba has a potent new weapon in the ongoing fight against Dengue Fever, which infects more than a million people annually: genetically modified mosquito lotharios Created by Oxitec of Abingdon, UK and bred locally within Brazil, these GM mosquitoes (all of which are male) are designed to crash the local population before they can spread the tropical disease. More than six million have been released throughout Piracicaba since April. When a GM male mates with a … Read More → "Gene-modded mosquitoes will fight Dengue Fever in Brazil"

The key to better, tougher and more coordinated robots as well as improved surgical procedures, among other advances, could derive their inspiration from an unlikely source – the odd, square tail of the all-around strange seahorse.

While most animal tails are cylindrical in cross-section, the seahorse has a unique, squared tail that not only provides the fish with a tough armor, but also gives it a strong grasp to hold on to things like plants … Read More → "The key to awesome future robots could be seahorse tails"