Parents, as a rule, want to give their children every possible academic advantage. While this usually takes the form of tutors or computers, a new study suggests a surprising factor they may want to consider when checking out a new school, home, or neighborhood: Whether it provides adequate access to the natural world.
</ … Read More → "Green spaces linked to kids’ cognitive development"
In hopes that bottle caps are an acceptable form of currency even in a non post-apocalyptic world, Imgurian GatorMacheteJr (GatorMacheteSr had a kid?!) sent 2,240 bottle caps to Bethesda in an attempt to procure a copy of Fallout 4. Obviously, this is kind of annoying because I was planning on doing the same thing because, believe it or not, I know a lot of bartenders *waits for gasp of surprise that never comes*& … Read More → "Smart Thinking: Man sends 2,240 bottle caps to Bethesda in attempt to pre-order Fallout 4"
As a child, I was obsessed with video game maps. I would pore over them in old issues of Nintendo Power magazine, and even try to recreate the levels of my favorite games block by block on pieces of graph paper. I wasn’t alone. In the early days of the Super Mario franchise, that’s exactly how the folks at Nintendo were designing them.
Read More → "Nintendo used to design Super Mario levels on graph paper"
Scientists can simulate organs on chips when testing medicine, but mimicking your natural rhythm is another matter — it’s hard to know if those drugs will behave properly under the stresses of your body. That won’t be a problem when the University of Michigan’s newly developed testing chip comes into play. The device uses microscopic, gravity-powered fluid channels to replicate heartbeats and other natural flows (such as brain signals) when testing chemicals. You’ll … Read More → "Heartbeat chip tests medicine based on your natural rhythms"
Three groups of 18 dogs were tested in a roleplaying scenario where the owner needed help opening a box. In each group, the owner and dog were accompanied in a room by two other people. In the first group, one of the strangers helped the owner open the box, while the second stranger passively did nothing; in the second group, one of the strangers actively refused to help, while the second stranger remained neutral and did nothing. In … Read More → "Your dog doesn’t like people who are mean to you"
Almost every time we have a look, Saturn seems to become even more incredible. Space rain falls from icy rings into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Two of its moons, Titan and Enceladus, are among the best candidates in our solar system for finding alien life.
The latest revelation? Saturn’s … Read More → "Saturn’s ghostly outer ring is mind blowingly massive"
During the Prohibition Era, moonshiners had to be pretty crafty to keep their activities under wraps. Still, the authorities were bound to sniff them out from time to time, so distillers and smugglers crafted a clever getaway vehicle: cow shoes. These pieces of fancy footwear would leave hoofprints instead of footprints, which no policeman would think to pursue unless there was some sort of hooch horse on the loose.
Read More → "The footwear that helped moonshiners evade police"
Artificial limbs have restored powers like standing and walking for those who have lost legs. But not sensation—patients couldn’t feel the ground beneath them. Until now.
For the first time, researchers successfully fit a human with a “sensory enhanced” prosthetic leg that can simulate sensation. That sense of touch not only makes the wearer safer (you’re less likely to fall if you can feel what& … Read More → "Here’s the first artificial leg that can feel"
In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, two giant Buddha statues that had been carved out of sandstone cliffs in Afghanistan during the 6th century. But for 16 hours this past weekend, the Buddhas returned in the form of projected 3D holograms, standing in their original spots overlooking the Bamiyan Valley.
But while their pieces perhaps aren’t exactly timely, they will certainly make for interesting reads in a few decades—just like this throwback piece on a California fad called “cheeseburgers” from 1938. In a new column called “First Glimpses,” the Times is looking back at the first time certain words or phrases were used in their record of note.
When “cheeseburger” was first mentioned in the October 1938 article, it … Read More → "In 1938, ‘The New York Times’ thought cheeseburgers were a weird new fad"
