The days of having to rely on pricey lab sensors (or carefully trained canines) to detect bad food and bombs may soon come to an end. Oregon State University researchers have developed a hybrid optical and nanotechnology sensor that’s at once super-sensitive to gas, but won’t weigh a ton or cost a fortune. It uses a super-thin, metal-organic film to absorb the gas, and magnifies the telltale chemical signals using low-cost plasmonic nanocrystals that act … Read More → "Optical nanotech sensor can sniff out bad food and explosives"

There are fake towns, there are real towns, and then there is Agloe in upstate New York. The town was invented as a cartographical ruse in the 1930s, but it somehow ended up becoming real. Agloe’s story might be the strangest in the already strange history of copyright traps in maps.

Usually, mapmakers don’ … Read More → "The fake places that only exist to catch copycat mapmakers"

Back in 1965, Gordon Moore, now chairman emeritus of Intel, predicted that the number of components on a chip would double every two years. His prediction proved remarkably prescient, and Moore’s Law, as his calculation is known, has set the pace for technological progress. Gaming has grown up with Moore’s Law, and after 50 years, it’s easy to be lulled into thinking that  … Read More → "Why games still need all of the technology that Moore’s Law can deliver"

A new brain implant doesn’t restore sight in blind rats, but it does something a whole lot weirder: give the rat the extra sense of geomagnetism. It could one day be a new way to navigate for blind people–or heck, even healthy people hankering for a sixth sense.

In the& … Read More → "A magnetic brain implant lets blind rats see without seeing"

It isn’t quite the soft exosuit that DARPA’s working on, but scientists have developed a lightweight exoskeleton that’ll take some of the work out of walking. Before you get too excited though, this is less Edge of Tomorrow and more along the lines of mechanical engineering. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State University devised a way to use springs and ratchets to fashion a … Read More → "These exoskeleton heels could help stroke victims walk again"

In potentially good news for the noses of gymnasium employees and commuters crammed into packed train carriages on hot summer days, scientists at Queen’s University, Belfast claim to have developed the world’s first perfume delivery system that releases more aroma the more a person sweats.

The system, developed by researchers in the Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre, involves placing a raw fragrance onto an odorless ionic liquid. When the resulting “perfumed … Read More → "Perceptive perfume smells stronger the more you sweat"

The Tom Waits Map. Click on a pindrop to see the Tom Waits lyric associated with the location.
via Boing Boing

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Researchers from Yale have carried out experiments to investigate how Internet searching changes the way people rate their own internal knowledge. Using over 1,000 student participants, the team carried out a series of nine different tests that compared participants who used the Internet for knowledge acquisition to those using other means. The results appear to suggest that the use of the Internet boosts perception of … Read More → "Study shows internet access inflates your sense of internal knowledge"

Think that time you filled your friend’s dorm room with hundreds of water-filled plastic cups was impressive? These large-scale pranks made headlines around the world—and will give you something to aspire to. 
via Mental Floss

Show me the pranks! 

The Gregorian calendar is full of wonderful mathematical quirks, and here’s one of them: under its regime, a century will never start on a Sunday. Or a Wednesday or Friday, for that matter.

The reason is (fairly) straightforward. The Gregorian calendar completely cycles every 400 years; add 400 years to any date, and the day of the week will be exactly the same. That means that there are only four different days with which a century can … Read More → "Why no century will ever start on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday"