A new simple tool developed by nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego, is opening the door to an era when anyone will be able to build sensors, anywhere, including physicians in the clinic, patients in their home and soldiers in the field. The team from the University of California, San Diego, developed high-tech bio-inks that react with several chemicals, including glucose. They filled off-the-shelf ballpoint pens … Read More → "Pens filled with high-tech inks for do-it-yourself sensors"

Wondering how long it would take for Google’s search engine to find your website if you didn’t promote it? About 22 days, according to Matthew Rothenberg. He recently launched Unindexed, a purposefully short-lived web community that was set to self-destruct as soon as Google’s indexing technology made it searchable. While Rothenberg didn’t go out of his way to maintain the secret, participants knew that every view, post and shared link would bring the site … Read More → "Self-destructing site shows how long it takes Google to find you"

According to RevBio, if you know which enzyme is not working, the process can be fixed and the flower can gain color. The company has modified a petunia to do just this when a certain molecule is present. When watered with a dilute ethanol, such as beer, the plant turns from white to red in 24 hours. The change can then be reversed by using regular water.

Of course, a plant need not be ill-functioning to … Read More → "These flowers change color when you feed them beer"

In the village of Nanwan, Guandong province, China, local residents annually detonate a pile of firecrackers spread over an open street. This is part of a ceremony in which a local god is removed from a temple and paraded through the streets in order to bring good fortune for the next year.
via Neatorama

… Read More → "A sea of firecrackers exploding"

Researchers at Northumbria University in England say they have invented an innovative technique to harvest energy from solid carbon dioxide. The research, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, makes use of a property of liquids known as the Leidenfrost effect.

The scientists have proposed a new type of engine that would exploit the Leidenfrost effect, which occurs when a liquid comes close to a surface much … Read More → "New energy harvesting method could use dry ice to power life on Mars"

Physicists at the University of Basel in Switzerland have been so focused on this capability that years of experimentation with the one-atom-thick sheets of carbon have led them to discover that it’s possible to direct the electrons in graphene across a predefined path.

In research published in the … Read More → "Electrons are snake charmed across graphene"

Japanese sweets maker UHA Mikakuto brought together experts from various labs and universities to make a rocket that uses candy as its fuel.

Powered by twenty Puccho soft candies, the rocket successfully launched last week and reached an altitude of 248 meters (813 feet).
via Read More → "Japan built a candy-powered rocket"

The folks at CERN are, quite justifiably, proud of their giant particle accelerator, and there are a number of ways to see what’s inside the Meyrin, Switzerland facility — including video tours on YouTube, avirtual tour via the Large Hadron Collider website, and even guided physical tours of the site.

But as the LHC prepares to start up again at the end … Read More → "Take a drone tour of an LHC detector"

With any sandwich you buy in the United States you will receive an all too familiar side dish without any explanation. The pickle. But why? How did the pickle become such an iconic part of our deli experience? Even the  character Tevye pondered this question in Fiddler on the Roof. Where did the pickle come from, and more … Read More → "Why does your sandwich come with a pickle?"

Water may be a liquid, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be shaped. If you’ve ever mucked about looking for water experiments on YouTube, you would have seen that it can be guided into a variety of standing waves by sound.

The shape of the aperture through which water flows can also be designed in such a way … Read More → "Concept faucet makes saving water beautiful"