… Read More → "NASA, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin recovery crews aboard the USS Anchorage witnessed the Orion spacecraft as it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean"

Redditor sesipikai and his girlfriend spent an evening in the romantic city of Rome. He wore a heart monitor during that time. The results, when charted in Excel, show his excitement levels throughout the evening. As you can see, the proposal was the most thrilling event.
via Neatorama

< … Read More → "Man wears heart rate monitor while proposing to his girlfriend"

Using what’s known as ultra-deep, next-generation sequencing, a team in Germany has developed a test that claims to reliably identify which twin a biological sample belongs to. The test works by taking a close look at the genetic letters (called base pairs) comprising the 3 billion-base-pair human genome. Because mutations randomly occur during development, even genetically “identical” twins will vary at a handful of locations, says Burkhard Rolf, … Read More → "DNA test that distinguishes identical twins may be used in court for first time"

The more successful ways of reducing chronic pain such as that arising from bone cancer and chemotherapy rely on blocking certain brain pathways, but these aren’t without their of side effects. Scientists at St Louis University have discovered that the pathway A3AR could be the key to mitigating pain without some of the unwanted baggage, potentially pointing to new methods of therapeutic treatment.
via < … Read More → "Scientists identify promising off-switch for chronic pain"

Those missing brains from the University of Texas at Austin? They’ve been found in San Antonio.

After several news stories appeared Wednesday about 100 brains vanishing from the college, someone called from the University of Texas in San Antonio to say the 100 specimens in glass jars full of formaldehyde were just fine, and they’d been at the school for years…

“They have the brains,” psychology professor Tim Schallert, co-curator of the collection, … Read More → "100 missing brains found in San Antonio"

Hebocon is a robot sumo-wrestling tournament for those who don’t have the technical skills to actually make robots. 31 pseudo-robots that don’t even move properly came together to go head to head. Whoever is the first to fall or go out of the ring loses. Tournament rules include a “High Tech Penalty”, which penalizes robots for having high tech features.
via Read More → "A robot sumo-wrestling tournament for people who can’t actually make robots"

Technology has changed rapidly over the last few years with touch feedback, known as haptics, being used in entertainment, rehabilitation and even surgical training. New research, using ultrasound, has developed an invisible 3-D haptic shape that can be seen and felt.         

The research paper, published in the current issue of ACM Transactions on Graphics and which will be presented at this week’s SIGGRAPH Asia 2014 conference [3 … Read More → "See it, touch it, feel it: Team develops invisible 3-D haptic shape"

Researchers at Drexel University have hit upon a conductive clay which they claim is an “exceptionally viable candidate” to one day replace the electrode materials used in batteries and supercapacitors. Sure, another day another super material, but MXene, as it’s called, does boast some rather intriguing properties.
via Gizmag

Read More → "Could electric clay be the world’s next wonder-material?"

Participants were 22 undergraduate and postgraduate students who were divided into two groups, the in-group and the out-group, and they acted as dictators. The dictators listened to their own preferred “chill-inducing” music, to music they disliked, or to silence, and then played the DG. In this hypothetical experiment, the dictators were given real money (which they did not keep) and were asked to distribute it to … Read More → "Listing to our favorite music makes us nicer"

The Venus Flytrap is a rare carnivorous plant native to swamps near Wilmington, and its numbers have dwindled in part because of people stealing them from protected lands. Now, poaching them is a felony punishable by up to 25 months in prison. Offenders can now also be fined up to $150 for stealing other state-protected plants such as lilies, pitcher plants, Dutchman’s breeches and orchids. The previous maximum fine was $50. Each … Read More → "Poaching a Venus Flytrap in North Carolina could now get you two years in prison"