There aren’t many things that Congress can agree on, but in early 2009 it passed a bipartisan resolution designating March 14th of each year as “Pi Day.” Pi, the mathematical constant that students first encounter with the geometry of circles, equals about 3.14, hence its celebration on March 14. The math holiday had been a staple … Read More → "Let’s use Tau, it’s easier than Pi"
It looks like a team of Georgia Tech researchers is in the business of making wondrous, high-tech gloves — their most recent one, for instance, can teach you Braille even if you’re doing something else. Similar to the piano-teaching glove they designed years ago, this new pair has vibrating motors on each knuckle that buzz in different patterns to correspond with preset Braille phrases. To test how well the gloves work, … Read More → "High-tech gloves can teach you Braille even if you’re distracted"
At first glance it looks like these shoes are shod with two strategically shaped Top Ramen bricks. Delicious, perhaps, but c’mon—too crunchy for underfoot! The flexible soles were actually made with a 3D weaving machine designed by a graduate at London’s Royal College of Art, by layering a single, continuous thread in complementary patterns, one on top of the other.
Read More → "3D-weaving turns a single thread into shoe soles and stab-proof vests"
This study on salad and visual perception in Flavour Journal is by far one of the most excellent papers to be released in 2014. It describes how a group of Oxford psychologists served an identical salad presented in three different ways to subjects. Study particpants said the plate that sort of looks like a Wassily Kandinsky painting tasted better, and that they’d pay twice as much for it. All three salads … Read More → "People will pay more for a salad that looks like a painting, says science"
Testing automated vehicles is a risky process, which is why Michigan’s Department of Transportation and the University of Michigan have joined forces to create a 30-acre urban environment that will be used specifically for testing driverless cars. If automated vehicles are to becomes the norm, then testing these new technologies in a realistic off-roadway environment is an essential step before they hit the real … Read More → "Michigan is building a fake 30-acre city to test driverless cars"
Sometimes when the true origin of a word isn’t known (and sometimes even when it is), entirely fictitious theories and tall tales emerge to try to fill in the gap. These so-called folk etymologies often provide neater, cleverer, and wittier explanations than any genuine etymology ever could, all of which fuels their popularity and makes them all the more likely to be passed around—but sadly, there’s just no escaping the fact that they’re not true…
5. MARMALADE
When Mary I of … Read More → "Words with completely untrue etymologies"
Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, wants to change how we eat in the near future. Bloomberg reports that the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) has started a program called “Iron Man” that further investigates how essential nutrients affect brain, body, and gastrointestinal function. The hope — which will take years to realize — is … Read More → "Nestlé wants to make a real ‘Star Trek’ food replicator"
The walls—or lamp posts, at least—have ears. Chicago is rolling out some new street furniture, and it will be able to measure air quality, monitor noise and even count pedestrians.
The Chicago Tribune explains that the “curled metal fixtures” will appear on Michigan Avenue lamp … Read More → "Chicago’s new lamp posts will track pollution and count people"
