There are several ways to measure the popularity of a sport. It could be judged by how many eyes are watching televised games or how many advertising dollars it draws; how many people play the sport or the prevalence of little-league community organizations and impassioned fans; or some combination of all of the above. And then, like the music industry’s shift to merchandise, there’s how much gear it sells.

In 2007, $103 million worth of soccer balls were sold wholesale in the United States, along with $179 million in soccer-related accessories. Just six … Read More → "Will soccer ever be as big as football in the United States?"

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology in Germany have created a miniature artificial lung that has the potential to significantly improve the process of developing treatments for lung cancer. In addition to the possibility of replacing animal trials currently used to test new medications, the “3D-lung” could be used to expand our understanding of how lung cancer spreads to the rest of the body.

With a volume of just half a cubic centimeter, … Read More → "Miniature artificial lung could revolutionize cancer research"

via xkcd

In Chimpanzee choice rates in competitive games match equilibrium game theory predictions, a paper in Nature by Colin Camerer and colleagues, researchers document the astounding performance of chimpanzees in classic game-theory experiments — a performance that’s substantially superior to humans who play the same games:

Camerer had chimps play versions of the matching pennies game also called the cat and mouse game. In the cat and mouse game each player can go left or go right. The cat wins when cat and mouse choose the same … Read More → "Chimps beat humans at game theory"

Ars covered the grant of Amazon’s controversial patent last month. This guest post is by Charles Duan, director of the Patent Reform Project at Public Knowledge. It’s an essay meant to answer a question frequently asked on Ars: how do bad patents get issued in the first place? 

I. The problem

The patent examiner sat down at her … Read More → "How Amazon got a patent on white-background photography"

Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the art world: ?How did Dutch master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Here’s how he conducted his experiment.
via Boing Boing

Continue reading</ … Read More → "Vermeer’s paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs"

Note: Worthwhile interactive panoramic shots of the collection HERE, HERE, HERE and  … Read More → "World’s largest video game collection up for auction"

Nadeem Haidary wants to change your opinion on the much hated accidental paper cut by harnessing it for good through an origami razor that can purportedly shave faces.

Made from waterproof paper so they won’t disintegrate when you rinse away shaving cream, these razors could even be sold flat-packed, requiring the … Read More → "An origami razor uses the power of paper cuts to shave"

[Michael] enjoys building and flying quadrotors. His girlfriend enjoys baking and making chocolates. One day she had a crazy idea — what if they made a quadrotor together, combining their unique skill sets? [Michael] was a bit skeptical at first. After all, chocolate doesn’t really compare to aluminum or carbon for a frame material… and chocolate melts at room temperature. Regardless — they were curious enough to try it out and see … Read More → "Chocolate quadrotor proves you can make anything fly"

The Magnetic Cello is a stringless instrument by California-based company Magnetovore that’s shaped like a cello and utilizes a resistive ribbon, copper coil, and a magnetic bow to create a deep electronic sound. The company gave a unit to Kentucky cellist Ben Sollee to show off what it can do.
via Laughing Squid</ … Read More → "The Magnetic Cello, a cello-shaped instrument that uses magnets to generate sound"