Bertha, the world’s largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblock—so mysterious, it is only known for now as “the object.”

The New York Times reports that the machine—300 feet long and 5 stories tall—has ground to a halt. Built precisely not to be stopped by, well, just about anything, Bertha … Read More → "Something called “The Object” stops world’s largest tunneling machine"

A paper (Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful)) in the British Medical Journal reviewed the literature on harms arising from laughter and produced a wide-ranging list of laughing-related dangers, from asthma attacks to cerebral tumors. The authors concluded “Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter.”
via Boing Boing

Read More → "Laughter is the worst medicine"

… Read More → "A working LEGO car that It runs on air"

MIT planetary scientists Julien de Wit and Sara Seager just devised a method that enables them to weigh an exoplanet by measuring the starlight that shines through its atmosphere. It’s so simple, it’s genius. See, when an exoplanet passes in front of its star, it causes a blip in the amount of light that shines toward Earth. This is actually how we’re able to discover … Read More → "Astronomers figured out how to weigh entire planets using starlight"

This New York Times video shows how masses of fire ants can flow like a liquid or form resilient balls that bounce back like rubber. The ant footage was recorded by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology who are studying the physics of ants. The peculiar characteristics of the fire ants may prove useful in the development of self-assembling robots and self-healing materials. For more on the physics of ants, see the accompanying New York Times article.

… Read More → "Serious ant ball physics"

A smart cuff may be able to save your life by alerting you when you’re at a high risk of a heart attack or stroke.

The cuff, which is being developed by iHealth in partnership with top cardiologists at the University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley, is about to enter into a … Read More → "This ‘smart cuff’ may one day save you from a heart attack"

A team of scientists from Carnegie Mellon just offered up the answer. Using melanin extracted from cuttlefish ink, they developed an edible battery that can be ingested and will harmlessly dissolve when its job is done. After all, traditional batteries are the last thing you want to swallow. “Instead of lithium and toxic electrolytes that work really well but aren’t biocompatible, we chose simple materials of biological origin,” Professor Christopher Bettinger, who led the research, explained to the MIT Technology Review.
via Read More → "Scientists just built an edible battery out of cuttlefish ink"

Language is always changing and new words are always being formed. That means there are a bunch of words that were born the same year you were. Oxford Dictionaries has created the OED birthday word generator, where you can find a word that began around the same time you did.
via Mental Floss

For Christmas this year the Palace of Arts in Budapest commissioned a 36-foot-tall Christmas tree that is made of 365 wooden sleds. The illuminated installation was created by Hello Wood, an international art program and design studio based in Budapest (see a time-lapse of the construction process). The tree will be on display until January 6, 2014, at which point it will be dismantled and the … Read More → "Three-story tall Christmas tree installation in Budapest made using 365 wooden snow sleds"

Saturn’s moons do more than just orbit the planet: they interact with its rings, too. In this image, you can see the moon Prometheus’ gravitational field gently sculpting the planet’s F ring.

Over on the left, you can also just about make out some ripples at the edge of the Keeler gap, … Read More → "Look at what Saturn’s moons do to its rings"