How do you objectively measure creativity in movies? Though there’s probably no perfect way, the recent research mined keywords generated by users of the website the Internet Movie Database(IMDb), which contains descriptions of more than 2 million films. When summarizing plots, people on the site are prompted to use keywords that have been used to describe previous movies, yielding tags that characterize particular genres (cult-film), locations (manhattan-new-york), or story … Read More → "Number crunching shows old movies are more “creative” than new ones"

Disney Research, responsible for futuristic feedback systems like an earlobe speaker and a touch sensor that can work on water, is working on a new way to let people feel what’s on their screens. The group will soon release a paper describing how to turn geometric figures on a touchscreen into simulated textures that users can run their hands across. In a demo … Read More → "Disney’s latest research could let you feel a jellyfish on your iPad"

Lisa Nilsson creates breathtaking anatomical cross-sections from paper. She has a new exhibition opening tomorrow at New York City’s Pavel Zoubok Gallery…

These pieces are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. They are constructed by a technique of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling or paper filigree.
via Boing Boing</ … Read More → "Anatomical cross-section from rolled paper bits"

Beer brewed in space? Are you kidding me? This could sell for A LOT!

Beer has never been brewed in microgravity before, and we can’t say that the folks at NASA would have gotten around to trying it out on their own anytime soon. Thanks to eleven-year-old Michal Bodzianowski, though, the ISS will soon be equipped with a custom orbital microbrewery.

Being that Bodzianowski is only … Read More → "The ISS is getting its own microbrewery, thanks to a sixth grader"

More than you’ve ever wanted to know about the Sierpinski triangle.

Throughout my years playing around with fractals, the Sierpinski triangle has been a consistent staple. The triangle is named after Wac?aw Sierpi?ski and as fractals are wont the pattern appears in many places, so there are many different ways of constructing the triangle on a computer.
via Kottke</ … Read More → "More than you ever wanted to know about the Sierpinski triangle"

A team of engineers at UCLA has created a 3D-printed attachment that enables smartphone cameras to image particles as small as 90 nanometers. This makes it the first portable, cellphone-based imaging system capable of detecting single nanoparticles and viruses according to the researchers.
via Gizmag

Continue reading</ … Read More → "3D-printed attachment turns smartphones into sub-wavelength microscopes"

In case you need yet another reminder that life is short, you may soon be able to wear one on your wrist. Tikker is a watch that counts down the years, months, days, hours, and seconds remaining until your death. More accurately, the Kickstarter project slowly ticks down to its best guess as to when your death will occur. To land on this date, … Read More → "Tikker is a ‘death watch’ that counts down to your demise"

Neuroscientists Daniela Schiller says every time you recall a memory, it changes, and that can be a useful thing.

How much can you trust your memory? Not a whole lot, according to Daniela Schiller, a Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist. To a packed audience at MIT Technology Review’s 2013 EmTech conference  … Read More → "Memory is inherently fallible, and that’s a good thing"

How much do you wish you’d had these as a kid?

This is the Glow-in-the-Dark White Rockets Flannel Bedding available from Garnet Hill. You can get pillow cases, bed sets and comforter covers with the design. 
via Geekologie 

</ … Read More → "Glow-in-the-dark outerspace rockets and planets bedding"

The brown recluse spider spins a silk unlike any other produced by known arachnids or insects. Instead of being round, the recluse silk fibers are flat and extremely thin, like a silky nanoribbon. And they’re spotted with tiny spherical dots, a team of scientists reports today in Advanced Materials.

“It’s so distinct from the traditional silks many of us look at,” said  … Read More → "Brown recluse spider’s silk is strong and really strange"