Botanist and designer Macoto Murayama has created “Inorganic Flora,” a collection of intricate blueprints of numerous flowers. Murayama buys different flowers from roadside stands and then dissects, photographs, and sketches them, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Then he creates detailed digital 3D models of the flower and its parts and makes a beautiful, annotated blueprint of each bloom. More of … Read More → "Inorganic Flora, a collection of detailed botanical blueprints"

In probably the best use of Kickstarter to date, comedian Kurt Braunohler raised $6,820 to hire a skywriter to write “HOW DO I LAND?” over Downtown.

Check out his Kickstarter project here.

via Read More → "Comedian Kickstartered money to skywrite this stupid message over downtown Los Angeles"

The Sun is ramping up towards its peak activity in its 11-year-cycle, and it’s doing so in a big way. In one 24-hour period, the Sun has erupted with three progressively more intense X-class solar flares from the same region, each with its own coronal mass ejection. The CMEs are not heading in the direction of Earth, but could affect some spacecraft.

These flares are pretty powerful, … Read More → "Sun erupts with three X-class flares in one day, complete with coronal mass ejections"

Frank Ohle is an incredibly skilled DIYer who outfitted his motorcycle with a 150hp Rotec Radial R3600 engine. For those of you who know a lot about bikes, you’re probably scratching your heads right about now. Don’t start questioning your knowledge yet though, experienced hobbyists, because the Rotec Radial R3600 is a freakin’ plane engine.
via Read More → "Yep, this is a motorcycle with a plane engine"

Google has Glass, but Recon Instruments is kicking off Google I/O today with a wearable computer of its own, the Recon Jet. Integrating a microdisplay into a set of sports sunglasses, the Recon Jet floats a virtual widescreen in the lower corner of your right eye, with controls integrated into the side, and … Read More → "Recon Jet takes Glass-style wearable computing to the slopes"

[S]cientists have dissected lots of pupae, although they’ve mostly trained their scalpels on fruit flies and blowflies.  By its nature, such work always destroys the insect that’s being observed. It also only provides a snapshot in time. If you want to work out what happens as metamorphosis progresses, you need to cut open many pupae that you think are at different stages of development.

But … Read More → "3-D scans reveal caterpillars turning into butterflies (video)"

Last year we posted about the premiere of “Rain Room,” an interactive installation at the Barbican Centre in London that allowed visitors to walk through an indoor downpour without getting wet. The installation is now starting its second exhibition, this time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, through July 28, 2013. The installation was created by London-based studio Random International.
… Read More → "‘Rain Room’ interactive indoor downpour installation now at MoMA in New York City (video)"

In 1942, after having finally entered WWII, the United States Marine Corps spent two million dollars on an insane new initiative. The mission? Strap napalm bombs to bats, and send them flying on deadly kamikaze runs. Seriously.
via Gizmodo

Continue reading 

From the American Museum of Natural History’s excellent photo archive.
via Boing Boing

Continue reading

Due to their relative faintness compared to their parent stars, most known exoplanets have been discovered using indirect detection methods – that is, detecting the effects they have rather than observing them directly. There are numerous indirect methods that have proven useful in the detection of exoplanets and now yet another, which relies on Einstein’s special theory of relativity, has joined the list with the discovery of an exoplanet known … Read More → "“Einstein’s planet” becomes first exoplanet discovered using new detection method"