In a first for medical science, two livers have been successfully transplanted into patients following storage and transportation of the organs in a machine that keeps them warm and functioning. It’s hoped that the machine, developed at the University of Oxford, could double the number of livers available for transplant at any given time, potentially saving thousands of lives every year.
via Read More → "Human livers “kept alive” by machine transplanted successfully for first time"

Some numbers just stick out. Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games. UCLA Men’s Basketball won 88 in a row. And for the classic gaming niche, Victor Ali’s 80,364,995 points on a single quarter in Missile Command looms just as large.

Today however, seemingly out of nowhere, a challenger rose up and dethroned the 30-year-old record live on Twitch.tv. Victor Sandberg, aka Twitch user diskborsteMC, … Read More → "56 hours, 81m points, and the fall of Missile Command’s 30-year-old-record"

Bismuth (Bi)

Photographer R. Tanaka has taken a number of amazing close-up photos of elements from the periodic table.
via Laughing Squid

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The world’s elephants are in a state of crisis. Populations are dwindling, poaching is on the rise, and the illegal ivory trade has shown no signs of slowing down. The lucrative underground business has turned parts of Africa into a grim, blood-soaked landscape, but many see hope in the form of a familiar forensic tool: DNA testing.

This week, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)passed a new resolution that requires all 178 member countries to submit seized ivory for DNA testing, as part of a renewed effort to crack down on … Read More → "Can DNA testing put a stop to the illegal ivory trade?"

The days of casually crossing a creek are over if you live in the Gölçük district of Kocaeli province in western Turkey. Which maybe you don’t. But the point is that someone stole a 22-ton, 82-foot-long bridge from there. It’s just gone.

Police suspect that the bridge was cut into sections and removed on a truck for scrap metal. Its estimated value is about $11,000. Villagers use the bridge to access their orchards, and a resident, Mustafa Karaka? told Today’s Zaman that, “Now we have to take our socks … Read More → "Thieves steal entire bridge for scrap metal"

Nearly a third of American drivers apparently have a death wish, based on data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC’s study is based on data collected in the US during October 2011, and the organization found that approximately one in three American drivers send or read text messages on their cell phones while driving.

This data, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report this week, showed more … Read More → "Third of US drivers may have subconscious death wish, text while driving"

Archaeologists working for England’s Crossrail project have discovered a burial ground at Farringdon in central London believed to date back to the time of the Black Death around 1349. Thirteen 660-year-old skeletons were found buried about eight feet below ground, though records indicate there could be up to 50,000 bodies buried at the mass grave. In a press release, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist Jay Carver said “we will … Read More → "Crossrail archaeologists discover 14th century bubonic plague victims buried in central london"

The Challenge: Create something between London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital and a neighboring building that is magical for sick kids while they’re in the children’s hospital…

Studio Weave has transformed an awkward exterior space landlocked by buildings into the Lullaby Factory – a secret world that cannot be seen except from inside the hospital and cannot be heard by the naked ear, only by tuning in to its radio … Read More → "Lullaby Factory, a whimsical sculpture that plays “secret” music"

There is literally nothing that can’t be built with Lego. Case in point: this motorized Lego machine that folds paper airplanes and launches them into the air. Created by YouTube user “Hknssn,” the fully-automated machine was built using two Lego Mindstorms NXT sets and five NXT Servo motors.

The 150-centimeter long and 40-centimeter wide machine uses motorized rollers to pull paper from a … Read More → "Lego nut builds machine to fold paper airplanes and launch ’em (because, why not?)"

Some German pranksters in Aachen built a snow car overnight in a no parking zone and traffic wardens came and gave the car a ticket the next morning. But when police found out it was all snow and there was no car underneath — boy were their faces red. Get it? Because it was so cold out.
via Geekologie

< … Read More → "German traffic wardens mistakenly give snow sculpture car a parking ticket, are not amused"