As a lover of the intersection of art andscience, I find myself more excited about The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science (public library) than I’ve been about a book in ages. In this gem, as intellectually stimulating as it is visually stunning, creative trifecta Julia Rothman,& … Read More → "75 scientific mysteries, illustrated by some of today’s hottest artists"

The rock named Jake Matijevic that Curiosity explored for several days on Mars.
Red dots indicate areas where the rover shot the rock with laser blasts while
purple circles indicate areas investigated with X-rays beams. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

After shooting it with lasers and X-rays, NASA’s Curiosity rover has determined that a rock nicknamed “Jake Matijevic” is of a variety that … Read More → "Curiosity rover finds rock type that’s never been seen on Mars"

We don’t want to alarm you, but there’s a distinct possibility that our universe is nothing more than a huge computer simulation, that we’re all living in The Matrix, and none of this is real. But while stopping short of full-on human-machine warfare, a team of interested researchers at the University of Bonn is trying to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes by performing a measurement that should tell us if we’re stuck in a computer simulation.

This notion is based on quantum chromodynamics, … Read More → "How do we know we’re not living inside a massive computer simulation?"

Here’s an issue we don’t talk about enough. Every year, peer-reviewed research journals publish hundreds of thousands of scientific papers. But every year, several hundred of those are retracted — essentially, unpublished. There’s a number of reasons retraction happens. Sometimes, the researchers (or another group of scientists) will notice honest mistakes. Sometimes, other people will prove that the paper’s results were totally wrong. And sometimes, scientists misbehave, plagiarizing their own work, plagiarizing … Read More → "Fraud, failure, and FUBAR in science"

Every summer, the most creative minds in advertising and communications gather in the French resort town of Cannes, on the Cote d’Azur, to celebrate their own brilliance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. These are the forward-thinkers, the industry’s most prominent problem-solvers, the crisply styled “creative types” who spotted the next big thing was before it was the next big thing, and then made it so. … Read More → "Inside the swarming quadrotor lab of KMel Robotics"

Australia’s west is now home to what’s described as the country’s first utility-scale solar power plant.

The 10 megawatt plant, supported with AUD$20 million of Western Australian government funding, will deliver power equivalent to 3,000 homes. However, its output is committed to powering the state’s Binningup water desalination plant, according to the ABC.

The government says it will knock 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases off the annual national output – however, given the plant is pre-committed to a single customer, it may be more accurate to describe … Read More → "Western Australia powers up 10 MW solar farm"

Halftime performance of The Ohio State University Marching Band during a game against Nebraska on October 6. A “video game” theme, with music from Zelda, Halo, Pokemon, Tetris, and others.
via Boing Boing

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… Read More → "Ohio State Marching Band halftime show of video game theme songs"

Long a purveyor of lumbering land barges, Cadillac has released its first compact sedan in more than 30 years: the ATS. Engineers designed the ATS to compete with BMW’s renowned 3-Series. To make it fast and agile, they replaced heavy steel components with aluminum, drilled “lightening holes” in structural parts, and slimmed down the fasteners that hold components together. Then they added the gadgetry, including seats … Read More → "Cadillac’s tiniest car is also one of its most technologically advanced"

No worries about this one ending up like the rickety table at the neighborhood bar. This Electropolished Steel Foosball Table ($4,000) is crafted in Spain from the aforementioned electropolished steel and hardy iroko wood. It features metal players and built-in levelers for keeping things perfect even when that surface isn’t, all of which combines to make it rugged enough for outdoor use — even if you’re unlikely to ever take it outside.
… Read More → "Electropolished steel foosball table"