What better way to spend an afternoon than having a friendly chat? My three friends are online chatbots – Artificial Intelligence software designed to analyse my sentences and respond accordingly. All I do is visit a specific webpage, then type into a box in my Internet browser and they reply, just like chatting online to a human. These three (jabberwacky, iGod and ALICE) are some of the more advanced chatbots out there, the result of decades of research by computer scientists to try and achieve intelligence in a computer. From the birth of computers until now, we& … Read More → "Three conversations with computers"

The best part of having the magnet implant was discovering invisible magnetic fields when I wasn’t actually looking. The first experience I had with this was walking through the intersection of Broadway and Bleecker in Manhattan. I passed through this intersection a few times before realizing that my finger would tingle at a certain spot. After paying a bit more attention, I realized that I was feeling something underground. At first, I assumed it was a subway car, but later came to the conclusion that it was most likely the subway power generator, or the giant … Read More → "The guy with a rare earth magnet implanted in his pinky finger"

National Park Service workers were using black lights to conduct a rat census (!) on Alcatraz last month when they accidentally discovered these strange glowing millipedes. From KQED QUEST:

Some millipedes species are known to fluoresce under black light, but National Park Service officials say it is the first recorded evidence of such millipedes on Alcatraz. UC Davis entomologists are hard at work determining whether the … Read More → "The weird glowing millipedes of Alcatraz"

Researchers from the Vienna University of Technology have refined a 3D printing technique to make incredibly small structures at record-breaking speeds. The technique, called two-photon lithography, allows the sculpting of intricate objects with micron precision at a rate of 5 meters 

per second, which is 50,000 times faster than typical processing speeds. The team demonstrated the fabrication from CAD files of St. Stephen’s cathedral, the London Tower Bridge, and even a race car that measures about 300 micrometers long, just under the size of a dust mite barely visible to the human eye. … Read More → "3D printer cranks out exquisite structures smaller than dust mites and sets a new world record"

Back in August of 2011, Google began mapping the Amazon Rainforest for their ever-growing Street View feature within Google Maps. Now, Google has released the fruits of their rainforest labor, as the bits of the rainforest they explored are available for you to explore on Google Street View.

Obviously, Google did not map the entire Amazon, as that is not only dangerous, but ridiculously time consuming. However, they did … Read More → "Google adds Amazon Rainforest to Street View"

Last year, physicists discovered that red wine can turn certain materials into superconductors. Now they’ve found that Beaujolais works best and think they know why.

Last year, a group of Japanese physicists grabbed headlines around the world by announcing that they could induce superconductivity in a sample of iron telluride by soaking it in red wine. They found that other alcoholic drinks also worked–white wine, beer, sake and so on– … Read More → "Red wine, tartaric acid, and the secret of superconductivity"

You’re gonna want to turn the lights down low and pour some Champagne before you hit play on this one. Think, Barry White crooning to a unicorn on a rainbow—in space.
via Gizmodo

Timelapse videos depicting the stars from low earth orbit, as viewed from the International Space Station.

… Read More → "Incredible time-lapse from the ISS"

Groups that include women and men outperform those comprised of only one gender.

The thing that is often overlooked about diversity is that teams composed of something other than a cognitive monoculture often have a competitive edge over their less-diverse counterparts. Take, for example, gender in tech companies.

The inimitable Eric Barker of the must-read social science and psychology blog Barking up the wrong tree has gathered a handful of studies on this subject, and I think of them every time I’m assembling a team.

Granted, this entire enterprise … Read More → "Women key to successful startups, suggest studies"

Inspired by mid-century aircraft, the Blackhawk is handmade using polished aluminum panels, which are held together with exposed steel screws. Inside, the tunk features a black cotton canvas lining, a multitude of draws and cabinets, a sturdy, fold-down desk surface, and inset drawer pulls. 
via uncrate

Read More → "Hide your home office in plain sight with the Blackhawk Secretary Trunk"

Using the moniker SUGAR (Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research), Boeing has been hard at work developing a series of jets that will take us from point A to point B in the future. They’ve already developed concepts for a hybrid-electric passenger jet, and now with the SUGAR Freeze, they reveal their plans for an aircraft powered by natural gas.
via Gizmodo

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