It’s hard to drum up sympathy for vultures. They do, after all, feast on the carcasses of dead (and diseased) animals. But at the International Centre for Birds of Prey in the UK, conservationists are hoping to keep extinction at bay for one African species by 3D printing vulture eggs. The replicas, which are made to simulate the same shape, weight and feel of actual vulture … Read More → "The 3D-printed eggs that could save vultures from extinction"

But despite the game’s popularity, most of us aren’t exactly playing it the way that the creator intended. Chances are, you follow these rules: Discard the cards in your hand by matching colors or numbers, and follow the instructions on the special cards. The first player to discard their whole hand wins. Right? Wrong. According to Mattel, “The first player to play all of the cards in … Read More → "We’ve all been playing Uno wrong"

Marketers have long known the power of color to manipulate consumers. Red and yellow supposedly make us hungry, while blue can calm us down. Apparently, we’re not alone in our subconscious response to color; scientists say salmon kept in tanks with black backgrounds were four times less aggressive than those in light blue tanks. The findings were published last week in the journal PLOS ONE.</ … Read More → "Scientists say light colors make salmon more belligerant"

Japanese researchers have grown skin tissue that not only includes hair follicles, but all the glands that come with it — including oil and sweat glands. The trick was to take cells from mouse gums, turn them into stem cell-like forms that generate skin, and implant those into mice with immune system deficiencies (which lets the new skin grow unimpeded). The resulting skin was a little creepy — just look at the … Read More → "Artificial skin grows hair and sweat glands"

This summer, many traditional media outlets will abandon a last vestige of old technology journalism: the capitalized “Internet.” The Associated Press has announced that its highly influential style guide will be updated this year to require “internet” be kept lowercase. The “web” will also be lowercase “in all instances.” Yes, that means the grammatical tyranny of … Read More → "The Associated Press style guide will no longer capitalize ‘internet’"

In 2012, ECAL students Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex created the “Rocking-Knit“, an ingenious rocking chair that uses its own kinetic motion to effortlessly knit a hat.
via Laughing Squid

… Read More → "An ingenious rocking chair that uses its own kinetic motion to effortlessly knit a hat"

As phone carrier Softbank launched its own crowdfunding site, amid a sea of products we’ve already heard about, the design firm’s Creative Director Oki Sato took to the stage with something actually intriguing: a plastic bonsai tree that you can prune — or even print a finished article.

The pitch remains pretty broad (and there’s not even funding site for … Read More → "Trim this 3D-printed bonsai tree by hand, just like a real one"

Even when it feels like your cat’s ignoring you, they may be absorbing more of what you’re saying than they let on. At least that’s what researchers at Lund University in Sweden suspect, Newsweek reports. In a new study, they’ll try to determine whether cats can develop regional accents by listening to their owners.

< … Read More → "Scientists want to know if cats learn accents from their owners"

Artist Matthew Herbert has successfully created edible record albums that he laser-etched into a variety of foodstuffs, then played and displayed at London’s Science Gallery.
via Boing Boing

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We’ve all seen the films.  A man is caught in quicksand, begging onlookers for help, but the more he struggles, the further down into the sand he is sucked until eventually he disappears. All that’s left is sinister sand, and maybe his hat. There are so many films featuring death by quicksand that Slate journalist Daniel Engbar has even tracked … Read More → "Can quicksand really suck you to your death?"