Pompeii has the best press, but the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD also buried the town of Herculaneum. Charred scrolls were recovered from the town library in 1752, and Italian scientists just discovered it might be possible to use X-ray technology to read them. Their findings were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</ … Read More → "We may finally be able to read ancient scrolls damaged by Vesuvius"

“People would harvest mummies from Egypt and then extract the brown resin material that was on the wrappings . . . and turn that into a pigment.”

Today, every color imaginable is at your fingertips. You can peruse paint swatches at hardware stores, flip through Pantone books, and fuss with the color finder that comes with most computer programs, until achieving the hue of your heart’s desire. … Read More → "The Harvard library that protects the world’s rarest colors"

Even the most watchful dog owners know that it only takes a second for Fido to escape into the big, wide world and once on the lam, it can be tough to track down a pooch with a nose for adventure. The Kyon GPS pet collar from an Athens, Greece,-based team not only tracks down your pet in terms of latitude and longitude, but also altitude to reveal which floor of a … Read More → "Smart collar helps search high and low for Fido"

Musicians hear the world differently than non-musicians. According to a recent study, musicians aren’t just highly skilled at isolating the sounds of individual instruments in a piece of music, but are also better than non-musicians at isolating individual vocal streams when multiple people talk over each other.

This study on overlapping speech perception amongst musicians and … Read More → "Musicians are better at isolating voices in a crowd, study finds"

Happytoast made this amazing thing for B3ta’s video game art challenge. 
via Boing Boing

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Despite the abundance of technology that I surround myself with (laptop, phone, second monitor, tablet, camera, ridiculously heavy and terrible iPad charger) the two tool that never outlive their welcome in my daily repertoire is a pen and notepad.

I’ve tried using a whole range of different organization apps, to do lists on my phone and elsewhere, but nothing seems … Read More → "The future is a pen and this microwavable notepad"

Anybody can get scammed, manipulated, or exploited. But there’s some good news, especially for those of us who rarely leave our computers or phones: People are less likely to get suckered online than in face-to-face interactions. A new study shows that the absence of nonverbal cues better allows us to see through deceivers. The study results were published in the journal Personality and Individual … Read More → "We’re better at spotting manipulators online than in person"

Scientists have unveiled a see-through wrist cuff that measures the level of glucose in the bloodstream of diabetic patients and administers a drug to lower that level if needed. It’s not yet a full-blown treatment—for one thing, the experimental version can’t provide enough of the drug to do the trick—but it should be of  … Read More → "Graphene wristband senses your blood sugar–and treats it"

We’ve known for a while now that medical applications are one of the killer apps for 3D printing. In the past, Make: has covered such amazing innovations as 3D printed prosthetic limps and life-saving medical hacks that every day citizens have done to improve their health and even save lives. You can now add doing your own orthodontics … Read More → "Can you fix your own teeth with 3D printed retainers?"

Not too long ago we heard about the Loon Copter, a land-based quadcopter that can go into the water and “fly” beneath the surface. Well, a team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has created something that’s sort of the opposite. It’s a drone that’s based underwater, but that can make flights above the surface as needed.

Read More → "Amphibious drone hides underwater until it’s go-time"