To test how our living environments influence our eating habits, researchers from Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab recruited 101 female undergraduates and put half of them in a neat kitchen, and the other half in a messy one filled with mail, newspapers, and unwashed dishes. Adding to the surface chaos, the messy kitchens were also filled with noisy distractions including a ringing phone and an intrusive professor.

< … Read More → "Study says we eat more when our kitchens are messy"

It looks like a rock in the middle of a park. And it is a rock. But it’s more than that. Artist Aram Bartholl hollowed out a portion of the rock and placed a Wi-Fi router inside. It’s powered with a thermoelectric generator. So if you want a Wi-Fi signal, you have to start a fire at the base of the rock.

Bartholl calls this sculpture < … Read More → "This boulder is a fire-powered wi-fi router"

The Etsy shop Que Interesante has created a clever collection of chemical element labels to stick on crayons to help kids learn the periodic table while they draw. A fun and creative way to learn.
via Laughing Squid

Read More → "Chemical element labels to stick on crayons to help kids learn the periodic table while they draw"

1. PEA

Originally the word was “pease,” and it was singular. (“The Scottish or tufted Pease..is a good white Pease fit to be eaten.”) The sound on the end was reanalyzed as a plural ‘s’ marker, and at the end of the 17th Century people started talking about one “pea.” The older form lives on in the nursery rhyme “Pease-porridge hot, pease-porridge cold…”
via Read More → "7 words that came about from people getting them wrong"

Scientists have developed an innovative 3D bioprinter capable of generating replacement tissue that’s strong enough to withstand transplantation. To show its power, the scientists printed a jaw bone, muscle, and cartilage structures, as well as a stunningly accurate human ear. 

After nearly 10 years in development, a research team led by Anthony Atala from … Read More → "Scientists just 3D printed a transplantable human ear"

Tiny, rolling balls of brain cells knocking around in a lab may one day help keep you from losing your marbles—among other things.

The small cellular balls act like mini-brains, mimicking aspects of the real thing, including forming noggin-like structures and pulsing with electrical signals like a thinking mind, researchers reported Friday at the annual meeting of the American … Read More → "With a few skin cells, scientists can make mini, thinking version of your brain"

A chameleon robot developed by a team at Wuhan University in China led by Guoping Wang can quickly change color to blend in with different backgrounds. The robot uses plasmonic panels that react to light differently when an electric field is applied. The panels respond to data from light sensors on the robot … Read More → "A chameleon robot that can quickly change color to blend in with different backgrounds"

Because apparently a regular-sized Rubik’s Cube wasn’t already enough of a challenge, Tony Fisher built himself a version that’s over five feet long on each side. Even just bringing it out to play looks like a monumental struggle, let alone the back-breaking challenge that is trying to solve it.
via Read More → "The world’s largest Rubik’s Cube is 10,000x more frustrating"

Good news for hopeless romantics and the perpetually dismayed: All that sighing is good for you. In fact, you’d die without it. Scientists have now pinpointed the region in the brain that transforms normal breathing into a life-giving sigh. They published their findings this week in the journal Nature. 

Let’s start with the mechanics. Physiologically … Read More → "Frequent sighing helps keep you alive"

This is a video of LDRIC (Launch Directional Robot Intelligent Circuitry) making a hole in one at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
via Geekosystem

… Read More → "It’s all in the hips: Robotic golfer makes a hole in one"