Friday, February 22, 2013

Watch these quadrocopters play catch with a pole



This is quite the aerobatic ballet, watch as two quadrocopters play catch with each other using an "inverted pendulum" not only catching, but elegantly tossing it to the other in mid flight.

Is a private Mars mission taking shape for 2018?

Entrepreneur and private space flight pioneer Dennis Tito has a grand vision. The world`s first space tourist and founder of the Inspiration Mars Foundation Dennis Tito wants to team up with Space X to go to Mars, in 5 years no less!.  Dennis Tito has scheduled a press conference for February 27th to detail his "Mars shot" mission. Don`t get your hopes up for a landing though, this would strictly be a fly-by, turn around and go home type of mission.

Bicycled: bikes made out of junked cars



Go to a junkyard and what do you see? Piles and piles of old scrapped cars basically rotting away. But Bicycled out of Lola Lowe Madrid has a very innovative idea, why not make bikes out of cars? Each bike is handmade out of junked cars, including the seat and handlebar wraps, it even looks like the final drive is made out of old timing or fan belts, pretty cool recycling and they`re quite pretty too.

Zombie Western madness: Ghoulwalkers trailer



Wesley Snipes? Zombies? Yes, this is Ghoulwalkers, a western zombie thriller horror mashup. Apparently shot in 2006 and never released due to some kind of studio delays is now being released in 2013 along with Wesley Snipes I hear.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Alpha Centauri has a cool atmosphere

Something interesting has been discovered about our nearest celestial neighbour Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri A seems to have a cool atmosphere surrounding it, this is the first time anything like this has been seen beyond our own Sun.

It`s tiny! Smallest exoplanet discovered yet

Exoplanet Kepler 37b is small, how small you ask? Smaller than Mercury, that means we now have a reasonable chance to detect more Earth sized planets orbiting distant Suns. The parent star, Kepler 37  is located 210 light years and is a Sun like star about 80% of the mass and 97% as bright as our Sun.  Kelpler 37b has a diameter of 2400 miles or 3800 km, and is more than likely a rocky little world similar to Mercury that takes 13.4 Earth days to orbit its Sun.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Ride a Russian mechanostrider to work, only $1500



A group of four Russian scientists calling themselves "Konstantin Ivanov" have taken it upon themselves to beat ASIMO, not only that, but it`s rideable too. Working with a budget of only $1500 USD they put this beautifully insane contraption together, weighing in at around 400 lbs and able to balance on one leg this is very cool robot. Shades of WOW?

3Doodler, world`s first 3D pen



This is the 3Doodler and its no ordinary pen. The 3Doodler from WobbleWorks extrudes plastic from its end allowing you to create works in 3D. Currently a Kickstarter project they still have 32 days to reach their goal of $30000, not much if you ask me.

Radar movie of near miss Asteroid DA14 2012



This is what the one that missed us on Friday February 15th 2012 looks like. Not to be confused with the large meteor that exploded over Russia on the same day Asteroid DA14 was around 130 ft long (40 metres) and overall a considerably larger beast.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

How Graphene Super Supercapacitors could change the world



Graphene has some interesting properties to say the least. Composed of pure carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern only one atom thick this wonder material has uses in not only new materials but in optical and electronic industries as well.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Watch Hidetsugo Ueno hand carve a diamond for your drinks



This is Hidetsugo Ueno, he`s a barman from Tokyo working at Bar High Five. He hand cuts a giant diamond out of a block of ice to keep your drinks nice and chilly. Yup I got to make my way to Japan and check this out some day.

A LEGO loom, and yes it does work



Lots of great projects have been made using LEGO Mindstorms, but you have to admit this one is pretty cool. Its a loom, it can make clothing, now how cool is that?

gallery of photos here

Sunday, February 17, 2013

RobotCar: self driving car kits for $150?



UK researchers want to bring you driverless cars, not only that but they want to bring you the kits to transform any car into one for the low, low price of $150.

World`s largest Solar Sail is a go for launch next year


Solar sails represent a novel for of space travel. Not only is an onboard fuel supply not entirely necessary (some designs have added thrusters for station keeping and maneuvering) but these space craft can attain some pretty decent velocities given enough time that is. 2014 will see an interesting NASA mission take flight.

The Mushroom Man speaks: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world



This is Paul Stamets, he`s a fungi expert and advocate that is also on the editorial board of The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, and is an advisor to the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School, Tucson, Arizona. As you`ve probably guessed mushrooms are his thing. This is him speaking at TED on how mushrooms have amazing health and antimicrobial properties but they can be used to clean the environment of man made toxins as well as having amazing ecological restorative properties.