Discussing and Defying New and Interesting Advancements in Science

Piezoelectric Ribbons On Rubber Allows Movement To Be Directly Converted Into Energy

01 28 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

The piezoelectric ribbons are highly efficient at convertint mechanical energy into electrical. Other applications include placing the material on lungs to allow a persons breathing to power a pacemaker as their chest moves. The other piezoelectric material that we are more familiar with is quartz, in most watches. The new material lead zirconate titanate with its street name (PZT) is100 times more efficient than quartz. In an interview PZT was quoted as saying “suck it quartz!”

The team at Princton University have been able to thinly slice PZT such that 100 of them can fit side by side within a millimeter which would make Iron Chef Miyamoto himself proud. the silicon rubber that it is embedded happens to already be bio-compatible which means that it is already viable for human use in implants or medical devices. “The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to perpetually power medical devices, and the body wouldn’t reject them,” Michael McAlpine,  professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, at Princeton.

The device when flexes when a current is applied and conversely flexing it results in a generated current. This has millions of applications medically and otherwise. I for one imagine giving my newborn baby a jumpsuit made entirely of this material so I can power my 60 inch flat screen. Or perhaps a snowsuit for my dog which will power my electric razor. Now all I have to do is build a hamster wheel with a steak or milk bottle attached to it. If all else fails at least my dream of electric light up condoms is one step closer to fruition.

 

[source]

Category:

Tech

Tagged with:

Share it:

Defiance of Science Makes Front Page Of Technorati!

01 28 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

Aimee Mullins

If you are not familiar with Technorati, it is a collection of blog’s which all fight to see who has the longest nails and is the best at hair pulling. Various blogs from around the web, fight for a seat in the ranking system provided by technorati.com. Defiance of Science as of today has a front page spot with its article on Aimee Mullins. I highly recomend you check it out! The article itself is given exclusive first on Technorati but will be published soon on its mother site www.defianceofscience.com!

Category:

News

Tagged with:

Share it:

New Weapon, “Thunder Generator” Can both annoy and kill

01 25 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

Originally designed in Israel as a device to scare away crop-threatening birds, this shockwave cannon has been bastardized and ready to start messing with humans! It is heralded as a non-lethal means of controlling crowds and riots. However if you are within 10 metres you may be killed. A baseball bat with nails pushed through it is also not lethal beyond 10 metres. The device uses explosive shockwaves to pound out extreme air pressure and sonic-boom type effects which will cause you to feel like “your standing in front of a firing squad”. The shockwaves can travel for long distances and one cannon has an area of affect of a mere 100 acres.

Using a patented process involving Pulse Detonation Technology (PDT), the system feeds the gas-air mixture into one or more so-called impulse chambers or cannon barrels, where the burning fuel detonates and intensifies in force as it travels through the chamber, exiting in a rapid-fire succession of high-velocity shock bursts. (Defencenews)

They insist it is extremely cheap,  safe and a viable solution to both riot control and those pesky birds attacking your fields of contraband. I for one, simply have one more thing to worry about the next time I throw a T.V. through a store window.

Via: Defencenews, and Armytec

Category:

Tech

Tagged with:

Share it:

Robots Can Now Climb Walls, Sarah Connor on High Alert

01 19 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

Dr. Amir Shapiros lab at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel has been hard at work developing wall climbing robots that will soon be able to peep at you or I whilst changing.

First, a magnetic climber that has compliant magnetic wheels and is capable to climb on ferromagnetic surfaces. This robot can be used for inspection of ship hull or bridges. Second, is a Snail inspired wall climbing robot capable of climbing on non metallic surfaces using hot melt glue. The robot secretes the adhesive at the front and peels off the track from the wall at the bottom leaving a trail behind just like the snail does. Third, is a robot that uses sticky wheels in order to attach itself to the wall. It simply has 3Ms sticky tape on the wheels. It can climb on smooth surfaces like glass. Fourth, is a four legged wall climbing robot for climbing on rough surfaces. It has 12 claws made of fishing hooks mounted on each footpad, and it climbs like cat or other rodents.

The robots simply mimic various animals like the snail (hot glue) and the rodent (clawed robot). Why are we wasting time trying to mimic animals when there are perfectly good animals just lying around to be exploited! I can envision a world where a skateboard has four to eight rodents stapled underneath it, or perhaps a mountain climber launching a pillowcase filled with snails into traffic for his own sadistic pleasure. Despite the last example having no real merit, I for one have to applaud the hard working scientists in Israel. Sometimes we take the complicated/expensive route to solve simple problems when there is good science that can be done by taking a walk through staples and picking up a hot-glue gun and some 3M tape. After writing this I plan on going to Home Depot and using an old refrigerator box for my own commercial space program.

Category:

Tech

Tagged with:

Share it:

Print your own 3-D food! hot-dogs still taste like crap…

01 18 10'

Written by Glucid

2 Comments

still gross
 
Dubbed Cornucopia, an MIT research project by Marcelo Coelho and Amit Zoran has promised new exciting flavour adventures by printing food out in a 3D printer using an array of different ingredients. If you are not familiar with 3D printing it is the process by which a 3 dimensional object can be constructed layer by layer from the ground up. The printer which is purely a concept at this point will one day hopefull find new ways to make your ass even fatter. I can’t imagine food getting more tastier than the garbage they push down our throats already, but let’s all cross our fingers.
 
 

Category:

Health, Tech

Tagged with:

Share it:

Dolphins are like you and me except better in everyway

01 11 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

"hey guys! can I have some rights too?"
“hey guys! can I have some rights too?”

The Skinny

Scientists studying dolphin behavior have suggested they could be the most intelligent creatures on Earth after humans, saying the size of their brains in relation to body size is larger than that of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, and their behaviors suggest complex intelligence. One scientist said they should therefore be treated as “non-human persons” and granted rights as individuals.(Phys-org)

Dolphins are both smart and delicious. In one example a wild dolphin in rehabilitation was taught to tail walk a useless party trick for picking up chick dolphins. After it was released it began teaching other dolphins who then learnt the maneuver without any reward whatsoever. Furthermore, dolphins have also been able to use a mirror to both recognize themselves and inspect other parts of their body. The studies further go on to say that in terms of brain size, dolphins are smarter than primates. I have never in my life seen a dolphin toss its feces at another creature then laugh and smell its finger. But then again dolphins don’t have hands.

The neocortex and cerebral cortex of the bottlenose dolphins were particularly large and the cortex had similar convoluted folds to those found in human brains and strongly associated with intelligence. Cortical folds increase the volume of the cortex and its capacity for interconnections to form. Marino said the findings on anatomy and intelligence of dolphins mean we should re-examine the treatment of dolphins, especially when their treatment results in suffering. (Phys-org)

In Summary

So with all that perhaps one day we will be riding the train to work next to dolphins and perhaps even engaging in potentially risky sexual behaviour with them. Perhaps they will start beating us at sports like darts, or bowling, or even soccer. Actually forget all that, they are trapped in their watery prison so they can suck it. Oh and don’t eat dolphins, they are way to chewy.

Category:

Uncategorized

Tagged with:

Share it:

Japan Creates Transparent Goldfish, Goldfish still ugly

01 01 10'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

Transparent fish from Japan

A goldfish whose beating heart can be seen through its skin has been created at Japan’s Mie University in Tsu city. The scientists attempted to mess with the already pathetic animal so that it has even less respect within the aquatic world. Yutaka Tamaru a professor of biology at the University created the fish in an attempt to decrease the need for dissections. Goldfish are one of the few animals that are cheaper to let die and replace than pay for food. I’m sick of losing pets and not caring, maybe paying $1000 for a goldfish will change that.

 Transparent fish from Japan!

 

[source]

Category:

Biology

Tagged with:

Share it:

Jesus has his work cut out for him: scientists restore eyesight using stem cells

12 28 09'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

British scientists have restored the eyesight of Russell Turnbull. The 38 year old man was on the way home late at night in 1994 after a night of debauchery in New Castle. An argument became heated on the bus and like most arguments in New Castle one of the angry men began squirting ammonia at people and it happened to hit Mr. Turnbull right in the eye leaving him with a painful and blinding condition known as Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency. Scientists then threw a big middle finger up to fate and transplanted healthy stem cells from his healthy eye into his scarred blind eye. It just goes to show that ammonia fights are only fun until someone loses an eye and that with today’s technology its probably still OK to throw ammonia into the faces of your enemies on buses without doing irreversible damage. I’m filling my super soaker with it right after this.

[source]

Category:

Health

Tagged with:

Share it:

Octopus and Coconut shells = Boring + Boring

12 21 09'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

Maybe you’ve never seen an octopus before. Perhaps you have never in your life seen a coconut before. Or perhaps by some strangely fated misery you have never seen either. That is the only way this story is remotely interesting. Octopus’ are very smart and perhaps it can amaze as it climbs in a coconut shell! This is interesting I will admit as it uses tool like skill with the shell. However this is akin to a puppy dog sitting in a big hat, cute, but doomed to LOLCAT status. This story, however, is embarrassing octopus’ everywhere. Instead why don’t you watch an octopus open a jar and more here!

Category:

Biology

Tagged with:

Share it:

Fruit Flies Are Alcoholics and Annoying, Just Like Your Uncle at Weddings

12 17 09'

Written by Glucid

0 Comments

This fly was moments ago knee deep in dog poo
Moments ago this fly was knee deep in dog poo

 

Fruit Flies have more in common with you than you think. When offered a choice between liquid food that had been spiked with 15% ethanol or regular liquid food, the fruit flies chose to party. The fruit flies showed clear signs of intoxication, exhibiting a loss of coordination and hyperactivity. The series of studies did not show if their performance in bed decreased but the scientists did note that it was hard to measure intoxication levels because “the fruit flies were so small”. Uhhh.

 Earlier studies found that alcohol has profound physiological effects on fruit flies, but the new study is one of the first to offer flies the choice to drink. Anita Devineni and Ulrike Heberlein, both of the University of California, San Francisco, devised a fly-sized drinking device reminiscent of the water bottles in hamster cages. Flies held inside vials could sip from thin tubes holding either liquid food spiked with 15 percent ethanol or plain liquid food. The researchers measured the descent of the liquids inside each tube to get a readout of which food the flies preferred.

 In fact even when the researchers spiked the spiked punch with a nasty toxic chemical such as quinine the fruit flies continued to drink, despite the harm it was causing and the trail of broken relationships left behind. So remember children, always know your dealer, especially if he is wearing a lab coat. In other experiments with the fruit flies, they were deprived of alcohol and showed tell tale signs of a relapse once introduced with alcohol again. This shows taht you don’t have to feel bad about your problem drinking, alcohol effects all of gods wonderous creatures just the same.  But wow, sometimes walking can be hard enough drunk especially when your pushing someone in a wheelchair, I can’t even imagine flying while drunk.

[source]

Category:

Biology, Health

Tagged with:

Share it:

Tag Cloud