I know a lot of you out there are nuts about flying. It’s an expensive hobby, but someone’s got to do it. How else would I be able to get to Bangladesh? If you’re crazy about flying and I mean straight loony about it, then you won’t be afraid to learn how to fly all by yourself. Just kidding. No ...

I knew this day would come. The day I attempt to go on a beautiful vacation to Mars, only to realize that I’m really a secret agent fighting against an evil and corrupt Mars administrator. Yes, Total Recall. Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, a brain scientist and co-director of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia ...

This morning, time stood still as I came upon this article on how a team of researchers at Rice University in Houston are working to create a beer that could fight cancer and heart disease. They’re genetically engineering a beer that includes resveratrol, a disease-fighting chemical that can been found in red wine. These folks deserve the Nobel Prize in ...

Researchers at UCLA have constructed a machine that takes X-ray images using a roll of Scotch tape. When pulled apart, tape generates electromagnetic waves through simple friction. The researchers discovered in a vacuum, sticky tape also sends out strong enough X-rays to image your finger. Pretty neat, considering getting your hands on some Scotch tape isn’t too hard. Imagine if ...

The world’s first ever wave farm went live at the end of September in Agucadoura, off the coast of northern Portugal. Three wave energy converters resembling Soviet submarines generate electricity with hydraulic rams driven by waves. The farm was designed by Pelamis Wave Power, which hopes to increase the farms productivity by adding an additional 25 wave energy converters that ...

Two doctoral students, Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini from the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, have discovered a potential threat to security that declares keyboards “unsafe to transmit sensitive information”. By monitoring signals produced by keystrokes, the researchers were able to reproduce what had been typed on 11 different keyboards using a variety ...

While digitizing a Rubik’s cube would offer little more than confusion and frustration, at least it’s a one-up from Hasbro’s Lights Out. However, it is not a one-up from the original design of the Rubik’s cube, which is a classic amongst puzzle games worldwide. Rubik’s cubes were always the cheap toy you could throw around when you couldn’t solve it, ...

The Duemilanove (meaning “2009” in Italian) is the latest addition to the Arduino line of microcontrollers. It looks like it’s predecessor, the Diecimila, and also shares similar specs with one main subtle difference: the Diecimila has a jumper which is used to select a power source (USB or external power) while the Duemilanove automatically selects the appropriate power supply , ...

Found on Science Toy Maker, this water bottle launcher was made by a school teacher looking for some good, clean fun. Apparently it’s quite easy to do and launches 2 liter soda bottles into the air with ease, drenching everyone around with water. Head over to STM for the full build instructions. Link [via]

Scientists at General Electric’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY have developed a way to repel water off of metals through a treatment using superhydrophobicity properties. This is big news and is set to change the way we develop new products. Superhydrophobic metals open up many new applications, says Jeffrey Youngblood, a professor of materials engineering at Purdue University. “Metallic ...