TechStuff blogger Jonathan Strickland has been giving me stuff to blog about all week. So far I’ve managed to cover almost none of it. But since it’s Friday afternoon and time for something fun, here’s one of the things he sent me on Wednesday: a re-cut trailer for the movie “2012,” which is slated to come out in November.
Like many science geeks, I’m torn about “2012.” On the one hand: Chiwetel Ejiofor (of “Serenity” and “Kinky Boots”), John Cusack (of “High Fidelity” and … do I really need to explain?), and gratuitous destruction. On the other hand: Bad science. I know what to expect on that front since I’ve seen director Roland Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow.” Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy has already delved into some of the wrongness in the second “2012″ trailer.
Jay Leno’s 3D Printer Replaces Rusty Old Parts – ” Jay Leno has a lot of old cars with a lot of obsolete parts. When he needs to replace these parts, he skips the error-prone machinist and goes to his rapid prototyping 3D printer. Simply scan, print and repeat…”
“The DNA Code” – New Research Shows Life Hardwired in the Universe – “A recent mathematical analysis says that life as we know it is written into the laws of reality. DNA is built from a set of twenty amino acids – the first ten of those can create simple prebiotic life, and now it seems that those ten are thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can…”
Scientists, public differ in outlooks – “Scientists and the public don’t see eye-to-eye on animal research, evolution or moneymaking, finds a poll out Thursday, but both agree on one thing…”
Space weather satellite:
How Large Is a Petabyte? – “13.3 years of HDTV content. That’s approximately 58,292 movies, which means an equal number of large pizzas. So one petabyte equals 52 tonnes of pepperoni pizza. Yes, my head has assploded. For other equivalents, click and zoom in…”
Google to Challenge Microsoft With Operating System – “Google Inc., owner of the most- visited Internet search engine, is developing a computer operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, taking aim at Microsoft Corp.’s biggest stronghold…”
Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better – “The name, presumably, is supposed to evoke the sound of a winning game-show bell. The cynics online, however, joke that Bing is an acronym for “But It’s Not Google.” Here’s the shocker, though: in many ways, Bing is better…”
Brain Surgery Frees Runner, but Raises Barriers – “In the middle of the night, Diane Van Deren will leave her house against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She will cut west through the dark canyons with her running shoes and a headlamp, but without a kiwi-sized part of her right temporal lobe…”
T-Mobile launches iPhone challenger – “T-Mobile USA is betting big on its second Android smartphone, the MyTouch 3G, as it officially launches the device making it its flagship smartphone to compete against Apple’s iPhone on AT&T…”
Canadian scientists breeding cows that burp less – “Canadian scientists are breeding a special type of cow designed to burp less, a breakthrough that could reduce a big source of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming…”
Robotic Hummingbird ‘Nano Air Vehicle’ – “Military-backed researchers have built a tiny drone that looks and flies like a hummingbird, flapping its little robotic wings to stay in the air. So far, the mock bird, built for Pentagon mad-science division Darpa, has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time. But that short flight was enough to show the potential of a whole new class of miniature spies, inspired by nature…”
New wonder material, one-atom thick, has scientists abuzz – “Imagine a carbon sheet that’s only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips. That’s graphene, the latest wonder material coming out of science laboratories around the world. It’s creating tremendous buzz among physicists, chemists and electronic engineers…”
Mysterious tremors detected on San Andreas Fault – “Scientists have detected a spike in underground rumblings on a section of California’s San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in 1857…”
How nanopayments finally came of age – “How do you get people to pay for something they’re used to getting for free? It’s a question that bedevils the music and film industries, and it’s no less of a challenge for anyone trying to monetise an app for Facebook, MySpace or Bebo…”
Smooth, Segway – “In the eight years since the upright, self-balancing “personal transporter” first debuted, this question has become a perennial during speculative-future parlor games, on par with queries like “When will soccer finally supplant football in the hearts of Americans?”"
The idea of things like fleas, ticks, bedbugs, mosquitoes, etc. sucking our blood is unpleasant at best. But sometimes a bloodsucker is exactly what is needed from a medical standpoint. After microsurgery on something like a finger, a bloodsucking leech can help improve blood flow and thereby speed healing:
Where do medical leeches come from? This video shows several different aspects of leech treatments in Russia, and shows how they raise them there:
Good morning sunshine! This week on the Stuff You Should Know podcast, Herr Clark and yours truly did a little science thing and then something for fun — brainwashing and Twinkies.
There’s a reason that “rest in peace” is written on headstones — you hope that your friends, loved ones and heroes remain undisturbed in death, keeping the dignity they had in life. This is why the case of Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois is so horrifying.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with this grisly piece of news, four people dug up hundreds of bodies in this cemetery and then dumped them. According to the Chicago Sun-Times (which has been covering the story in-depth, if you’d like to follow it), many of the coffins and headstones were destroyed, and bones were lying all about the mass grave site where the corpses were left.
The story got even sadder today: one of the caskets lying in a shack is that of Emmett Till.
You Asked:
How do they weave t-shirt fabric into tubes without a seam? — Charles, Shanghai, China
Marshall Brain Answered:
When most people think of a loom, they think of the traditional back-and-forth variety like this:
The loom creates a flat piece of fabric. If you were to make a T-shirt out of flat fabric like this, it would have to have a seam.
But it is fairly easy to make a loom where you bring the two ends of the fabric together and weave the fabric as a tube. You gain a big advantage here – the shuttle doesn’t have to reverse directions. A circular loom looks like this:
T-shirt fabric is woven on a tubular loom like this. The fabric for small, medium, large and extra-large shirts comes off looms with different diameters.
So this week Jonathan and I tried to answer an interesting question: Just how much electricity does the Internet use? I won’t spoil the podcast (much), but the short answer is, a whole lot. Actually, it’s really hard to get a grip on, because the Internet is constantly in flux.
You Asked:
Why are racing car tires filled with nitrogen? — Midhun, Palakkad, India
Marshall Brain Answered:
There are supposed to be a number of benefits with nitrogen-filled tires. Everything from fire-prevention to rust-prevention to leak prevention to more consistent tire pressures. This video talks about some of the benefits:
But… a lot of this is snake oil stuff. The effects are so small that they would probably be unmeasurable.
If you fill your tire with normal compressed air, it is about 80% nitrogen to begin with. When you put in pure nitrogen, you are eliminating two things: oxygen and humidity. It could be argued that oxygen and humidity can increase the rate of corrosion, but when was the last time you saw a rusted wheel? Aluminum wheels don’t corrode, and steel wheels are treated to prevent corrosion. It could be argued that a tire filled with nitrogen will leak more slowly than a tire filled with air, but tires leak. You still have to check the pressure periodically and top up. The difference is infinitesimal.
Why are racing tires filled with nitrogen? It certainly doesn’t hurt, and it sounds cool and techy, and there might be some tiny benefit. Who in the world of racing is going to pass up any possible benefit?
It must suck to be old right now. Even during generations with the most modest of cultural change — say, the 1950s — the elderly tend to be wary of the younger, at the very least because they can run fast and punch much harder and pay little attention to signs that say things like “Stay off the Grass.” Tough-talking youths and robots: They make the aged uneasy. There’s a word for it; ephebiphobia — the irrational fear of young people.
Compared to what little the aged had to deal with in the 50s, it must be intensely terrifying to be old today. The 21st century has panned out, so far, to most decidedly be a young person’s world. Case in point: The AP rolled out its annual fluff piece about new words that have made it through the editorial gauntlet and into the pages of Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Older people following traditional media had a chance to learn that locavore and frenemy await them when they receive the newest edition of M-W this upcoming holiday season. So now they’re in the know.
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