Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet five, he can hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat. DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth — via Die Puny Humans
The University of Tokyo has developed the illusion of invisibility, under the name of Optical Camouflage. The system is remarkably simple — you have a mix of light-sensitive and light-emitting devices attached to an adapted reflective surface. The devices are hooked to a computer, which simply projects on each side whatever is on the opposite side. The result is more of a translucent look, than real invisibility, but the potential is there. The inventor’s next objective is to make walls that are invisible, using the same technology. Project a real outside image onto an interior wall without windows. This almost sounds more frightening than the cloak, since there’s no reason why the sensors would have to be placed outside. Imagine a world where PHBs can turn their office wall into a window onto any cube. Zero privacy. The technology is great, but the potential for abuse is definitely there
A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer. The 1.3kg chunk of space debris dropped out of the sky and plummeted through the tiled roof of the Auckland home on Saturday
Michael Costa has always been a man with a reverse Midas touch, everything he touches turns to shit. Public transport in NSW is no exception. His ingenious method for solving the problem of trains running late is the use of creative accounting. The definition of a late train will change from more than four minutes to more than ten minutes. Usually this sort of dodgy scheme is done far from the public eye. But rocket scientist Costa, always keen to get his ugly mug on camera, announced his cunning plan to the press
The net is having a profound effect on medicine, as in all fields, not least because researchers in medical labs can share research with colleagues around the world. The net is providing many with what they want, and this is creating a growing breed of so-called cyberchondriacs. However, self-diagnosis over the net can be a real minefield. The information can cause confusion and unnecessary alarm. More worryingly, surfers could also be left out of pocket
A giant three-tiered mushroom which measures a metre across and was found in the tropical forests of the Republic of Congo has left experts in the capital Brazzaville scratching their heads
Europe and Japan are currently looking to host a new JET power plant. This new plant creates plasma, which is akin to creating a star on Earth. Interesting to note that 1kg of fusion fuel would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000kg of fossil fuels
A breakthrough in polymer development means that soon there may be a radical new treatment for people with broken bones — a special kind of material that can glue the bone back together and support it while it heals. The material is designed to break down as the bone regrows leaving only natural tissue
Brian Lee always wanted Edmund Scientific’s Giant Fresnel Lens. Melts asphalt in seconds!
the ad said. When he went to graduate school he met several other people with the same enthusiasm for aimless destruction through bizarre means, and just enough combined cash to make it happen. Thus the reign of terror began
It is the Holy Grail
of horticulture and soon it could make the perfect present for Mother’s Day: scientists have found a way to produce a blue rose. A chance discovery in a laboratory means that they will be able to create the blue rose within a year
and it is expected to go on sale to the public soon after that
The Australia Institute, a public policy research centre, says the Federal Government risks trade sanctions if it does not ratify the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. Russia has announced it will sign the protocol, which will ensure it comes into effect worldwide. Australia and the US are still refusing to ratify the agreement and the Federal Government says Australia is reducing emissions anyway. Australia Institute executive director Clive Hamilton says nations bound by the protocol could impose trade barriers on Australia
There is a renewed call for the Tasmanian devil to be nominated as a threatened species. Research is continuing to determine the cause of the cancer-like disease that has wiped out up to 85% of devil populations in some areas. Greens Senator Bob Brown says the State Government has allocated nothing further in this week’s Budget for programs to save the marsupial
The new study of purebred dogs says among those closest to their wild wolf ancestors are the Siberian Husky, Chinese Shar-pei and African Basenji. Two branches of the canine family tree were the earliest to diverge from the wolves, the study found. One branch includes the oriental breeds Shar-pei, Shiba Inu, Chow Chow and Akita; the other the seemingly diverse breeds of African Basenji, Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute, Afghan Hound and Saluki
British scientists have developed technology that can grow structures up to 2mm and 0.2mm in diameter on metal surfaces. Dubbed Surfi-Sculpt, it will act like ultra-strong Velcro to form much tougher joints between metals and lightweight composite materials
Sir John Sulston, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, has called on the British government to introduce legislation to prevent discrimination on the basis of people’s genetic make-up
Lemurs, once believed to be cute but basically stupid, show startling intelligence when given a chance to win treats by playing a computer game
A multinational group from Canberra’s Australian National University have become the first on this particular planet to demonstrate the sharing of secrets via teleportation using quantum physics. Who cares? Well, a lot of big businesses, because their discovery has moved unbreakable codes, superfast computers and communications inaccessible to cybercriminals a step closer. What the team’s find boils down to is that, using a laser, they can teleport to a network of recipients a signal which can only be reassembled by a majority of the recipients. Any less and the signal cannot be reconstituted — via Die Puny Humans
In an age of tech-mad multitasking, some big thinkers are asking questions about an emerging culture of distraction, interruption and inattention
There’s a new material that could create relatively cheap solar cells which are up to 50% efficient. This is much better than the 25% efficient silicon solar cells (most common) or the 36% efficient multi-junction solar cells (very expensive). The material was created by forcing oxygen into a zinc-manganese-tellurium crystal
creating more band gaps, which allow the cell to create electrical energy with three seperate frequencies of light. This could lead to cheap, high-output solar cells in the future, but it will take at least three years to assess the feasibility of the new technology, according to the researchers
A microscopic biped with legs just 10 nanometres long and fashioned from fragments of DNA has taken its first steps. The nanowalker is being hailed as a major breakthrough by nanotechnologists. The biped’s inventors, chemists Nadrian Seeman and William Sherman of New York University, say that while many scientists have been trying to build nanoscale devices capable of bipedal motion, theirs is the first to succeed — via GeneWeb
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