Muscle injections!

What with Captain America and all becoming a superhero through some magical drug therapy etc, it might cause one to question the feasibility of such an experiment.

While not on the supersoldier level Captain America is on, the drug combats degenerative muscle conditions.  Having been proven to be safe and effective in animal testing, they've applied to the FDA to begin tests on humans.

Not leading to Hulked out levels of muscles, the results have a degree of regulation to keep them in check.

What they do is take some DNA that produces the protein follistatin, which turns off a gene called myostatin, which halts muscle growth, and put it in hollowed-out virus cells. 

Wham, bang, boom, inject in to muscle, and after about six weeks' time, improvements can be seen.

Full article for injection found: here

Alas, no superheroes are birthed this way...yet.  But time may tell.

Amputee tortoise gets prosthetic

A 12-year-old 20 pound African spur-thighed tortoise received a caster wheel as a prosthetic in place of a leg removed at the shoulder.

Fixed to his shell with epoxy, he's taken to the new lifestyle with reckless abandon, ready to live life to the edge.

There's no slowing this bad ass down, as he's already gained three more pounds with his cybernetic attachment.

                                                                                Henry Moore, Jr.

Hopefully he has many more active years ahead of his awesome self.

Full article: here

Lions eat humans more after full moons

But it's not because of werewolves.  Or is it?  No, it's really not werewolves, sorry.

It turns out that the frequency of lions attacking humans in Tanzania increases in a period of ten days after full moons.  There's little superstitious claim to be held here.  Lions hunt better in the dark.  In moonlight, they hunt less because they function poorer, so they go hungrier.  As they're hungrier, they attack more.  With it being darker, and them hungrier...they attack more.  Elementary, my dear Watson.

                                                                    Wikimedia Commons

Article can be found: here

The brain's mirror system

When you watch someone doing something, your brain analyzes the varying things you would have to do yourself to imitate the action; movements, positions, attentions, etc.

In this study, a woman born without limbs was showed videos of people performing activities, some she can't do, some she can do, etc.  Her mirroring systems in her brain fired up in all cases, be they when it was a task she couldn't perform, or one she could perform in a different manner, etc.

In cases where she viewed actions that were impossible for her to maneuver, the mirroring system and other regions of the brain fired up to support the mirror system.  They're believed to help in a process termed "mentalizing", that is, trying to understand what another person is thinking.

“What’s interesting is that even when she can’t do it, when it’s impossible for her, she still recruits her mirror system, but she additionally recruits these mentalizing regions,” Aziz-Zadeh says.

Offers some very interesting insight into how the brain functions!

Full article: here

Mausoleum solar panels

A small town in Spain had an idea for curbing some of their power demand.  They would put solar panels on mausoleums.  I mean, why not, right?  The space isn't being used for much else...

Understandably, I suppose, they were met with some opposition at the idea.  After a couple years of pushing through, it managed to become a reality.

462 panels on a quarter acre of mausoleums, 100 kilowatts produced.

                                                                                       Albert Gea

Small when you think about it, but in theory, it has strong implications.  Space management, alternative power sources, etc.  It's an excellent example of taking the first step of transitioning to renewable power sources.  Kudos!

Article: here

Flying car!

In California they've been testing a...car-plane.  Yes, you get in one side if you wish to drive, you get in the other if you wish to fly.  Jetsons, here we come.

Capable of managing 820 miles on a single tank of gas/35 miles on batteries alone, while driving, it isn't too shabby.

It looks pretty...weird, but hey, that's the price of progress!

Full article: here

Search engines bad for memory

A recent study shows that people are better about retaining the location of information, rather than the information itself.

It's a bit of a heuristic thing.  Rather than remembering all the information about everything, we know we can Google it and find the information instantly.  When we know we can bookmark something later and come back to it, or keep a tab open and come back to it, or simply just search up about it, we tend to forget the details and just keep track of how to find said details.

"The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows."

 My best friend confirmed the claim, and I agree.  It's become pretty damn integral.

Full article: here

Augmented Reality App for Ipad 2

Utilizing NASA technology, an app for the Ipad 2 for something called "augmented reality" has been developed.

It can map your entire local environment in 3-d and your location up to under a centimeter in accuracy.  In this case it makes use of the camera on the device, and functions with a game called Ball Invasion, which consists of shooting evil balls bouncing around you...or some such.

Originally, the functionality was developed to help robots peer around their locale and build a 3-d environment they can follow and navigate in.

Really quite nifty and...fun, it seems.  Altho I imagine you'd seem rather insane walking around your neighborhood blasting space balls with your Ipad...but hey, don't let anyone judge you.  Do your own thing.  *thumbs up*

Full article: here

Inflatable satellite dish, fun for the family!

Pretty low-tech, simple, and easy to carry, the inflatable satellite dish has been developed.

Functioning similarly to an exercise ball, it's inflated comparatively, but also has an antenna, of course.  Made up of two separate hemispheres constructed of nylon, it offers a secure and manageable communication link for soldiers in the field of war, or workers providing aid in lands stricken by disaster.

Either or, it's pretty nifty and convenient.

Full article: here

Ambient lighting...from your wallpaper.

A newly developed wallpaper by Philips features ambient lighting via embedded adjustable LEDs.  Pretty darn cool, I'd say.

They also function to acoustically muffle sounds and reduce echo, but may also become able to respond to audio input.  That is to say, you could DJ a party in a room lined with this wallpaper, and the wallpaper could change and match the beats.

                                                                                       via Philips

A lot like interactive, personal art...it's really neat.  It also may hold the potential to completely replace traditional light fixtures and sources.

Full article: here

Robots are taking over!

Robotic engineers are seeking research to make robots more functionally like humans; able to perform complex tasks humans would consider effortless, able to move about and function as humans do, etc.

Contention exists about how to even begin start programming something to function this way, bottom-up vs. top-down.

Tests with robots and their humanistic capabilities so far prove to be extremely 'brittle' and slow-paced.  They falter if single variables are changed in the slightest fashion.  They move at a fraction of the pace we function at.

New York Times

Research and funding abound, people are hopeful and positive in what will eventually be discovered.

Full article: here

Complex spuds finally cracked!

Apparently potatoes are extremely complex.  Did you know this?  I didn't know this.  And they've been trying to sequence the genome for some time!

And well, they were successful!  They found a variety of S. tuberosum.  It turns out they have 800 disease-resistance genes...and that's pretty awesome.  Total bonus with all their health benefits and lack of fat!

Suddenly...potatoes!

Full article: here

Many things, in belly buttons!

A recent belly button study of great importantness has determined that a large number of microbes make their homes in our belly buttons...and a lot of them are previously undiscovered...and some are from Japan and the oceans and such...

  Stefano Bolognini

          EVIL THINGS HIDE IN HERE.

Full article after the jump!

Visit space, drink red wine

Red wine has health benefits.  Yeah that's old news.  But now red wine fights problems stemming from weightlessness!  Alright!  It helps prevent bone density loss and muscle atrophy.  So the next time you're going to the moon, take a bottle or two with you.

Pouring wine in space looks like this.

Things like reservjv4atol and flavornerds are what do the trick.  Maybe a supplement of just these things would do the job without getting you hammered, but that's just no fun when you're taking the shuttle for a joyride.

Yeehaw!