Steve Vigneau had a lot of toothpaste, so he decided to find out what would happen if he mixed them all together into one minty concoction.
Apparently, “this multi-sample toothpaste concoction didn’t taste bad, but was overwhelmingly mint backed by a few other unidentifiable herbs. Even after rinsing my mouth a number of times the taste still lingers, but this matches my experience (and complaint) with all of the Colgate, Crest, etc toothpastes I’ve tried in the past.”
It’s amazing what some people will do in the name of science!
[Via: Zoomdoggle]
At the end of the original version of The Italian Job (yes, this will contain a spoiler so don’t read on if you haven’t seen it) the gang is left perched atop a cliff in their bus, with them at one end and their gold at the other. (Literally, a cliffhanger.) Knowing that it would be impossible for them to get to the gold without tipping the bus off the cliff, they make the wise decision and abandon hopes of endless riches.
However, the Royal Society of Chemists wasn’t convinced that the gang needed to leave without the best of both worlds, and created a competition to see who could come up with the best solution.
In the end, John Godwin came up with an idea that’s as genius as it is plausible, and won himself a trip to Turin with the following solution:
Break the windows at the back to reduce weight; break the windows at the front inwards to save weight; hold one gang member upside-down out of the window to deflate the front tires and stabilize the vehicle; drain the rear fuel tank through an access panel at the bottom of the bus; gang members leave one by one from the front, collecting stones to replace their weight; keep adding stones until someone can safely go to the rear to retrieve the gold.
Easy, right?
In addition to John’s entry, more than 2,000 people submitted their own ideas, so be sure to visit the RSC website for more, or download Godwin’s PDF if you’d like to see all the science behind his daring gold rescue.
[RSC - Italian Job Competition]
[Via: Autoblog]
What does it take to create a tiny, man-made star that will trigger a thermonuclear reaction inside of a laboratory?
How about a laser that concentrates 1,000 times the electric generating power of the entire United States into one-billionth of a second.
Not impressive enough for you?
Then how about this: The resulting explosion should produce 10 times the amount of energy used to create it, or more than 10,000 times the electric generating power of the United States!
The structure that will house this experiment, which is located in the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, covers an area roughly the size of three football fields, and the infrared laser that will cause the explosion will travel through almost a mile of lenses, mirrors and amplifiers in order to create a beam that will be 10 billion (yes, with a b) times more powerful than a standard household light bulb.
Let’s just hope they’ve got some bright minds working on this project, because otherwise we could bite off more than we can chew with our own man-made star.
[Via: Neatorama]
Flickr has collected almost ninety million geotagged photos, and for every geotagged photo they have up to six Where On Earth IDs, which are unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was take: the neighborhood, the town, the country, and so on up to the continent in a process called reverse-geocoding.
Eventually they got to thinking: If they plotted all of the geotagged photos associated with a particular WOE ID, would there be enough data to generate a mostly accurate contour of that place?
Apparently the answer is yes, and though it’s not a perfect representation of the place, it’s definitely getting pretty close.
As a gift to the Flickr community, they’ve even made these 150,000 (and counting) WOE IDs with proper (-ish) shape data available via the Flickr API.
It might be a fun toy right now, but give it a few years and add in all of the data from geocoded cell phone photos, and this just might be the future of cartography as we know it.
[Flickr Code - The Shape Of Alpha]
Google found that by examining search terms that are indicators of flu activity, they could estimate occurrences of the flu up to two weeks faster than the CDC.
According to Google, millions of people around the world search for online health information, and as you would expect, flu-related searches go up during flu season, allergy-related searches during allergy season, etc.
By comparing past search data to past flu data, they were able to find a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Granted, not every person that searches for “flu” is actually sick, but by comparing data and looking for patters, trends emerge, and specific words and phrases can be picked out that are better predictors than others.
Plus, it’s not all just fun and games. By making flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends can provide an early-warning system for outbreaks, weeks ahead of what the CDC can provide.
What are you searching for?
Creating the ultimate Jell-O shot might not be the dream of every scientist, but for a few determined drunkards, the thought of a shot that doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled the amount of alcohol found in a typical Jell-O shot was too tempting to resist.
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the highest possible concentration of alcohol attainable in a Jell-O shot, while still maintaining the structural integrity (i.e., the gelling properties) of the gelatin.
Through rigorous scientific testing, two dozen batches of Jell-O shots, and nearly five 1.75 liter bottles of vodka, they discovered that “too much is much, much more than we would have guessed”.
Read on to discover the secret behind the ultimate Jell-O shot:
[My Science Project - The Ultimate Jell-O Shot]
Learn the basics of thermodynamics with a film can cannon.
Butane from a lighter provides the fuel, the lighter’s sparker provides the ignition, and the film can provides the ammo, so all you need it some time and a few simple tools to build your very own.
Don’t you wish all science was this much fun?
[Via: MAKE: Blog]
Ever wonder why time seems to slow down during moments of danger?
According to David Eagleman, a scientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston:
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When a person is scared, a brain area called the amygdala becomes more active, laying down an extra set of memories that go along with those normally taken care of by other parts of the brain.
“In this way, frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories,” Eagleman explained. “And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took.”
Eagleman added this illusion “is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you’re a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when you’re older, you’ve seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by.”
How did he test this theory?
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Researchers dropped volunteers from great heights. Scientists had volunteers dive backward with no ropes attached, into a special net that helped break their fall. They reached 70 mph during the roughly three-second, 150-foot drop.
“It’s the scariest thing I have ever done,” said David. “I knew it was perfectly safe, and I also knew that it would be the perfect way to make people feel as though an event took much longer than it actually did.”
Indeed, volunteers estimated their own fall lasted about a third longer than dives they saw other volunteers take.
Now you know.
[LifeScience - Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies]
[Via: Neatorama]
[Photo Via: SoldiersMediaCenter]
Though science is responsible for many of the greatest discoveries ever made, it’s not always so serious.
Oddee put together a list of the 10 Most Bizarre Scientific Papers, and despite the topic of study, each was a serious paper, conducted by serious scientists with serious tests and serious results.
Want to know what the effect of country music is on suicide?
Done. (It does.)
Want a comprehensive list of foreign bodies that have been found inside of people’s rectums?
Done. (Among the items: A frozen pig’s tail.)
Want to know if chickens prefer beautiful humans?
Done. (They Do.)
Seriously.
[Oddee - 10 Most Bizarre Scientific Papers]
[Via: Very Short List]
How many condoms can you wear at once?
That’s the question that one inquisitive team of scientists asked after thinking about the term “double bagging”.
It seems like a simple-minded experiment, and it is, but the result may surprise you, so read through for a lighthearted look at the world of latex.
[My Science Project - How Many Condoms At Once?]
[Via: Boinkology]
In what must have been one of the most difficult and most painstaking research projects of all time, a cosmetic surgeon spent hours studying photos of topless models to determine the perfect pair.
Apparently, his findings indicate that the perfect chest isn’t about size. Instead, it’s all about proportion.
“The ideal is a 45 to 55 percent proportion – that is the nipple sits not at the half-way mark down the breast, but at about 45 percent from the top.”
So who came out on top?
Lingerie model Caprice Bourret, who apparently has the best of the breast.
And the worst?
It’s a sad day for Victoria Beckham, who apparently has “unnaturally round” mounds.
Tough job indeed.
[Via: The Bachelor Guy]
I can only imagine what this experience must feel like:
Jennifer Sutton, a 23-year-old Londoner, received a heart transplant after her old one said ‘no more’, and she then put that old heart on display at an exhibition in London.
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“Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange. Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset. It’s tremendous it has become an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation.”
I guess she really can wear her heart on her sleeve.
[Via: Boing Boing]
If buying a rocket kit to get to space seems like cheating, then build your own with a little help from Instructables.
The guide includes a rocket, a launch pad, and an electronic igniter, so all you’ll need is the motor to start invading the sky.
[Instructables - Model Rocket]
Tripwire is an interesting solution to the problem of too much noise coming from your local airport.
Designed by the MIT Media Lab, these coconuts were hung from trees around the San Jose International Airport, and then any time one detected noise above the allowed level, it made a call to the complaint hotline and left a pre-recorded complaint. They even stored the data for later analysis.
Are they nuts?
[Tripwire]
[Via: Gizmodo]
Add this to the list of things to do with a friend’s microwave: Light a match, place a glass over it, and turn the microwave on. Watch and learn:
[Via: Spluch]
Ever want to know the science behind a gravity hill? Watch and learn:
[Via: Spluch]
The Kinder Downfall is a waterfall in the United Kingdom that flows upwards.
Ok, so it doesn’t exactly flow upwards, but with certain wind conditions, the water is blown back on itself, and nothing actually reaches the ground below. Check it out:
I love how nature’s destructive powers can be so beautiful. This picture of lava interacting with ocean to make steam comes from the Piton de la Fournaise lava flow as it meats the Indian Ocean. Awesome.
[Pic Via: BBC News]
[Via: Neatorama]
Using a McDonald’s paper cup, a McFlurry lid, a latex glove (or a balloon), some tape, and scissors, one “MaddHatter” Instructables user shows you how to make a DIY AirZooka paper cup air cannon that blows puffs of air that you can make smoke rings with. If only all science projects were this easy (and this much fun).
[Instructables - Paper Cup Air Cannon]
The blanket octopus has a unique defense mechanism. Rather than doing the usual ink cloud and run technique, the blanket octopus unfurls a giant sheet of webbing that easily breaks apart and wraps around a predator’s face, giving the octopus a chance to escape. Plus, he gets to swim around with a cape on, pretending he’s Super Octopus.
Another strange fact about the blanket octopus: “If the male meets a female, he fills one of his tentacles with sperm and tears it from his body. He gives this sperm-filled tentacle to the female, which she then uses to fertilize her eggs. Afterwards, the female leaves the male, who floats away and dies”.
[Via: Spluch]
