This has been floating around the internet for a couple months, but now that Popular Science has posted an article on it, I guess it’s official. Officially awesome.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Time.com has a great spread on the people behind the greatest acheivement of modern science. Read it.
A Gory Peek at the Immanent Robot Uprising - The Carnivorous Clock
Apparently having never seen any sci-fi movies, scientists have come up with a way to power machines using a bacteria-filled fuel cell that generate electricity by “digesting” organic material. Their first prototype device is a clock that is powered by catching and digesting insects, but an army of flesh-eating robots is certainly in the making. (via Engadget)
Boingboing Gadgets has a nice article on the “10 Most Beautiful Computers”. I’m not sure I agree with the Spectrum making the cut (especially with the BeBox being left out), but it’s still a nice read.
Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder Engine - Engineering TV
This is the first really new and interesting internal combustion design since the Wankel. Who says DARPA is a waste of money? (via Digg)
McCain Campaign Pulls Out of Tech Debate, Apologizes With a Telegram
It’s no surprise that the self-admitted Luddite decided to dodge a debate in which he would have been throughly spanked, but he could have at least given more than a couple hours notice. (via Digg)
The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland fired up for the first time today. Well what do you know? We’re still here! I guess the Earth wasn’t devoured by a microscopic black hole after all.
Libelula rocket-powered helicopter backpack redefines danger - Engadget
What’s more awesome and more insane than a rocket powered jet pack? A rocket powered helicopter pack, that’s what. Since all they have is a (shoddy) 3D render, I have to assume they haven’t actually built one yet.
Clocking in at just over one petawatt (1 quadrillion watts), the creatively named Texas Petawatt Laser is capable of focusing more than two thousand times the amount of energy created by all the power plants in the country into a beam of unlimited destruction benign scientific inquiry. Dr. Ditmire at The University of Texas at Austin claimed the laser would be used to study the extreme conditions present in strange stellar bodies like brown dwarf stars. He then steepled his fingers and cackled madly. (via Engadget)
Holy free energy, Batman! Apparently scientists have found yet another use for carbon nanotubes - Converting radiation directly into electricity. By packing the tubes with gold and immersing the carbon-gold canolis in lithium hydride, Scientists can create tiles that are up to 20 times more powerful than conventional thermoelectric nuclear batteries.
This is big news for the space program (which relies heavily on nuclear batteries for fuel), but I suspect it’s even bigger news for the radioactive waste disposal industry. How nice would it be to put all those spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors to work, instead of just sitting around being dangerous?
