This is not a special-effects still from an upcoming movie. Instead, it’s a photo taken at Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and National Geographic has the story of a team of Congolese seismologists who journeyed into Nyiragongo’s crater to study the volcano’s massive lava lake, and try to learn more about what’s going on inside a mountain that could potentially kill thousands.

This photo, taken by Carsten Peter, shows a scientist walking on cooled lava within the volcano’s caldera. The red color comes from a reflection of the light off the nearby lava lake. There’s lots more breath-taking photos on the National Geographic site.

See the original article here:
Scientists journey into an active volcano crater

We’ve had our eye — so to speak — on Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) for sometime, and with the invention of a new implantable microchip it’s coming ever closer to getting the bionic eye working on real-deal humans. The tiny chip measures five square millimeters and packs 98 electrodes that stimulate retinal cells to restore vision. Preliminary tests are already underway, and clinicians are in the process of screening human guinea pigs for sampling the implants — the first full system is still on track for a 2013 debut. In the interest of future success: here’s mud in your eye, BVA! Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Bionic eye closer to human trials with invention of implantable microchip

Bionic eye closer to human trials with invention of implantable microchip originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Yesterday scientists announced that they’d discovered a way to harness the painkilling powers of the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, while eliminating the high. What this means is that a special, non-hallucinatory version of THC could become the new aspirin. More

Starting your plants indoors for their eventual outdoor transfer doesn’t have to mean buying little pots. Half of a grapefruit or orange can do the trick, too, as one crafty blogger demonstrates. More

The 32- and 42-inch versions of Vizio’s E3D series HDTVs are now listed for preorder on Amazon at $499 and $699 just as our tipster indicated. The E3D320VX and E3D420VX are currently expected to ship in 3-5 weeks, which should also allow buyers interested in the new FPR-based Theater 3D technology to be among the first pick one up without heading to Walmart. Of course you still can if you want to, a 48-pack of paper towels should go well with your new 3DTV and its dual-sided QWERTY remote.

[Thanks, Phil Z.]

Vizio Theater 3D HDTVs show up on Amazon, confirm rumored pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Windows: Everybody gets 5 GB free in Amazon’s new Cloud Drive, and those who buy any MP3 album get 20 GB. Make more of that web-based space with Gladinet Cloud Desktop, which just updated to support Cloud Drive and integrate it like a network-attached folder. More

In July last year, Sharp showed the world’s first triple-layer BDXL discs with 100GB capacity. While the discs were great (and enough to store about 720 minutes of terrestrial digital broadcasting), they weren’t rewritable. But the LM-BE100J BDXL Blu-rays, announced [JP] by Panasonic today, are.

Panasonic says their made-in-Japan discs come with a “hard coat” to protect your recordings from scratches and dirt (needless to say, you will need a BDXL-compatible Blu-ray recorder to be able to use them).

The LM-BE100J will hit Japaneses stores on April 15 (price for one disc: around $120).

This globe—the BBC has a spinnable version—shows you how the strength of gravitational pull differs in different places around the Earth. The yellow areas were where gravity is strongest. The blue spots is where it is weakest.

The picture you see here isn’t meant to be a totally accurate representations, it’s just meant to get across the simple idea of differences in gravity, separate from other planetary systems. The BBC describes the finished product as looking something like a potato.

Technically speaking, the model at the top of this page is what researchers refer to as a geoid. It is not the easiest of concepts to grasp, but essentially it describes the “level” surface on an idealised world.

If you were to place a ball anywhere on this potato, it would not roll because, from the ball’s perspective, there is no “up” or “down” on the undulating surface. It is the shape the oceans would adopt if there were no winds, no currents and no tides. The differences have been magnified nearly 10,000 times to show up as they do in the new model.

Even so, a boat off the coast of Europe (bright yellow) can sit 180m “higher” than a boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean (deep blue) and still be on the same level plane. This is the trick gravity plays on Earth because the space rock on which we live is not a perfect sphere and its interior mass is not evenly distributed.

Continued here:
Mapping the pull of gravity on Earth