Making rope is hard. Making rope the way the Vikings did it over a thousand years ago is even harder. First, you have to find the right tree. Then, you have to strip the bark of the tree when the sap is rising. And then, you soak the bark you just harvested in the sea for three to four months before you can even think about turning it into rope. Read more…
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Watch Rope Get Made From a Tree Using a Thousand-Year-Old Technique
When life hands you landslides, make your own private toll road detour. (Haven’t you heard the saying?) Since February, a landslide has closed the A431 highway between Bristol and Bath in England, adding an extra hour to the commute. So one enterprising local guy built a road through a private field—the UK’s private first toll road to open in more than a century . Read more…
The world has too many nasty old cigarette butts. On the other hand, the world could use some supercapacitors , the high-tech replacements for batteries that could potentially charge in seconds. Scientists in South Korea have found a simple process to turn used cigarette filters into high-performing material that works better than graphene or carbon nanotubes in supercapacitors. Read more…
Last year, scientists did the wacky and cool thing of making a mouse brain transparent . Now they’ve gone and done it to an entire mouse by pumping detergent through its veins. The transparent mouse looks like gross rodent jello (yes, there is a photo), but it’s also an incredible new way to study what intact organs look like on the inside. Read more…