Tag: science

A New Robot Provided These Unprecedented Views Beneath Antarctica

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has built a new needle-like robot that can descend through ice-fields to explore the sea floor beneath —and this footage from Antarctica is the first footage it’s returned. Read more…

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A New Robot Provided These Unprecedented Views Beneath Antarctica

Monkeys Can’t Stop Eating India’s Delicious Fiber Optic Cables

Right now, India’s in the middle of launching a massive, $18 billion plan to finally bring the country’s shoddy internet up to speed. There’s just one little problem: Adorable monkeys just can’t stop eating its delicious, delicious data cables. Read more…

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Monkeys Can’t Stop Eating India’s Delicious Fiber Optic Cables

After 150,000 Years in a Cave, a Neanderthal Skull Looks Like This

This is the Altamura Man. He’s old . In 1993, cave researchers stumbled across an odd formation in Italy: a skull that had essentially grown over time to become part of the cave, calcite budding from its features. Now, scientists have discovered that it could easily be 150, 000 years old. Read more…

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After 150,000 Years in a Cave, a Neanderthal Skull Looks Like This

A Medieval Recipe Could Kill Hospital Superbugs. No, Really. 

Staph infections are one of the most pervasive and annoying bacterial infections faced by hospitals every year. It infects half a million people in the US every year, with symptoms ranging from skin infections to heart problems — and worse, some strains (commonly known as MRSA) have evolved to resist common antibiotics. Read more…

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A Medieval Recipe Could Kill Hospital Superbugs. No, Really. 

Firefox 37 Released

Today Mozilla began rolling out Firefox version 37.0 to release channel users. This update mostly focuses on behind-the-scenes changes. Security improvements include opportunistic encryption where servers support it and improved protection against site impersonation. They also disabled insecure TLS version fallback and added a security panel within the developer tools. One of the things end users will see is the Heartbeat feedback collection system. It will pop up a small rating widget to a random selection of users every day. After a user rates Firefox, an “engagement” page may open in the background, with links to social media pages and a donation page. Here are the release notes and full changelist. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 37 Released

Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss

MTorrice writes: A foam composed of a polymer derived from crustacean shells may prevent more soldiers from falling victim to the most prolific killer on the battlefield: blood loss. Pressure is one of the best tools that medics have to fight bleeding, but they can’t use it on severe wounds near organs. Here, compression could do more harm than good. First responders have no way to effectively dam blood flows from these non-compressible injuries, which account for the majority of hemorrhagic deaths. The new foam could help stop bleeding in these types of injuries. It relies on chitosan, a biopolymer that comes from processed crustacean shells. By modifying the chitosan, the developers gave the material the ability to anchor blood cells into gel-like networks, essentially forming blood clots. The researchers dispersed the modified chitosan in water to create a fluid they could spray directly onto noncompressible wounds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss

Graphene Light Bulbs Coming To Stores Soon

An anonymous reader writes: A light bulb made from graphene — said by its UK developers to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon — is to go on sale later this year. The dimmable LED bulb with a graphene-coated filament was designed at Manchester University, where the material was discovered in 2004. It is said to cut energy use by 10% and last longer owing to its conductivity. It is expected to be priced lower than current LED bulbs, which cost about £15 (~$22) each. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Graphene Light Bulbs Coming To Stores Soon

Commercial Flamethrower Successfully Crowdfunded

ColdWetDog writes: You’ve always wanted one, of course. Zombies, the occasional alien infestation. The neighbor’s smelly roses. You just need to be prepared for things. You can get freeze dried food, AR15’s, enough ammo to start a small police action (at least here in the U.S. — YMMV), but it has been difficult to get a modern, portable flamethrower until now. CNET has a brief explanation on the XM42, which doubled its Indiegogo funding target in just a few days. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Commercial Flamethrower Successfully Crowdfunded

Prison Inmate Emails His Own Release Instructions To the Prison

Bruce66423 writes: A fraudster used a mobile phone while inside a UK prison to email the prison a notice for him to be released. The prison staff then released him. The domain was registered in the name of the police officer investigating him, and its address was the court building. The inmate was in prison for fraud — he was originally convicted after calling several banks and getting them to send him upwards of £1.8 million. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Prison Inmate Emails His Own Release Instructions To the Prison