Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them ‘disappear’.
The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people. [more on BBC]
Harry Potter’s fans must be so excited about the news. I am a bit worried on contrary, sometimes I just feel that the technology developments are a bit overwhelming to handle… I think I am getting old.
A group of researchers at Osaka Bioscience Institute (OBI) has identified a protein that is necessary to efficiently transmit visual information and named it the protein Pikachurin after Pikachu, a popular anime character in Pokémon. [via Yomiuri]
As bizarre as it sounds, this is not the first time that a scientific term is named after an anime character…
There is a protein called Sonic Hedgehog Homolog (SHH) which plays a key role in the growth of digits on limbs and organisation of the brain.
There is another gene named as Pokemon (which happens to be an acronym for POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor), a gene that may act as a master switch for cancer. The name was later changed to Zbtb7 after some strong protest from the Pokémon company because they don’t want to share their name with a cancer-causing gene.
Engineers in China are using a giant cutter to torn down buildings that are damaged by the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008.
The hydraulic machinery could apply a maximum of 300 tonnes of force, which is enough to cut through most buildings’ pillars and structure. It can only be used to dismantle buildings with max 8-9 floors because of its limited arm-reach.
Japanese company Genepax has recently introduced its eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water. The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car’s tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car.
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully landed on Mars on May 25 in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis.
Below is an approximate-colour image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft’s Surface Stereo Imager, which shows a polygonal pattern in the ground, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of earth.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
The mission aims to study the geologic history of water, the key to unlocking the story of past climate change; and to search for evidence of a habitable zone that may exist in the ice-soil boundary. Updates about the mission is available on NASA’s website.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the video of Japanese astronaut Takao Doi experimenting with a special-designed boomerang at the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2008…
Conclusion… the boomerang reacted just the same under zero gravity as it would be on the ground. Aerodynamics expert David Caughey of Cornell said that the result is as expected; the looping paths are the result of uneven forces on the curved devices by the air they travel through… not the influence of gravity. [Newscientist]
The boomerang was working in the space station, but would not work in the real space though. Boomerang expert and designer Gary Broadbent said that a boomerang would not work in the vacuum of space, as air molecules are needed to generate the lift to make the boomerang turn. [Universetoday]
The Burj Dubai has become the tallest man-made structure in the world.
Burj Dubai as of early March 2008 (Image from Wiki)
According to developer Emaar Properties PJSC, the Burj Dubai has surpassed the height of KVLY-TV mast, a 628.8 metres television transmitting mast in North Dakota, USA.
The Burj Dubai is expected to be over 700m in height upon completion. The developer is still keeping the final height as classified to avoid competition from other tallest-buildings-wannabe currently in construction.
