-
The Waterpod Has Launched
Photographer and sculptor Mary Mattingly works with extending the concept of personal spaces, such as the “wearable homes” she designed to function in a variety of environmental conditions. Now she’s created the Waterpod, a barge with a living area constructed out of repurposed wood and metal. She and three other artists will live in this…
-
Meet “The Link”
Ida is a darling of the news right now, with a shiny new Website, an upcoming special on The History Channel, and enough coverage in the blogosphere to choke a cybernetic horse. It’s not without reason; she’s the most perfect primate fossil ever found: Her skeleton is almost 100% complete. Around the skeleton is a…
-
Cue the “Aporkalypse” Jokes
Google Maps meets Captain Trips: (Takes a few seconds to fully load) (via Cognitive Dissident) Swine Flu PSAs from 1976: (The second ad is fairly good illustration of how infection spreads…assuming everybody is pawing each other all the time. Also the guy with the moustache scares me.) (via BoingBoing) Outbreak Movie Trailer: (io9 has this…
-
“Future Proof” Jobs
Popular Mechanics has a list of ten “geeky, adventurous” jobs which they think will have long-term employment opportunities. Job titles include things like “Zero-Energy Home Architect” and “Digital Detective.” A few of them (like Video-Game Designer) probably have some staying power, but I suspect that some of the others might wind up in the same…
-
Locus Award Finalists Announced
The finalists for the Locus Awards (the best science fiction books and stories of the year, chosen by the general public) have been announced over at their site. Best science fiction novel entries are: Matter, Iain M. Banks City at the End of Time, Greg Bear Marsbound, Joe Haldeman Anathem, Neal Stephenson Saturn’s Children, Charles…
-
It’s Not a Milky Way, it’s a Truffle
Researchers examining the giant dust cloud at the center of our galaxy have concluded that it tastes like raspberries and smells like rum. They were looking for life-building amino acids, but found a substance called ethyl formate. It’s the compound that gives raspberries their flavor, and also happens to smell like rum. “It does happen…
-
Suuure They’re for Research
Members of the team that created Snuppy, the first cloned dog, have now added an anemone gene to cloned dogs to create four transgenic glow-in-the-dark beagles. They claim that this is the first step in creating “disease model” dogs to use for research into human diseases, but other scientists are less certain that dogs will…
-
Nebula Awards
The Nebula Awards 2009 were presented Saturday night in Los Angeles. Novel – Powers – Ursula K. Le Guin Novella – “The Spacetime Pool” – Catherine Asaro Novelette – “Pride and Prometheus” – John Kessel Short Story – “Trophy Wives” – Nina Kiriki Hoffman Script – “WALL-E” Andre Norton Award – Flora’s Dare: How a…
-
Right Size, Right Place…
…now we just need both together. European researchers have found a tiny exoplanet that’s only 1.9 times the size of Earth, and say that a neighboring planet discovered previously is in the prime zone for potential life. Gliese 581 e (the little one) is too close to its star for life as we know it,…
-
This Sounds Like the Beginning of a Joke
Four Russians, a German and a Frenchman are all sealed inside a research facility…. Last Tuesday, six people entered a Habitrail-like series of living modules in a Moscow research lab, where they will spend the next 105 days exploring what a lengthy trip to Mars would be like. They’ll eat dehydrated food and breathe recycled…