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H+, New Transhumanist Magazine
Humanity Plus (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) has launched a new Transhumanist magazine, edited by R.U. Sirius. The first issue is available as a free PDF, and includes interviews with Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow. It’s a very slick-looking publication, and some of the technology it features is very cool. Sirius promises to continue editing…
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Geeky Wedding Rings
The ThinkGeek guys have done a roundup of geeky rings, entitled My Big NTFS Geek Wedding. I’m particularly taken with the armillary sphere. A few that they don’t list are this Double Helix ring, this nut and bolt set, the Remember Ring (which I think I may have blogged about before, but looking it up…
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My Kind of Fossil Fuel
California Polytechnic State University scientist Raul Cano drilled into a 45-million-year-old weevil trapped in ancient amber and extracted more than 2,000 different kinds of microscopic organisms. One of the things he dug out was ancient yeast, which he managed to reactivate. And now he uses it to brew beer. The beer has received good reviews…
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Scientific (Fiction) American
CNET Editor Tom Merritt used the articles in October’s Scientific American as the basis for an SF novel(la) story treatment. Marlin doesn’t have the genes to be a scientist. He knows that and the academic world he wants to break into very much knows it. While the law prevents them from outwardly discriminating and stopping…
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She Blinded Me with…Videogames
Constance Steinkuehler, a “game academic” at the University of Wisconsin (and holder of the sort of job title all of us covet), was running large-scale raids in a game called Lineage. Most of her guild members were teenage boys, and even though many of the “bosses” they were fighting were extremely tough, they had a…
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Bleed All You Want, We’ll Make More
Researchers at US firm Advanced Cell Technology claim to have created a large number of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells. They say that they can generate 10 to 100 billion red blood cells from a single six-well plate of stem cells. Using a cell line with an O- type would mean that…
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ET Phone an Anger Management Class
Seth Shostak of the SETI program is tired of ad hominem attacks on himself and other scientists by UFO “true believers.” He warns that his response may be a bit heated, but it’s actually a thoughtful and measured rebuttal to the idea that skeptics are automatically evil. I, too, was attacked, generally along the lines…
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Robot Controlled by Rat Brain
Researchers at the University of Reading in England have created a robot controlled entirely by a biological brain made of rat neurons. “Gordon” contains around 60 electrodes which pick up the neurons’ signals. When the robot approaches an object the electrodes stimulate the cluster of brain cells, which then responds by turning the wheels to…
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Atomic Tourism
The Bureau of Atomic Tourism is dedicated to the promotion of tourist locations around the world that have either been the site of atomic explosions, display exhibits on the development of atomic devices, or contain vehicles that were designed to deliver atomic weapons. A friend once brought Shadow and me a smear of graphite from…
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It’s Called epMotion
Shadow asked me just the other night if boy bands weren’t illegal. Sadly no: They’re being used to sell scientific equipment. Eppendorf is hawking its new pipette machine with a music video of a boy-band group singing a boy-band love song about how your social life will improve greatly if you let a machine handle…