This past weekend, on route to Glenelg, the Curiosity Rover’s first target on Mars, Curiosity arrived at the “Jake Matijevic” rock where it stopped and probed the rock with its huge robotic arm to determine its chemical composition. Curiosity also blasted the specimen with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. Then Curiosity shot laser pulses at…
Year: 2012
iPhone 5 A6 chip may perform better than expected due to manual layout – yes, logic blocks laid by hand, not software
Please, reclassify Fox News as a “fictional reality-based TV show” – new report shows their climate change reporting is 93% wrong
Exploiting a physics loophole, it’s not perpetual motion, but it’s pretty damn close
In this week’s freaky physics news, scientists at Department of Energy’s Berkeley Laboratory have proposed a design for a timing crystal that runs, literally, forever – even theoretically outlasting the universe itself. They are quick to point out however, that since there is no energy output, they have not broken any perpetual motion laws. Yeah,…
iPhone sales at 5 million sold but display shortage may be to blame
Samsung Galaxy S II and S Advance zero-day exploit allow complete phone wipe when tel: link clicked [UPDATE]
Wanna know how to buy a moon rock? Hint: black market
Moon rocks are rarely offered for sale. Sample moon rocks collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts are considered National Treasures, property of the United States government, and would never be sold to the public. They have been however, given away. Here are funny stories about lost moon rocks and tips on how you can come into…
Mitt Romney complains because airplane windows won’t roll down when you need like, oxygen and stuff
After his wife experienced an in-flight emergency last week, Mitt Romney complained at a Beverley Hills fundraiser on Saturday, about how airplanes don’t allow you to roll down the windows. Mrs. Romney’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing en route to Santa Monica after a fire broke out on the airplane. According to…
World’s largest portable 3D printer can print furniture
Last week the Dutch gave us the world’s largest Facebook party and this week they give us the world’s largest, portable pavilion 3D printer. Those Dutch do indeed go big. The Dutch architecture firm DUS unveiled the KamerMaker, a printer they say is “the world’s first movable 3-D print pavilion”, in an open source project…
What causes that unique rainy smell after it rains?
It’s that distinctive earthy, musky scent that occurs after a good rain, and it has a name unbefitting its pleasant smell – “petrichor”. The petrichor odor is distinctive (and difficult to duplicate) because there are several sources/causes for the smell, including the force of the rain striking the soil and storm winds stirring everything up.…








