Video link. Back in 2007, Pesco blogged about a mysterious hexagon on Saturn that emerged from a storm on their North Pole. While people have known since Isaac Newton's time that spinning a bucket of water could create similar patterns, scientists wanted to emulate the precise conditions on Saturn. Neither Newton nor Saturn have cool green glowy stuff or sparkly white stuff and mechanized centrifuges, so this is quite pretty and trippy. There's some lovely stills of varying rates of spin creating different shapes. I recommend muting their sound and putting on Gustav Holst's Saturn. There's even a HOWTO at The Planetary Society.
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3:49 pm Thu
Oct 28, 2010
Lovely lab recreations of Saturn's hexagonal storms
A treadmill that trips you... for science
As part of research on how to make better prosthetic legs, Vanderbilt University engineers put people on a treadmill and made them stumble. Over and over. By better understanding peoples’ stumble reflex, they hope to improve the computer-controlled stumble response in prosthetics. But to learn how people catch themselves, they had to trip them first. […]
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Snail slime inspires new super-strong reversible glue
Snail slime — called an epiphragm — is an incredibly strong yet reversible adhesive. Now, University of Pennsylvania scientists have developed a new kind of glue that employs the same mechanism as the epiphragm. The new material dries like superglue but once wet, it loses its adhesion. For years, scientists have explored adhesions inspired by […]
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Astonishing X-ray image of the whole sky
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This renewed Apple iMac is on sale for just $379
This all-in-one computing solution packs a healthy dose of processing power packed inside a 21.5″ HD LED display. It also features an Intel Core i3-2100 Dual-Core 3.1GHz CPU with 4 GB of DDR3 RAM for next-level multitasking and an impressive 250 GB SATA hard drive that can safely store your important files and media. So […]
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Cut the cord and get free local TV with these HD antennas
So you cut the cord and got rid of cable? Join the steadily growing club. But while you’re out picking a streaming service, you might find one big blind spot: Local TV and sports, not to mention first-run programming from the big cable networks. Luckily, there’s a throwback way to get it for free: The […]
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These truly wireless earbuds raised over $2M on Indiegogo
Even if you feel like AirPods are worth the price tag, you’ve got to admit there’s a certain anxiety that comes with using them. What if I lose them? What if they get wet in the rain? Or drenched in sweat? Or fall into the drink you dropped them into? Shiny tech is great, but […]
