Even when your eyeballs look still, they aren't still. Every time your heart beats, it creates almost imperceptible changes in your skin tone as blood moves through your body. Tall buildings and construction cranes wobble slightly in the wind, even though our eyes can't usually catch them at it. Now, a team at MIT has figured out how to spot these small movements using a computer program that goes through video frame-by-frame and pixel-by-pixel, amplifying minute changes in color and motion and making them visible to us. The New York Times' Bits blog has a video with some awesome demonstrations of the system.
How to make the invisible visible
Watch these miniature Brazilian frogs in all their awkward glory
These miniature Brazilian frogs (aka pumpkin toadlets) don't have much balance and thus jump in reallllly awkward ways. Apparently, their inner ears are too small to provide good balance. New research published in Science explains the phenomenon: Miniaturization has evolved repeatedly in frogs in the moist leaf litter environments of rainforests worldwide. Miniaturized frogs are… READ THE REST
Paleontologists in China find the first dinosaur belly button
Even though people employ the concept of navel-gazing as a pejorative insult, I still find my belly buttons remarkably intriguing. Ever since my mother elucidated the reason behind my belly button as a youth, the deep poignancy around the mark has stuck with me forever. Call me sentimental all you want, but having a visual… READ THE REST
Do deer antlers hold the key to regrowing limbs?
I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. "So let me get this straight," I asked my dad, "your skin can grow back after you cut it, but your arm can't?" "Nope, never," he said. "But they can give one that's kind of like a robot arm." I grappled with this information for a solid… READ THE REST
Keep your home cool as a cucumber this summer with this portable AC unit
It's summertime, and you know what that means? Unbearable heat waves are coming, and for some, they're already here! The only way for many people to sleep comfortably during the warmer months is by getting an air conditioner for their bedroom, but what about during the day when you need to cook in the kitchen or when you… READ THE REST
Convert your web design into mobile code with 81% off this easy-to-use tool
It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to build a web page for a company, freelance business, or product. The same goes when creating the mobile app version. You don't dislike the job; it's what you wanted a career as a developer in the first place, but if there's a way to make the conversion… READ THE REST
Keep your home from getting stinky this summer with this NASA-inspired device
As the weather warms up, things tend to get more pungent, shall we say. One wrong move and the fridge gets left wide open, and you're stuck with a house that smells like trash and broken dreams. Even if something so drastic doesn't happen, smells pile up quickly, and it's challenging to part ways with them.… READ THE REST
