Posts

In any case, living sans legs is certainly one of snakes’ defining characteristics. But YouTuber Allen Pan gave snakes an evolutionary twist in a new video featured by The A.V. Club. After a previous post involving serpents, Pan got to wondering if—and how—one could construct robotic legs for snakes. Check out the full video below for a surprisingly adorable glimpse at our future cyborg snake overlords: After reminding viewers that plenty of animals receive prosthetic legs from benevolent humans all the time, Pan adds, apparently “nobody loves snakes enough to build them robot legs....

Robin Finlay, the prop-styling half of photography duo The Voorhes, sanded and painted the pieces again and again until they’d appear as smooth as the real deal in front of the camera. Then, using a special laser, she emblazoned a lucky four (two big and two medium) with fowl and eggs. Because the tool was designed for perfectly round cylinders and surfaces, she had to secure the eggs in a home-brewed vise fashioned from two sections of PVC pipe....

Despite their magnetic-like pull, volcanic eruptions are a big threat to humanity. A study released yesterday in Nature from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) and the University of Birmingham found that there is a general misconception of the lethal threat volcanoes pose to society and planet Earth at large. According to authors Michael Cassidy and Laura Mani, this misconception has led to a general apathy about preparing for a major eruption, despite it posing a greater risk than an asteroid strike....

“The general picture that we have of dinosaur physiology has changed quite a bit through the last [several] decades,” says Jasmina Wiemann, a molecular paleobiologist at the California Institute of Technology. “Our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like and lived like is directly related to the question of whether they were cold-blooded, warm-blooded, or somewhere in between.” A new analysis published by Wiemann and her collaborators on May 25 in Nature indicates that the ancestors of dinosaurs were warm-blooded, or capable of maintaining a constant internal temperature....

2. ResearchKit collects medical data Building on Apple’s HealthKit software, the company has delved further into health with the ResearchKit. It’s an open-source medical platform that will use iPhone software to collect personal medical data from users. The idea is that researchers can create apps that work with the ResearchKit software to do everything from finding patients for clinical trials to tracking symptoms of those with Parkinson’s disease. Five apps already exist in the App Store, including ones for cardiovascular disease, asthma, breast cancer diabetes, and Parkinson’s....

Coupe This is a term that has become the subject of hot debate in car circles lately. The word is French, derived from “cut,” referring to a glass panel that cut the front seat from the rear. In common usage, it has generally referred to a sporty two-door car, especially in hardtop coupe form, with no fixed center pillar supporting the roof between the front and rear seats. The coupe body style has been particularly hard-hit, as fewer and fewer of the once-ubiquitous two-door cars roll into dealer showrooms with each new model year....

Inspiring wonder in space-lovers around the world is harder than it looks. A lot of work goes into making sure these cosmic close-ups photos are not only beautiful, but they reflect the astronomy community’s scientific priorities. So what exactly goes into crafting JWST’s next picture-perfect photographs? The answers to these questions lie within the differences between JWST and its predecessor, the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. The two have vastly different capabilities: Hubble, for one, mostly takes images inside visible and ultraviolet wavelengths....

Information security blog Krebs on Security drew attention to the plan last week. The additional verification will not be required to file taxes or submit a payment, the IRS clarified in a statement, as reported by CNBC. But, taxpayers will need to use the service to see payment history, set up a payment plan, and access the Child Tax Credit Portal starting in summer 2022. Additional services will also transition to use ID....

Why we will likely never reach extreme heights We can thank evolution for this, says Terence D. Capellini, a human evolutionary biologist at Harvard University. “Height is not just about height,” Capellini says. “It’s about the overall biological growth of an organism, at least in humans.” Researchers surmise that how tall we become isn’t an isolated piece of our extremely intricate genome. Rather, it’s intertwined with other growth processes, like organ development....

“It’s a little bit of the Wild West,” says Sam Freesun Friedman, a senior machine learning scientist at MIT and Harvard University’s Broad Institute. But psychedelics are still largely illegal in the US, in part because of how unpredictable they are. Reactions to different psychedelics vary widely: Some users experience healing or overwhelming euphoria, while others come away with scarring trauma or terror. These reasons, among others, make it difficult for these drugs to get approved by government agencies and make their way into doctors’ offices....

Disgust is a complex emotion that can cause a physiological and psychological response. When people notice something gross, the sight triggers a host of nervous-system and other bodily cues that essentially cause us to turn away from the upsetting sight and provoke the gag reflex—which can potentially result in vomiting, explains Josh Ackerman, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. Most people who see something they find disgusting won’t go as far as hurling, but they probably will feel like they could....

Caenorhabditis elegans eats bacteria, while its worm cousin Pristionchus pacificus, while able to subsist on bacteria, also eats other worms. While C. elegans uses a grinder to break up bacteria, P. pacificus develops teeth-like denticles to puncture its prey. “These species are separated by 200 to 300 million years, but have the same cells,” researcher Ralf Sommer told New Scientist. However, they found the synapses were wired vastly differently, leading to a substantial change in the way information flows through their neural system....

“Selecting Show more will temporarily increase the ranking score for that post and posts like it. If you select Show less, you’ll temporarily decrease its ranking score,” explains the post, while adding that it’s not an entirely altruistic decision. “By offering more ways to incorporate direct feedback into Feed ranking, we’re making our artificial intelligence systems smarter and more responsive.” For now, Facebook users will occasionally see the “show more” and “show less” options on certain posts, but can soon access the update by clicking every post’s three-dot menu in its upper right-hand corner....

What are Twitter Spaces? Imagine a conference call, but your Twitter followers are invited. Alternatively, picture a Zoom call in which no one’s camera works and you have more control over who is allowed in or who can speak. That’s the premise of Twitter Spaces. It’s the same basic idea as Clubhouse, the invite-only app that saw a massive spike in popularity after its launch earlier this year. It’s also similar to Discord’s Stage Channels....

But starting last Friday, the news began spreading that NASA was behind a plot to change everyone’s zodiac sign. Except that isn’t what happened. At all. Gizmodo has a rundown of what exactly went wrong, and how a Space Place page–NASA’s website for curious kids to learn more about the cosmos–became, for some people, the primary piece of evidence in the space agency’s apparent master plan to trick everyone into reading the wrong horoscope....

The Hall at Patriot Place is a museum for all things Patriots. From Brady to Belichick, adoring fans both young and old can relive their recent and past success with a technically impressive display. In addition to helping to fund the Hall, Raytheon has teamed up with the Patriots to start the youth outreach program “Science of Sports,” aimed at mentoring kids in the greater Boston area Boys and Girls Clubs....

When air is inhaled, it flows past the lining inside the nose and into the sinuses, which warms and humidifies the air. To better understand how these tissues condition the air, the researchers wanted to simulate how air moves through the nasal passages of humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. They took CT scans of four chimpanzees and six macaques, and MRI scans of six humans to capture the dimensions of their nasal passages, from their noses to their sinuses and into the lungs....

According to a study published this week in Scientific Reports, just two hours outside each week is enough to make a noticable difference in one’s health. For the study, the researchers used national survey data from almost 20,000 men and women in the U.K. Respondents reported how they engage with nature and provided information about their own health status. By re-analyzing this information, the researchers uncovered a trend—respondents were more likely to report good health or high well-being if they had spent at least 120 minutes outside in the previous seven days than if they had spent less or zero time in the sunshine....

Cyber Monday moves fast so these prices may change and things may sell out. If you see something you want, jump on it quickly. Otherwise, you may find yourself literally sitting in the dark. EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2, 256Wh LiFePO4 Battery $199 (was $299) For $200, this surprisingly powerful little battery backup offers two USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and two AC outlets. It can power up to six devices at the same time....