More Science

Still Blinded.

The Star Devourer
Or as it's more boringly referred to, BP Piscium.

An unusual star may have swallowed its stellar companion and burped out a planet-forming cloud as a result, a new study reports.

The star, called BP Piscium, is surrounded by a thick disc of gas and dust from which it appears to be sucking up new material at a prodigious rate.

MADNESS!

To explain the presence of the dusty disc, the astronomers suggest that when the star grew to become a red giant, its atmosphere engulfed a smaller companion star. The companion, orbiting inside the atmosphere of the primary star, would stir up the gas there, throwing it out to make a disc.

The disc could then form planets, just as the discs around very young stars do.

THE HORROR!

In addition to BP Piscium, the astronomers have identified another old star with a dusty disc, called TYCHO 4144 329 2, which may have gone through a similar scenario.

OH GOD IT'S SPREADING!

Source: New Scientist

Hamster Wheel Technologies
Some researchers have found a way to turn human walking into electricity generating slave labor.

Scientists in the United States and Canada said on Thursday they have developed a unique device that can be strapped on the knee that exploits the mechanics of human walking to generate a usable supply of electricity.

It generates enough power to charge up 10 cell phones at once, the researchers report in the journal Science.

Which is about how many some people have.

Arthur Kuo, a University of Michigan mechanical engineer who worked on the device, said it works similarly to the way that regenerative braking charges a battery in hybrid cars.

These regenerative brakes collect kinetic energy that normally dissipate as heat when the car slows down. The knee device collects energy lost when a person brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step, the researchers said.

I'm sure there's no negative consequence to altering the finely tuned mechanism of human walking with a brake. This won't cause strain injuries at all.

To be serious for a moment, it's neat that they're researching this stuff. I'm just not sure I see the utility... they talk about soldiers and people isolated from power generation using these, but the last thing a soldier or a hiker is going to want is another few pounds of gear that makes walking even the tiniest bit harder.

*shrug* Science marches ever forward.

Source: Reuters

Bones
No, not the show that I hate so very much. Rather, the skeleton, new uses of which an old slashdot article led me to.

Something along these lines is what Lin Zhong and Michael Liebschner at Rice University in Houston, Texas, envisage. They want to use the human skeleton to transmit commands reliably and securely to wearable gadgets and medical implants. Their research, funded by Microsoft and Texas Instruments, could also lead to new ways for people with disabilities to control devices such as computers and PDAs.

Yes, seriously, scientists are looking for ways to use your skeleton as a secure communications medium.

Combined with the knee-generator, this is starting to sound more and more like The Matrix, isn't it?

Source: New Scientist

Thunder Castle
Is it really science to design a game that a friend of mine bears an almost unhealthy love for after twenty plus years?

Sure. That's gotta be some kind of mind control, right?

Source: Intellivision Lives

Now for Some Anti-Science
The Omphalos Hypothesis, also known as Last Thursdayism (apparently), which is being modified by modern day Creationists as an attack against evolutionary biology. The idea? The entire universe is an illusion, created by God to perfectly SIMULATE rational scientific processes in such a way that you can't actually tell it's only 6 thousand years old.

Really.

Check it out.

Source: Wikipedia