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Metallic Super-Silk From Spiders
LONDON (Reuters) – Spider silk is already tougher and lighter than steel, and now scientists have made it three times stronger by adding small amounts of metal. The technique may be useful for manufacturing super-tough textiles and high-tech medical materials, including artificial bones and tendons.
How long do you think it will take to weaponize something to do with this stuff?
Potential Bitch Slap From The Sun
The catastrophe, when it comes, will be beautiful at first. It is a balmy evening in late September 2012. Ever since the sun set, the dimming skies over London have been alive with fire.
One more way that the universe might just decide to bitch slap us out of existence. It would take about a half hour for riots to break out, and things would be down hill from there. Doomsday-ish article with a healthy dose of reality check, and well worth the read (plus some awesome photos of the sun). Things would be perfect if the solar flares make the dead come back as zombies, but we can only hope.
Original Article from the Daily Mail
Giant Robot Spider Alert
I strongly approve of giant robot spiders, and French performance art group La Machine has done some fine work here. Luckily there are two of them, so all we need to do is fit them with weapons like giant swords and rocket launchers and then we can have ourselves some proper sport.
Photos From Cassini
The original piece has quite a few high-res images from the space probe, really cool stuff if you have even a passing interest in astronomy.
Weed Kills Breast Cancer Too
…a compound of the marijuana plant may prevent aggressive breast cancers from spreading throughout the body, new research from the United States suggests. A team of researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute say cannabis compound CBD (cannabidiol) could provide a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy for cancer treatments.
Nevermind that you’ve got to concentrate this stuff for it to be effective, so smoking won’t do the trick, this is one more way that weed can improve people’s lives. Still illegal and stigmatized by the establishment. No news regarding any other new and impressive cancer treatments.
The Gods Are Angry
Aerial photo of Mount Redoubt in Alaska, one of our currently active volcanoes. Lots more cool pics at the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Weed Kills Brain Cancer
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The main chemical in marijuana appears to aid in the destruction of brain cancer cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, researchers in Spain wrote in a study released Thursday.
Yet another benevolent side effect to THC. Yes, Barack, legalizing it would indeed help grow our economy. It would also significantly improve sales in the snack food industry. First weed wins World War II (you try landing an invasion on a beach with a navy that doesn’t have any rope…), then prevents glaucoma, and now cures cancer. Does it have to kill Osama and bitch slap George W. Bush before it can get any respect? I say we legalize pot and make being stupid illegal. It would be approximately as difficult to enforce.
Robot Controlled With Brain Waves
Honda said Tuesday its research subsidiary has jointly developed technology with two other entities that enables human thought alone to send rudimentary commands to a humanoid Asimo robot.
Certainly not at the “battletech” stage yet, but this is a significant advance and really is worth of note. As soon as we get to the point that we can change the channels on our televisions without moving at all, we can get right on to building the Matrix.
New Laser With The Energy of a Hydrogen Bomb
Scientists working at the National Ignition Facility of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, have built the most powerful laser in the world, capable of simulating the energy force of a hydrogen bomb and the sun itself.
I haven’t seen a whole lot publicized regarding controlled fusion reactions recently. If this thing works even remotely like it’s purported to it will be a breakthrough to an entirely new, totally sustainable form of energy. The technology to actually implement it on a mass scale would still probably be a decade or two off, but proof of a method would have a profound impact in itself. Controlled fusion is like the holy grail of renewable energy because of the monstrous amount of power that can be generated with no waste products. I bet it takes some nasty shit to power those lasers, however.
If you’re even a little bit of a science geek I highly recommend reading the Original Article.
