sword-billed hummingbird » Technology

You say “Google Doc”, I say “Awesome”

Ben — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:01:24 +0000

An animation using only Google Docs.

Aliens, astronomers, or super-intelligent aardvarks?

Ben — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:22:00 +0000

You decide. Whatever the case, it’s kind of amazing.

(via Ectoplasmosis)

A search engine that predicts the future

Ben — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:19:12 +0000

The future:

…which is even stranger when you consider that it’s predicting the release of itself. Stay tuned.

I’ve been playing around on the preview, and while I’m not as impressed as I was by the initial (guided/rehearsed) demo searches, I’m still mighty curious. As long as WolframAlpha survives, it certainly won’t get worse. And there are already some interesting types of calculations it can summon.

There’s a whole world of math and physical usefulness, but much less so in the biological world, so far. Is my impression.

We’ll see.

Self-reassembling robot

Ben — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:57:50 +0000

In spite of the “crudeness” of this demonstration, it’s still amazing (if still mercifully short of the reassembly skills of a terminator):

Comical, also. (Wait for the surprise ending.)

(via BoingBoing)

Leaves doing what leaves do best… sort of

Ben — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:13:36 +0000

Maybe it’s pop culture eroding my brain, but “Functionalized Nanoporous Gold Leaf Electrode Films for the Immobilization of Photosystem I” doesn’t have quite the same kick as “cyborg leaf”.

Good work making science relevant to modern society, NewScientist!

(Don’t expect electricity-generating houseplants anytime soon — but still, it’s interesting work.)

Robots of the future, break out of your cells

Ben — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:40:23 +0000

Say what you will of Lockheed-Martin’s take on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles-as-documentary; this proof-of-concept (if that’s the right phrasing) test video is eerily captivating.

(References: http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/mdalink.html, http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/12/killing_robot_b.html, http://www.thirdeyeconcept.com/news/index.php?page=336)

Finally, humans can rest easy

Ben — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:30:39 +0000

(via MAKE)

Sheep are not meant to have six legs

Ben — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:34:39 +0000

…or are they?

This is terrifying, but in a comical sense.

(via BoingBoing Gadgets)

Curiously elegant

Ben — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:05:17 +0000

Yet awkward in its own way.

(via MAKE Blog)

Turn up the volume…

Ben — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:42:03 +0000

…on soil remediation!

Researchers have developed a prototype that cleans soil by making mud of it and blasting it with ultrasound:

Sound waves travel through water as a series of high pressure waves with low pressure areas in between. The low pressure causes the water to boil and form microscopic bubbles. The high pressure then forces the bubbles to collapse, generating a shockwave that produces localised temperature flashes of more than 4000°C and pressures of about 1000 atmospheres. That is more than enough to break down any complex molecules in the water, Sosa Pintos says.

Trials look to have been involving a “simplified” soil medium, so it’ll be interesting to see if the technique is as successful in the field.

(NewScientist: “Sound blaster cleans contaminated soil,” by Tom Simonite [Sept 6, 2006])