Seed: Girls Gone Wild … for Monkeys
The researchers found that while straight men are only aroused by females of the human variety, straight women are equally aroused by all human sexual activity, including lesbian, heterosexual and homosexual male sex, and at least somewhat aroused by nonhuman sex.
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“There’s the possibility that genital response for women is not necessarily imbued with meaning about her sexual interests,” says Chivers. She also emphasized that her findings do not imply women harbor a latent desire for lesbian sex or bestiality.
What’s actually surprising is that the guys had such a selective response. You’d think just the idea of sex would be enough to get some response from most fellows.
Molecular motors push liquid uphill
Droplets of liquid have been moved uphill by molecular motors designed to manipulate Brownian motion.
While other researchers have found ways to make drops of liquids move before, what is new here, says David Leigh at the University of Edinburgh, is the use of molecular motors to achieve it: “This is the first time you can use molecular-level motion to move a macroscopic object. OK, so it’s only a tiny droplet – but it’s a start.�
How very Diamond Age!
Best are the “you might also do this” scenarios:
The so-called “nano-shuttles� could also create a range of different types of smart surfaces, such as adhesive surfaces that can be switched on and off, or surfaces that can be switched from one colour to another.
Brave new world, indeed. I can’t wait until I can finally customize the color of my flying car!
Just because I did nothing with my aerospace engineering degree doesn’t mean I ignore the cool stuff from that field: ‘Singing’ wings help prevent small-plane stalls
In wind tunnel tests, Salmon stuck sections of plastic piezo-electric film to wing segments. This film vibrates when an electrical signal is applied, producing sound.
Tests using a barely audible sinusoidal tone of about 400 hertz showed a 22% increase in lift, compared with a standard wing. This could translate into a few extra seconds of time for a pilot to boost a plane’s speed before it stalls, says Salmon. The simple tones worked best, though Salmon did experiment: “I can say that songs by the band Spiderbait are more effective than Radiohead’s.�
Spiderbait?! Way to plug the virtually unknown (in the US, at least) Aussie band, Qantas dude! Truth be told I went through a huge unknown Aussie music phase in college. Can’t say I stuck with any of the artists I got into back then, but at the time some of my favorite tracks were on those freebie tapes I got a CollegeFest in the Hynes Convention Center.
Back to the airplane stuff… Once, while hiking on Mt. Washington, I saw a couple gliders buzzing around the summit. Literally: their wings were vibrating in the updraft (I assume), causing a high-pitched hum. No piezo-electric plastic involved with that, but it was really cool to me.
Really cool invention brings teens awards
Today, the young inventors say, U.S. drivers use about 7.9 billion gallons of fuel each year to run their air-conditioners, which draw power from the engine. By adopting their contraption - which taps into the electrical system, using fans to blow hot air through five Peltier chips and then releasing cold air - they say the country stands to save 3.9 billion gallons of fuel annually, or about $10 billion based on current gas prices.
Furthermore, the product would free drivers from Freon - which despite improvements, remains an ozone-depleting chemical in current air-conditioners. The Peltier chips, which they purchased on eBay for $9.99 each, have a life span of 20 to 30 years and an unfaltering cooling capacity. And like every component in the Space Beast, which can be minimized in size to about 2 inches in width, the chips are recyclable.
Wow. Way to go!
This one might even be real: Boffins create zombie dogs
US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.
Pittsburgh’s Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject’s veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.
Granted, the story isn’t quite as exciting as the title, but hey… I love any story that calls scientists “boffins” — makes ‘em sound like Muppets!
Boy hailed for air safety gadget
A Scots schoolboy has been praised by airport bosses after inventing a gadget which could help prevent plane crashes.
Daryn Murray’s Aircraft Debris Protector warns pilots of dangerous material lying on runways before they prepare to land.
And check out that high Scottish fashion! (A Carson Kressley joke would probably be grossly inapproriate…)
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