Nanoscale hunter-killer robots powered by light are here. FINALLY.
We’re all very aware of the dangers of disease-causing microbes. The problem is,
when we fight them, they fight back; bacteria, for example, have developed
resistance to every traditional antibiotic. But a team at Rice University has created
an incredible new weapon: tiny machines that spin at 2 million times a second,
drilling into bacterial walls, literally ripping them apart.
They get their energy from blue light at a wavelength of 405 nanometers, so they’re
effective anywhere you can shine that light. Researchers say they’ll be especially effective
in treating burn victims, whose infections are usually near the surface of the skin. And
they’re working on nanobots that can go deeper into the body, run on infrared light, and even
destroy fat cells. So watch out bacteria: we’ve got tiny Terminators, and they’re coming for you.
Vsauce! One story down, five to go. This is Mind Blow!
It turns out Neanderthals had awesome meat parties.
While often thought of as slow, dim-witted cavemen,
recent studies have shown Neanderthals actually had a sophisticated social structure,
lived in larger groups than previously thought and developed complex strategies for hunting
huge beasts. Archaeologists who work out of a castle in Germany have just analyzed the
site of an Ice Age Neanderthal camp, and found the remains of 70 Straight-Tusked
Elephants - that were three times the size of modern elephants, and 62% bigger than a T-rex!
Considering the size of the animals, the caloric intake of the people, and other factors,
they determined that after killing these massive creatures using only cunning and stone tools,
they consumed four tons of the meat in a giant feast that fed 350 people for a
week. So next time you’ve got some family over, think of Neanderthal meat parties.
Say hello to 3D printing with Holographic sound.
If you've got a 3D printer, you might know that while they’re really cool,
they can sometimes be…slow. But what if you could press a button, and instantly print an object - or
a body part? Acoustic waves exert forces when they hit solid objects, and by manipulating a series of
holographic ultrasound fields, scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany
were able to finely tune the force landscape, creating 3D printed materials - in one shot.
It’s especially effective at manipulating biological material including living cells,
and the process could revolutionize construction techniques, ultrasound
therapy, and more importantly, tissue engineering - one day,
you may have a vat-grown organ, created instantly using holographic sound.
Let’s talk about this new ice.
Ice is ice, right? WRONG. For one thing, it’s technically a mineral, like quartz or diamonds.
Secondly, the ice we’re familiar with is called Ice Ih, but there are at least 19 different
phases of ice, and scientists are discovering new kinds all the time - like a couple of weeks ago.
A team at Cambridge University used a technique called ball-milling,
where regular ice crystals were subjected to extreme shear force by being shaken in
a steel jar full of metal ball bearings. What came out - was something new. They
call it “medium-density amorphous ice” or MDA, it’s the first form of ice known to have the
same density as liquid water. So you know how ice cubes float in a soda? This won’t.
Even weirder, when MDA recrystallizes back into ordinary ice, it releases
a tremendous amount of heat. It’s so strange,
the discovery questions our very understanding of the nature of liquid water. But unfortunately
you can’t whip this revolutionary new ice up in your freezer - to create it,
you first have to freeze the jar and metal balls in liquid nitrogen, at –196°C. That’s cold.
Here’s a fungi that just might boost your brain.
Neuroscientists at the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia have extracted
biologically new compounds from the Lion’s Mane mushroom. When tested in mice, the substances
doubled axial length in brain cells, led to significantly enhanced memory, and improved
cognitive performance! They work by greatly increasing the size of cellular growth cones,
which help brain cells sense their environment and build connections to other nearby neurons.
According to the team, the compound could revolutionize treatments for Alzheimer’s
and other neurodegenerative diseases. Humans are not mice though so don’t
start guzzling this stuff thinking you’ll be a galaxy brain right away.
The solar system is glowing and no one knows why!
Astronomers at Project SKYSURF figured this out when they tried to calculate exactly
how dark it is in outer space. They analyzed 200,000 pictures from the Hubble telescope,
and removed the glow from all the planets, stars, asteroids, and other astronomical sources.
But somehow, a tiny amount of light was still there - the equivalent of ten fireflies steadily
shining across the entire sky. It’s like turning off all the lights in a dark room
and noticing that the walls were suddenly glowing. Because the glow is everywhere,
it’s hard to figure out the source, but the best candidate may be dust that drifts
across the solar system from the tails of comets, some long dead. If that’s the case,
this dust shell would be a new addition to what we know of the architecture of the solar system.
Nobody’s officially named it yet, so maybe you can be the first. I recommend the name Kevin.
And now for the telephone designs of 1977. Accent,
Early American, Elite, Sculptura, Celebrity, Mediterranean, Optique, Commemorative Elite.
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