Why the Human Body Temperature Is 98.5 Degrees Fahrenheit (37°C)

Scientists have found the reason why our body temperature is 98.5° Fahrenheit (37°C). Apparently it's the perfect balance, as it's warm enough to prevent fungal infection but not so hot that we need to eat nonstop to maintain our metabolism.

Scientists have always wondered why advanced mammals are so hot compared to other animals. And this might be the reason! Fungal species that can thrive and infect an animal typically declines by 6 percent for every 1° C rise in temperature. So, we know we need a higher body temperature to ward off fungal infection. The question is how warm?

Scientists devised a mathematical model that analyzed the benefits gained by body temperatures that protect against fungi versus the costs (in terms of extra food consumption) required to maintain body temperatures between 30° and 40° C. The optimal temperature for maximizing benefits while minimizing costs was found to be 36.7° C, which closely approximates normal body temperature.

Looks like we were made for a reason (and so were the other mammals who all have temperatures around 98.5 degrees)!

Lightest 3D Glasses in the World

Samsung's ultra-lightweight 3D glasses don't look as bad as generic active shutter specs, but that's not saying much. Noses and ears, breathe a sigh of relief: they weigh just 28 grams.

 

 

A USB Hub With a Power Strip State of Mind

That's the idea behind Japanese company Elecom's latest attempt to re-engineer the humble USB hub, a power strip-esque block with ports facing skyward and a switch dedicated to each one.

Sure, the garden of sprouting cords won't help you forget that the hub is sitting on your desk, but that means you won't forget that they're sucking up precious electricity, either. The hubs are on sale now in Japan $41 for four ports or $106 for seven.

MacBook Air's SSDs Will Be Sold to Other Companies by Toshiba

Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities (both measuring 2.2mm in height) and a 3.7mm tall 256GB option, the Blade X-gale SSDs will inevitably show up in laptops, netbooks or even tablets. They've got a max sequential read speed of 220MB/s, with max sequential write speed of 180MB/s.

 

 

Forget Your Dog, Your Phone Needs an Adorable Little Outfit

You don't spend all day in some sweaty plastic case, so why subject your most faithful electronic companion to that same sartorial torture? Get it the case it deserves. The outerwear it needs. A tiny denim outfit.

Thanks to SabaiSmile at Etsy—where you can now certifiably buy anything you can think of—you can snatch up a jacket, a dress, or some short shorts for your smartphone, MP3 player, or if you're a real big weirdo your handheld GPS device. 

 

 

A Winter Wonderland in China

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang China is set to open on January 5, 2011. It's a winter wonderland with buildings made from beautiful ice and snow.

 

 

The northern lights could be headed south to a night sky near you

The amazing lights of the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis, are created by the collision of charged particles in the Earth's magnetic field. As photons from the solar wind are accelerated along the lines of our planet's magnetic field, they undergo incredibly energetic reactions with nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere, releasing and absorbing lots of energy in the constant collisions. Collisions with oxygen molecules create the green or brownish-red colors of the aurora, while collisions with nitrogen account for the blue and red colors.

Because the lines of Earth's magnetic field run towards the two magnetic poles, the aurora effect is strongest and most likely to be visible to the naked eye in the polar regions. The poles also have an added advantage, as their much longer periods of darkness mean there are far more opportunities for auroras to become visible.

But every so often the auroras become visible far away from the poles, thanks to a little help from the Sun. During periods of extreme solar activity, the Sun can create what's known as coronal mass ejections (or CMEs), which are huge blasts of charged particles. In almost all cases, these CMEs miss the Earth completely, and even when they do hit the Earth it's rare that they have any noticeable effects.

Still, if a strong enough CME hits the Earth, it can trap tons more charged particles than normal in the magnetic field. That supercharges the aurora effect so that people living as far south as Dallas or Los Angeles would be able to see the northern lights. (Well, maybe notspecificially Dallas and LA - the city lights would probably drown the aurora out.)

We've already enjoyed some spectacular auroras thanks to the solar activity, and it only figures to get better. We're in a particularly strong period of solar activity at the moment, and astronomers predict it will peak around 2013.

Even Putin Looks Displeased With 3D Glasses

When Russia's bad boy Prime Minister Vladimir Putin himself looks irritated with the idea of wearing 3D glasses, it's gotta be time to reconsider that whole trend. 

 

 

The Last Roll of Kodachrome Film Ever Will Be Developed Today

Even if you don't give two f-stops about analog photography, it's always good to respect our elders. So today, we pour one out for Kodak's legendarily beautiful Kodachrome film, which after today, in Parsons, Kansas, will never be processed again.

Kodachrome, which Kodak stopped manufacturing last year, has been prized by the world's most eminent photographers for its beauty and refinement—the way it captures light and color is unlike anything else, and has made possible some of photography's greatest visions..

Despite having the bejeezus knocked out of it by digital, the singular beauty of analog photography should never be forgotten—and thanks to groups like the 1,668 member strong Kodachrome Flickr pool, it probably won't be.

 

 

The Nintendo 3DS Will Destroy Children's Eyeballs

Remember your parents telling you sitting too close to the TV would make you blind? Well, now when parents tell young kids to turn off the 3D on Nintendo's 3DS 'cause it'll ruin their eyes—they'll actually be right.

The machine translation is a little rough, but the gist is clear: Nintendo has issued a warning that kids under six shouldn't use the 3DS's 3D mode because their vision is still "in the development stage," and the way that stereoscopic 3D works, delivering different images to each eyeball, "has a potential impact on the growth of children's eyes."

Sony's also noted that kids under six shouldn't play 3D games without being examined by their eye doctor first. But the 3DS is in a slightly different position than the PS3, since Nintendo's way more geared toward kids than Sony is.

To keep the childrens away from 3D, the 3DS will apparently have a parental lock on 3D, locking the 3DS in 2D mode. Even with the parental lock, though, this is pretty crazy. Nintendo issuing a warning explicitly stating, "Hey, our product could screw up your child's vision." Who's gonna buy that for their kids?

Hoodie With Earbuds Instead of Strings Is Greatest iPod Accessory of All

Hoodies have strings around the neck, right? Have you EVER used those strings? Why you'd want to tighten a noose around your neck, I'll never know. The HoodieBuddie cleverly replaces the strings with earbuds; the pocket contains a 3.5mm jack.

All you need to do is whack your iPod into that 3.5mm jack, hiding in the front-right pocket, and you can listen to music without your wires getting tangled. Really, it costs $44. 

 

 

In the Future, We'll All Wear Clothes Made by 3D Printers

Designers are already using 3D printers to create textiles apparently. Fashion site Ecouterre has an article on the 3D printed clothes phenomenom, and the museum of Modern Art is exhibiting the Dutch designer Freedom of Creation's works already. 

It's not just the lure of having clothes that fit properly that's appealing for designers—3D printing also helps cut down on labor costs and could be seen as reducing waste.

WWF Is a New Green File Format That's Impossible To Print

The rabble rousers at the World Wildlife Fund (they re-named fake wrestling!) have created a new, PDF-type file format called WWF. It's a file format that CANNOT be printed out. The idea: save as WWF, save a tree.

WWF is currently only savable and readable on Mac, but a Windows version should be coming soon.

 

 

Electric Razors Really Are Better (for the Environment)

Electric razors use 30x less energy. How does Slate figure? An electric razor runs on 5-6 watts, consuming 0.35 kilowatt-hours a year. But! Most dudes using a disposable razor use a quart of hot water, using 10.4 kilowatt-hours a year.

All told, when you consider other elements, like the CO2 produced by making each disposable razor and the like, an electric razor will save you 14.9 pounds of carbon dioxide per year—which isn't a lot—but every little bit helps. I suppose if you wanted to go ultragreen, you could go ultra badass: a straight razor with no water.

 

 

The Most Magnetic Material Yet

Iron cobalt was the most magnetic material on Earth until physicists created what's in this man's hands. It's an iron and nitrogen compound which is 18 percent more magnetic and potentially disproves theories about how magnetic a material can be.

Jianping Wang, a physicist at the University of Minnesota, created the compound, but he's actually not the first to do so:

In 1996, researchers from the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi in Japan made the same iron and nitrogen compound. Their research also showed that the material exceeded limitations set by traditional theories. However, scientists were unable to duplicate their experiments.

Apparently Wang has "taken special care to allow other scientists to duplicate his experimental setup" because of these failed attempts of the past. It's a shame that his experiment doesn't count as proof of the original compound's creation for some reason though.

Intel's 310 Series SSDs Are an Eighth the Size of Their Predecessors

SSDs are great, and they're getting smaller all the time. A lot smaller. Intel's teeny new 310 Series SSDs deliver the same performance as the x25s that came before them, but they're just an eighth the size.

The new drives, intended for notebooks, tablets, and rugged industrial and military devices, are 51mm-by-30mm and a mere 5mm thick.

Lenovo's signed the 310 up for their next-generation ThinkPads, and DRS Technology's planning on sliding the 310 in a tablet next year. Intel's shipping drives to OEMs in 1000-unit quantities in two capacities: 40GB ($99) and 80GB ($179). They say it's the first salvo in a wave of new solid state drives they'll be firing off next year, to which I say bring it on. The smaller and the faster the better.

Samsung Taking the "Thinnest" 3D Blu-ray Player

The defining characteristic of most home Blu-ray players isn't usually their thickness, but perhaps if you live in a house with low ceilings you might fancy Samsung's new, unnamed Blu-ray device. Seems pretty deep, though, Samsung. Got anything narrower?

While announcing the device, Samsung also took the time to blow its trumpet about US Blu-ray player sales—claiming it is "commanding" the US market and took a 35% share of sales between January and November.

Go Pew Pew in the Space Invaders Couch

This sofa is likely to never see the dawn of a waking day, nor the imprints of your buttocks as you settle in for a marathon 15-hour Space Invaders sesh.

Keep The Snow Out Of Your Brain With The Sony MDR-EX1000 Flagship Earphones

Seems a bit of a shame to spend $799 on something no one will ever see because it'll spend most of its life rammed down your ears, but if you need higher-end earphones, the MDR-EX1000 will do the job.

The Asia-only flagship earphones are available on import through Audiocubes, so if you'd like your audio reproduced by a custom Sony 16mm driver created from a liquid crystalline polymer with an impressively wide response range between 3-30,000Hz and a magnesium housing, they're the ear canal warmers for you.

 

 

Zip Tie Snow Tires

It's officially that time of year, with snow and slush and ice perpetually impeding your biking. What to do? Well, if you've got a box of zip ties and can conjure up a little MacGuyever spirit, you do this.

Fritz Rice of the Dutch Bike Co. is the clever rider behind these makeshift snow tires, and while he admits they look a bit silly (and that some fixie-riding hipsters may have pioneered the idea), he seems pretty thrilled with the results.