A built-in battery-powered light is the easiest way to check the time on your watch in the middle of the night. But what if your watch doesn't have a battery? Schofield's newBlacklamp Carbon features a hand-wound movement, but still manages to stay visible in the dark of night thanks to a material developed by NASA called Moonglow that glows much longer than the stickers you decorated your ceiling with as a kid.
The watch also features a small Tritium gas light—a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that gives off a faint glow as it decays—but it's the strip of long lasting Moonglow, running all the way around the rim of the dial, that will have night owls enthusiastic for the timepiece.
And as the watch's name and that telltale pattern on the bezel allude, the Blacklamp Carbon is actually made of a newly developed material called Morta that's based on carbon fiber. So it's strong, lightweight, and of course, incredibly expensive. The watch, limited to 101 pieces, sells for just over $16,000. More here.
China's state-run television network is reporting that the unmanned Yutu lunar rover has successfully soft-landed on the moon.
The Chang'e-3 landing craft carried the rover to the smooth Bay of Rainbows region of the moon after a voyage launched December 1st. The rover, named Yutu (Jade Rabbit in English), is a 260lb six-wheeled solar powered explorer with a top speed of 660 feet per hour. For the next three months, it will conduct tests on the lunar surface and set up a telescope to study earth's plasmasphere.
An earlier Chinese spacecraft successfully orbited the moon, collecting data before being intentionally crashed into the moon's surface. The next mission in the Chang'e program is intended to bring back rock and soil samples from the moon some time before 2020. More here.
The table was designed by Florian Dussopt, a French product designer who describes it as Here's how The Guardian once explained what's going on inside the bulbs:
A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow.
In other words, the table is harnessing the power of wireless energy—a feat that has proved so elusive to those who would harness it on a larger scale, like Nikola Tesla, whose doomed Wardenclyffe Tower was an attempt to transmit electrical power across great distances.
In fact, the base of the table looks remarkably similar to the structural framework of Tesla's 1900 tower, making it a kind of tribute.
There are almost as many fascinating ferrofluid videos on YouTube as there are clips of kittens being cute. So it's rare to come across one that offers anything new and interesting. But CrazyRussianHacker has done just that with this simple trick that turns ferrofluid into some kind of nightmarish liquid metal spinning saw blade.
The secret here is to magnetize a large bolt stood on its end, and then gently pour a bit of ferrofluid on top of it. Gravity will pull the liquid down the bolt along its spiral thread, and the magnetic field will create those terrifying spinning spikes you see. Simple, but no less wonderful once you know how it's done.
London-based designer and researcher Shamees Aden has a vision for the future of footwear. It's a future where shoes are 3D printed out of synthetic biological material that responds to your every step and can regenerate overnight. She's even made a prototype.
Behold the Protocell sneaker. The shoes are customized for the wearers foot so that they fit like a second skin, and in its own way, the protocell technology that they're made of works like skin. Protocells aren't alive, but they act like they are which is how the shoes get their responsive and self-healing qualities.
"The cells have the capability to inflate and deflate and to respond to pressure," Aden told Dezeen. But they special material requires a little extra care, as you have to store them in a jar full of protocell liquid. Aden explained, "You would take the trainers home and you would have to care for it as if it was a plant, making sure it has the natural resources needed to rejuvenate the cells."
Who wouldn't want half-living shoes that make it look like you have alien feet? Unfortunately, the project is only in the concept stage now, and Aden thinks it could be nearly four decades before we see this kind of technology on the market. More here.
You can already get sticky notes in a few different sizes, but for those who want even more control, you can now get them on an endless roll—letting you tear off the perfect size as needed. After all, some days you just need a few groceries, while others you need to completely restock the pantry.
You don't think it's only laptop, tablet, and smartphone designers that go the extra mile to make their devices thinner and thinner do you? Watch makers are constantly battling each other for the same notoriety, and now Piaget has reclaimed the title of 'world's thinnest mechanical watch' with its new Altiplano 38mm 900P that measures in at 3.65mm—making it thinner than many digital alternatives.
Snatching the title from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget managed to shave a full 0.4mm off the thickness of the previous record holder. But the company's watchmakers did it in a very clever way. Normally a mechanical watch features a movement—all the gears and mechanisms that make it tick—inside a case. But with the Altiplano 38mm 900P, the movement is built right into the actual watch's body.
So the watch is just as much a technological and engineering achievement as it is comfortable to wear. Every single one of the Altiplano 38mm 900P's 145 components had to be manufactured with extreme levels of precision, which, not surprisingly, contributes to its wallet-thinning price tag. When available, the watch will sell for between $20,000 and $30,000, but eventually you can expect to see the innovations that made it possible trickle down to other more affordable pieces. More here.
When you hear the words 'vacuum' and 'USB' used in the same sentence, you probably picture a tiny keyboard cleaning tool with barely enough power to suck up crumbs. ButPanasonic's hybrid MC-HS700G—now available in Japan—is a full-sized vacuum cleaner strong enough to lift a bowling ball that can also be charged from a USB port giving you up to 20 minutes of suction without a tether to a wall outlet.
For most of your indoor cleaning needs you'll want to keep the MC-HS700G plugged into an AC outlet to take full advantage of its dust sensor, cyclone-action suction, and built-in headlights for spotting dirty areas on your floor. But for cleaning your car, or areas in your home too far from an outlet, the vacuum's rechargeable battery boasts up to 20 minutes of cleaning on a single charge.
Of course, that's with minimal suction. Battery life dwindles to a mere six minutes at full power, so you may want to reinstate that 'no eating in the car' rule. And the vacuum is a hefty $700, making it more expensive than even Dyson's high-end models. But looking over at the tangle of cables on the floor, a rechargeable vacuum that can outperform a dustbuster and share our smartphone's charger is still very, very tempting. More here.
Fansite Google Street View World today found that Google Maps has a Street View pictureof a Northwestern Trailways charter bus hanging somewhat precariously over Interstate 5 following a crash.
No, it's not a fake. According to TV station KATU, this happened back in December 2008. They called it a "bizarre incident" in which two charter buses collided while nosing down an icy Seattle hill, sending both of them crashing through a metal railing above the freeway. The bus in the photo hang 30 feet above the Interstate before it was towed to safety.
The Google camera car must have just been in the right place at the right time, I guess. More here.
Is there anything more soul crushing than waking up and checking the weather on your phone, only to discover that there are inches of snow outside waiting to complicate your morning commute? Snow in the forecast doesn't always have to be a letdown, though. With this steam-bent wooden toboggan from Lucky Bums, you'll embrace every flake that falls.
Plastic sleds with brakes and steering have come to dominate snow-covered hills over the years, but there's just nothing as thrilling as climbing onto an old-school wooden toboggan, lining up your path of descent, and then hoping you won't hit anything on the way down. If you do, this made-in-the-USA toboggan's padded seat should help you ride out the worst of it.
At $200, it's certainly more expensive that other sledding options you can get your hands on. But remember, like a set of skis, with a little bit of wax a wooden toboggan can send you rocketing down a hill, leaving other higher-tech sledders eating your snowy dust. More here.
Money doesn't grow on trees. You can't get something for nothing. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Except all of these cliches are apparently false, because Antoine Deblay, a student who lives in southwest France is actually making money selling cans of air from his town.
For €5.50, or about $7.50, Deblay is shipping 250ml cans of air called "Air de Montcuq" for his hometown. This summer he raised about $1,000 on KissKissBankBank, a French crowdfunding site, which allowed him to make a website and get the tins/packaging he needed. Deblay told Business Insider that in the first three weeks he received a thousand orders and has already made thousands of dollars with a 60 percent profit margin.
The appeal of the cans comes from a pun that is inherent in the name of Deblay's town. Montcuq can be mispronounced "mon cul" or "my ass," meaning that "Air de Montcuq" can be translated as "the wind of my ass." Novelty gift? Sure, why not.
Because he apparently is not afraid of taking the whole thing too seriously, Deblay is only selling 10 liters of air per week so he doesn't put a strain on his supply, and when he hits that limit he puts a warning on the website that orders are done for the week. Deblay told Business Insider, "Of course I knew it was going to sell, but not so much in so little time!" Of course! More here.
As earth's population surges, mankind faces an increasingly limited supply of fresh water. Thankfully, Australian scientists report this week that they've found vast new fresh water supplies. Unfortunately, it's in one of earth's least accessible places: under the ocean floor.
Published in this week's Nature, the research compiles mounting evidence that fresh groundwater reserves exist off the shores of Australia, China, North America and Africa. The researchers estimate that 500,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water is trapped in aquifers under the ocean floor — more than 20 times the volume of water in all five Great Lakes.
Getting to the water without contaminating it presents an enormous challenge. But with 40% of the world's population already living in conditions of water scarcity, it may prove to be necessary. More here.
Proxy describes the project as just "the first in a series of kinetic, 3D-printed objects designed to explore the limits of 3D printing as an art form":
Created in a one-shot fabrication process, Mechaneu #1 features an elaborate network of interlocking gears and support structures. Spin one gear and the entire sphere is catalyzed with the rotation. The effect is mesmerizing, a visualization for the eye and a tactile experience for the hands. The Mechaneu design explores the limit case of commercial 3D printing; all aspect of the design are calibrated to the minimum thicknesses and maximum detail levels.
But it's the insane, nested spherical rotation of this thing—or, rather, the fact that it works, and that it came from a 3D printer—that blows my mind.
A daily run can be great for your health and fitness, but it can actually be harmful too if not done properly. Of course the right shoes are an important part of the formula, especially thissensor-laden pair developed by the Fraunhofer Institute which provide real-time feedback on your running style, and how to improve it.
So what makes these sneaks so smart? Built into their sole is a biometric sensor working alongside an accelerometer and GPS hardware. Together they collect data on the runner's speed and technique, and transmit it to a smartphone app via Bluetooth which analyzes the information and makes suggestions to improve the wearer's running style or routine.
One day it might suggest you try rolling off your foot differently to improve your stride, while others it might recommend running on a softer surface like grass. The shoes and software can even make intelligent recommendations on when you need to give your feet a break. The only feature that might be lacking is giving you the motivation to get off the couch and out the door to begin with. More here.
If you thought launching a drone from an aircraft carrier was impressive, you're going to be blown away by this: After six years of development, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has successfully launched a drone from a submerged submarine.
That's right. A submerged submarine. Submerged under the ocean. The picture above is real: a composite of time-lapse photos taken during the launch. You can see the wings swing out like a pair of scissors as the drone takes to the sky.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory really outdid themselves this time. Their Experimental Fuel Cell (XFC) unmanned aerial system was just fired from the torpedo tube of the USS Providence. The so-called Sea Robin launch vehicle system then floated to the surface, where an all-electric, fuel cell-powered drone with foldable wings took to the sky where it performed an hour-long test flight before landing at the Naval Sea Systems Command Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas. Pretty cool, huh?
Well, this is just the beginning. The XFC launch doesn't come as a huge surprise because we've known for a few months now that DARPA is working on a submarine "mothership"that can launch both unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles—all kinds of drones. Dubbed as the Hydra program, this initiative will enable sailors to send remotely piloted, and someday perhaps fully autonomous, craft into battle zones virtually undetected. It'll also scare the pants off of unsuspecting fisherman. More here.
Even though 35mm film dominated the film industry for years and years, the majority of movies released to theaters were much wider than the stock's 4:3 aspect ratio. But instead of sacrificing resolution and simply cropping off the top and bottom of a frame to make it widescreen, filmmakers used special lenses that squeezed a wider vista onto the 35mm film stock, and then unsqueezed the images when they were being projected. They were known as anamorphic lenses, and soon you'll be able to get one for your iPhone.
What looks like one of the many external lenses you can get for your smartphone is actually one of the first to do an anamorphic squeeze on your footage, letting you shoot video that's approximately 33 percent wider than the iPhone's standard field of vision.
So if you're shooting video in an old-school 4:3 aspect ratio, when the footage was unsqueezed in your video editor it would have a wider 16:9 vista. And if you're shooting in 16:9 to start with, the resulting footage would have an even wider and more majestic 2.4:1 aspect ratio. For still images the iPhone's panoramic mode easily accomplishes this, but this is currently the only way to pull it off for video.
The anamorphic adapter lens is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, and with a pledge of $85 or more you can claim one of the first production units when they're available sometime closer to March of next year. More here.
The best gifts are the ones that aren't obvious. Oh you're going to get your sister another pair of earrings? Nah. This time you should go for a set that were 3D printed instead. In order to wow your family and everyone on your list this year, here's are some magical presents that came out of a printer.
Now, you may be thinking, but I don't have a 3D printer. But no printer is no problem. You can easily order something that has already been designed and 3D printed for you. So now that you know how easy it is, what are you going to print for your friends and family? Maybe you can find some inspiration here.
Things that usually spin really, really fast: a top, the wheel of fortune wheel, other wheels, circular objects, knobs and other things of that nature. Not a mountain! Well, unless you're Superman and can fly around it. Newsflash: we're not Superman. However! Kevin Parry and Andrea Nesbitt of Candy Glass Productions might be. They created a mountain spinning flyby effect in a sick hyperlapse of Mt. Hood.
Nesbitt told PetaPixel that creating a hyperlapse of the spinning mountain took a lot of careful planning along with "miles and miles of hiking, and some terrifying driving/exploring". I think it was totally worth it.
Is there anything worse than being at a party and having someone steal your drink? Sure! Taking a long swigg on a can only to realize it isn't yours. But now you can avoid both situations with this keychain-sized stamp that lets you brand an aluminum can with a permanent message, leaving no debate as to its ownership.
The aptly named CanStamp features a set of raised letters spelling out messages like mine, in use, fuel, and 1 more. And branding your beverage is as easy as pressing that stamp—and its message—it into the ridge just below the top of an aluminum can. Admittedly debates over ownership could flare up if more than one person brings the $8 CanStamp to a party, so you might want to skip this one until they come out with a version you can personalize with your name, or a more specific threat. More here.
Space junk is a serious problem: it threatens satellites and spacecraft, and can plummet unpredictably to earth. Australia's Murchison Widefield Array is a high-sensitivity radio telescope that tracks space debris as small as 1 meter across, by observing how the objects reflect FM signals from Australian radio stations. It's listening to pop music from space.
The array, part of western Australia's Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory, was built as a precursor to the proposed Square Kilometre Array being jointly undertaken by Australia and South Africa. As it stands right now, the Murchison Widefield Array consists of 2,048 individual antennas arranged in 128 four-by-four tiles. A single tile is pictured above.
When FM broadcast radio signals traveling out into space encounter debris, some of the radio waves are reflected back toward earth. The Murchison Widefield Array can pick up signals from objects as far as 620 miles away. So the next time you hear Gotye or Keith Urban on the radio, just think — in Australia, they're helping monitor space junk. More here.
