Category: SCI/TECH
Everything You Need to Know About James Cameron and the Deep Sea Challenge
On Sunday March 25, 2012 at noon, local time (10 p.m. ET), James Cameron’s vertical torpedo sub, the ‘Deep Sea Challenger’, broke the surface of the western Pacific, carrying the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker back from the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep. It is Earth’s deepest, and perhaps most alien, realm. After a…
Picture of the Day: An Eruption on Io as Jupiter Looms
AN ERUPTION ON IO AS JUPITER LOOMS Photograph by NASA This montage of images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby in early 2007. The Jupiter image is an infrared color composite taken by the spacecraft’s near-infrared imaging spectrometer on Feb. 28, 2007. The…
15 Incredible Cloud Formations
Roll Cloud, Las Olas Beach, Uruguay | Photograph by Daniela Mirner Eberl The skies have always been a constant source of fascination for humans. One common mass that everyone on the planet has seen in one form or another are clouds. They can come in all sizes, shapes, and colours; and their distinct…
Picture of the Day: Felix Baumgartner Jumps From 71,580 Feet
FELIX BAUMGARTNER JUMPS FROM 71,580 FEET © Jay Nemeth/Red Bull Content Pool On March 15th, 2012, Austria’s Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a space capsule from an altitude of approximately 71,580 feet (21,818 meters) as the Red Bull Stratos project moved forward into the manned flight stage in New Mexico. The 42-year-old…
Lichtenberg Figures: The Fractal Patterns of Lightning Strike Scars
Being struck by lightning is a dangerous and scary experience and can even be fatal. Sometimes, the electrical discharge can leave a tattoo-like marking or scar known as a Lichtenberg figure. The patterns created are known to be examples of fractals. Lichtenberg figures are branching electric discharges that sometimes appear on the surface or…
DARPA Cheetah Sets Land Speed Record for Legged Robots at 18mph (29km/h)
Photograph by DARPA In the video below, DARPA’s four-legged Cheetah robot has set a new land speed record for legged robots, reaching a top speed up 18 miles per hour (29 km/h). The previous record was 13.1 mph (21.08 km/h) set in 1989. The robot is part of DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation…
Village in Italy Builds Giant Mirror to Combat 83 Days of Darkness
Photograph via Christophe Cauvy About 120 km (74.5 miles) northeast of Turin, Italy, lies a hamlet called Viganella. It’s a remote commune of a couple hundred German Buddhists situated at the bottom of a steep-sided Alpine valley, right up against the Swiss border. Every year from November 11th to February 2nd, the sun…
