Spectacular video shows the beautiful and epic explosions on the Sun — To celebrate the fifth anniversary of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA put out this video of all the coolest, jaw-dropping explosions that happened on our sun over the past five years. You basically watch the sun dance with shooting flares and solar loops. It’s unreal.
~ Pretty mesmerising.
Inaugural launch of Europe’s Experimental Spaceplane — The first launch and reentry of the European Space Agency’s unoccupied Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) went off this morning after a slight delay. The mini spaceplane made a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean after a quick but flawless journey.
~ To me it looks more like a rocket than a plane.
Converting sunlight into liquid fuel with a bionic leaf — Artificial leaf techology made waves the moment it was announced by Daniel Nocera back in 2011. His latest research, published in PNAS, involves gathering hydrogen from this artificial leaf, carbon dioxide from another source, and feeding it to Ralstonia eutropha bacteria to create liquid fuel.
Researchers say the same process could be used to make vitamins.
~ Don’t real leaves do something similar?
Giant Meccano pieces let you build your own furniture —
Most of us can build furniture using instruction manuals. But what about when that safety net is gone and you’re forced to construct tables, chairs and shelves using just your imagination? That’s what Meccano Home proposes:, super-sizing the metallic construction toy so it can be used to build actual human-sized furniture.
~ And it looks cooler than Ikea.
Marine robotic war balls — Establishing a beachhead on enemy-held turf is historically one of the most dangerous jobs in warfare. A research team from Stamford, Connecticut has developed an amphibious drone currently being tested by the Marines. The GuardBot is a robot ball that swims over water at about 6.5 kilometres per hour and then rolls along the beach, at as much as a 30-degree incline and 32kph.
~ Inspired by the Barnes-Wallis bouncing bomb, perhaps. It certainly gives ‘beach football’ a new complexion.
Tents are becoming cubes — The lightest freestanding, mass-production tent currently available is the Big Agnes Fly Creek 2 Platinum. It weighs in at a scarcely believable 709g but.it’s very expensive at $US550. Gizmodo follows the evolution of hiking tents.
~ The lighter they are, the more flimsy, surely? All my hikes seem to have involved bad weather.
The US used to get ‘monster hurricanes’ — A new analysis shows that the northeast corner of what is now the United States was slammed by at least 23 severe hurricanes from the years 250 to 1150, many of them reaching category 3 and 4 status.
Researchers say these hurricanes, which formed in relatively warm seas, could be a harbinger of things to come.
~ Yay, more harbingers.
Mac NZ 