Sanyo's new pocket camera clearly takes aim at
the Flip, while at the same time liberally borrowing inspiration from
its success. The design moves away from previous Xacti gun-shaped designs
and adopts a more Flip-like form factor, even including the signature
pop-out USB connector from which Flip takes its name. Assuming that
Sanyo didn't infringe on any patents here, we're excited that the
company sees the value and marketability of simple cameras with few
buttons. That was the common appeal of the Flip, and that same simplicity might help Sanyo take a bite out of the pocket-camera/camcorder market. Read More
The trickle of USB 3.0
devices hitting the market is steadily increasing and will no doubt be a
flood before too long. Portable hard drives are likely to be big
sellers and Samsung is helping to get the ball rolling by announcing its
new 2.5-inch external HDD, the S2 Portable 3.0. The drive features an
on-board SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and a 7200RPM spindle speed to
slash the time spent watching a progress bar crawl across the screen
when moving files. Read More
Low-voltage halogen downlights are among the most
commonly used globes in the world. Despite the low voltage moniker they
aren’t very energy efficient, generally producing around the same
amount of greenhouse gas as a 60-watt incandescent globe. While there
are plenty of environmentally friendly alternatives to incandescent
globes, finding a greener alternative for recessed lighting offers less
options. Sharp is providing another, however, with its thin design LED
ceiling lights. Read More
The moon is shrinking according to a team
analyzing new images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The
images reveal previously unknown cliffs, called lobate scarbs. These
are thrust faults that occur primarily in the lunar highlands that
indicate the moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and
might still be shrinking today. Although they were first recognized in
photographs taken near the moon's equator by the panoramic cameras flown
on the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions, the fourteen previously unknown
lobate scarbs revealed by the very high resolution images taken by the
LRO camera indicate that the thrust faults are globally distributed and
not clustered near the moon’s equator. Read More
More than 1,000 tons (2.2 million pounds) of
titanium devices are implanted in patients worldwide every year with
joint replacements one of the more common procedures. Light, strong and
totally biocompatible, titanium is one of the few materials that
naturally match the requirements for implantation in the human body.
Researchers have now developed an improved coating technique that could
strengthen the connection between titanium joint-replacement implants
with a patient’s own bone. The stronger connection – created by
manipulating signals the body’s own cells use to encourage growth –
could allow the implants to last longer. Read More
Augmented Reality, or AR, is currently one of the
hot areas for mobile app development – for some reason, people seem
quite smitten with the idea of being able to point their mobile device’s
camera at a street, and having information about the buildings and
businesses that appear on their screen superimposed over the images in
real time. Now, a prototype mobile AR device is being tested, that
concentrates more on topography than urban exploration. The Marmota
mobile AR can tell you things like what the names of those mountain
peaks over there are, what their elevation is, and how far away they
are. Read More
So you need to show off your latest holiday snaps
or home movie to your friends and family, and don't have a digital
photo frame, tablet computer or laptop anywhere nearby. What you need is
a camera that can throw images onto a nearby wall. Happily, Nikon has
announced that it has upgraded its projector-wielding Coolpix compact.
There are more megapixels, high definition movie capabilities and an
even brighter projector, as well as a body redesign and new color
options. Read More
It's been just over a year since Fujifilm went
three dimensional with the release of its FinePix Real 3D camera, the
W1. Now the company has announced its second 3D compact camera, the
Finepix REAL 3D W3. Although it inherits some of the feature set from
its predecessor, the W3 gets a larger LCD display and now records video
in high definition, albeit at 720p. Fujifilm has also thrown in stereo
sound recording for good measure. Read More
If you saw this thing on your neighbor's trailer,
you'd laugh at him. "What sort of pretentious man-child buys a boat
shaped like a shark," you'd scoff into your mugaccino, secure in the
knowledge that you'd never shell out for something so ridiculous. But
you might change your tune if you caught him down at the lake and
watched him pulling 50mph (80km/h) barrel rolls, then diving under the
surface and launching the thing 12-feet (3.6m) into the air like some
sort of evil mechanical dolphin. The Seabreacher X is preposterous in
theory, but in practice it's an adrenaline machine that can do things
pretty much no other watercraft can – take a look at the video after the
jump. Read More
Ricoh has announced a successor to its popular
CX3 compact superzoom which sports a new body design, tracking
auto-focus and improved image stabilization. Described by the company as
"workmanlike yet stylish", the 10 megapixel CX4 retains its
predecessor's high resolution LCD display, wide-angle optical zoom lens
and 720p video capability but now benefits from improved noise reduction
and a special night landscape mode. Read More
The message is clear. Whisky and driving is not a
good mix. But rules are made to be broken and researchers at Edinburgh
Napier University have managed to successfully marry the two, albeit as a
fuel for the vehicle and not the driver. Researchers have taken two
by-products of the whisky-making process and transformed them into an
energy dense biofuel that doesn't require vehicles to undergo any
modification prior to use. Read More
Four mechanical engineering undergraduates from
the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have installed a
computer and eight velocity sensors on a surfboard, in effort to create
the ultimate surfing experience. While the students ride the board
across the waves, the sensors register the speed at which the board
skims along the water, then send that data to the computer, which
proceeds to transmit it wirelessly to a laptop on the beach. The
computer also saves the data on an internal memory card. The students
built the board for their senior design project, but also as a part of
Ph.D. student Benjamin Thompson’s science-of-surfboards project, in
which he hopes to design the "perfect" board. Read More
It would seem kind of strange if you were driving
on a back road at night, far from any known source of electricity, when
you suddenly came across a working streetlight. Such a thing is
possible, however, and could even become a common occurrence. That’s
because Lighting Science Group now manufactures solar powered LED
streetlights, that can run entirely independent of local power grids.
Even if the availability of electricity isn’t an issue, Lighting Science
states they are also brighter, more efficient, and require less
maintenance than regular HID streetlights. Those claims obviously
impressed somebody, as the company’s PROLIFIC Series Roadway
streetlights are now being installed on a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch
of Mexico City’s elevated Viaducto Bicentenario superhighway. Read More
If you’re a fan of the military strategy game Risk,
then you definitely might be interested in this: on October 13th,
Bonhams Auction House in London will be selling off an “extremely rare”
copy of The Game of War, a complex military board game dating from 1890. Unlike Risk, which is played for amusement and to shed excess friends, The Game of War was designed to be played by real military officers, to train them for the upcoming First World War. It was based on Kriegsspiel,
a war game invented by Lieutenant Georg von Reiswitz in the early 19th
century for training officers in the Prussian army. If you’re
interested, however, be sure to stop by the bank machine on your way
there – the game is expected to fetch between £1,500 to £2000, or
US$2,330 to $3,100. Read More
Getting inside the mind of a terrorist to prevent attacks
By Ben Coxworth
August 20, 2010
Recently, 29 students from Northwestern
University in Illinois planned a terrorist attack. Researchers from the
university were subsequently able to learn details of the attack, even
though the students never admitted to anything. How was this possible?
Well, essentially, the researchers read the students’ minds. More
specifically, they monitored their P300 brain waves – brief electrical
patterns in the cortex, which occur when meaningful information is
presented to someone with “guilty knowledge.” In this case, it was a
mock planned attack, but the research team believe their process could
be used to prevent the real thing. Read More
A vegetarian diet, according to its proponents,
has a lighter ecological footprint, reduced resource impacts, and lower
carbon emissions than the non-vegetarian equivalent. A new fast-casual
vegetarian restaurant chain, however, is taking “eating green” to a
whole new level. Otarian, which already has locations in New York and
opens in London this Friday, is the first global chain to carbon
footprint all of its menu items according to the internationally
recognized PAS 2050 standard. Not only can diners see the carbon figures
for each item listed on the menu, but foods that generate too large of a
footprint are simply not offered. The restaurant is also testing out
the World Resources Institute's new product carbon foot printing
standard, which Otarian claims “will help diners to understand the
environmental impact of their food choices in a highly measurable and
quantifiable way.” Read More
As the rumor mill hit fever pitch, Nikon chose to
announce the successor to its popular D3000 entry-level digital SLR.
The new D3100 is Nikon's first digital SLR to record full 1080p high
definition video and also features full time autofocus. Its sensor has
been increased to 14.2 megapixels, the sensitivity range given a huge
boost and users can now frame shots via the LCD display as well as the
viewfinder. Read More
We're familiar with Sennheiser's high-end headphones
when it comes to enjoying music, but the company also has a history in
specialist aviation audio gear that stretches back over two decades. One
of the latest additions to this range is the 26 series – headsets aimed
at commercial pilots which are notable not only for some clever design
elements that protect hearing whilst ensuring that the person in charge
of getting you to back on the ground safely can hear everything clearly.
Read More
The continued trend towards smaller and lighter
urban commuter vehicles continued today with Kia showing glimpses of an
all-new electric concept car it will reveal at the Paris Show on
September 30. Called the ‘POP’, Kia’s three-meter, three-seater was
styled at Kia’s Russelsheim design studio where head of design Peter
Schreyer has been husbanding the revitalization of the Kia family DNA.
Read More
Guitarists who like to bring a little music to
city streets and maybe make a bit of extra cash on the side face the
problem of having their tunes drowned out by traffic noise or carried
away on the wind. Traditional amplifiers requiring a power source are no
help and while there are battery-powered units around, we don’t think
any are as elegant or convenient as the solution developed by Laurie
Nicoll of Victoria, Australia. His sound hole amplifier, or “SHamp” is a
compact amplifier that fits into the sound hole of an acoustic guitar
to give it that bit of extra oomph when you need it. Read More
Mercedes-Benz unveils 2012 model CLS four-door coupe
By Darren Quick
August 23, 2010
The leaking of pics last week looks to have prompted Mercedes-Benz to officially unveil its 2012 model CLS,
which will make its debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show. The car
retains the long hood, frame-less side windows and sweeping roof of the
car that was first introduced back in 2004 that is credited with
pioneering the four-door coupe market. Although the dimensions are the
same, the second generation CLS boasts a more aggressive look than its
predecessor. Read More
If you’ve ever tried carrying an aquarium full of
water, you’ll know that not only is the stuff heavy, but it’s also
difficult to keep from sloshing back and forth. The Attitube, a
relatively new fitness training device, takes advantage of those
qualities to build core stability. Designed by Canadian former
professional wrestler and present-day strength and stability coach Larry
Brun, the Attitube is a simply a clear hollow tube with water inside.
You use it like you would a barbell or dumbbell, with the motion of the
water adding an extra challenge for your core muscles. Read More
Olympus
has just released three new compact point and shoot digital cameras,
the FE-4050, FE-5050 and µ-7050, increasing the competition within the
point and shoot market. All three cameras are slim in size and are
available in several color options. They are also all equipped with the
TruePicIII image processing engine, providing color consistency and a
wide dynamic range. Shooting functions feature six Magic Filters, which
allow you to transform a normal scene via Pop, Pin Hole, Fisheye,
Drawing, Punk and Soft Focus options. Their user-friendly functions
include easy-to-understand descriptions of camera modes on the LCD
monitor and an iAUTO function that automatically optimizes the camera
settings by analyzing the scene. AF Tracking helps keep a moving subject
in focus by tracking it automatically, whilst Perfect Fix corrects
backlight exposure and redeye. They also come with a USB battery
charging option, which allows the camera battery to be recharged from a
PC. Read More
Although wave power is attracting a lot of attention as a renewable energy source, it is
possible to generate power from still water. All you need is an
electrolyzer, which separates water into its two components, hydrogen
and oxygen, then feeds them into a fuel cell. Electrolyzers, however,
require catalysts to get the process rolling. While hydrogen production
catalysts aren’t much of a problem, the platinum catalysts used for
oxygen production are expensive, don’t last very long, and the creation
of them incorporates toxic chemicals. This Monday, however, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) announced the development of a new oxygen production catalyst
that is 200 times more efficient than platinum. The nickel-borate-based
catalyst has been licensed to Sun Catalytix, which is hoping to be
producing safe, super-efficient electrolyzers within two years. Read More
Canon
has announced the new SELPHY CP800 Compact Photo Printer, which will
replace the SELPHY CP780. The CP800 features a tilt LCD screen,
built-in voice guidance, and dye sublimation technology, which produces
smooth and glossy prints that are reportedly similar in quality and look
to traditional lab photos. Prints are dry and ready for handling the
second they leave the printer, and a special over-coating provides
protection from spills and splashes. Read More
A threesome of Powershot cameras unveiled by Canon
By Paul Ridden
August 23, 2010
Modern snappers are no longer content with
point-and-shoot compact cameras just, well, pointing and shooting. We
want feature-rich cameras that can produce crisp, clear images even if
we're a little shaky in our photographic approach. We want a host of
creative image modes to take even our most feeble attempts and turn them
into something special. And we want high-def video. Canon has revealed a
trio of PowerShot updates which offer all that and more. Amongst the
specification increases is high-definition video up to full 1080p, a
sensor improvement, lens gains, image handling enhancements and SDXC
media card support. Read More
Someone has apparently crunched the numbers and
estimated that more than 100 million birds are killed every year due to
collisions with glass surfaces – not to mention the untold numbers of
beverages spilt by surprised people as a bird slams into a nearby
window. Birds see the tree or sky reflected in a window or the
environment behind the glazing, but not the glass itself. German company
Glaswerke Arnold (or Arnold Glass) has come up with a simple way to
prevent these collisions by producing a glass that appears normal to
humans but is visible to birds. Read More
Shock treatment turns humble spud into superfood
By Darren Quick
August 22, 2010
Originating in the region of southern Peru and
first being domesticated between 3,000 and 2,000 BC, the potato has
spread to become an integral part of the world’s cuisine and the world’s
fourth-largest food crop. Scientists have now discovered not one, but
two simple, inexpensive ways to boost the amounts of antioxidants in the
humble spud. One involves giving spuds an electric shock, while the
other involves zapping them with ultrasound, high frequency sound waves.
Read More
Deserts are the obvious locations for solar power
plants. The land is cheap and the sunshine is plentiful. Unfortunately
so too is the dust, dirt and wind that leads to dirty solar panels that
can take a big hit in efficiency. Sending a guy around with a squeegee
in the sweltering heat doesn’t sound like the best job in the world and
self-cleaning systems that rely on water
aren’t always an option in areas where clean water is hard to come by.
Another solution is self-dusting solar panels that are cleaned by an
electric charge provided by the solar panels themselves. The
self-dusting solar panels are based on technology developed for another
dry and dusty environment – Mars. Read More
One of the long held hopes for DNA
sequencing is that it will usher in an era of personalized, predictive
medicine by providing individualized blueprints of genetic
predispositions for specific conditions and diseases, such as cancer,
diabetes and addiction. Researchers have now devised a method that works
at a very small scale to sequence DNA quickly and relatively
inexpensively that could open the door to more effective individualized
medicine. Read More
Spin electronics, or “spintronics” promises to revolutionize computing. We’ve covered numerous breakthroughs in the field including controlling the spin of electrons, manipulating single electrons independently, and the first plastic spintronic computer memory device.
However, one major hurdle for spintronics researchers has been the
difficulty in detecting the flow of spinning electrons in real time. The
discovery of a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons
within a semiconductor changes that and could lead the way to the
development of superior computers and electronics. Read More
Stem cells have been touted as the potential key
to treating ailments ranging from Parkinson’s disease and multiple
sclerosis to spinal cord injuries, to name just a few. That’s because
they can be made into any type of cell that’s needed - they’re
essentially the plasticine of the cell world. The problem that
scientists have encountered is the difficulty in growing them. For one
thing, it’s hard to grow enough of them to perform large-scale
experiments. For another, most of the materials upon which the stem
cells are grown contain cells or proteins from mouse embryos, which
stimulate cell growth but would probably also cause an immune reaction
if injected into a human recipient. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), however, have just announced the creation of a new growing surface that does away with both of these limitations. Read More
There are many factors other than the megapixel
count that affect the quality of images a digital camera will produce –
sensor size, lens quality, organization of the pixels, etc. However,
consumers often use the number of pixels each dollar buys as a basic
measure of value for a digital camera and there has been a steady
increase in the “pixels per dollar” for new cameras that roughly follows
Moore’s Law. Depending on its cost and when it will hit the market, a
new APS-H-size CMOS image sensor developed by Canon could put a bit of a dent in that line with its image resolution of approximately 120-megapixels. Read More
When bodily fluids such as blood are tested for
infectious diseases and unhealthy protein levels, they’re typically
mixed with antibodies or other biological reactants to produce a
positive or negative reaction. Researchers from Arizona State University
(ASU) have now come up with an alternative testing system that they
claim is just as accurate, but much simpler, quicker and cheaper. It
utilizes LED lights and simple microelectronic amplifiers, and actually
uses the sample itself as a diagnostic tool. Because it integrates the
sample into the process, inventors Antonia Garcia and John Schneider
call their device the Integrascope. Read More
Ultra-thin tablets, laptops and other mobile
devices could be set to look even slimmer with the development of SATA
solid state drives no bigger than a postage stamp. SanDisk's new
integrated SSD (iSSD) device is just 0.072 inch (1.85mm) thick, tips the
scales at a mere 0.029 of an ounce (0.83g) and is currently available
in sizes up to 64GB. It's not the fastest SSD solution currently
available but hey, it's got to be the smallest. Read More
Forget mobile device convergence, that's old
news. Every smartphone on the market now handles everything from camera
and calendar duties to gaming, GPS navigation, web browsing and social
media. Differentiation is looking like the name of the game moving
forward - offering do-it-all devices that distinguish themselves through
a particular focus. Take Sony's reportedly upcoming PSP phone,
which takes an Android 3.0 platform and mates it with a dedicated PSP
gaming experience. Or this, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50, a
fully-featured Android smartphone that comes pre-packaged with a car kit
and built-in Garmin map data so it can shine as an in-car GPS
navigation system. I've spent several weeks using the A50 as my primary
phone, and if you spend a lot of time on the road, this new nüvifone is
built for you and does a very credible job. Read More
Although chemotherapy is an effective cancer
treatment, it’s shotgun approach also damages healthy cells bringing
debilitating side effects such as nausea, liver toxicity and a battered
immune system. Now a new way to deliver this life-saving therapy to
cancer patients by getting straight to the source of the disease has
been developed. The researchers responsible for the breakthrough
delivery vehicle liken it to a cluster bomb for cancer because of its
ability to deliver the drugs directly into cancer cells before releasing
its chemotherapeutic payload. Read More
The little black dress is an essential part of
any girl’s wardrobe. And if this design from CuteCircuit is any
indication it could soon also be essential for staying in touch too. The
M-dress is a little black number that has a mobile phone built into it.
The wearer answers the dress by lifting their arm to their head as if
they were holding one of those passé mobile phone handsets and
disconnects once they lower their hand. Read More
Clothing that doubles as batteries could be a boon to soldiers
By Ben Coxworth
August 23, 2010
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) have created a virus in order to design rechargeable lithium-ion
batteries that could be woven into clothing to power portable electronic
devices. Not only could these batteries be incorporated into fabric,
but they could also be poured or sprayed into containers of any size or
shape, thus allowing the shells or other parts of devices to double as
their power source. MIT believes such batteries would be particularly
beneficial to soldiers, who commonly have to carry several pounds of
batteries to run their various gizmos. This development is reminiscent
of the University of California’s nanogenerator-enabled clothing that harnesses power from the wearer’s movements, and could perhaps even be combined with such technology. Read More
Canon's new PIXMA printers feature Full HD Movie Print function
By Jude Garvey
August 23, 2010
Canon has recently announced the addition of two
new PIXMA multifunction printers, the PIXMA MG8120 and PIXMA MG6120.
Both feature intelligent touch technology and a Full HD Movie Print
function which allows users to capture individual frames of recorded HD
movies taken with compatible HD Canon EOS and PowerShot Digital cameras. Read More
The Bullet Buckeye team from Ohio State
University has set a world record average two-way speed of 307.7mph
(495km/h) with its battery electric Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5. The
lithium ion battery powered car eclipsed the previous 245mph (394km/h)
world land speed record for battery electric vehicles set in 1999 by
White Lightning. The new record was set by the Bullet at the Bonneville
Salt Flats in Utah this week, is pending certification by the Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the worldwide motor sports
governing body. Read More
A study made public this Wednesday has shown that biosynthetic corneas
can and do restore eyesight in humans. Researchers from the Ottawa
Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa in
Canada, along with Linköping University in Sweden, conducted a clinical
trial using ten Swedish patients with advanced keratoconus or central
corneal scarring. Each patient had the damaged corneal tissue in one eye
surgically replaced with a biosynthetic cornea made from synthetically
cross-linked recombinant human collagen. After two years, six of the
patients’ vision had improved. After being fitted with contact lenses,
their vision was comparable to that of someone who had received a real
human cornea transplant. Read More
Earlier this month we took a look at Recorded Future,
a company that uses information scoured from thousands of websites,
blogs and Twitter accounts to make predictions about the future. Now,
Yahoo’s Barcelona research lab has created a similar prototype news
search engine called Time Explorer. It creates timelines based on search
queries that not only provide a way to check the accuracy of past
predictions, but also allows users to view predictions that are yet to
occur. Read More
You know, I’m pretty sure I remember a Far Side
cartoon or something, where someone was selling powdered water – “Just
add water!” Well, dry water isn’t quite the same thing. It’s 95 percent
liquid water, but that water takes the form of tiny droplets each
encased in a tiny globe of silica. The resultant substance is dry and
granular. It first came to light in 1968, and was used in cosmetics.
More recently, a University of Liverpool research team has been looking
into other potential uses for the substance. They have found several,
but most interesting is its ability to store gases such as carbon
dioxide. Read More
Kodak has unveiled a pocket-friendly digital
video camera and a 14MP point-and-shoot, both with a special button for
tagging movies and snaps for upload to social networking sites or to
send via email. The PLAYTOUCH video camera can record up to 1080p high
definition video, includes face-tracking technology and a handy HDMI-out
port. The svelte EASYSHARE M590 digital camera can also shoot high
definition movies, although at the lower resolution of 720p, and
benefits from optical image stabilization and a high sensitivity range.
Images can also be tagged and sent to the company's PULSE Digital Photo
Frame, which has just been given a bigger screen. Read More
New technology could prolong the life of medical implants
August 25, 2010
Researchers at the University of
Louisville/Jewish Hospital's Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII)
have discovered a method for preventing scar tissue from forming around
implantation devices. This discovery could have a great impact on the
functionality of common implanted devices, such as pacemakers,
chemotherapy ports and glucose sensors. According to the study, if a
unique system of blood vessels is created to interact with local tissue
around an implanted device, better long term results can be achieved.
The process involves “pre-vascularizing” a device prior to implantation,
using what the team call a microvascular construct (MVC), which
consists of blood vessels contained within a collagen gel. The idea is
that a device will be coated in this gel prior to implantation. Since
the body’s natural process is to find a foreign object and form a scar
around it, this new study could prevent this problem from occurring.
Read More
Ever since the 1920s, getting a tan has been
highly fashionable in many Western cultures. Despite the growing
mountain of evidence regarding the dangers, many (mainly young) people
continue to use solariums as a way to attain what is often seen as a
“healthy tan.” However, the evidence just keeps piling up with two new
studies out of Australia, home of the “bronzed Aussie,” showing that
using a solarium significantly raises ones chances of being diagnosed
with skin cancer and that the risks increase as the age of solarium use
decreases. Read More
Dark energy has been described as the greatest
puzzle of our universe. This mysterious force, discovered in 1998, is
pushing the universe apart at ever-increasing speeds and astronomers
have now devised a new method of measuring it. Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope,
astronomers were able to take advantage of a giant magnifying lens in
space – a massive cluster of galaxies – to narrow in on the nature of
dark energy. Their calculations, when combined with data from other
methods, significantly increase the accuracy of dark energy measurements
and may eventually lead to an explanation of what the elusive
phenomenon really is. Read More
Having grown up with the roar of gasoline-powered
engines, most people rely not only on their eyes, but also their ears
when detecting the danger of an oncoming vehicle. The quiet whirring of
an electric a hybrid vehicle operating at low speeds isn’t enough to
alert pedestrians of the vehicle’s approach and poses particular risks
to the blind. To address this problem Toyota has announced that it will
begin selling an onboard audio device that provides alerts pedestrians
to the presence of quiet vehicles, such as its gasoline-electric hybrid Prius. Read More
We all know that we shouldn’t make fun of people
with glasses, but now it appears that bugs with bifocals deserve our
respect too. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have
discovered that the larvae of the sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus)
have bifocal eyes. As far as they are aware, this is the first known
example of truly bifocal lenses in the animal kingdom. Previously, only
prehistoric trilobites were suspected of having had bifocal vision.
Besides being a big hairy deal in the bug world, this news could also
have implications for human technology. Read More
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