Born Ready
Mothers usually have to keep a close watch over their eggs before they hatch, but if you are a mother red-eyed tree frog, you can rest easy. As they are about to hatch, these baby tree frogs can pick up on specific vibrations that signal when a predator is approaching. If that happens, the frogs frogs secrete an enzyme that eats a whole in the egg, allowing them to escape, as seen above. Those are some self-sufficient newborns.
Tim Peake’s Last Sunsets From The ISS
British astronaut Tim Peake safely returned to Earth this morning, after spending six months on board the International Space Station. During his stay, he kept up with the world below him through his Twitter updates, often posting pictures like this one, which was one of the last sunsets he witnessed from the ISS during his stay.
Survival Tags
Clothing labels are usually pretty useless and are often the first thing you cut off and throw away when you get your clothes home. But for some of its clothes, apparel company Columbia is trying to make use out of this useless item by turning the tags into reusable survival tools. The new stainless steel tags can become anything from a tiny handsaw, to a compass, and even a water purifying kit.
‘Star Wars’, In Virtual Reality
You used to just be able to watch Star Wars. And that was cool, but wouldn’t it be even cooler to actually be in Star Wars. Now you almost can. Star Wars has paired up with digital effects company ILM and virtual reality company Magic Leap to bring R2D2 and C3PO to your living room. Check out the video here.
The All-In-One Smart Device
This new smart device called the Runcible from Monohm Inc. will be available for preorder later this month. But many are wondering what exactly it is. The circular device can work as a phone, but also as a desk watch and potentially many other things. The most unique thing about it though, is the fact that the user has complete control over its updates. The device can be upgraded piecemeal: replacing the battery when needed, upgrading only when you want to, and upgrading the memory as you see fit.
NASA Wants You
Colonizing Mars isn’t just an idea out of science fiction or a Hollywood movie anymore. And NASA wants you to take it seriously too. As a throw-back to the Uncle Sam posters, with a little sci-fi thrown in, NASA put out these recruiting posters to gauge interest in who would be interested in ditching Earth for a more red planet.
A Beating Heart
What better way to celebrate innovative research in heart and circulatory diseases than to honor this unique still image of a beating heart? The British Heart Foundation announced the winner of its annual Reflections Of Research image competition. The winning image shown above, entitled “Go With The Flow”, captures what flowing blood looks like when “frozen in time”. The blue depicts deoxygenated blood that’s traveling to the lungs for oxygen, while the red depicts blood traveling to the heart, full of oxygen to be pumped to the rest of the body. The University Of Oxford
A Second Chirp
Back in February, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) confirmed what had been suspected since September of last year: the observatory detected gravitational waves, those ripples in spacetime that Einstein first predicted. Now LIGO has detected them for a second time, further confirming this long awaited theory. Now, the researchers’ next step is to study the waves from a larger volume of space to potentially see these waves from other events that we haven’t observed or know less about.
BEAM me up
Over Memorial Day Weekend, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, also known as BEAM, was successfully inflated on the International Space Station. While astronaut Jeff Williams was the first to step foot inside the module on June 6, its looks like the device has gotten a lot more use. As shown in the picture above, we now know that at least six people can fit inside the 13 by 10 foot expandable space habitat.
The Rolls-Royce Concept Car
This week Rolls-Royce revealed its new concept car of the future, called the Vision Next 100. It comes complete with numerous necessary and unnecessary designs. But, as we note, its missing two important things: a wheel and a power source. Its clear the company is anticipating a green and driverless future.
