SCIENCE!

http://dvice.com/archives/2012/10/how-to-make-bui.php#1
We can make buildings from the blood of cows! Cuz, you know, we're wasting all that blood right now.
Don't you want to live in a building made of the blood of the fallen (cows)?

no.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.846/pdf

Groups that engage in immoral acts shift focus from morality to loyalty. Pretty fucked up, perfectly explains the whole silence re: comrade wrongdoings thing that makes the police so infamous.

Only the blood of my enemies will suffice.

After a small debate with myself, I decided to post this here as well. If you follow the provided link you can see the winners of this years Small World contest by Nikon. While you can find the a link to a page with just the pictures in the funny/clever images thread, the link here leads to the original contest webpage, where you can get more information which microscopic techniques and (if applicable) stainings were used.

Edit: Small Worlds is a contest for microscopy images. Warning, Spider picture included.

I love stuff having to do with the ocean and all that, so here you go:

The $1 billion mission to reach the Earth's mantle
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/01/tech/mantle-earth-drill-mission/index.html

Time to hack the planet.

Re-healable concrete
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20121303

Long story short: bacteria mixed in with concrete lays dormant. If a crack happens in the concrete, water that seeps in "awakens" the bacteria which then start eating stuff and poops our limestone that effectively fills in the crack.

Pretty effing cool.

We can rebuild him... we can make him better than before.

On the one hand, it must really suck to lose an arm. On other other hand, BIONIC ARM.

I see what you did there.

Google's latest pet project is mapping out our stellar neighborhood.

You're invited to take a quick romp around. Check out our hundred thousand closest neighbors.

Can't wait for street view.

Just wait until the extrasolar advertising kicks in.

TEM pictures of a DNA strand.

Article:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl3039162

Good news, everybody: Faster than light travel might be possible! Oh, there's a small side effect that it might destroy whatever planet you're trying to travel to when you get there.

Emphasis added for anyone who thinks it isn't awesome living in the future.

Your move, Death Star.

Haven't finished reading the article yet, but this looks like it might be interesting to some of us:

Lego DNA Bricks.

I have no idea what that means other than that it vaguely reminds me of the I Ching. Coincidence???

It's a win-win!

Oops. Added the legends.

Might be behind the curve a bit here, but in response to this recent post and subsequent discussion this happened a few months ago:

Animals are conscious and should be treated as such
http://www.newscientist.com/article...-conscious-and-should-be-treated-as-such.html

Octopuses gain consciousness
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...iousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/

Non-human Consciousness Exists, Say Experts
http://www.forbes.com/sites/singula...an-consciousness-exists-say-experts-now-what/

Consciousness is Everywhere
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christof-koch/consciousness-is-everywhere_b_1784047.html

http://www.nature.com/news/city-birds-use-cigarette-butts-to-smoke-out-parasites-1.11952

THE SMOKY BIRD.

Holy shit I hope this pans out.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429722/a-bandwidth-breakthrough/

Someone wants more papers out of it before it hits the public, could be... or it could be that the IP will actually be held by a company rather than by the university research groups.

The algo was developed by academics and the licensing is being held/run by a company co-run by MIT and CalTech, so hopefully the NDA is just short-term precaution against private sector cuntpanies duplicating it and taking advantage of the patent system before it can be released to all.

Human well-being over time is consistent with other apes. Part of that is also known as midlife-crisis.

The wireless thing sounds like error-correcting codes, but I can't imagine those aren't already used in some way. Maybe they're a fancy version?

Based on what little info is given in this and other articles, it reads something akin to recovering data from a dead disk in a RAID array. Except instead of hard drives there is a mathematical function (like y=10x^2-9x+5 except more advanced) which, when you plug the successful data packets into the formula you can calculate the missing data packets. Sending that very tiny mathematical formula over the air instead of sending all kinds of extra error-checking packets and acknowledgements saves space and allows for higher effective transfer rates.

It also sounds like this algo would be implemented at the physical/datalink layers of the network so it isn't necessarily a replacement for current TCP/IP or other software specs and their own internal error-correcting schema. So this might require upcoming 802.11 specs (that license it) to implement new types of protocols and frames in the hardware and then when you get a new router/wifi card on that spec you will automatically be using the higher speed algo. Actually I think it is clearer to call it a higher efficiency algorithm rather than higher speed; you're getting faster effective throughput simply because it doesn't waste as much bandwidth on error correction.

(disclaimer: I'm a math guy, not a network guy)

Not sure this is actually interesting to any of you, but a new journal just opened up. Full disclosure - while I am not personally involved, I do work at one of the supporting agencies. Also, one of the chief editors (under editorial leadership) works at the same place I do, but not with me.
Posting this since I think it will actually succeed in becoming a pretty high ranking journal in the field. Quite a few articles they published now are really cool stuff.

Edit: The field in question being life sciences.

If you can get where it's dark, there's a pretty awesome meteor shower out there right now.

Okay, we've found a place to go when the world ends on Friday. Now we just need a way to get there. I've got a chair and a bunch of bottle rockets and a big roll of tape. Now I just need to practice holding my breath...

Archaeology nerds, mount up!

World's Oldest Wooden Water Wells Discovered
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/428/20121223/worlds-oldest-wooden-water-wells-discovered.htm

Based on results from growth ring dating, the research team was able to determine the felling years of the trees and also the time when the wells were built. They found that the wood used to construct the wells belonged to old oak trees and were felled by early Neolithic farmers.

Researchers found a total of 151 oak timbers preserved in a waterlogged environment dating back to the Neolithic period. Besides timber, experts also unearthed waterlogged organic materials like plant remains, wooden artifacts and ceramic vessels completely sealed (airtight) below groundwater level.

The discovery of timber gives insights into earliest wood architecture and the carpentry skills of humans around 7,000 years ago. Using laser scanning technology, experts were able to collect data on the timber joints and tool marks, shedding light on the highly developed woodworking skills of Neolithic settlers in central Europe.

Recreating a sound from the Jurassic era:

http://smithsonian.com/chirp

Ok, this is not a perfect fit for this thread. But it is about science, so...if you want to hear about how far some chemistry labs are willing to go, read here. A blog entry from 'In the pipeline' about work with a really nasty explosive substance.

EAT SWEETS ERRY DAY

http://gizmodo.com/5976133/once-you-hit-75-eat-all-the-donuts-you-want-says-science