August 2010 Archives

It's magic! Well, not really. But it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Ants were being turned into zombies by a mind-control fungus 48 million years ago, scientists have learned.

The evidence is an ancient fossilised leaf bearing unmistakable traces of a natural horror story.

Dr David Hughes, from the University of Exeter, who studied the find, said: "This leaf shows clear signs of one well-documented form of zombie parasite, a fungus which infects ants and then manipulates their behaviour."

Bored at work? Counting down the hours to the weekend?

Then Weird Science can help (as long as the boss doesn't spot ya!).

Weird Science Friday Links give you a nudge towards stuff you'll hopefully find more diverting than the stack of papers in front of you!

Ten most dangerous celebrities to Google search.

Turtles hold secret to human immortality.

Proof of aliens expected within next 25 years.

Where computers go when they die.

If the Earth stood still.

Just one month old, six little North African Cheetah cubs have made their debut at the ZSL's Whipsnade Zoo.

This is the first time that a UK zoo has welcomed cubs of this rare subspecies.

There are only believed to be about 250 North African Cheetahs left in the wild and these cubs were planned as part of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme.

NASA's Messenger spacecraft is on the verge of giving an even better understanding of the first planet Mercury.

Thus far the space probe has done one Earth flyby, two Venus flybys, and three Mercury flybys which all have prepared the spacecraft for its orbital insertion in March of next year.

Above is an image taken in May of our planet and the Moon from 183 million kilometers (114 million miles) away, clearly visible as a bright white dot with a smaller dot nearby being the Moon.

Click on the image to embiggen.

Cassini is rapidly becoming the David Bailey of space probes.

This latest shot from an already impressive repertoire shows a thin crescent Enceladus rising over the sunlit cloud tops of Saturn.

Mitchell and Webb on keeping aliens a secret...

Fashion meets tech with this slinky black dress which is also mobile phone.

CuteCircuit's M-dress is a wearable mobile with a sim card and antenna integrated into the fabric.

To answer an incoming call, the wearer lifts her hand to her ear like an imaginary telephone and speaks into her imaginary receiver.

Military stealth technology used to escape detection may be ingenious, but nature got there first.

A species of bat has been shown to employ stealth fighter tactics to ambush its prey.

The barbastelle hunts moths equipped with sensitive ears that pick up ultrasonic bat sounds.

This spectacular view of a waterfall at Yosemite National Park is created by the reflection of sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle.

Click on the pix to embiggen.