New Scientist has a bunch of interesting mini-articles in today’s newsletter. And if you follow these links, you’ll see a lot of other interesting articles listed in the sidebars. Take a few minutes to browse; there’s some cool stuff.
Here’s a sampling:
- Starch-powered cars in our future?
- Radiation-loving fungi: the perfect space food? (Or, I wonder, could it even help provide shielding in space?)
- Conan the Bacterium: radiation-resistant bugs
- Super-oxidized water makes short work of other bugs
- Using thermal noise for encryption of messages
- Using magnetic stimulation to make the brain stronger (this one I like!)
Here’s one that’s more sobering than cool, but it deserves reading: Taking stock of Earth’s dwindling mineral wealth. (This one you can only read a partial of unless you’re a subscriber, but the partial is pretty interesting in itself.)
“Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.”
—Robert A. Heinlein
Charlza
Dwindling resources… In our current world of plenty, too many people have forgotten what it’s like to be without. I have a feeling that no matter when people start understanding the actual definition of a ‘limited resource’ it will be too late.
Charlza
This is a similar vein of thought with regards to limited natural resources.
I read John Dvorak’s blog and this was posted today: Running the Numbers, an American Self-Portrait. It’s an art project that helps people visualize just how much humanity uses.