Viva Pancakes!

http://io9.com/5921989/incredible-medical-breakthrough-allows-doctors-to-inject-oxygen-into-the-bloodstreams-of-people-who-cant-breath

In a monumental breakthrough with far ranging implications, cardiologists at the Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts have kept suffocating rabbits alive for 15 minutes with injections of oxygen-filled microparticles. The groundbreaking procedure could conceivably prevent millions of deaths each year caused by such things as heart attacks and choking.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-186

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

By seeing for the first time how these eddies accelerate the jet streams at two different altitudes, scientists found the eddies were weak at the higher altitudes where previous researchers had found that most of the sun’s heating occurs. The eddies were stronger deeper in the atmosphere. Thus, the authors could discount heating from the sun and infer instead that the internal heat of the planet is ultimately driving the acceleration of the jet streams, not the sun. The mechanism that best matched the observations would involve internal heat from the planet stirring up water vapor from Saturn’s interior. That water vapor condenses in some places as air rises and releases heat as it makes clouds and rain. This heat provides the energy to create the eddies that drive the jet streams.

http://www.livescience.com/21066-supercameras-capture-detail.html

CREDIT: Duke University Imaging and Spectroscopy Program. 

The gigapixel camera uses 98 identical microcameras in unison, each armed with its own set of optics and a 14-megapixel sensor. These microcameras, in turn, all peer through a single large spherical lens to collectively see the scene the system aims to capture. Since the optics of the microcameras are small, they are relatively easy and cheap to fabricate.

The possible applications for this are practically limitless. 

http://grist.org/list/gza-and-neil-degrasse-tyson-team-up-on-a-hip-hop-record-about-science/

“We talked about frenetic energy, outer space, molecules crashing into each other, organized chaos,” Mr. Vitali said. “The grandeur of the fact that the universe was born in a millionth of a second, in this explosion that created billions of stars, these overpowering ideas that are bigger than we can conceive. How do we make the record feel like that?”

This will be awesome.

http://io9.com/5918672/brain-implants-powered-by-spinal-fluid-another-huge-step-towards-our-cyborg-future

Image via Shutterstock/Andrea Danti.

The breakthrough is part of an ongoing trend in cybernetics in which biological functions are steadily being mimicked with microelectronics, and where the body’s own natural processes are leveraged to restore function or provide energy. 

I look forward to becoming a robot overlord.

http://www.nature.com/news/antibody-cocktail-cures-monkeys-of-ebola-1.10821

CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/GETTY

Monkeys infected with Ebola have been cured by a cocktail of three antibodies first administered 24 hours or more after exposure. The result raises hopes that a future treatment could improve the chances of humans surviving the disease caused by the deadly virus, which kills up to 90% of infected people and could potentially be used as a biological weapon. 

Science!

In keeping with the beer theme for today.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/google-employees-create-beer-dispensing-kegdroid/

Developed by Google senior developer advocate Paul Carff and senior software engineer David Sainte-Claire, the duo have combined a Motorola Xoom tablet using NFC integration with a beer dispensing Android robot to create the KegDroid. 

I believe this is the Droid we’ve been looking for.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/rugbeer-the-vending-machine-you-have-to-tackle-to-get-your-beer/

Vending machines aren’t usually designed to be hit, shaken or shoved. In fact, such behavior could well result in the perpetrator being done for criminal damage.

Makers of a vending machine in Argentina, however, have designed one which you have to tackle to get your beer.

Check out the video linked the the article.

http://io9.com/5916845/honey-bee-apocalypse-may-not-be-caused-by-evil-corporations-after-all

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/uos-hch060712.php

Researchers in Hawaii and the UK report that the parasitic ‘Varroa’ mite has caused the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) to proliferate in honey bee colonies. This association is now thought to contribute to the world-wide spread and probable death of millions of honey bee colonies. 

Viva Pancakes has been rebooted, to bring you more of what is interesting, inspiring, or just plain awesome.  Now with more syrup!

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec11/tissuescience_12-15.html

A new research breakthrough has enabled scientists from the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh to grow human tissue to repair or replace organs, and someday, maybe even limbs.

Simply amazing. 

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/01/03/controlled-quantum-levitation-on-a-wipeout-track-video/

Here is a short footage on our recent work on quantum levitation. We were inspired by the game Wipe’out to do our work. With this new technology, we hope to revolutionize the world of motor transport; Maybe in a near future we could assist to a real Wipe’out race.

Awesome science at work.  Next step, flying cars!

http://www.space.com/13821-nasa-kepler-alien-planets-habitable-zone.html

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star’s habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new exoplanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).

Just the tip of the iceberg to what’s out there.

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/11/30/the-spy-files-how-safe-are-your-emails-and-phone-calls/

A popular mobile phone tracking technology is an IMSI catcher, which allows the user to intercept mobile phones. These highly portable devices – which can be as small as a fist – can mask as a cell phone tower and emit a signal that can dupe thousands of mobile phones in a targeted area.

The user of the catcher can then intercept SMS messages, phone calls and phone data, such as unique phone identity codes that would allow them to track phone users’ movements in real-time, without having to request location data from a mobile phone carrier.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which uses these devices to track suspects, says it can do so without a court order. Many police forces around the world have also bought or are considering buying IMSI catchers.

Governments and LEO’s intercepting and collecting all telecommunications activity, whether or not anyone is a suspect.  Just one more step towards Big Brother.