Scientists at the University of Glasgow have created the world’s smallest Christmas card at a scale small enough to fit on a postage stamp 8,276 times.
As if it’s size wasn’t enough, the card proudly displays a multitude of festive colours produced by plasmon resonance in a patterned aluminium film made at the Universities Nanofabrication centre.
According to professor David Cumming, the process is easily repeatable and only took 30 minutes, less than the time it took to design!
A group of scientists from the University of Nottingham have written what is believed to be the world’s smallest periodic table on the side of a human hair.
The strand of hair belonged to professor Martyn Poliakof, and was given to him as a present on his birthday. The team used a sophisticated combination of ion beam writer and electron microscope to carve all 118 elements.
Watch the video below to see how it was done:
You can also have a look at the same team writing the words ‘Merry Christmas’ on a snow flake in this second video clip:
The Bottoms Up Beer dispenser from Grin On Industries is capable of pouring 44 pints of beer in one minute with the aid of just a single person operating the machine.
The key is the magnetic plug which reseals the bottom of the glass after it is removed from the spout. The pressure of the liquid in the glass helps to further secure the seal.
Have a look at the video below from wired.com to see just how fast the system works:
Here’s a video of Bill Hammack, peofessor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois explaining the mechanism behind a quartz watch.
Bill demonstrates how the reliability and cost effectiveness of the quartz watch revolutionized industry by providing cheap, infallible time keeping.
Most interesting of all is how the watch uses the principle of resonance to measure time, in much the same way as the very first renaissance clocks.
NaturalMotion are a software development company which specializes in physics engines for computer games.
In game physics revolutionizes the way 3D characters and objects are animated; calculating their positions and velocities in real time as they interact with each other.
This saves time by eradicating the need for time consuming manually scripted animations, which can look unconvincing in some settings.
In this short film NaturalMotion’s CEO Torsten Rail explains how programmers “need a degree in maths or physics” to work in the gaming industry:
Ben Goldacre, the author of ‘Bad Science’, is one of the leading proponents of skepticism and the proper use of the scientific method.
In this talk from the annual Poptech conference in Maine, USA; he shows us the dangers of non-evidence based medicine as a threat both to our wallets and our health.
Using examples of some very well known (and respected) people, the talk is as funny as it is frightening.
Dublin will be the European City of Science in 2012, (official website)
and will host the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) from the 12-16 July, 2012. The event will bring together scientists and public policy offcials to discuss the best of European science and to address all of the major global challenges, including Energy, Climate Change, Food and Health. Here’s a video of what to expect.
This showcase video for 3D eyetracking on the Nintendo Wii is really amazing. By tracking digitally tracking the viewers eye movements, adjustments can be made to the perspective of the image on the screen. The beauty of eyetracking as opposed to conventional means of obtaining a 3D stereo image is that it doesn’t need glasses or special cameras. Obviously this means that 3D TVs could be completely bypassed. This could be retro fitted to any computer game, or even to your own desktop to give yourself a 3D workspace! All that’s needed is the relevant software and an inexpensive web cam. The effect is seamless and needs no peripheral devices to operate.
Johnny Chung Lee of Carnegie Mellon university’s Human-Computer Interaction Institiute demonstrates below:
In the runup to Science Week, Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), University College Cork and Teagasc Moorepark, Cork ran a Science Raps competition, after being inspired by the Large Hadron Rap which has had more than 5 million hits on YouTube.
1st prize in the 17 years and older category was awarded to Rory O’Connor for his rap entitled “E=MC Rory”. Rory is a leaving certificate student at St. Colman’s College in Fermoy and is considering pursuing his interest in science, by studying it at 3rd level.
The 1st prize winner in the 16 years and under category was Catherine Finn, a 1st year student at Colaiste Bride in Clondalkin, Dublin. Catherine rap was entitled “The Universal Rap”.
Runner-up in the 17 years and older category was Ladislav Stec, who performed a rap “Floating in Space”, which was written by his friend Jonathan O’Neill.
Cian Ducrot and Stiofan ó Máinnin Stapleton from Coláiste Daibhéid in Cork were runner’s up in the 16 years and under category with their rap “Dimetional duo”.
Rory O’Connor’s winning entry “E=MC” is below. the other entries can be viewed here.
The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre is a research centre focussing on gastrointestinal health and is a partnership between UCC, Teagasc Moorepark Food Research Centre and industry. The APC is one of ten centres of excellence in Ireland funded by the Science Foundation Ireland and dedicated to advancing Ireland’s smart economy through cutting-edge research and development.
