Canada, normally content to mull around earth connsidering it’s large and indefensible expanse of land, may be on the verge of entering the space age. Yes, I know we have Canadian astronauts and the much-vaunted CANADARM. But we’re little more than cosmic hitchhikers, dependent on the fancy rockets and shuttles of more space-savvy nations. Perhaps [...]
If you like caffeine and literature, and have the poor fortune of living in Iran, then your life just got a little more inconvenient. The Iranian government has decreed that bookstores operating coffee shops are committing an ‘illegal mixing of trades’. So, the coffee shops have got to go. From the Guardian: Four bookshops in Tehran [...]
Scientists at the University of Florida have taken the brain cells of rats, put them together in a special electrode equipped dish, and taught them how to run a flight simulator. The brain-in-a-dish can even fly the US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, making it just about the most dangerous thing ever to come out of a [...]
It’s starting to look a bit like ‘great mysteries…solved’ week here at Nunc Scio. The jury is still out on whether this is better than last week’s ’geekfest 2007′. Nebkheperure Tutankhamun, boy-king, fan of gold furniture and darling of the Egyptology set, has always been a bit of a mystery. Since his fancypants tomb was discovered [...]
It floats. It’s twice the size of Texas. And it contains some 3.5 million tonnes of plastic. Welcome to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Floating somewhere between San Franciso and Hawaii, the Garbage Patch is fed by everyday plastic refuse, wind, and ocean currents that trap the debris. It has been growing tenfold every decade [...]
There’s nothing quite like the allure of an unsolved mystery. Back in 1971, a Northwest Airlines 727 was hijacked by a man known simply as ‘D.B. Cooper’. He was polite and calm as he explained to the stewardess that he had a bomb, then demanded $200,000 and two parachutes. The plane flew to Seattle. Cooper received [...]
Check this craziness, high above the skies of Des Moines, Iowa: This is called an ‘undular bore’, and it’s anything but boring. Now, atmospheric phenomena are not my forte, so I’ll turn this over to NASA: “Wow, that was a good one!” says atmospheric scientist Tim Coleman of the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in [...]