A 127-year old steam-powered car, the 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout, will be put up for sale next month in David Goodling’s auction house. Nicknamed “La Marquise”, the car is historically valuable because it was custom made for Count De Dion, and was built some 12 years before Henry Ford assembled his first car.
La Marquise weighs 2,100 pounds, is only nine feet long, and has a maximum speed of 38 miles per hour. It takes a full 45 minutes for it to generate enough steam to be driven. This steam-powered car uses wood, coal and bits of paper.
The car changed hands over the last 100 and so years and had been on the verge of being called junk until a member of the British Veteran Car Club got hold of the car in 1987. The car was then tuned up and La Marquise started functioning again.
The auction house expects La Marquise to fetch up to £1.6 million. Check out photos of the world’s oldest car below:
Just yesterday, we talked about movie monsters and how they have evolved over the years. Many movie monsters have been remade, prequel-ed, or sequel-ed of late and well, another movie monster is about to make a comeback to the big screen. The upcoming film, The Thing, is a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 of the same title.
Set three days before the original movie’s events, it centers on paleontologist Kate Lloyd and a team of Norwegian scientists who discover a crash spacecraft frozen in the Antarctic ice. Anyway, whether or not you’ve watched the first movie with Kurt Russell won’t dampen the impact of this creepy crawler. Don’t just take our word for it, check out the trailer. The Thing slithers to the big screen on October 14.
No, this is not Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine, but it’s somewhat similar. Like Tatooine, the newly discovered planet (called Kepler-16b) orbits two suns. The similarities, however, stop there.
Despite Kepler-16b orbiting two suns (one 69% as massive as our sun and the other 20% as massive), the planet still has a very frigid surface. Its surface temperature ranges from -100 to -150 Fahrenheit (or -73 to -101 Celsius). The planet is about the same size as Saturn and it orbits the binary suns which are about 65 million miles away every 229 days.
The planet was discovered through the US space agency’s Kepler space telescope.
Admittedly, we write a lot about zombies here (as evidenced the Zombie-Proof House and the recent release of Dead Island) and today we’re writing about a different kind of zombie. Zombie caterpillars, to be exact.
What the evil mega corporation has conspired to turn innocent leaf munchers to mindless zombies? It’s a naturally occurring virus actually. Once the caterpillar virus gets a hold of a gypsy moth caterpillar, it pilots the poor thing to climb to the top of the tree of its residence where it is vulnerable to birds or lays out to die. According to the creepy description of events, the zombie caterpillars die, melts in a few hours, and then drip virus filled ooze down the tree’s leaves to infect other caterpillars. The ones that get eaten get digested and the virus hitches a ride on the bird poo, ultimately ending up on leaves.
Scientists have studied the caterpillars’ strange behavior – they only climb to the treetops at night instead of in broad daylight – and found that one gene in the baculovirus causes this zombie hike to certain death.
Apparently, the said baculovirus is being studied to help forestry researches with controlling gypsy moth caterpillar infestation.
Talking on the phone or having a video conversation is considered a much more personal approach than just sending an email or a text message to your partner. You can easily convey your emotions by using spoken words, and there’s not much room for misunderstanding since you can easily clear things up by talking some more.
However, what you can’t transmit over the phone or a video converstion is touch. A design researcher from Berlin University of the Arts has created prototypes of cell phones that can “send” and “receive” actions. The phones make use of your sensory abilities and can transmit breathing, grasping or even kissing.
Well, sort of.
Presented at the Mobile HCI conference in Sweden last week were three prototypes. The first one is the breathing prototype that uses a pressure sensor on one side and a jet on the other to transmit air movement. If the person on the other end of the phone sighs or whispers to you, it’s as if you feel that person breathing into your ear.
The second prototype is the gripping one. It consists of a strap which is placed over the caller’s hand and force sensors on the phone’s sides. When you grip the phone, it sends a signal to the other phone, telling the motor to pull the strap tighter. Hence, the gripping motion.
The third prototype is perhaps the weirdest of them all. The phone has a moisture sensor that sends out the signal when you “kiss” into the phone. To deliver the kiss to the person on the other end of the line, his phone should have a motorized wet sponge that pushes against a membrane on the receiver’s phone, planting a “kiss” on the cheek.
Check out the video of the designer Fabian Hemmert showing the prototypes.
Astronomers from California are buzzing with excitement after finding the closest and brightest supernova that’s only 21 million light years from Earth. The announcement about the supernova – called PTF 11kly – came out on Wednesday.
The star was first detected in August 24, and in just under one day, it had become 20 times more luminous. According to scientists, the event occured in the Pinwheel Galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation (also calle dthe Big Dipper).
And the good part about this whole event? The self-destructing star is visible even to amateur skywatchers. Scientists say the supernova will reach its peak between September 9 and 12, making it more visible even to amateur astronomers armed with good binoculars or small telescopes.
Check out the video below to find out how to locate the supernova:
Author of How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science Russ Parsons and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross talks about the science of cooking, sharing some fun facts about the food. Did you know why dark meat is dark or why onions make your tear up? Here are some fast fun facts:
What makes dark meat dark? Well, it’s all about the exercise chickens get. Chickens don’t fly often, and they don’t fly all that far when they do. They walk around more often so their leg muscles are more developed. The leg parts also get more blood circulating around them than the breast muscles, leading to darker colored meat.
What is it with onions and their tear jerking effects? Onions are basically like nerve agents. They have tiny vacuoles that contain different chemicals. The vacuoles are disrupted when an onion is cut, releasing the chemicals which then mix with each other. The chemicals continue mixing together until they form a kind of sulfuric gas that either goes up one’s nose or into one’s eyes. The sulfuric gas (aptly called lacrimators) is responsible for irritating you and making you cry.
Here’s a bonus fact for you: what makes chili peppers hot? The burning sensation in your mouth is caused by capsaicin, the active ingredient in peppers.
For those who like looking up at the skies, Tuesday has two treats for you. The total lunar eclipse (or full eclipse of the moon) will be happening on the same day with the winter equinox.
A lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned perfectly, with the Earth in the middle. Basically, the Earth blocks the Sun’s rays from hitting the Moon, putting it basically under the Earth’s shadow for a few hours. A winter solstice, on the other hand, happens when the Earth’s tilt is farthest from the Sun, bringing about the “longest night, shortest day” and signaling the start of winter.
These two unrelated events will happen on the same night sky on December 21, so be sure to set reminders for tomorrow.
Armageddon is basically the end of the world; an Electronic Armageddon would be the end of the world as we know it. Can you imagine your life without Google and the Internet? Without your TV, PS3, cell phone, or (gasp!) microwave? Well, according to National Geographic, there are two things that can bring about a catastrophic EMP wave: the Sun and an EMP bomb.
According to NASA, the sun can awaken from its “deep slumber” and wake up grumpy – unleashing massive solar storms. The EMP (electromagnetic pulse) bomb, on the other hand is a bomb that is detonated in the atmosphere and releases energy, frying chips and overloading power lines. An EMP bomb would thrust us back to the Dark Ages – or at least, a 21st century without power and technology rendered useless.
Our Amazing Planet’s Karl Tate created an infographic that illustrates Earth from 36,000 feet in the atmosphere to 35,000 under the sea. The infographic mixes fun facts and visual representations. This includes the highest flying bird (Ruppell’s Vulture that can fly approximately at the same altitude as a commercial airplane), the times it takes to boil an egg at different altitudes, diving records, deep sea denizens, and the highest and deepest points of the Earth. It even shows the heights of the tallest building alongside the Pyramids of Giza, the statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building.
The infographic even illustrates how deep the Deepwater Horizon oil well goes. For the complete image, click on the link below.
