Gummy chromosomes and Cantor set eggs
From photographer Kevin Van Aelst. The one below is called “Cantor Set.”
Biology
Interesting cancer resistance in naked mole rats
Of course, there’s all kinds of reasons why it might work for naked mole rats and not for people, but the idea that a mechanism as simple as cellular “claustrophobia” might go so far to eliminating tumors is pretty interesting.
Inside-out horse for educational purposes
Gillian Higgins teaches horse owners about what’s “under the hood.” To do so, she very carefully paints detailed anatomical art onto the pelt of her white horses “Freddie Fox” and “Henry.”
Harnessing bees to detect bombs
What do you do when you can’t make robotic systems sensitive enough to detect faint traces of an unknown explosive? Normally, one would train dogs, but apparently this takes many months, and many treats. Inscentinel has a different solution- why not use bees instead?
Train an army of crows to gather treasure for you
Josh Klein developed a machine that trains crows to trade coins for peanuts. Literally, for peanuts. So you fill this thing with peanuts and set it out, say, in a public park, and the crows will scour the ground for loose change, carry it to the machine, and drop it in a slot in exchange for food. The project, dubbed “CrowBox,” made a big splash when he unveiled it back in 2007. Now he’s made the complete plans for the CrowBox completely available online so you can roll your own. And there’s no reason you couldn’t train your fly-monkeys-fly to gather other crow-portable objects. Twenty-dollar bills? Keys? iPods? Human eyes? The possibilities are endless. Set one up at the beach! Train seagulls to trade whole wallets for pre-shucked oysters!
Suspended animation with hydrogen sulfide?
It may smell like rotten eggs, but it turns out H2S may may be able to slow down the chain of chemical degradation that causes death in cells that are deprived of oxygen. Biologist Mark Roth can supposedly take a lab rat, stop its heart with a dose of hydrogen sulfide, and bring it back to life an hour later just by turning off the gas. Quoting now from this article at CNN.com:
Scientists are starting to understand that death isn’t caused by oxygen deprivation itself, but by a chain of damaging chemical reactions that are triggered by sharply dropping oxygen levels. The thing is, those reactions require the presence of some oxygen. Hydrogen sulfide takes the place of oxygen, preventing those reactions from taking place. No chain reaction, no cell death.
Roth has won a MacArthur grant for this work, so there’s a better-than-average chance that it’s more than just hype.
Cash awards for amateur scientific apparatus designs
In an effort to advance the cause of citizen science, Michael Wood is offering a total of $400 in prize money to anyone who can produce reliable, low-cost (<$100US) DIY scientific apparatus capable of meeting one of four design objectives: