Wednesday 26 October 2011

"Thirty Six": A Cool Luminous Breathing Organic Structure


is a charming and entertainingly alluring site specific art installation by Nils Völker. The art piece is suspended from the ceiling like a breathing organic chandelier consisting of 36 inflatable plastic bags that are programmed to evoke a kind of artificial respirating heart valve. This is quite apparent when listening to the work, breath, in the video below.

Völker's cool installation is made of plastic bags, fans, aluminium, halogen light and steel brought to life by custom electronics and programming.

"Thirty Six" is currently on exhibition at Sweden's Art Lab Gnesta until December 2011


Wednesday 19 October 2011

Unreal magnetic Hoverboard technology inspires


Science can amaze, stupefy and astound us in sometimes profound ways as is the case of this stunning demonstration of what research scientists are calling quantum levitation.

The video here shows how its possible to lock a super cold object in mid air, suspending it and motivating it around without the object disengaging its position from its companion magnetic track !

Apparently, this cutting edge jaw dropping technology involves superconducting magnets, liquid nitrogen and an effect called flux pinning, or trapping.


This groovy video is courtesy of the Association of Science Technology Centers (ASTC), representing the science centre and museum field worldwide, in Tel Aviv, Israel.


Thursday 13 October 2011

Quadriplegic man Controls Robot Arm with his mind

Not so much as controlling mind over matter as touching matter with the mind, albeit with the assistance of an electrode attached to the brain and much computer training, a quadriplegic man using the "mental eye-grabbing" technique has begun to interactively physically touch his loved ones.



Tim Hemmes, a former hockey player from Connoquenessing Township, Butler County Pennsylvania, USA hadn't moved any of his limbs since a motorcycle accident seven years earlier. Nevertheless after Tim got psychologically acquainted with his disabilities he managed to learn how to operate a wheelchair and a computer with head motions. Then, perhaps by chance Dr. Michael Boninger, director of UPMC's Rehabilitation Institute got Tim interested in pursuing the mind operated robot project.

The magical aspect to this project was the surgical procedure of placing an electronic grid against the brain without penetration otherwise refereed to as Electrocorticography or ECoG, which less intrusively captures brain signals.


"ECoG picks up an array of brain signals, almost like a secret code or new language, that a computer algorithm can interpret and then move a robotic arm based on the person's intentions. It's a simple explanation for complex science." Source

The documentary video here outlines Tim Hemmes experience with the adaptive robotic technology and highlights his joys when for the first time in seven years he was able to artificially touch the hand of his partner.

A rather inspiring aside to Tim Hemmes recovery has been his interest and ability of updating his blog for helping to rescue homeless pit bull dogs and find them new owners.


Thursday 6 October 2011

Intriguing close up photograph of Mercury



The innermost planet closest to the sun has appeared since the Mariner space probe visited it in the 1970's to be dotted with holes, or what scientists refer to as having a Swiss cheese terrain and thought to be a geologically dead planet until now.

The image posted here is from the currently visiting Messenger probe, and is a colorized picture revealing mysterious blue hollows in the Raditladi impact basin.

Mercury is not just extremely hot but almost completely covered with dried lava and similar to  earth, in that they are the only magnetised planets in the solar system.

Messenger, is an anagram for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Rangin," was launched in 2004. The $446 million Messenger spacecraft began orbiting Mercury earlier this year. The documentary video here illustrates the way the probe deals with and uses the extreme heat from the Sun, and details the uses of the eleven on board precision cameras.

Go here to learn more about Mercury and the Messenger mission of discoveries, and or check out the image and story source, here.

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