Amazing Video of the Sun Melting Steel

Melting steel in a solar oven

Melting steel in a solar oven (aka solar concentrator) isn’t new or unique, but it’s always cool to see and a good reminder of just how much energy is hitting the sunny side of the planet at any moment. The video below shows a short exerpt of James May’s “ Big Ideas” series (James is better known for the Top Gear show), and they start by cooking, er, burning a sausage, and then they melt a steel plate. Impressive to see how quickly it turns to a liquid.

Photo of the Only Atomic Bomb Ever Detonated in Space

Exploding nuke in space.

Since we’re coming up on the Fourth of July, and towns everywhere are preparing their better-than-ever fireworks spectaculars, we would like to offer this humbling bit of history. Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space, some 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. It was a weapons test, but one that created a man-made light show that has never been equaled — and hopefully never will.

Shocking Video of Smoking Toddler Shows a Disturbing Trend in Indonesia

The smoking toddler video is sparking outrage on the web. When the clip of 2-year-old Sumatran Ardi Rizal puffing away surfaced on YouTube Wednesday, it spread to online social media like, well, fire.

Scientists Create Laser to Generate Clouds that Could Trigger Rain on Demand

German scientists have created a laser to generate small clouds on demand in lab, and real-world experiments suggest this could be a way to call down rain when it’s needed.
People have experimented with cloud seeding for decades in the hope of boosting rainfall, usually by sprinkling silver iodide crystals into clouds high in the atmosphere.

eyeDriver – Steering a Car with Your Eyes

Did you ever wanted to play “look ma, no hands” with your car? Meet eyeDriver, software that allows you to drive a car just by looking at where you want to go.

World’s First Full Face Transplant Performed in Spain

A team of 30 Spanish doctors claim to have successfully performed the world’s first full face transplant. The ground-breaking operation was carried out last month on a young man whose face had been disfigured in an accident.

April Fools’ Day Pranks on the Internet Revealed

A few of the obligatory April Fools’ Day pranks tech firms will roll out today will be funny. Some will be believable. To confirm the jokes, and help you avoid endless “Did you see this” emails, we’re rounding them up here.

World’s Smallest Snowman

David Cox, a scientist in the Quantum Detection group at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, is an expert in nanofabrication techniques. Recently, using the tools of his trade and a bit of humor, he has created his latest masterpiece: the world’s smallest snowman, which measures just 0.01 mm across (about one-fifth the width of a human hair).

‘Door to Hell’ Accidentally Opened by Geologists

In the darkness of night, flames dance and lick the air, casting an ominous glow that can be seen from miles around in the desert of Turkmenistan. The source of all this light and heat is a massive crater, in which blazes an unceasing inferno, dubbed by locals the “Door to Hell.” For decades, the fires within the pit have been burning without end, fed by a seemingly unlimited pocket of natural gas. The “Door to Hell” might easily be placed among the world’s most incredible natural wonder–that is, if it wasn’t man-made. So, what manner of mortal man cast open this gaping chasm and set alight its endless fire, seeming so much like an apocalyptical vision? Well, they were geologists, actually.

Students Set Record by Riding World’s Longest Bicycle

Engineers are good at building stuff alright, but have you imagined them riding a bike to make it to the record books? Well, I’ll admit, I haven’t.

World’s Cheapest Electric Car

India’s Tata Nano EV, world’s cheapest car, transformed into the world’s cheapest electric car, went on display at the Geneva Motor Show.  The Tata Nano EV seats four, has a predicted range of about 80 miles and will go from zero to about 35 miles per hour in a blistering 10 seconds. The car has super-polymer lithium-ion batteries, which Tata says provide superior energy retention.

Skinput Turns Your Arm Into a Touchscreen Display

Those who find the touchscreens on their ever shrinking gadgets too fiddly to handle, will be glad to hear scientists are developing a new touch surface… your own arm.  Developers at Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working together to create an armband that projects an interface directly on to your skin.

Zero Gravity Treadmill

Everyone knows you don’t need a treadmill in space, right? You just find a free section of the cylindrical wall of your spaceship and run around that, 2001-style.  But when you get back to Earth, you need to exercise your atrophied muscles and get the blood pumping again. But how do you stand up on those weak and skinny legs? An anti-gravity treadmill, that’s how. And it isn’t just astronauts that can’t bear their own weight: injured athletes and accident victims also need to regain strength slowly. The answer is the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill M310, a newer, cheaper version of the company’s $70,000 machines.

Man To Break Sound Barrier By Jumping From Edge of Space in 2010

Felix Baumgartner to jump from the edge of space

This man—looking as badass as Ed Harris in The Right Stuff—is Felix Baumgartner. He actually has The Right Stuff: The cojones to reach the edge of space in a weather balloon. Up to 120,000 feet—and then jump.

World Flight Record Set For Paper Plane

It’s a world flight record even though it only lasted 26.1 seconds. Not your usual record, because it’s origami, and it was achieved by the president of the Japan Origami Plane Association. Takuo Toda just missed matching his personal best of 27.9 seconds, but that one was with a plane that had been made with tape.

The Magazine of the Future

Awesome Ice Skating Routine

A Marriage Made In Zero Gravity

I am very fond of love. It makes people do silly things, giddy things, and, sometimes, very strange things indeed.
However, I am full of vicarious admiration for Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan, a Brooklyn couple who decided to do silly, strange, and giddy all together for their wedding on Saturday. Terrestrial weddings were far too mundane for their refined sci-fi tastes.