I understand it’s gardening season, and in honor of that fact, (though I personally avoid gardening as being too much like work), I’d like to introduce you to my favorite gardener of all time: an Augustinian monk named Gregor Mendel. Gregor Mendel was born Johann Mendel on July 22, 1822, in what is now the …
Category: Blog
Superlens opens an optical window on the incredibly tiny
University of California Berkeley researchers have created a superlens that allows optical imaging at a resolution of about 60 nanometers. By contrast, current optical microscopes can only make out details down to about 400 nanometers. The possible technological advances that could result include enormously enhanced data storage (the example given is a single DVD holding …
And still more on those old papyri…
Here’s another article on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, from National Geographic News, quoting Dirk Obbink at some length.
Remote-controlled rats to sniff out explosives
A couple of years ago I wrote a column about remote-controlled rats. Here’s an update from New Scientist. And this would be my runner-up for science-fiction headline of the day (but the day is young…).
Brain scan ‘sees hidden thoughts’
Reports the BBC: “Scientists say they can read a person’s unconscious thoughts using a simple brain scan.” It’s the science-fiction headline of the day! (So far…)
SF Canada Web site updated
The SF Canada Web site, for which I’m webmaster, has been updated. The Spring 2005 version of the site features short fiction by Douglas Smith and Joe Mahoney and a short science article (on panspermia) by yours truly. There’s also a complete (I hope) list of 2004 works by SF Canada members to explore, compiled …
It’s not virtual, it’s augmented
Augmented reality, that is. But, as Ann Althouse asks, “Does this make me look like a tourist?”
More on the Oxyrhynchus papyri
OK, Dirk Obbink has posted something at POxy Oxyrhynchus Online about the application of multi-spectral imaging techniques to the Oxyrhynchus papyri. The new textual discoveries will be published in the next volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri in May, and there will also be an article on the technical aspects in Scientific American. There are also …
Hibernation on demand
Scientists have figured out a way to put mice into hibernation at will. Is this the first step toward the realization of that well-worn SF trope, suspended animation?
Shakespeare portrait a fake
This caught my eye because I’m in Globe Theatre‘s production of Twelfth Night right now, and so am attuned to all things Shakespearean: one of the most famous portraits of William Shakespeare has turned out to be a 19th-century fake.
A soundless sound system
Elwood “Woody” Norris, the same guy who invented the personal helicopter, the AirScooter, I blogged about a few days ago, has another invention: a device for beaming sound to a single individual. No one but the target can hear it; to the person on the receiving end, it seems like the sound is coming from …
The "classical holy grail" or unholy hype?
Hmmm. So, three days after I write my column on the subject (scroll down) and the very day it appears in the newspaper, I discover this article pouring cold water on the whole idea of any major new discoveries having been made using multi-spectral imaging on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Guess we’ll all have to wait …
My latest live walk and vlog
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