Results tagged “weird” from 60 Second Science

From the people who brought us Kismet…

Meet Nexi, an oddly expressive robot from MIT's Media Lab.

Well, this is striking news: Space, apparently, has a peculiar scent all its own, according to a nose that would know — an astronaut on the International Space Station. I know, I know — huh? But International Space Station science officer Don Pettit swears that space bears a distinctive if somewhat ephemeral odor, a "pleasant sweet metallic sensation," like "sweet smelling welding fumes." Um, maybe I should just let him describe it in full:

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell. Being creatures of an atmosphere, we can only smell space indirectly. Sort of like the way a pit viper smells by waving its tongue in the air and then pressing it to the roof of its mouth where sensors process the molecules that have been adsorbed onto the waggling appendage.

I had the pleasure of operating the airlock for two of my crewmates while they went on several space walks. Each time, when I repressed the airlock, opened the hatch and welcomed two tired workers inside, a peculiar odor tickled my olfactory senses. At first I couldn't quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces.

Continue reading 'Space has a smell; astronaut swears 'it wasn't me'' >

Today marks Thomas Edison's birthday — 161 years ago, "the Wizard of Menlo Park" sprang forth from his mother's womb to overcome an "addled" childhood and claim over 1,093 U.S. patents for items as varied as the light bulb, the phonograph and, er, the concrete piano. How did he manage it all? Well, besides his stunning good looks (pictured left), he employed a dogged knack for invention, a mindless tolerance for pursuing trial-and-error experiments, and he wasn't afraid to let a little thing like a shower get in between him and finishing a project.

But I'll always choose to remember him for his aggressive marketing campaign during the "War of Currents" with Nikola Tesla, wherein he advocated for the benefits of direct current (DC) by electrocuting an elephant. Now that's how you win a format war (I hope you're taking notes, Sony/Blu-Ray).

In 1903, when Coney Island circus elephant Topsy was deemed a nuisance (she went berserk and killed three people, including an abusive trainer who tried to feed her lit cigarettes), her owners planned to have her executed via the traditional method of hanging (seems problematic, but whatevs). Edison, however, saw a chance to appease animal rights activists and create a gangbusters PR event by suggesting electrocution with DC. So they fed Topsy cyanide carrots and lit her up with 6,000 volts.

1,500 people attended the execution and Edison, pre-YouTuber that he was, filmed the whole thing. Check the gruesome vid after the jump:

Continue reading 'Let's go shock an elephant: Happy birthday, Thomas Edison' >

Have you ever been on the subway and wanted to analyze that odd stain on the seat next to you and thought, "Damn! If only I had my microscope!"? Well, worry no longer, because we (and by 'we,' I mean Japan) have a solution!

These Japanese disposable microscope cards come in a pack of 5 and enable you to magnify small amounts of blood, fabric, semen, blood, or semen up to 1000 times normal size, depending on light available and distance from the user's eye.

Continue reading 'Disposable microscope cards great for mobile scientists, perverts and CSI fans' >

Once again, South Korean scientists have made cloning headlines. This time around, though, it's not about cloned stem cells -- nope, it's about cloned glow-in-the-dark cats. Sounds ridiculous, maybe, but the scientists claim that what they've done could change medicine.

Continue reading 'The future of medicine = fluorescent kitties?' >

Surviving after having half of your brain removed is certainly nothing new -- I'm living proof of the heights of success one can achieve while running on half-empty. But a woman in China tops all those people who had to pay to surgically halve their brains by sporting an all-natural, double-d, half-brain.

The Chinese woman only discovered she had half a brain when she went to the doctor with complaints of "feeling weak." That must've been an epic day at the clinic for Dr. Zhang -- can you imagine the amount of people he had to forward that first "dude, get this!" email to?

Continue reading 'Woman born with half a brain functions fine, sets sights on acting, rehab' >

This audio recording of radio waves created by the various auroras coming off of Saturn was recorded a few years ago by the Cassini-Huygens mission, but that can't keep this hepcat from gettin' down to this gas giant's ca-raaaazy groove!

Continue reading 'Hey, Saturn -- neat sounds!' >

Celebrating Halloween after the fact feels really stale and lame, like the god-awful candy corn I got last night at the mall while dressed up as Little Lord Fauntleroy. (I wasn't even trick-or-treating; that's just my Wednesday night.)

Still, that shouldn't stop you from perusing NewScientist's list of the top 10 most bizarre experiments.

Continue reading 'Top 10 bizarre experiments, minus the ones I conduct in my basement' >