Australian building crams tree-lined city street into 35 stories
The world’s first “vertical street” will soon be built in Melbourne, Australia. Every sixth floor of the 35-story building will have gardens capable of growing trees up to 10 metres tall and the entire building will be boasting the very latest in green technology. While roof gardens and landscaped balconies have been constructed in the…
In which a great work is finally completed: Isaac Asimov’s Forward the Foundation
Though not without its flaws, Forward the Foundation is a fascinating book, in which both author Isaac Asimov and his hero scientist Hari Seldon strive to finish the works that would define them after they were gone. It is the seventh and final day of Foundation Week at Blogging the Hugos, and time to talk…
After World War II, they predicted we’d be wearing aluminum dresses and flying plywood airplanes
American companies during World War II often stressed sacrifice in their print advertising. If we can all just be patient, they promised, we’ll have more televisions and personal helicopters and push-button kitchens than you can shake a rocket car at. The June 24, 1945 San Antonio Express ran an article by Associated Press science writer…
In Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov delves into psychohistory’s sorta psycho history
In the prequel Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov takes us back to see how psychohistory, the science that saved humanity, was born — and it’s kind of a crazy ride. Knife fights, mustaches, and high-level math await! Here we are on day six of Foundation Week, a very special Blogging the Hugos event. Today we…
Can hot sauce be used as a substitute for electrical shocks?
The first scholarly paper describing the use of chili sauce as a method of inducing pain in psychological experimentees was published in 1999. The so-called Hot Sauce Paradigm (HSP) was suggested as an alternative to previously-used but ethically-problematic methods – such as administering electric shocks. “Our goal was to provide an opportunity for people to…
Worm regenerates a whole new body from a single cell
One cell is all it takes to rebuild a complete, functioning flatworm, researchers have learned. The animals possess a special type of cell throughout their bodies, which shares some qualities with human embryonic stem cells. If scientists can find out how this special cell works, they could someday study ways to use the cells for…
