[Original post on the Sciblogs The Official Sciblogs Podcast site] We’re back! And with a minimum of difficulties this week :) This week, Elf and aimee talk of a new soft motor, ROBOBEES, a teeeeeensy chameleon (squee!), hacking yoghurt, some very ancient art, ROBOBEES, investing in yourself, knitting needles and water bubbles and space, quantum […]
water
TOSP Episode 12: November 28th 2011
[Original post on the Sciblogs The Official Sciblogs Podcast site] Welcome back to a very icy, buggy TOSP! This week, Elf and aimee talk about ice. Well, mostly ice. Brinicles, ice on Europa and even ice-related geoengineering in Mongolia. And undersea silk. Excitingly, however, they also talk with their first guest, Sciblogger Siouxsie Wiles of […]
Ulan Bator’s geoengineering scheme is THAT cool
Originally syndicated from the Lemur Attack Force blog (I’m doing the Mongol Rally next year, and we could use YOUR help!) As you quite possibly know, Ulan Bator is the capital of Mongolia. And, given that it’s going to suffer from the continentality effect as a result of its location (clue – it’s very landlocked […]
Introducing a new blog: Waiology
w00t! we have a new blog :) Welcome, Waiology! You’ll notice my use of the term ‘blog’ as opposed to ‘blogger’ as this is a joint effort by a team of hydrologists (water scientists) at NIWA. We welcome our new watery knowledge overlords, and look forward to getting to know quite a bit more about […]
How fast to shake to get dry? Science answers…
It’s a difficult subject, this. And probably too punworthy for me to be able to help myself (although I shall try). Some enterprising scientists have discovered the optimal oscillation needed by a hairy beastie shaking itself dry. And by oscillation, of course, I mean ‘shaking of the body’. Or, possibly, ‘booty’. They filmed a bunch […]
A very different form of mining…
I came across this last week, and thought it was certainly an interesting way of addressing New Zealand’s mining issues. The conversation around whether, and if so to what extent, New Zealand should mine its national parks for mineral resources is a heated (haha) one. And, I might add, not one into which I’m going […]
Hydrogels or, how to replace petroleum-based plastics
Well, wonders will never cease. Not only is water already one of the strangest,and most interesting fluids/substances around, but clever scientists from the University of Tokyo just added another layer of WTFness. In essence, they have developed a sort of non-fluid, yet still transparent and flexible, water. A hydrogel. That’s flexible. And transparent. (That was […]