Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Mystery Solved

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The Drone/UAV issue that we wrote about here now appears to be solved or at least partially so.

Trey very helpfully posted a video of UAVs being launched in and around the Gulf of Aden. The size on the video fits with the size of the wreckage that al-Ghad reported on from the Lahj coast nearly two weeks ago.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Two men smiling in front of a white board.

The Future

Ex-NASA engineer Mark Rober created the world’s smallest Nerf gun — from DNA

It’s not just fun: DNA origami has the potential to revolutionize engineering at the nanoscopic scale.

Hard Science

How to recycle plastic with enzymes

It’s early days, but if the efforts can be efficiently scaled-up, such biological recycling could put a dent in the plastic waste problem.

A group of cyclists riding down the road.

Health

Why the first rule of cycling club is “shave your legs”

Don’t argue with science. Just do it.

Hard Science

The weird, dangerous, isolated life of the saturation diver

The divers spend their waking hours either under hundreds of feet of water on the ocean floor or squeezed into an area the size of a restaurant booth.

a 3d model of a structure with blue and red balls.

The Present

Why flammable ice could be the energy savior we’ve been looking for

There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future.

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Guest Thinkers

Catching-up

I returned home from vacation to find that apparently both Brian and the readership of this blog also decided to take a few days off. The news, however, did not. […]