The 2018 awards honor research on cursing while driving and cannibalistic calories.
Ever wondered why so many people don't read instruction manuals, or how many calories are in the human body? Or whether stabbing a voodoo doll representing your horrible boss with pins could help reduce workplace tension? The winners of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes have got you covered. These and other unusual research topics were honored tonight in a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.
The discovery of rock carvings believed to be tens of thousands of years old in India's western state of Maharashtra has greatly excited archaeologists who believe they hold clues to a previously unknown civilisation, BBC Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur reports.
The rock carvings - known as petroglyphs - have been discovered in their thousands atop hillocks in the Konkan region of western Maharashtra.
Mostly discovered in the Ratnagiri and Rajapur areas, a majority of the images etched on the rocky, flat hilltops remained unnoticed for thousands of years.
Esther Katro was 22 when she landed her first job as a reporter at a local TV station in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The recent graduate loved the thrill of breaking news and being on air. But when she was out chasing stories in the college town, people kept mistaking her for a student. She went to her news director for advice, and his response had nothing to do with developing her fledgling reporting skills. “He was like, ‘You have to cut your hair to look older,’” she recalled.
Scrabble players will have to rethink their game after new words, including OK and ew, added to approved list
Three hundred new words have been added to the official US Scrabble dictionary, including sriracha, aquafaba, beatdown, zomboid, twerk, sheeple, wayback, bibimbap, botnet, emoji, facepalm, frowny, hivemind, puggle and yowza.
Merriam-Webster released the sixth edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary on Monday, four years after the last version.
Russian officials are saying that a tiny leak at the International Space Station was likely caused by a human hand. Now, they're trying to figure out who did it, why they did it and whether it happened in space or on the ground.
The crew identified the source of the leak as a 2-millimeter hole in the upper section of a Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, which is docked in the Russian section of the space station.
"We don't reject any theories," said Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's state space agency Roscosmos, according to state news agency TASS. He added that they're aiming "to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done ... we will find out, without fail."
CSN Editor: I find it hard to believe that someone did it deliberately. What is more believable is an accident/error in the plant where the space station was built.
Scientists are often recruited during times of conflict to serve the national cause. Generally, when we think of those stolen academics, we think of physicists, chemists, engineers and mathematicians – the type that can either build better weapons or crack the enemies’ codes. That’s fair enough: they certainly made up a disproportionate number of researchers recruited by the military in the 20th Century.
What you may not know, however, is that geologists have played a role in warfare too: the US, UK, Germany and the Soviet Union had their very own secret geological intelligence units that played key roles in the bloodiest conflict in human history. For this particular article, we’ll focus on the role that American geologists played during the Second World War, and in the Cold War, but believe you me – the story of geology and conflict is richer and more bizarre than you could possibly imagine.
Swirling a glass of wine produces a rotating wave; swirling beer foam reverses rotation.
Wine aficionados are known for gently swirling their wine in the glass before tasting, and it isn't as pretentious as it seems. (Well, maybe a little.) They claim the rotation mixes in oxygen and enhances the flavor. Physics backs them up, specifically a mini-subfield dubbed "oenodynamics." The swirling action—technically called "orbital shaking"—creates a rotating gravity wave in the direction of the swirling force being applied, churning up the liquid in the process.
A Russian official has said the International Space Station leak (pictured) could have been caused by deliberate sabotage. A leading theory from an unnamed source at Russia's Energia space manufacturing company has said that the hole was made on the ground
ISS Leak summary:
First thought was MMOD strike.
Then NASA released pics. Lots of people: "Hmmm, doesn't look like MMOD". NASA deleted the photos.
Top Russian news site RIA NOVOSTI reported - via sources but apparently confirmed by Mr. Rogozin - it was a drill hole. pic.twitter.com/520kHK0TMc
Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been deliberate sabotage.
Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space.
Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.
"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments.
He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand."
"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.
"We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space."
An unlikely fable, in which Birkenstocks become cool and double sales overnight.
The city of Görlitz in eastern Germany is three hours from Berlin and two minutes from Poland. Miraculously, Görlitz was not bombed during the Second World War, and even more miraculously, its architectural treasures — Gothic, Baroque, rococo — were merely allowed to rot during the Communist era. Nothing was torn down. As a result, whole streets resemble a movie set, ideal for a colorful Saxon fairy tale (like Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was shot here) or a bleak Cold War thriller.
In June, I traveled to this corner of Germany with the photographer Juergen Teller to cover a company whose long history has been similarly marked by accident and fortune. For Görlitz is where a high percentage of Birkenstock’s cork-and-leather sandals are made; the company is headquartered near Bonn, and the family that has owned the business since 1774 lives mostly outside Germany.
How do astronauts sleep the night before they have to go to space?
Most of us lie down on a bed, put our head on a pillow, close our eyes and go to sleep! But I’m guessing that is not what your question seeks. I’m thinking you want to know whether we sleep well the night before launch, i.e., do we get a good night’s sleep before our big day. Am I right?
Assuming I now understand your query, I can only give you my personal experience. My first pre-launch sleep attempt was June 7th, 2007 when I lay down on my bed in the very hotel-like astronaut crew quarters facility at the Kennedy Space Center. It was there that I tried desperately to “catch a few zzz’s” before our June 8 late afternoon liftoff.
Experts say it is impossible to plot where module will re-enter the atmosphere, but the chance is higher in parts of Europe, US, Australia and New Zealand.
China’s first space station is expected to come crashing down to Earth within weeks, but scientists have not been able to predict where the 8.5-tonne module will hit.
The US-funded Aerospace Corporation estimates Tiangong-1 will re-enter the atmosphere during the first week of April, give or take a week. The European Space Agency says the module will come down between 24 March and 19 April.
In 2016 China admitted it had lost control of Tiangong-1 and would be unable to perform a controlled re-entry.
* Google is working with the Department of Defense on secretive 'Project Maven'
* Project Maven is tasked with equipping drones with artificial intelligence.
* This would allow unmanned vehicles to detect and identify objects in war zones
* Some Google employees are 'outraged' that the firm is working with the military to develop surveillance technologies, others say it raises ethical questions
The Pentagon may have gained a new, high-profile partner for its sophisticated AI system used to hunt for militants in Iraq and Syria.
Silicon Valley giant Google is working with the Department of Defense to develop advanced artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, Gizmodo reported, citing sources close to the situation.
The partnership centers around Project Maven, which is the codename for a system that analyzes aerial surveillance video to look for patterns that can military intelligence analysts.
And it seems some Google employees aren't happy with the move.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat.
* Scientists trawled 86 million profiles from a genealogy website, Geni
* They pieced together migrations, marriages and how long people lived for
* Culture change rather than improvements in transport stopped inbreeding
* Study found that women have migrated more than men over the last 300 years
* Scientists found good genes extend someone's life by an average of five years
* Team created a time-lapse showing these movements into just 30 seconds
The largest ever 'family tree' spanning 11 generations has revealed how Westerners colonised the world over the past 500 years.
Scientists trawled 86 million profiles from a genealogy website to uncover a 'family' of 13 million people predominantly from Europe and North America.
By looking at their genetic data, they were able to create a visualisation of their migrations and lifespans - and reveal exactly when they stopped marrying their cousins.
It was long thought that people in the west stopped marrying close relatives in the 19th century when better transportation allowed them to travel larger distances.
Simple processes can make wood tough, impact-resistant—or even transparent.
Some varieties of wood, such as oak and maple, are renowned for their strength. But scientists say a simple and inexpensive new process can transform any type of wood into a material stronger than steel, and even some high-tech titanium alloys. Besides taking a star turn in buildings and vehicles, the substance could even be used to make bullet-resistant armor plates.
Wood is abundant and relatively low-cost—it literally grows on trees. And although it has been used for millennia to build everything from furniture to homes and larger structures, untreated wood is rarely as strong as metals used in construction. Researchers have long tried to enhance its strength, especially by compressing and “densifying” it, says Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park. But densified wood tends to weaken and spring back toward its original size and shape, especially in humid conditions.
This is not Google Glass, but facial recognition glass connected to Chinese police database. Deployed to a Zhengzhou railway station 5 days ago, it has detected at least 7 fugitives and 26 fake ID holders. #surveillancepic.twitter.com/eXrzRgORam
In the Matrix series, Keanu Reeves wears futuristic sunglasses to look cool when fighting against machines. But in China, police are now wearing sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to catch criminal suspects.
Railway police in Zhengzhou, a central Chinese city, are the first in the country to use facial-recognition eyewear to screen passengers during the Lunar New Year travel rush, Chinese state media reported (link in Chinese) this week. The devices have already helped nab seven fugitives related to major criminal cases such as human trafficking and hit-and-runs, and 26 others who were traveling with fake identities.
CSN Editor: I can see the day when this is not only being used by police forces around the world .... but also by the military in war zones or within their bases..
