Onelargeprawn
This robot can solve a Rubik’s Cube in the blink of an eye.
Made by messieurs Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo, the robot uses several motors and two PlayStation Eye cameras. The researchers say with further debugging they hope to improve the time. See their development blog for info on the machine, including outtakes when things went awry.
[via Mashable]
It’s almost time for the next installment of your favourite shooter. Call of Duty: Inifnite Warfare zips to the zero-gravity war zones in outer space while Battlefield 1 dials it way back to a simpler time in a World War I setting. Many of the armaments used in these games take their cues from real life and if you have an interest in such history, you may like the “Iconic Arms” series by YouTuber Ahoy.
Iconic Arms takes you through the heritage of some of the familiar weapons that you’ve fired in your digital adventures. It’s insightful information that’s even accessible to people with a passing interest in weaponry. Here’s a video on the most ubiquitous assault rifle in the world, so popular that 1 in 5 of the firearms available worldwide is an AK-47.
At the minute, The Iconic Arms series comprises 14 entries including favourites like the Desert Eagle, Beretta 92, MP5, M16, SPAS-12, Uzi, and FAL. Check it out on YouTube.
[via SA Gamer]
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (or DSCOVR) satellite sits 1.5 million kilometres away at what is called Lagrange point 1, a place in space between the gravity of the Earth and the Sun such that the satellite can maintain its stability. Why? For one thing, it enables NASA’s EPIC camera aboard the satellite to capture enough steady shots of the Earth to create this wonderful time lapse video. Watch and listen as EPIC lead scientist Jay Herman takes you though a year in the life of our planet as seen from DISCOVR.
[via Sploid]
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) recently began deep water environments in and around the Mariana Trench, which you know to be the deepest part of the world’s oceans.
Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are diving into the depths and beaming live footage of what they’re seeing. On day 4, at a depth of 3.7 KM (the trench’s maximum depth of approximately 11 kilometers!), this gelatinous thing of beauty was spotted.
Scientists identified this hydromedusa as belonging to the genus Crossota. Note the two sets of tentacles — short and long. At the beginning of the video, you’ll see that the long tentacles are even and extended outward and the bell is motionless. This suggests an ambush predation mode. Within the bell, the radial canals in red are connecting points for what looks like the gonads in bright yellow.
NOAA maintains a log of the photos and videos captured during the dives, you can see it here.
Live streams of the deep water exploration can be seen on cameras 1, 2, and 3. Some times you’ll just see static images. Science can’t be fun all the time.
[via The Verge]
Seiko has been manufacturing watches for over 90 years. This little video entitled Art of Time highlights the skilled craftsmanship and precision that goes into creating their time pieces.
It’s a Rube Golberg contraption reduced to a size that could fit on a work bench, a stark contrast to some machines that could fill a large studio. Seiko’s machine includes 1200 parts, with some as small as 0.7mm, and the setup reportedly has been a year in the making. Arguably the machine requires human intervention to get to its conclusion, but I suspect that’s a nod to the Grand Seiko watches and movements that are still built by hand. Check out Art of Time below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZuhJFY3SS8
Don’t know about you but my Monday kinda feels like this:
If you’re in need of motivation to kickstart the week or just the strength to survive it, you might like this video. The Most Satisfying Video in the World treats you to a 5-minute compilation of ingenious engineering, ball-run contraptions, and perpetual motion machines. The visual feast awaits.
[via Ufunk]
A century ago yesterday, Albert Einstein published his greatest work, the theory of relativity. His mind-bending idea forever changed how we think about the cosmos. It has stood up to intense scrutiny all this time.
If you’ve wanted to know what the theory of relativity is about but were thrown off by the oft complex science-y jargon, you might like this succinct 3-minute explanation. The cutesy animation features the talents of David Tennant, a sock, and two rather seedy characters, messieurs Dark Energy and Dark Matter to explain the relationship between space and time and mass.
The short film was created by Eoin Duffy.
[via SA Techie]
XKCD and Minute Physics team up to create an informative video on how to go to space. Instead of throwing complex terms like gravity, escape velocity, and rockets at the viewer, they use ten hundred simple English words to break it down. You certainly don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand how to get the fire-water filled up-goer into space. Check it out.
[via Popular Mechanics]
Black holes are like the most terrifying serial killers in the universe. You shouldn’t need reasons to stay away from black holes but if you’re looking for one, here’s a little animation for you.
In this artist rendering from NASA, a star passes a little too close to a black hole and experiences what is called a “tidal disruption”. The star is torn to pieces and the black hole wears the debris like a memento. Check it out below.
[via The Verge]
The astronauts on board the International Space Station have access to a range of sophisticated equipment, including a RED Epic Dragon camera that is capable of shooting video at resolutions to 6K (that is, 6144 x 3160 pixels). Naturally, one of first things the astronauts did was to grow a water bubble, fill it with dye and then dissolve an effervescent tablet in that floating ball of water. The results are superb, check it out below. If you have a monitor capable of displaying 4K, be sure to select the 2160p quality setting for the full effect.
To see more 4K videos from NASA, check out their Ultra High Definition playlist on YouTube.
[via shortlist]