According to legend, University of Tokyo professor Masayuki Nakao was bitten by a radioactive ramen bowl when he was a kid, which gave him the ability to spit 1-micron-wide bowls made out of silicon—full of dozens of 20-nanometer-think carbon noodles floating in an ethanol soup—at supersonic speeds. Or maybe he did this one with a metal particle beam to demo a new circuit manufacturing technology using carbon nanotubes. Whatever it is, they are low on sodium: two molecules per serving. [Pink Tentacle]

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Here's an unexpected product from Sony: ramen radar. Yeah, it's a piece of software designed to help you find a ramen noodle shop wherever you are. Now, as someone who's gone on the record about his near-obsession with ramen, this sounds pretty amazing to me, albeit also kind of ridiculous. The X-Ramen Radar works by using Sony's PlaceEngine system that uses a database of local WiFi hotspots to determine your location, then cross-references it with a database of ramen shops. Or something, it's a little confusing and Japan-only. It could clearly be used for anything, but the fact that it's made exclusively for ramen joints just makes it a real head scratcher. [Product Page via Digital World Tokyo]

Traveling in Japan without speaking any Japanese is surprisingly easy, thanks in part to many bilingual signs, an amazing train system and friendly people, but also because of one of my favourite discoveries here: auto-ramen restaurants. These are different than buying ramen from a vending machine, which, while user-friendly, is gross. No, these restaurants just make ordering food very easy to do because the entire ordering process is automated and full of helpful, helpful pictures.

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Here in Japan, if you want a hot cup of ramen noodles in soup, you don't need to go to a restaurant or even to your kitchen. No, you just need about $2.50, a lack of respect for your taste buds, and to be near a vending machine. That's right: you can get hot ramen in a can from a vending machine. Sound gross? It is. I tried it so you don't have to. You're welcome.