research
Science
Sharp Triple Layer Solar Cell Sets New Efficiency Record
7:17AM Chris Jacob | The gauntlet has been thrown down yet again in the solar cell efficiency arms race. This time Sharp comes up with a cell that can harvest 35.8 per cent of available sunlight. More »
Science
Poison Gas Can Induce Suspended Animation, And Save Your Life
2:40PM Chris Jacob | A small dose of hydrogen sulphide gas put this little guy into a state of suspended animation for six hours. If the technique can scale up to humans, it could buy doctors valuable time in emergency situations. More »
Random Stuff
You Can Count Elephants By Just Using Acoustic Gear
4:30PM Rosa Golijan | How do you count elephants in the jungles of Africa? You can either collect their excrement or you can listen. No, seriously. The Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University has figured out how to count elephants using acoustic monitoring. More »
Computers
Almost Nobody Owns Just Macs
5:00AM John Herrman | NPD’s Household Penetration Study found a 3% uptick in Mac households for 2009. This makes sense! What’s surprising (or not) is that of the 12% of homes with a Mac, less than 2% are Mac-exclusive. More »
Online
1:12PM Nick Broughall | A government commissioned study says that 84% of boys aged 16-17 have seen internet porn, but most claim it’s accidental. What horseshit. Here’s a much more accurate view of the situation: 100% of teenage boys are horny little bastards who’ll lie about their porn viewing habits to government researchers because they don’t want to seem like horny little bastards. More »
Teenagers Apparently View Online Porn By Accident – Yeah, Right…
1:12PM Nick Broughall | A government commissioned study says that 84% of boys aged 16-17 have seen internet porn, but most claim it’s accidental. What horseshit. Here’s a much more accurate view of the situation: 100% of teenage boys are horny little bastards who’ll lie about their porn viewing habits to government researchers because they don’t want to seem like horny little bastards. More »
Design
Nunnmps Is A Research Facility With Its Evil Nature Disguised By Utter Beauty
1:52PM Rosa Golijan | Part centipede, part flamingo, Nunnmps is a research studio designed by Cheunvogl and to be located in Chicago. It looks like the perfect place to scheme a coup d’état or work on whatever mysterious projects it is intended for. More »
Gadgets
Survey: Consumers Won’t Pay More Than $US99 For An eReader
3:20AM Sean Fallon | According to a survey of 4706 consumers conducted by Forrester Research, the vast majority of consumers are only willing to pay $US50-$US99 for an eReader. Obviously, this doesn’t jive with retailer price points currently set at $US199 and up. More »
Robots
Robot Fish: Because Android Children Deserve Unsatisfying Pets Too
11:40AM John Herrman | So it’s not expressly intended to provide baby Asimos with unfulfilling relationships, but that would be adorable, no? In reality, it fancies itself an industrial tool, for monitoring “pipelines, sunken ships, and pollution”. Where’s your whimsy, robofish? More »
Screens
Liquid OLED Tech Could Lead To More Reliable, More Flexible Displays
8:00AM Jack Loftus | We’ve already told you that legitimate flexible OLED displays really are coming now, but thanks to some Japanese researchers they could be more reliable—and flexible!—than we first imagined. More »
Phones
