Category: COLLECTION
-
180 / Diamonds cooked in a micro oven
Back in 1971, the James Bond movie title \’Diamonds Are Forever\’ wouldn’t have struck anyone as especially remarkable. The well-known phrase just looked proper for a film in which Agent 007 probes into the disappearance of certain diamonds in transit. But another James, Australian inventor Dr. James Rabeau, changed it all. The new title/slogan could…
-
180 / Diamonds Are for Bond
Back in 1971, the James Bond movie title ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ wouldn’t have occurred to anyone as notably significant. The well-known phrase just looked proper for a film in which Agent 007 probes into the disappearance of certain diamonds in transit. But another James, Australian inventor Dr. James Rabeau, changed it all. The new title/slogan…
-
179 / The ultimate evolutionary innovation?
It was Eors Szathmary who likened language to an amoeba, and the human brain to the habitat in which it can thrive. The Hungarian scientist’s explanation for his choice of simile is that “a surprisingly large part of our brain can sustain language”. The idea first appeared in a paper that he published some ten…
-
178 / Comic strips aren’t ‘Hokum’
The theme of radiation is at the core of the comic strip dynamics. Marvel comics’ Incredible Hulk, a green-skinned monster, was born when a scientist accidentally irradiated himself while handling his own “gamma bomb”. The X-Men’s awesome powers come from the radiation of their parents’ reproductive system. And Spiderman is the product of a teenage…
-
177 / Are ‘couch potatoes’ born in the womb?
Pregnant women may take heed. Poor diet during the pregnancy may program their babies to become couch potatoes even before they are born. And once triggered in the womb, the ‘slack snacker’ syndrome is likely to follow the offspring all the way to form a lifestyle — at least in non-human animals. That is, if…
-
176 / A baby’s body in a 30G collision
Imagine a young mother inside a fast car, holding a baby on her lap. The baby actually weighs 10 kg, but all of a sudden there is a jerk and the mother undergoes a sense of unreality. Her infant now weighs 300 kg, as much as several washing machines! One simply couldn’t hang onto such…
