Today In The Robot Takeover: Disney Has Built A Remote-control Device That Can Climb Walls  while Singapore

This is your closest look yet at a Kuiper Belt object

Solar Power Explorers

Video Explaining Orbital Mechanics

This time in 2009, a bat hitched a ride on the space shuttle Discovery

Never forget the Batstronaut.

On 15 March 2009, when the space shuttle Discovery was about to launch into orbit, a wounded bat grabbed ahold of its fuel tank to become an officially recognised stowaway, despite safeguards that are supposed to keep such things from happening. He was a bat pioneer hell-bent on glory, or so we choose to believe.

So what exactly happened here? The story started on a mild Sunday evening at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, as crew members began prepping to launch the STS-119 mission. As the crew made their rounds checking for icy buildup on theDiscovery fuel tanks and whatnot, they were shocked to find a small free tail bat clinging to the tank’s foam insulation.

“Based on images and video, a wildlife expert who provides support to the centre said the small creature was a free tail bat that likely had a broken left wing and some problem with its right shoulder or wrist,” NASA explained. Unfortunately, it did not appear to be wearing a tiny spacesuit at the time.

The robots sent into Fukushima have 'died'

Not good...

The remote-controlled robots that were sent into the site of the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan have reportedly ‘died’, thanks to incredibly high amounts of leaked radiation destroying their wiring.

The robots - which take years to manufacture - were designed to swim through the underwater tunnels of the now-defunct cooling pools, and remove hundreds of extremely dangerous blobs of melted fuel rods. But it looks like that’s not going to happen any time soon.

In 2011, one of the most severe earthquakes in recorded history triggered a 10-metre-high tsunami that crashed into Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, leading to several meltdowns that killed nearly 19,000 people and destroyed the homes and jobs of 160,000.

latest photos of Pluto and it’s moon.

Why the Brain Makes Mistakes

A study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University investigated the brain’s neural activity during learned behavior and found that the brain makes mistakes because it applies incorrect inner beliefs, or internal models, about how the world works. The research suggests that when the brain makes a mistake, it actually thinks that it is making the correct decision—its neural signals are consistent with its inner beliefs, but not with what is happening in the real world.

The research is in eLife. (full access paywall)

Staring at the sun does make you go blind. The lens in your eye concentrates the sun’s rays, which burn a permanent blind spot into your retina- just like ants under a magnifying glass. This effect is amplified during a solar eclipse.

It’s called solar retinopathy.

Source

How football relies on human evolution

Here are some insights about human evolution that will change the way you watch the Superbowl game. According to UC San Francisco evolutionary biologist Nathan Young, Ph.D., our species has evolved a specialized shoulder blade that can be used like a slingshot: storing energy in the windup, then rapidly releasing it in a powerful and precise fling.

And neuroscientist Philip Sabes, Ph.D. explains what is required of the brain in order to actually dominate the field.