What’s in a Name? Gaming Names Reveal Lots About the Player’s Personality
What’s in a name? In the case of the usernames of video gamers, a remarkable amount of information about their real world personalities, according to research by psychologists at the University of York.
The research is in Computers in Human Behavior. (full open access)
Majestic — a British provider of SEO services — is bringing both their internet graphing and futuristic printing capabilities to the final frontier, basically because they can.
Using a zero gravity-compatible 3-D printer onboard Orbital ATK’s recently launched Cygnus spacecraft, the #MajesticInSpace (MIS) project will produce a three-dimensional “data visualization of the entire internet,” according to SearchEngineLand. It’s expected to look something like the below model. Which is to say, not unlike a melting ice sculpture.
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Watch This New Drone Capture Rogue Drones with a Net Cannon
Scientists at Michigan Tech University have made an interceptor drone that is capable of “catching” other drones using a mounted net cannon.See it in action: http://futurism.com/videos/new-drone-can-capture-rogue-drones-net-cannon/
For higher resolution: http://futurism.com/images/futuristic-weapons-how-we-will-fight-in-the-future/
For more cool infographics: http://futurism.com/images/
Wilson Bentley caused a flurry with his pioneering pictures of individual snowflakes, and his results are astonishing – so why was he seen as an oddball outsider?
Flying Through an Aurora, another astounding image captured by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst http://space-pics.tumblr.com/
A new study (published in PLOS Biology) investigated how bats make sharp turns in the air, particularly when they have to grab the ceiling. It turns out aerodynamics have very little to do with it - it’s all about inertia. Just as a figure skater clutches his arms to his chest to increase his speed, bats pull in their wings to help them make turns.
You can read all about it (and see more video) in this piece by my friend Nsikan Akpan over at PBS Newshour.
Humans might not be the only creatures that care about the welfare of other animals. Scientists are beginning to recognize a pattern in humpback whale behavior around the world, a seemingly intentional effort to rescue animals that are being hunted by killer whales.
Marine ecologist Robert Pitman observed a particularly dramatic example of this behavior back in 2009, while observing a pod of killer whales hunting a Weddell seal trapped on an ice floe off Antarctica. The orcas were able to successfully knock the seal off the ice, and just as they were closing in for the kill, a magnificent humpback whale suddenly rose up out of the water beneath the seal.
This was no mere accident. In order to better protect the seal, the whale placed it safely on its upturned belly to keep it out of the water. As the seal slipped down the whale’s side, the humpback appeared to use its flippers to carefully help the seal back aboard. Finally, when the coast was clear, the seal was able to safely swim off to another, more secure ice floe.
Read more
Read the study: Humpback whales interfering when mammal-eating killer whales attack other species: Mobbing behavior and interspecific altruism?
Boston MA (SPX) Jan 28, 2016 NASA wants you to know that it’s only a matter of months before you can wake up in a Martian habitat, grab some breakfast, jump into your spacesuit, and head out for a stroll across the Red Planet’s surface. Granted, the experience will be virtual, but it promises be the most realistic vision of human Mars habitation that a team comprising NASA engineers, a digital media developer, and MIT Depar Full article