Gaze deeply into the eye of a chicken, and what do you see? Some see terrifying stupidity. But researchers at Princeton University and Washington University in St. Louis say they see in the bird’s eye the first known biological occurrence of a strange state of matter known as “disordered hyperuniformity.”
The potentially new state of matter is the result of the way five photoreceptor cells of different sizes are packed into the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of chickens’ eyes, according to a written statement describing the research.
In other animals, these “cone” cells are often arranged in a regular pattern, according to LiveScience. Insect cones, for example, are arranged in a hexagonal grid.
NASA has set up a “rapid response system” to pick the best candidates for its ambitious asteroid-capture mission.
The space agency aims to use a robotic spacecraft to haul a near-Earth asteroid into a stable lunar orbit, where astronauts would visit it in the future. It’s not as easy as just picking a space rock and going, however. Many asteroids are too big to be moved easily or are in unstable orbits. Others are too distant for telescopes to figure out what they’re made of, which could make them unsuitable candidates.
An infant girl died in Albuquerque after suffering sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, New Mexico cops said.
Angelique Montano’s 4-month-old baby, Izabellah, died Sunday, after two weeks on life support, according to KOB-TV.
Montano’s boyfriend, Elijah Fernandez, 19, is accused of causing serious brain and sexual trauma to the child while high on synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as spice.
A Missouri inmate was executed early Wednesday for abducting, raping and killing a Kansas City teenager as she waited for her school bus in 1989, marking the state’s fourth lethal injection in as many months.
Michael Taylor, 47, was pronounced dead at 12: 10 a.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Federal courts and the governor had refused last-minute appeals from his attorneys, who argued that the execution drug purchased from a compounding pharmacy could have caused Taylor inhuman pain and suffering.
Taylor offered no final statement, though he mouthed silent words to his parents, two clergymen and two other relatives who witnessed his death. As the process began, he took two deep breaths before closing his eyes for the last time. There were no obvious signs of distress.
“Comic Sans looks like someone threw up on the keyboard and that’s what came out,” graphic designer Dave Combs told The Huffington Post.
Combs is one of the many haters of Comic Sans, a font that looks like the writing in an old-fashioned comic book, that was invented by Vincent Connare 20 years ago.
A Boston-based engineering firm recently released plans for their new supersonic jet that will transport passengers from Los Angeles to Tokyo in five hours… and with no windows, but instead full-length digital screens that instantly turn every seat into a window seat.
The screens will show images relayed from tons of tiny cameras on the jet’s exterior. Real windows create complicated problems for plane design, so the jet’s creators said a slab of screens was the next best — and maybe the actual best — option.
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Maintaining a healthy diet is important if you’ve been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, or a-fib. The key to eating well is to avoid foods that raise your heart rate and your blood pressure.
When a black hole swallows a star, things get violent. Very violent.
At least, that’s what scientists found in a new study when they used computer simulations to mimic the destruction of a star as it falls into a giant black hole. Just check it out in the video.
The simulations show that when the gravitational force of a supermassive black hole pulls in a star, the star is stretched into a long blob before it’s destroyed. About half of the star’s mass may get ejected as a stream of debris and the other half eventually may spiral into the black hole, forming what’s called an “accretion disk.”
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Illustration of a star distorted by supermassive black hole.
Want to boost your eyesight? There’s an app for that.
In a new baseball study, researchers have found that training your brain with a perceptual learning app just may improve your vision.
The researchers tested the vision of baseball players at the University of California in Riverside. Then, during the 2013 NCAA Division 1 season, 19 of the players were given 25-minute brain-training sessions with an app called UltimEyes four days per week.
What did the researchers find when they did follow-up vision tests? The players who used UltimEyes reported significant improvements in seeing at a distance of 20 feet and farther, and “greater peripheral vision.” Some said that their “eyes feel stronger” and that it’s “easy to see further.”
The restaurant industry, which employs one in 10 Americans, many of them earning low wages, says it can’t afford an increase in the federal minimum wage. On closer inspection, that argument isn’t as strong as it might seem.
While President Barack Obama’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would increase costs for restaurants, it’s not clear how much. Labor makes up about one-third of restaurants’ total costs, but only 5 percent of restaurant workers earn the federal minimum wage, according to the National Restaurant Association. The average wage for non-supervisory restaurant workers is $9, which isn’t much below the president’s proposed level.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
James' World 2 