Researchers at UCLA have constructed a machine that takes X-ray images using a roll of Scotch tape. When pulled apart, tape generates electromagnetic waves through simple friction. The researchers discovered in a vacuum, sticky tape also sends out strong enough X-rays to image your finger.

Pretty neat, considering getting your hands on some Scotch tape isn’t too hard. Imagine if giving yourself an X-ray were as easy as purchasing Scotch tape. It’d be X-rays for everyone! Unfortunately, it only works in a vacuum which crushes any hopes we have of DIYing our own X-rays. What a drag.

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Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien and Japan’s Osamu Shimomura discovered and successfully developed a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish. Jellyfish will glow under blue and ultraviolet light because of this protein which the three scientists have become known for.

It might not sound like much, but this jellyfish protein has been widely used to study the spread of cancer, how brain cells develop and bacterial growth. Still don’t think it’s a big deal?

The academy compared the impact of the protein on science to the invention of the microscope, saying that for the past decade the protein has been ‘a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers’.

Yes, this is a big deal.

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