Gearfuse

We are sick, disgusting individuals. About 95% of people claim they wash their hands after taking a piss or poopy, but as you can imagine, the actual percentage of people who actually do so is far less.

A new public health study tracked the bathroom doings of over 200,000 individuals and the results were staggering. Only 64% of females washed their hands while only 32% of men washed theirs. This is one time that I’m actually embarrassed to be male.

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You can pretend all you want that your kid is husky or big-boned, but when it takes donuts to get him interested in science, he’s straight-up fat.

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When I think of famous side profiles the first person I think about is Alfred Hitchcock. A team of scientists at the University of California at San Francisco “injected light-sensing and communication genes from various bacterial species into Escherichia coli.” That’s right, the poopy virus.

The scientists then projected an image of Hitchcock onto a plate of bacteria, leaving an etched image of the famed director in the petri dish. Eventually, the team plans on creating color imaged by adding special color-sensing genes.

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The fine gents over at De Capo Press were nice enough to send me a review copy of “Why Does E=mc2? (and Why Should We Care)” by renowned physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Cox and Forshaw attempt to accomplish what Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan attempted decades ago. And that is to make physics, and specifically, Einstein’s theory of relativity and the concept of spacetime, accessible to the non-scientific mind. And with mixed success, the scientists have done their job.

Cox and Forshaw start at the beginning. It soon becomes clear that Einstein’s relativity would have been impossible without the discoveries of scientist’s work from centuries in the past. Beginning with Aristotle and continuing all the way up to the days of Hermann Minkowski, the authors develop a thorough picture for the creation of an equation. The process of Einstein’s discovery is outlined based on the discoveries of the past.

Continue reading after the jump.

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Look, I don’t know about you, but waveforms are the hottest thing on the planet right now. Everyone is rushing to Target and Walmart in an effort to get as many waveforms off the shelf as humanly possible. And while you’re at it, you might as well build one of these DIY oscilloscopes. They won’t rape your wallet and look how cute it is! Slope! Mode! Level! All you need is $33 and a soldering iron.

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Atomically, DNA and its components are about as tiny as we can get before we enter the realm of “I don’t know what the hell I’m looking at here.” So you can imagine how “nano” we’re talking here when we mention a nano-sized box, made of DNA, which can only be opened by a specific DNA strain. Now THAT’S security.

Danish scientists at the Aarhus University Center for DNA Nanotechnology created a 3D box made of DNA. The box’s lid can only be opened when a specific strain of DNA is introduced as the key. What could science possibly use such a tiny box for? Targeted drug delivery, for one. These nano boxes could one day course through your veins, seeking a specific piece of DNA to open its latch and spread its love, just like your mother.

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New scientific findings have discovered that the rapid-fire rate of information and social interaction on Twitter can cause all of you mere mortals some serious issues. As a Jew-Bot T1100, I’m at no risk here, though you, as a human, are apparently at risk of a numbed sense of morality and indifference to human suffering, classic symptoms of a sociopath.

So you might feel like your more social than ever, but you’re actually digging yourself into a hole of insanity. Humans, so weak.

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Either the Japanese government has something against tripod manufacturers or the photography industry has been pulling the wool over our eyes for a century. A group of Japanese scientists from Nishi Lab of the University of Electrocommunications have determined that photos taken with cameras that are anchored to a tripod typically have more camera shake.

A new tool that determines camera shake by measuring the effects of shutter vibration and mirror slap has concluded that SLR cameras on a tripod can actually shake more than when handled manually. The shaking can lower resolution by as much as 75%. You’d expect a statistic like this with a DIY tripod, but a real piece of gear?

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The next time you’re shopping for jock straps at the mall, be on the lookout for guy or girl with the messed up face. I’m not talking about some huge tumor hanging off of a chin here, I’m talking about people who have the latest Japanese accessory for controlling their iPod. It’s called the Mimi Switch and it allows the users to use facial expressions as a form of digital control. Stick your tongue out, pause the music. Start crying uncontrollably and you’ll find yourself in Shuffle mode. The device works via a small microcontroller that analyzes the wearer’s facial expressions.

“You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth,” said its inventor, Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University.

There you have it. We’ve successfully reached a point in our lives where we can queue up a porno by making an “O” face. Give yourself a round of applause, people.

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Not doing shit this week? Me neither. Let’s all stay home the entire week and watch episodes of Weird Science on Hulu.com. Of course I’m referring to the television show, not the awesome movie which has Bill Paxton turned into a Jabba the Hutt lookalike. Enough about the movie, check out the episodes Hulu is hosting and enjoy this awesome one right here on Gearfuse!

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