Photographer and scientist Nathan Myhrvold has developed a camera that captures snowflakes at a microscopic level never seen before. Smithsonian Magazine reports: Myhrvold, who holds a PhD in theoretical mathematics and physics from Princeton University and served as the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft for 14 years, leaned on his background as a scientist to create the camera. He also tapped…
Tag: LED lights
Astronauts Grow Radishes in a Microfarm on the International Space Station
From a report: The thought of eating “astronaut food” brings to mind a kind of instant food that is far from “farm to table.” However, recent experiments aboard the ISS are improving our understanding of how to bring the farm directly into space itself. Astronauts just ran a Veg-PONDS 02 experiment on the International Space Station. The experiment used food that…
2-Acre Vertical Farm Run By AI and Robots Out-Produces 720-Acre Flat Farm
schwit1 quotes Intelligent Living: Plenty is an ag-tech startup in San Francisco, co-founded by Nate Storey, that is reinventing farms and farming. Storey, who is also the company’s chief science officer, says the future of farms is vertical and indoors because that way, the food can grow anywhere in the world, year-round; and the future of farms employ robots and AI…
Nathan Myhrvold’s Dazzling High-Resolution Photographs of Snowflakes
Nathan Myhrvold is a former CTO of Microsoft, co-founder of the equity company Intellectual Ventures, and the founder of “food innovation lab” Modernist Cuisine (which among other things resulted in book of remarkable food photography). But he’s now photographing the intricate designs of snowflakes, reports Fast Company: Over the span of 18 months, Myhrvold built a camera with a microscopic lens…
Energy ‘Scavenger’ Could Turn Waste Heat From Devices Like Refrigerators Into Electricity
“Scientists have known for nearly 200 years that certain materials can convert heat to electricity…” reports Science, describing research into an intriguing new approach: Refrigerators, boilers, and even lightbulbs continually dump heat into their surroundings. This “waste heat” could — in theory — be turned into electricity, as it is sometimes done with power plants, automobile engines, and other high-heat sources….
Could Brain Diseases Like Alzheimer’s Be Treated With Flashing Lights?
Writing for Quanta magazine, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at the University of Maryland described an intriguing study led by MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai: Incredible as it may sound, the researchers improved the brains of animals with Alzheimer’s simply by using LED lights that flashed 40 times a second. Even sound played at this charmed frequency, 40 hertz, had a similar…