The shortfin mako shark, one of the ocean’s swiftest predators
Biomimicry seems to be popping up all over the news recently, and this week is no exception. While John Dabiri is busy modelling the complex mechanics of jellyfish, another engineer has taken on the study of a different, more dangerous resident of the ocean: sharks.
The shortfin mako shark is known as the “cheetah of the ocean” for its ability to accelerate rapidly and to reach speeds of around 30 miles per hour in the water. One mako shark has even clocked in at over 45 miles per hour (the world’s fastest human sprinters swim at about 5mph)!
In the future, you might be able to skip untangling those holiday lights
It might sound like something from the movie Avatar, but what if trees lit up at night, replacing the need for street lights?
This fantastical vision may become a reality thanks to the discovery that placing gold nanoparticles within the leaves of trees causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow.
The Philadelphia Eagles, currently sitting atop the NFC East, plan to transform their stadium into a “green battlefield” with a $30 million renewable wind and solar energy system.
Plans call for 80 sphere-shaped wind turbines, 2,500 solar panels, and a dual-fuel (biodiesel and natural gas) plant. The system, to be installed by the Florida-based firm Solar Blue, should be ready by September, 2011. When it is, Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ home, will be the only stadium in the world to run on completely self-generated renewable energy.
In this amazing clip, Jem Stansfield, the host of BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory (sort of a UK version of Mythbusters), visits the Solar Furnace Research Facility in Southern France. There a researcher demonstrates the power of intensely concentrated sunlight, using a special furnace that can reach temperatures of 3,500 degrees C (that’s about 6,332° F), and even melt solid rock!
NBC and the National Science Foundation have done it again. That’s right – the team that brought you the Science of the Olympic Winter Games has produced a new series of videos, and this time they’ll be “tackling” even more fun physics, math, and engineering concepts.
The Science of NFL Football, a new 10-part series, covers topics like vectors, projectiles, Newton’s Laws of Motion, and the Pythagorean Theorem. The production crew even went to some teams’ training camps, and filmed interviews with former and current NFL players and coaches. Our favorites after the jump.
