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Not that anyone really needs a reason.

The video explains that bacon’s smell is the result of a process known as the Maillard Reaction, in which sugars break down and combine with amino acids to form any of 150 different organic compounds.

Among those compounds, researchers say, is a collection of aldehydes, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen-containing pyridines and pyrazines which humans (and most other carnivorous or omnivorous species) find so enticing. That collection of compounds is unique to bacon and is not produced when other types of pork are fried.

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When you damage a tooth, your dentist usually uses a filling or a crown to patch it up. But eventually, researchers say that your dentist might just point a laser at it, encouraging the tooth to regrow on its own. While it’s no surprise that light causes reactions in the human body, some researchers have been trying to determine whether specific wavelengths of light might be able to trigger specific healing properties when focused on a certain area of the body. In this case, the researchers pointed an infrared laser at a hole drilled into a rat’s tooth and found that it encouraged dentin — the material that makes up a tooth’s core — to grow back more than it otherwise would have.

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I am not making this up.

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‘The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.’

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Presented here pro bono publico because it’s been that kind of a day.

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BBC references aside, the instrument’s proper name is a Heptagon Acoustic Tweezer, and it has been developed to maneuver cells into patterns so that they can be used to repair damage to the human body.

The device uses the interference pattern produced at the intersection of two waves of sound to manipulate the tiny cells within a culture of phosphate-buffered saline. The sound system managed to align 25–50,000 cells in experiments.

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When Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727, he left behind no will and an enormous stack of papers. His surviving correspondences, notes, and manuscripts contain an estimated 10 million words, enough to fill up roughly 150 novel-length books. There are pages upon pages of scientific and mathematical brilliance. But there are also pages that reveal another side of Newton, a side his descendants tried to keep hidden from the public.

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Researchers determined that a plant like Rinorea niccolifera can be used when removing metallic materials from a polluted ecosystem.

Once the plant absorbs a significant amount of metal, they can also be harvested for their commercially valuable contents, according to the release.

Jag Grill BBQ Table.

iStick.

Cover Blubber.

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The homeowner, who then pulled his AR-15 from under the bed, said, “I peeked around the corner, saw a tall, slender black gentleman standing over me with a pistol.” The intruder fired a 9mm round at Haith and missed. Haith returned fire with the AR-15, striking the intruder in “the stomach and shoulder.”

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To look at an ancient globe is to look at the Earth as it was seen by the people of another time. It reflects their understanding of the continents and seas, and it captures political divisions that have long since shifted. Even the typography and colors of a globe are indicative of the time and place of its origin, says Sylvia Sumira, a London-based conservator of ancient globes.

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Using a mixture of construction waste (a mixture of sand, concrete and glass fiber) and concrete for printing material, a single-story, one-room house can be printed for less than $5,000.

Using a 6.6-meter-tall, 32-meter-long industrial printer a Chinese company is using 3D-printing technology to build cheap housing for modernizing housing conditions in Chinese villages.

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Nearly eight years ago, DARPA, the US Defense Department’s advanced research agency, set out to find a better solution for amputees than the metal hooks still widely used today. Now, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted its approval to one of the projects that came from that effort: a mind-controlled prosthetic limb called the DEKA Arm. A number of other scientists and engineers around the world are working on similar devices, but this is the first such prosthetic to get FDA approval. The prosthetic device comes from a company founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, and it is roughly the size and weight of an adult arm.

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A new study—conducted by Mueller and Oppenheimer—finds that people remember lectures better when they’ve taken handwritten notes, rather than typed ones.

What’s more, knowing how and why typed notes can be bad doesn’t seem to improve their quality. Even if you warn laptop-notetakers ahead of time, it doesn’t make a difference. For some tasks, it seems, handwriting’s just better.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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At T-Mobile and legions of other companies, Web-based tests have become a key gateway to landing a job, a potent screening tool that can effectively bump a résumé to the top or bottom of a manager’s pile.

…

Providers say the tests hold the promise of leveling the playing field for job applicants by removing the chance of bias that comes with a traditional résumé screening. The tests can’t distinguish, for example, if a candidate didn’t attend a top-tier college, is currently unemployed or is a woman or minority.

Golden Goose device.

Hugelkultur.

Bookshelf chair.

Hubless spokeless bike.

SaddleBaby.

Drinkable book purifies water.

Mellow foolproof sous-vide machine.

Distance bug vacuum.

Magic Tank.

Chamberlain MyQ garage door opener.

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Father Seraphim Aldea is so committed to building the first Orthodox monastery in the Scottish isles in more than a millennium that he did something no monk searching for solitude would ever, ever do.

“I learned how to use that dreadful Facebook thing,” he said. The Romanian monk has already been handed an abandoned Church of Scotland sanctuary on Mull Island. While Kilninian was built in 1755, it appears in 1561 records as a site associated with the great Monastery of St. Columba on Iona. Thus, this property may have been linked to monasticism as early as the seventh century.

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What better day than Star Wars Day to start planning your next Star Wars-themed getaway? The vacation rental site HomeAway.com has selected several properties that they think serve as earthbound stand-ins for famous Star Wars sites.

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In traditional wheelchair designs up to 30 percent of expended energy is lost because they lack suspension, leaving only 70-80 percent of the energy put into the chair for propulsion. This creates uncomfortable rides and fatigued drivers. “Most of the time, the user is driving a rigid wheel with no suspension and it breaks your back and shakes your filings loose,” says SoftWheel CEO Daniel Barel.

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Andreessen Horowitz-backed AgLocal, which began as a marketplace for meat, connecting animal farmers to buyers including top-rated chefs, has now pivoted to become a consumer-facing service. On the new e-commerce site, online shoppers can browse through the meat products offered by family-operated farms, which are paid for on a subscription basis.

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Assuming, of course, that that’s what you want to do.

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Human muscle can repair itself on its own, so long as it doesn’t suffer severe damage. But researchers now say that a new surgical technique can enable the regeneration of some muscle after large amounts are lost in accidents or war injuries, offering a much improved path to recovery. The technique involves implanting a small biological scaffolding at the injury site and then entering patients into an aggressive physical therapy regimen, and researchers say that the initial results have led to quality of life improvements for all patients of the procedure.

Guitdoorbell. I am not making this up.

Melon Tent.

Bibliochaise.

Aerogel.

Smartphone spectrometer.

Neurobridge electronic spine replacement.

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The FDA last week approved a DNA-based HPV test manufactured by Roche Molecular Systems as a primary screening option for cervical cancer. Called the “cobas HPV test,” the method detects DNA from high-risk HPV subtypes, and is already recommended for use alongside the traditional Pap smear.

Butthe FDA’s new approval changes two distinct features of how the test is used and promoted: it permits the use of an algorithm that enables the HPV test to be used on its own, and allows Roche to market its HPV test directly to consumers. Combined, those factors could spell the end of the Pap smear as we know it — a move that opponents say adds unnecessary confusion to an already complicated screening process, and jeopardizes women’s health.

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Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of Spider-Man is his ability to shoot webs. Now, let’s be clear. Spider-Man’s webs are a technology-based superpower. Forget what you saw in previous Spider-Man movies. His webs don’t just come out of special holes in his wrists. Those movies were wrong. No, Peter Parker developed these devices using his brain (or maybe he stole them).

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The paint, developed by engineers at the Nissan Technical Centre in the UK, is hydrophobic and oleophobic. That means it repels water and oil. That means the gunk and goo that normally sticks to your ride slides right off. It’s like wax, but better. Nissan’s engineers have applied the finish, called Ultra-Ever Dry, to a Nissan Note and say it does a remarkable job repelling rain, spray, frost, sleet and standing water. If the video is to be believed, mud literally slides right off.

There’s nothing new about hydrophobic or oleophobic coatings–Rust-Oleum offers a hydrophobic spray that works (mostly) as advertised, and the iPhone features an oleophobic coating to reduce fingerprints on its precious screen. Still, it’s new to cars, and Nissan will continue testing it. Nissan says it has no plans to offer the paint as standard equipment, but will consider making it an option.

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This one’s for Roy.

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And there you have it.

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There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846. So when one popped up again on British shores this week, twitchers were understandably excited.

A group of 40 enthusiasts dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of the brown, black and blue bird, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia.

But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed.

Now that’s comedy.

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I especially like the conjunction of #15 and #16.

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In the study, published today in Science Translational Medicine, researchers used an antibiotic treatment to deafen adult guinea pigs. Then, they introduced recombinant DNA — DNA formed in a lab by combining genetic material from various sources — into the cochlea, the portion of the guinea pigs’ ear that transforms vibrations into sound signals. Once the DNA was in place, they implanted the ear with a modified cochlear implant that was able to send short, directed electrical impulses to the surrounding cells, in addition to enhancing the animals’ hearing. These impulses are part of a gene therapy technique called “electroporation” that allowed the recombinant DNA to enter the cochlear cells and produce neurotrophins, proteins that cause auditory nerve endings to regenerate.

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Desperate for reliable labor and buoyed by soaring prices, dairy operations across the state are charging into a brave new world of udder care: robotic milkers, which feed and milk cow after cow without the help of a single farmhand.

Scores of the machines have popped up across New York’s dairy belt and in other states in recent years, changing age-old patterns of daily farm life and reinvigorating the allure of agriculture for a younger, tech-savvy — and manure-averse — generation.

So we don’t really need more cheap illegal-immigrant labor — we need more robots.

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Well, not every highway, but all of the Interstate and U.S. highways, which is still pretty cool.

This would be incredibly useful for long-distance road trips.

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From now on, if anybody comes up to you and says ‘WAR … uh … What is it good for?”, you’ve got an answer for them.

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I really like the first one.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

I must confess to being the sort of person who would love to have a fine lawn and beautiful garden but who just isn’t willing to put in the work. So I find this prospect very attractive.

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Over the next five years, as the energy industry searches for new viable pillars of emerging clean technologies to fuel ever-growing demand for energy and efficiency, a tidal wave of thermoelectric power generation products is poised to flood the market. Thermoelectrics are semiconductor materials that turn heat directly into electricity, much like solar panels use light to do the same. The materials can be used in anything from appliances, to engines, to power plants, and really anywhere that waste heat is produced.

Breakthroughs in nanotechnology have brought the commercial viability of thermoelectric waste-heat recovery to a tipping point. The future of thermoelectrics is no longer a ”might be” or “could be”, but a “will be.”

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The Osteoid, which won this year’s A’Design Award for 3D printed forms and products, is inspired by the spongy material that forms inside bones. Karasahin’s team writes that the lightweight concept would be tailor-made for patients in need, and can be designed with specific colors in mind. Most important, thought, is its complimentary ultrasound system. Low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS ) systems have already been found to promote bone fracture healing and can reportedly increase healing rate in non-union break by 80 percent.

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A group of scientists and food activists is launching a Thursday to change the rules that govern seeds. They’re releasing 29 new varieties of crops under a new “open source pledge” that’s intended to safeguard the ability of farmers, gardeners and plant breeders to share those seeds freely.

A properly-ordered society would offer a bounty for every ‘food activist’ killed and used for compost.

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Yet another reason not to leave the house.

A smiley face mold for your morning egg. I am not making this up.

C-3PO Electric Guitar. For when your inner child just decides to take over.

Scrubba Portable Washing Machine.

Robot printer that crawls across the paper.

A Black Box for your suitcase.

Mouse Taxidermy Kit. Just in case.

Robot Golf Caddy.

Power Cord Winder.

Heated Lotion Dispenser.

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The site is full of information about recent and past launches, old space programs, and much more, but it owes its unique charm to the drawings of spacecraft that appear on its pages. There’s something about their simplified lines and geometric orientations, reminiscent of a childhood textbook, that is perfect.

Unfortunately, it only covers stuff actually built by a government, not the even cooler stuff science fiction writers have created. But it’s still good.

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Most studies of aging concentrate on the deterioration of those more than 50 years old, and paint a woeful portrait of life in decline once people are past their breeding years.

So it’s only fair that two researchers at Canada’s Simon Fraser University have chosen a different group: people aged 16 to 44.

And they’ve determined that somewhere around age 24, these people too suffer a decline in “cognitive motor performance.”

Translated, that means they start slowing down.

And a good thing, too.

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Graphene is the strongest, thinnest material known to exist. A form of carbon, it can conduct electricity and heat better than anything else. And get ready for this: It is not only the hardest material in the world, but also one of the most pliable.

Only a single atom thick, it has been called the wonder material.

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WELL begun; half done. That proverb—or, rather, its obverse—encapsulates the problems which have dogged civil nuclear power since its inception. Atomic energy is seen by many, and with reason, as the misbegotten stepchild of the world’s atom-bomb programmes: ill begun and badly done. But a clean slate is a wonderful thing. And that might soon be provided by two of the world’s rising industrial powers, India and China, whose demand for energy is leading them to look at the idea of building reactors that run on thorium.

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A German company, Biozoon, is working on a 3D-printed food extruder that creates food that literally melts in your mouth, allowing elderly patients with dysphagia – the inability to swallow – to eat without choking.

Perhaps they’ll call it ‘Soylent Silver’.

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Thomas Jefferson was a smart dude. And in one of his letters to John Adams, dated June 27, 1813, Jefferson made an observation about the nature of politics that science is only now, two centuries later, beginning to confirm. “The same political parties which now agitate the United States, have existed through all time,” wrote Jefferson. “The terms of Whig and Tory belong to natural, as well as to civil history,” he later added. “They denote the temper and constitution of mind of different individuals.”

Motorized tie rack. Yeah, I know, nobody wears ties any more, but it’s still kinda cool.

Body drier. And it’s about time.

Grush gaming toothbrush. I am not making this up.

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According to reports, someone left a four foot crocodile at the TJ Maxx plaza in Roseville, California, in its container with a note that identified the animal as a Nile crocodile and advised whoever found him to “call rescue.” The cunning crocodile managed to escape from its cage and was found making the rounds outside the retail store.

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Well, it’s a start.