Cell Craft: A browser game teaches you how cells work
I played through Cell Craft a few days back. It’s a flash game that can be played in your browser (though there’s also a downloadable version), and teaches you how cells work. It’s a fairly entertaining strategy game where you deploy all your cell’s organelles to defend it from attacking viruses and allow it to […]
Videogames as art, or as a source of it
With videogames unabashedly mainstream, and titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 earning over $1 billion, or as much as the highest-grossing movies, it’s interesting to see whether videogames are evolving towards being considered art. You could certainly make that argument for the artistic value of some ‘indie’ games (Braid and Limbo come to […]
How Blind People See the Internet
Giz Explains: How Blind People See the Internet. This is something that I’ve wondered about, as we rely more and more on the internet and even more so on touchscreen devices (some of which are apparently more accesible than older ones with buttons…who knew.) Nice article explaining how blind people navigate the internet and touchscreens. […]
Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked
Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked. It’s always interesting when the latest technology and ancient history collide. It turns out many of those pristine white Greek statues were originally brightly painted, and the reason they’re not colored is that the paint’s just worn away over the years. In the link above, Gizmodo […]
How Big Are Historical Things, Really?
How Big Are Historical Things, Really? BBC has this fascinating website that allows you to overlay a whole bunch of things over any map you choose (based on your zip code of choice). That includes historical things like the Great Wall of China, as well as more contemporary things like the current Gulf Oil Spill. […]
Sci-Fi Vistas Milked From Boring Old Earth
Sci-Fi Vistas Milked From Boring Old Earth Wired has a gallery of strange other-worldly photographs by Allison Davies, taken all over the world. In the one above she’s present in the photo wearing a ‘spacesuit’ she designed herself. The series is appropriately named Outerland, and is available in her book published by Charles Lane Press. […]
An Enchanting Time-Lapse Look at the Greatest Show in Space
An Enchanting Time-Lapse Look at the Greatest Show in Space. Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo. Beautiful time-lapse video of the recent Perseid meteor shower. Pretty awe-inspiring. [Via Gizmodo]
Regulating genetic testing, understanding probabilities, and knowing the future
Should we regulate people’s access to their own genome data?. More on the issue of regulating personal genetic testing, by Ars Technica‘s John Timmer. The headline is a bit misleading, since the issue is more about whether the “Direct-to-Consumer” (DTC) genetic testing industry should be regulated like any other medical tests or not. Definitely worth […]
The early twentieth century in color
It’s weird, but when I think of any era before the 1950s, I always picture it in black-and-white. I guess it’s just the effect of all the old movies and photos. The technology for color photography was actually around from sometime in the late-1800s, it was just too expensive and the techniques weren’t perfected for […]
This Is How Your Drinks Look Under the Microscope
This Is How Your Drinks Look Under the Microscope. Apparently the above image is a margarita magnified 1000x. Wonder what it’ll look like after a few margaritas? Click the link above for a gallery of all your favorite alcoholic beverages. [Via Gizmodo]