Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Coins shrinking, spiders no longer ballooning and viruses that grow wings

The Intellectual Ventures Lab shrinks coins, for science!! They jack in a scary-big capacitor to a coin and then zzzap! Coin shrinkage. The coin, a US quarter gets hit with it with a 15, 000 joules bolt causing a magnetic field that shrinks the coin.

Mystery Rays from Outer Space talks about the bacteria that screws with ballooning spiders' favorite pastime for fun and profit. The spiders use their ballooning to find new hunting grounds where the competition from other spiders is less fierce. The bacteria (probably) hinder this so it can spread more efficiently.    

Cool, but not as cool as the virus that gives wing to aphids. The aphids are given the power of flight, allowing for greater motility, and in return the symbiotic virus gets free replication.  



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