Tag: remarkable

The Pitch-drop Experiment: The World’s Longest-Running Lab Experiment

Eighty-five years and eight fallen drops later, this surely is a long-running experiment!

The pitch-drop experiment—really more of a demonstration—began in 1927 when Thomas Parnell, a physics professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to show his students that tar pitch, a derivative of coal so brittle that it can be smashed to pieces with a hammer, is in fact a highly viscous fluid. It flows at room temperature, albeit extremely slowly. Parnell melted the pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, let it cool (for three years), hung the funnel over a beaker, and waited.

Read the rest of the story by following the link below.

Link : Popular Science – FYI: How Long-Running Is the Longest-Running Lab Experiment?

Apple’s View of the Future in 1987: the Knowledge Navigator

A device called the Knowledge Navigator is presented in the video linked below which looks very familiar compared to some devices and apps that Apple released in the last few years and even very recently in the iPhone 4S. It’s amazing to see how close their predictions came to the present day!


Apple’s Future Computer: The Knowledge Navigator

 

Video: The Bionic Burger

Here’s a weird story about a guy who has been collecting McDonald’s hamburger for over 18 years. Why on earth would someone do that?

Well, one day this guy bought two hamburgers, ate one and kept the other one in the pocket of his jacket. That was the last day he wore that jacket for a year. The next year he retrieves the forgotten hamburger from his jacket and to his surprise the hamburger looked exactly the same as on the day he bought it. This event was the start of a hamburger collection.

Hoax or not? You tell me. On the other hand, think about it when you order a hamburger at McDonald’s. If a hamburger really looks like this after a year or even a few years, it can’t be healthy right?

(Found via http://www.onsdagelijkseten.nl/bewustworden/je-hamburger-is-onsterfelijk/.html)


The World’s First Bionic Burger

Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?

A very interesting piece. My response to this article?

Cheers! 😉

One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don’t drink tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.

But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one’s risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. (See pictures of booze under a microscope.)

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don’t have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

Link : Time Magazine Health – Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?