Bendable Concrete

In the vein of the Pop!Tech Sesson “Fabricating the Future“, Popular Mechanics has published some of the newest, coolest and most talked about tech concepts.

Some of the items listed include Bendable Concrete (pictured above) which are made of coated polymer fibers slide past each rather than cracking under pressure. The contrete has already been used to create expansion joints in a bridge in Michigan and has useful implicationf for structures in regions frequently hit by earthquakes.

See the full list here.

In the original Milgram Experiment of the 1960’s, subjects were told to give another subject electric shocks for wrong answers to a test. The subject who was supposedly being shocked were unharmed but would provide aural feedback of shouts of pain. The administering subject, despite these shouts, would continue to give electric shocks.

Professor Mel Slater of the Catalan Polytechnic University has recreated this experiment but this time he uses a virtual woman to be the victim of electric shocks. So, the subject knows that the person receiving the electric shocks is not real. Yet, despite this knowledge, many of the subjects still exhibited discomfort as the virtual victim protested and shouted. Some subjects even considered being withdrawn from the study even though no one was being harmed.

The professor concludes that there is still a part of our brain that does not recognize that the virtual character is not real. Now tell that to the avatars on Second Life…

via:: MedGadget

This morning, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced the new time on the Doomsday Clock. It is now 5 minutes to Midnight.

The proximity to Midnight shows the increasing threat of a second Nuclear Age and the effects of Climate Change.

For the offical statement from The Bulletin, click here.
You can also listen to audio from the Press Conference here.

PopTech! 2006 speaker Homaro Cantu has been called many things over the years: “techno-chef”, “mad scientist”, “a modern-day Willy Wonka” - to name just a few. But now he can add another epithet to his resume: Champion.

Last night in the culinary equivalent of the gridiron known as the “Kitchen Stadium”, Cantu narrowly edged out famed Japanese Iron Chef Masuharu Morimoto to capture a 52—51 point victory on the Iron Chef America. (If you've never seen the Iron Chef before, it's a “cooking battle” show in which two chefs — an incumbent Iron Chef and a Challenger — must each cook a meal in less than an hour including in each course a specific ingredient.)

To secure a win against veteran Iron Chef Morimoto, Cantu and his team (including sous chef Ben Roche) pulled out the big guns: liquid nitrogen, an ink jet printer, and of course, a class IV laser. After filling several balloons with beet juice (the “ingredient of the day” for the competition) he rolled them in a bath of liquid nitrogen to create beautiful frozen orbs. Next he fired up the laser to a scorching 2800 degrees to caramelize some cellulose-based packing peanuts (yes, the kind that are used in shipping boxes). And while Iron Chef Morimoto delicately sliced beets to make sushi rolls, Cantu simply printed out pictures of maki onto edible paper using an HP printer and soy-based ink.

If you missed last night's competition, you can catch the recap of the sushi smackdown when the show re-airs on the Food Network at the following times:

January 25, 2007 9:00 PM ET/PT
January 26, 2007 12:00 AM ET/PT
January 27, 2007 7:00 PM ET/PT
January 27, 2007 11:00 PM ET/PT
January 28, 2007 2:00 AM ET/PT

On January 17th, The Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will move the minute hand. This will mark the first change to the clock since 2002.The decision is based on “growing concerns about a “Second Nuclear Age” marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing “launch-ready” status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.”

The Bulletin will hold a simultaneous event in London and in Washngton D.C. to mark the occasion. Speakers at the event will be

- Stephen Hawking, professor of mathematics at the University of
Cambridge, and a fellow of The Royal Society;

- Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists;

- Sir Martin Rees, president of The Royal Society, and professor of
cosmology and astrophysics and master of Trinity College at the
University of Cambridge;

- Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western
Reserve University; and

- Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a BAS director and co-chair of the
International Crisis Group.

You will be able to view the event via a live satellite feed at 9.30 am ET.

For more history on the Doomsday Clock, click here.

Another one of our favorite blogs, CoolHunting has also done a nice little write up for AntiBabel.

You can see the post here.

Thanks to Leonora Oppenheim for helping get the AntiBabel word out.

The environmental blog TreeHugger has written about “AntiBabel“

You can see the post here.

Social activists are increasingly turning into digital
Games for Social Change. Darfur Is Dying is one of such games, which are meant to bring about social awareness through play and entertainment.

According to a recent article in The New York Times, Wal-Mart has gotten behind the energy and cost saving lighting solution, CFL’s (compact fluorescent light bulbs). The retail company has set a goal of getting the bulbs into more that 100 million homes by 2008.

CFL’s have long been praised as being good for the environment and your wallet, but have yet to become a household norm. Consumers are still drawn to cheaper and more familiar light bulbs. A fluorescent bulb can cost between $2-$3, about four times more than the average incandescent bulb, but a CFL will last up to 12 times longer.

While Wal-Mart is surely leveraging CFL’s to build some much needed enviro street-cred, it is nonetheless a good step in bringing awareness to the masses.