Thursday, December 17, 2009

Today in Geek, 20091217

Today was a good day to be a geek. There may have been a huge discovery in physics, there were at least two stories that seem too far fetched for science fiction but are actually happening, and I found a new hero. Let's start with the physics.

Science
Experiment Detects Particles of Dark Matter, Maybe. Researchers may have detected dark matter, the stuff that probably makes up about 80% of the universe, in a mine in Minnesota. The signal wasn't strong enough to say for sure yet, but the signal they got was the signal they expected if the stuff is real, so that's a good sign.

Medicine
First Commercial 3-D Bioprinter Fabricates Organs to Order. Ok, the printer is still in early testing, and the company that makes it says arteries and veins are five years off, with actual organs more like 10 (by their estimation), but if this thing works out, that'll simply be amazing. Theoretically, particularly combined with stem cell research, the printer could be used to print organs using your own cells, so they could build an organ that your body couldn't possibly reject. That's pretty darned awesome. Of course, I couldn't help thinking about how awesome the technology will be when combined with artificial meat. Mmmm, custom-designed meat.

Mad Engineering
Robotic Insects Could Pollinate Flowers and Find Disaster Victims. Some engineers want to design robobees to help pollinate flowers (since the real bees are still dying), and probably to find disaster victims, and, presumably, eventually to take over the world. I applaud your efforts, sirs.

Awesome
$300 Sci-Fi YouTube Video Lands $30m Movie Deal. The article originally put the amount at $300 million (and still mentions that amount as of right now, which would put the deal higher than the budget of Avatar). Regardless, the story is basically this: a guy made a 4-minute movies and posted it on YouTube, and Sam Raimi made a $30 million dollar deal with him to see what he can do with real money. I don't care if the resulting movie sucks, this guy is my hero. Here's the short that got him that contract:



Three days in a row. Wow. Maybe this is a thing again. As usual, let me know in the comments if I missed anything.

1 comment:

Libby Hickson said...

I did not know about real bees dying, this makes me sad.