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IBM Shrinks Computer Memory Into Only Twelve Atoms

IBM announced last week that it had successfully created the smallest magnetic memory storage yet – they were able to record a bit into just 12 iron atoms. The results of this research can be found in the current issue of Science. “It begins with a simple question,” IBM researcher Andreas Heinrich told me. “How small can you make a magnetic structure, and still act as a classic magnet for data storage?” The traditional way to approach this is the simple Moore’s Law approach – starting from the top down, keep shrinking storage. The other approach, which is what Heinrich’s team is working on, is to actually build the magnet up, atom by atom. They did this by using a scanning, tunneling electron microscope, placing iron atoms one at a time on a copper-nitrogen surface. By placing the atoms one at a time, the researchers could start to understand how small it was possible to make the storage of one bit.

Pizza in a Jar

First, there was a resurgence of using jars for what they were meant to be used for--pickling, preserving, and the like. Then, a certain, "hip," subset of Americans began using them as coffee mugs, even designing a special lid to make jars into travel mugs. And now, we've come to this. Pizza in a jar. No, it's not a piece of pizza shoved in a jar (though that would probably end up tasting just fine). Jasmin at 1 Fine Cookie layers raw pizza ingredients in jars as if they were parfaits--pizzamisu, if you will--and then bakes them off. Point is: You can make a whole case of pizzas in jars in advance, carry them with you wherever you go, and bake them in any oven, at any time.

IR Light and Camcorder used to make Cheap Night Vision Hunting Solution

Snypercat has been working on a way to hunt farm rats at night. There is no place for rats on a farm, they spread disease eat the food for your animals and will get you shut down if you plan on selling what you grow or raise. Snypercat knows that the best time to hunt rats is when they are most active which is at night. Only problem is us humans can’t see very well at night and if normal lighting was used it would scare away the rats. Her solution was to attach a Sony night vision camcorder to the scope of a gun. A large IR illuminator is then needed since she will be a long way from the prey she is hunting. The large wide spread type of IR illuminator worked not bad but since they are normally used for night vision cameras it has a very wide beam of light. She found that the optimal solution was a IR flashlight since it can be focused to a tight beam just where it is needed which might be a few hundred feet away.

Grappling Hook Made With a Fire Extinguisher

MIT student Christian Reed decided to make his own grappling hook gun after being unable to find instructions on the Internet regarding how to make one. He ended up making it using a fire extinguisher as a main component, because that’s what you do when you’re an everyday grappling hook Joe and don’t have the fancy tools superheroes tend to have. After he constructed the gun, he posted the instructions on the Internet so future people who want to make a grappling hook don’t run into the problem of a lack of Internet-stored instructions and then have to figure out how to make their own, then end up having to post those instructions on the web. Christian is saving you future grappling hook Joes time.

Parabolic Basket And Tin Can Solar Cooker

Parabolic solar cookers are devices for preparing food that do not require fuel. They concentrate the sun’s rays to one focal point where a dark pot or pan can be used to cook with. There are many advantages and disadvantages to using a solar cooker. Some of the advantages are: they can be used in places where there is little available fuel, they do not pollute, the outside of the parabolic shape does not get hot, they can be made out of recycled and local materials and they do not cost anything to operate. Some disadvantages are: the area to cook on is only big enough for one pot, cooking can only be done on sunny days, cooking time can take longer than when using a conventional stove or oven, the cooker may need to be refocused as the sun shifts. (Working Group on Development Techniques 1990) Since parabolic solar cookers do not require fuel, they are being experimented with in many developing countries around the world as an alternative and supplement to cooking with fire.

Video Series Shows How To Build Your Own Solar-charged R/C Lawnmower

As winter is officially upon us, we’re pretty sure that the last thing most of you are thinking about is mowing your lawn. We would argue that it’s actually the ideal time to do so – that is, if you are interested in automating the process a bit. [Robert Smith] has spent a lot of time thinking about his lawn, wanting a way to sit back and relax while doing his weekly trimming. He set off for the workshop to build an R/C electric lawnmower, and thoroughly documented the process in order to help you do the same. On his web site, you will find a series of videos detailing every bit of the solar charged R/C lawnmower’s construction, taking you through the planning phases all the way to completion. [Robert] has provided just about anything you could possibly need including parts lists, schematics, code, and more.

Flesh-Eating Piranhas Bark When Angered

Hollywood has given the piranha a rough reputation as a vicious fish with a penchant for biting. But according to Sandie Millot, Pierre Vandewalle and Eric Parmentier from the University of Liège, Belgium, the piranha barks more than it bites. The team of biologists plunged a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) into a tank of captive red-bellied piranhas and listened in to the different sounds they make in different situations. So far, the team registered three distinct noises. When piranhas enter into a confrontation they’ll make a barking noise. When they’re fighting for food or circling an opponent, a piranha will make short percussive drum-like sounds. And when their jaws snap at each other, a softer croaking sound is produced.

Dentist Performs Root Canal on Tiger

An Anchorage endodontist performed a root canal on a big tooth in a very big patient — a full-grown Siberian tiger. Dr. Doug Luiten worked on 300-pound Kunali — measuring nearly 7 feet from backside to nose — Thursday at the Alaska Zoo. "It's the longest tooth I've ever worked on," Luiten said of more than three-inch (8 centimeter) canine. The zoo had to order some special instruments to accommodate the longer tooth, and even had to modify those during the root canal. Kunali was not restrained, and didn't wake up during the hour-long procedure thanks to anesthesia administered by Dr. David Brunson, a visiting veterinarian from Madison, Wis. "He was a good boy, he handled things well," Brunson said.

How to Make a Terrarium Christmas Ornament!

If you love terrariums as much as we do, why not trim your holiday tree with a some of them? With just a few materials and some fresh plants, you can create ornaments featuring these glass-enclosed garden worlds to make your home jolly and bright. We think they're much more fun than your typical store-bought ornaments, and unlike those shiny green balls you'd see on a generic Christmas tree, these terrarium ornaments can stay out long after the yule tide comes and goes. Read on for our step by step tutorial to learn how to make your own!

Looking For Privacy? Try This Home Built Atop A Cold-war Era Missile Silo

It might be the closest you can come to having a secret lair. A home in the Adirondacks is for sale – that from the outside looks like a traditional mountain retreat. But underneath is a cold war-era missile silo that would make Dr. Evil drool. “When I first went to look at the space, it was just a stairwell coming out of the ground,” said Bruce Francisco, whose business partner and cousin Gregory Gibbons bought the property in 1991. “I saw that the missile base here was in raw condition, and I thought we should do something amazing with it. I wanted to build a surface home as a covert entrance.” The above-ground home is 2,000 square feet. But if you use the keypad entry to the basement, you’ll find 2,300 more square feet that was a former launch control center and has been converted with dining and entertainment space and two bedroom suites – complete with marble bathrooms. With 10-foot tall ceilings, simulated daylight and an open floor plan, Francisco says you don’t even realize you’re underground until you come back to the surface again.

SaveOnBrew 2011 NHL Stadium Beer Price Review

SaveOnBrew.Com has released their 2011 beer price findings for all 30 NHL stadiums. Not surprisingly, prices edged upward from 2010 but the good news is the average increase is less than two percent. Of course, when prices start at five dollars for a 12 ounce serving, every little penny tacked on hurts. Five dollar beer can still be had while watching a Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, or Tampa Bay Lightning home game. The lowest price to grab a cup of suds was at a Sabres Game where $5.00 will get you a generous sixteen ounce cup. The most expensive brew belongs to CentreBell, home of the Montreal Canadians, winners of 24 Stanley Cups. A 16 ounce cup will set you back $9.94 – that’s 62 cents per ounce (adjusted to U.S. dollars). To put that in perspective, a six pack would put a hockey fan back almost 45 dollars.

Voyager Discovers Cosmic Purgatory

The spacecraft Voyager 1 is now 11 billion miles from the sun, at the very end of the solar system. It's peacefully sailing in a new region between us and interstellar space. NASA poetically calls it cosmic purgatory. The cosmic purgatory is not full of souls wandering in angst. At least, Voyager 1 doesn't have any instrument to register these. But it has other instruments to measure more material things, like solar particles, magnetic fields and cosmic rays. Using its Low Energy Charged Particle instrument, Cosmic Ray Subsystem and Magnetometer Voyager 1 has been collecting data for the past year, showing that there's no solar wind going either way. Like in the Earth's oceans doldrums, space here is serene, unperturbed.

Google Facts and Figures

Google has perhaps more than any other company become “The Internet Company.” It’s grown hand in hand with the internet and its entire business model has from the start been totally focused on the internet as a delivery platform. And let’s face it, Google is a pretty interesting company. In fact, we think it’s so interesting that we put together this infographic with a ton of facts and figures about Google. We’ve been digging through Google’s SEC filings, news articles and the trusty old Wikipedia to get plenty of interesting data to include. We hope you like it!

Rats Free Trapped Friends Hint at Universal Empathy

With a few liberating swipes of their paws, a group of research rats freed trapped labmates and raised anew the possibility that empathy isn’t unique to humans and a few extra-smart animals, but is widespread in the animal world. Though more studies are needed on the rats’ motivations, it’s at least plausible they demonstrated “empathically motivated pro-social behavior.” People would generally call that helpfulness, or even kindness. “Rats help other rats in distress. That means it’s a biological inheritance,” said neurobiologist Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago. “That’s the biological program we have.”

Products Made Using Recycled Boat Sails

Sailcloth is made from different fabrics and is quite sturdy. It is tough and water-resistant and is good to be used in all kinds of weather conditions. Hardly any effort is made to recycle sailcloth even after knowing all the properties it comes injected with. It is thrown away most of times without exploiting its complete potential. But there are many who are recycling sailcloth and using it to make various everyday items. Below is a list of seven products that have been made using recycled boat sails.

Why The EU Is Kicking Our Clean Energy Ass

he EU signed Kyoto in 1997, and passed laws to lower emissions by 2005. Five years later it had double the wind power of the US, and ten times the solar power. I know that it has been customary to compare the metrics on renewable energy development within the US as a whole to just one nation within the European Union, but it is misleading, as a comparison of our relative progress, because the US has a bigger economy than any one EU nation such as Germany or Spain, that it is typically compared to. It is time for us to compare the US with the EU as a whole to get an accurate picture, because it is easier for a larger economy to beat a smaller one in anything. This applies in any metric, but especially when comparing things like numbers of wind farms or solar farms, because how many people there are in a given area, and how much electricity they need (to produce and consume what percent of the global GDP) needs to be comparable, or the comparison is nonsensical.

Boeing Delivers First Batch Of 30,000-pound Bombs To Air Force

Aerospace giant Boeing Co. has delivered the first batch of 30,000-pound bombs, each nearly five tons heavier than anything else in the military's arsenal, to the U.S. Air Force to pulverize underground enemy hide-outs. At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators. They are designed to be dropped on targets by the Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber or Northrop Grumman Corp.'s B-2 stealth bomber. In an age of new emphasis on drones and lightweight weaponry, the Air Force's purchase highlights the Pentagon's ongoing need for defense contractors to build the kinds of big bombs and other heavy-duty ordnance they have produced for decades.

Blind Dog Trapped Down Manhole For Two Months Reunited With Owner

The cute young dog, named Dou Dou, went missing in September while out for walkies with its owner in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. She scoured the area in search of her pet but he was nowhere to be seen. Realising the improbability of a blind dog finding its way home without help, she accepted she would never see Dou Dou again. However, when her friend told her of a newspaper story about a puppy with eye problems who had been trapped for several months down a manhole in Shandong Province, she knew it had to be more than just be a coincidence. 'I immediately found the newspaper and from the picture I instantly knew it's my Dou Dou,' she said. Rescue attempts had failed because terrified Dou Dou reacted aggressively to strangers who tried to help him, but the dog had survived on food thrown to it by kind-hearted locals.

Airships Could Prove a Lifeline in the Arctic

Airships may soon soar in the cold skies of northern Canada and Alaska, bringing supplies to remote mining communities where planes can’t always fly and roads are cost-prohibitive. British airship manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles has announced a major contract with Canada’s Discovery Air Innovations to build airships capable of lifting as much as 50 tons, delivering freight at one-quarter the cost of other alternatives. Though various militaries have expressed interest in airships, this is HAV’s first commercial contract. The first ship is expected by 2014. While the word “airship” may conjure images of prewar zeppelins and Goodyear advertisements, the aircraft are quite useful for carrying cargo to remote locations, because they have greater payload flexibility than airplanes or trucks. They’re often cheaper to operate, too.

Creepy iPhone Cases That Look Like Somebody Else's Ear When Making A Call

Listen: I hate my ears as much as the next person with grotesquely oversized lobes, but do see me designing $20 iPhone cases that make it look like I'm rocking different ears? No, you don't. But mostly because you can't actually see me at all, and you should be thankful for that because this face could break mirrors. AND hearts. Well, two anyways. Back me up, Quasimodo. "YERYERYERYER!" Sloth? "HEY YOU GUUUUUUUUUYS!" God I should just join a dating site. Hit the jump for several more shots of the OMG, I'm totally gonna make myself a SARS mask that looks like I've got a bone through my nose!

13-Year-Old Sculpts Life-Size LEGO Batman

It’s not enough that this 6-foot-tall LEGO Batman looks totally awesome, but the fact that it was built by a 13-year-old makes it even more impressive to me. Maybe it’s just that when I was a kid, my LEGO building abilities were pretty much limited to whatever the picture on the box showed. And when I was a teenager, there’s no way I had the attention span to do anything so complex. LEGO fanatic Evan Bacon built this life-size Batman using somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 bricks (I guess you start to lose count at those sort of numbers), and took him about 3 months to build it.

Boeing Chooses Android For 787 Dreamliner's Entertainment System

While Apple continues to score wins in the use of its iPad for inflight entertainment, Boeing has chosen its nemesis – Google’s Android operating system – to provide music, video and even airline-specific apps for the next-gen 787 Dreamliner. According to Mark Larson, technical manager at Boeing’s Dreamliner Gallery, all 787s now in production will be fitted with Android-based servers and touchscreens. “Those Dreamliners that are being configured right now can get (Android)” Larson told Australian Business Traveller. Panasonic has already built the first 787-certified Android touchscreen, which is available in everything from economy seats to first-class suites.

Real Life Tatooine: One Planet, Two Suns

NASA has discovered a real life Tatooine: a planet that orbits two different suns. But there’s unlikely to be anyone there who can save the universe. The planet currently has the rather humdrum working name of Kepler-16b. That’s Kepler after the observatory-fitted spacecraft that’s on a three-year plus tour of part of the Milky Way, with the 16 coming from the number astronomers have assigned to the two stars. NASA had already logged the two stars, which orbit in a way that each can eclipse the other from the Earth’s vantage point. However, it became apparent that the brightness of the system containing the two stars dimmed even when there was no eclipse. That suggested there was a third body in play. Closer study showed that the dimming events took place at irregular intervals, meaning the two stars were not always in the same position, in turn meaning the third body was orbiting both stars. It also means the body experiences a double sunset at the end of its day.

Riding On A Zeppelin, The Next Best Thing To Time Travel

If you've met any steampunk cosplayers in the last five years, odds are good they described themselves as the crew of an airship. They're wrong. The crew of a real airship look a lot like tanned Californians who forgot to borrow shoes other than flip-flops when they raided a flight attendant's closet. There's no brass, no grime and no gears. Instead, it's the best flying experience since the romance of air travel in the 1960s. The Farmer's Airship, operated by Airship Ventures, normally flies a set route from California to Seattle. To the delight of both air and tech enthusiasts nationwide, the zeppelin is currently in the middle of a six month cross-country tour. I had an opportunity to enjoy a flight when it docked in St. Louis.

Can Bird Poop Crack a Windshield?

This was actually an informal request by Car Talk. A woman called in to say that she believes the windshield on her parked car was cracked from falling bird poop. Is this possible? Who knows, but we can make some estimations. If you would like to listen to this actual segment, here is the link to the Car Talk clip. What starting info do I have? The bird poop made a 4 inch diameter spot on car. Not sure how thick this spot was. The car was parked. That is about all I have. So maybe I can make some assumptions.

Gogo To Bring Enhanced Wifi To Virgin America, Expands Video Streaming On American Airlines

Virgin America's in-flight perks are getting even perkier. This week, the domestic carrier announced that it's bringing Gogo's ATG-4 service aboard its fleet of aircraft, in a move that promises to enhance in-flight WiFi capacity by a factor of four. The upgrade is slated to roll out during the first half of 2012, when the company will begin outfitting its planes with Gogo's directional antenna, dual-modem and EV-DO Rev. B technologies. But VA isn't the only airline getting in on the Gogo game, as the in-flight entertainment company announced this week that it's expanding its new video streaming service to American Airlines, as well. American, as you may recall, became the first airline to test the Gogo Vision service back in August, aboard its fleet of 15 Boeing 767-200 planes.

No, You May Not Use My Earbuds

Have you ever had someone ask you to borrow your earbuds? It's gross, right? I typically say yes, but I'm always skeeved out, and reach for the alcohol wipes afterward. Bottom line: earbud sharing is not acceptable social behavior. Here's an example. Most of the Gizmodo staff is in New York. I'm based in San Francisco. But in July, I flew out to work for a week at Gawker HQ in Manhattan. One day, I realized I'd left my earbuds behind. So I asked around for some, thinking, "it's Gizmodo. There must be an unused pair of earbuds around somewhere."

2001 A Space Odyssey + Star Trek = ai3's SuperGroup Office

Atlanta-based ai3, the same interior design/architecture firm that worked on the new Holiday Inn lobby, also designed this office space for marketing agency The SuperGroup. The main entrance corridor is straight out of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, complete with their own monolith at the end of the tunnel, while the doors to the conference room are pure original Star Trek. I love the fact that beyond the office being a well-designed space, it is also an experience. Your walk into the office is an experience; your first encounter with the SuperGroup-branded monolith is an experience; opening the doors to the conference is an experience. This is the true power of architecture: to influence the context of the world we live in, both in our physical interactions and in our capacity to dream and think creatively. I know that I, for one, would function much more dynamically in a space like this than a drab office building.

AFRL tests Speed Agile Transport VBehicle Concept at NFAC

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) researchers have embarked upon a critical set of experiments designed to test a new Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) transport vehicle concept. During this set of experiments, a 23-percent scale model is being tested in the Arnold Engineering and Development Center's (AEDC) National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC), the world's largest wind tunnel. This testing will validate the low speed aerodynamic performance of the hybrid powered lift system. Powered testing at this scale with Williams FJ-44 engines achieves realistic conditions and allows researchers to obtain crucial data on lateral directional stability, ground effects, aircraft performance, engine performance, and engine operability.

Corsair Vengeance Gaming Keyboards, Mice, And Headsets Hands-on

Hold on to your seats gaming enthusiasts, Corsair just unleashed an onslaught of Vengeance series peripherals aimed at helping you dominate that Call of Duty marathon... and we got our hands on all of 'em. There's a lot to cover, so we'll get right to it. The K60 gamer keyboard boasts Cherry MX Red interchangeable keys for rapid fire, 20-key rollover, windows key lock and crazy fast reporting rate at 1000 reports per second. Its companion, the M60 mouse, implements an Avago 5670 DPI sensor, adjustable center of gravity, custom lift detection and high-mass scroll wheel. In addition to all that, this bad boy features a dedicated sniper button which allows you to hone in on your target that much faster. Read on for the full rundown on the goods.