Ringmania 2, a game that imagines what it would be like to herd Froot Loops, is a nice way to kill your last couple hours of “work” on a Friday afternoon. In Table of Malcontents.
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China’s 1,200-mile railway crosses some of the planet’s harshest terrain. Plug in your oxygen supply for the high passes, which are cruising altitude for some commuter flights. By David Wolman from Wired magazine.
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The old kids on the block share the secrets of their success when it comes to sex in games and erotic 3-D environments. Commentary by Regina Lynn.
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The web can help even the poorest team win a pennant — or at least reach its fans. By Chris Suellentrop from Wired magazine.
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Could climate change spell catastrophe for the world’s glaciers? Wired News talks with paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson about what long-frozen ice cores stored within the world’s highest peaks can tell us about global warming. By John Gartner.
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All eyes are on the Discovery launch this Saturday to see if it can overcome the dangerous foam debris that destroyed the Columbia and threatened last year’s launch.
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Nuclear physicists have found that strange quarks do contribute to the structure of the proton. This result indicates that, just as previous experiments have hinted, strange quarks in the proton’s quark-gluon sea contribute to a proton’s properties. The result comes from work performed by the G-Zero collaboration, an international group of 108 physicists from 19 institutions, and was presented at a Jefferson Lab physics seminar on June 17.
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A new enzyme currently used in commercial food processing, also breaks down whole gluten molecules as well as the T cell peptides that cause celiac disease, a digestive malady with no current effective treatment other than avoiding wheat, barley or rye products. Designated AN-PEP, the enzyme operates best in the physiological environment found in the human stomach. Researchers say “there is now a realistic chance that oral supplementation” could work in celiac disease.
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Buckling under pressure can be a good thing, say materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST researchers have developed a new method to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft polymers and gels, such as those used in contact lenses and as tissue-engineering scaffolds, to determine how they buckle under pressure. For such applications, stiffness is an indicator for key material performance qualities, such as comfort and durability, and it is important to controlling cell adhesion.
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Laboratory workers who frequently handle research rats that commonly cause asthma symptoms have fewer allergic reactions to the rats than individuals with less exposure, according to a study at six pharmaceutical sites in Great Britain.
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