Herkimer Diamonds Doubly terminated quartz crystals named for Herkimer County, New York
	Herkimer Diamond Quartz Crystals "Herkimer Diamonds" is the name given to the doubly terminated quartz crystals found in Herkimer County, New York and surrounding areas. Examples of these crystals are shown in the photo at right. Note that these crystals have the typical hexagonal habit of quartz, however, instead of having a termination on one end they are doubly terminated. This is a result of the crystals growing with very little or no contact with their host rock. Such doubly terminated crystals are very rare and this is part of what makes Herkimer Diamonds so popular with mineral collectors. The host rock for Herkimer Diamonds is the Cambrian-age, Little Falls Dolostone. The Little Falls Dolostone was deposited about 500 million years ago and the Herkimer Diamonds formed in cavities within the dolostone. These cavities are frequently lined with drusy quartz crystals and often are coated with a tarry hydrocarbon (see image below). Although Herkimer County, New York is the location for which these crystals are named, similar doubly terminated quartz crystals have been found in a few other locations, including Arizona, Afghanistan, Norway, Ukraine and China. They have the same appearance but can not rightfully be called "Herkimers". The doubly terminated quartz crystals shown in the lower right photo are from a deposit in Afghanistan. Cavity with drusy quartz, hydrocarbon and a nice diamond. Rock is 6" across. Zoom in for detail. "Herkimer Diamonds" found in Afghanistan. Similar crystals are found at several locations. Who Discovered Herkimer Diamonds? The Herkimer Diamonds of New York are not a recent discovery. The Mohawk Indians and early settlers knew about the crystals. They found them in stream sediments and plowed fields. These people were amazed with the crystals and immediately held them in high esteem. Herkimer Diamond Mines Some of the best places to find Herkimer Diamonds today are located along New York State Route 28 in Middleville, New York. (When visiting this area it is important to remember that all land in New York either belongs to the government or is private property. Collecting minerals from government lands is illegal in New York and collecting on private property always requires permission in advance.) There are two commercial mines on New York State Route 28 at Middleville, New York. These are: Ace of Diamonds Mine and Herkimer Diamond Mine. Both allow collectors to enter and prospect for a nominal fee. Both locations also rent equipment such as hammers, wedges and other small tools. They also have small exhibit areas where you can view and/or purchase specimens. Mining for Herkimer Diamonds The key to finding Herkimer Diamonds is a knowledge that they occur in cavities (vugs) within the Little Falls Dolostone (see photo above). These cavities can be smaller than a pea or several feet across. At both of the mines listed above the Little Falls Dolostone is exposed at the surface and a significant amount of broken rock is scattered across the quarry floor. "Find and Break" Prospecting The easy way to prospect is to find pieces of vuggy rock and break them open with a heavy hammer. If you are lucky the rock will break to reveal one or several Herkimer Diamonds within a cavity. If your visit to the mine will last just a few hours or even a single day this is a good way to spend your time. Dolomite is a very tough rock so expect to work hard. The use of safety glasses is required and wise collectors wear gloves to protect their hands. We always wear jeans or heavy long pants and a long sleeve shirt for "find and break" prospecting. Small pieces of dolomite will sometimes fly when a rock breaks and they can easily cut or bruise a person wearing short pants. The "find and break" prospecting method described above is employed by many people who visit these mines and can lead to a few good finds. The keys to success are selection of good rocks to break and not being discouraged if you break fifty rocks without finding a crystal. (See image below to know what "vuggy rock" looks like. Click the image for a closer view.) Vuggy rock containing a nice Herkimer Diamond. Rock is about six inches across. "Scavenger" Prospecting Some visitors to the mines have been successful by simply searching the rock rubble for exposed crystals or searching the quarry floor for loose crystals. We found several really nice crystals this way and lots of tiny ones. We have also seen children find many nice crystals this way. "Cavity" Prospecting For finding large quanties of crystals, the most successful mining method is to break into large cavities in the quarry walls and floors using sledge hammers and wedges (power equipment is not permitted at the mines listed in this article). This method requires tools, patience, time and a knowledge of how to break an extremely durable dolostone. Some of Bill McIlquham's diamond prospecting tools: mainly hammers and wedges. Photo © Bill McIlquham. Driving wedges into a crevice to break the dolostone: multiple wedges at several points. Photo © Bill McIlquham On a recent visit to the Ace of Diamonds Mine at Middleville, New York we met Bill McIlquham of Peterborough, Ontario. Bill was mining for Herkimers with his wife Anne, their friend Laurie Mullett and mascot Duffy the Rockhound. They had located a large cavity and were carefully opening it. (Photos of their work shown here were kindly shared with Geology.com by Bill and fellow miners Cheryl Haberman and Alan Summer.) Bill uses a railroad tie-puller to open a cavity. Photo © Bill McIlquham Duffy the Rockhound supervises the the dig. Photo © Bill McIlquham The McIlquhams have been mining for Herkimers for about 12 years and have found many large cavities. A key element in their success is a nice array of hammers, wedges and pry-bars. Instead of bashing the dolomite repeatedly with a hammer to break it into tiny pieces, Bill uses a sledge hammer and wedges to very carefully exploit existing fractures in the rock. He begins by placing one wedge in a fracture and tapping it an inch or two deep. A second wedge is tapped into the fracture and additional wedges are used if needed. These wedges exert forces that penetrate into the rock and break large blocks of dolostone free. Fractures within the large dolostone blocks are then located and exploited until the large block has been reduced to smaller pieces that can be lifted from the quarry. Later that afternoon - finally getting into the cavity! Photo © Bill McIlquham Paydirt! First look into a new cavity! Photo © Bill McIlquham Anne, Bill & Duffy relax after opening a nice cavity. Photo © Bill McIlquham If a collector is lucky and determined to prevail over the durable dolostone, the reward could be breaking into a cavity. These cavities can contain a few to a few thousand nice Herkimer Diamonds that range in size from a couple of millimeters to over twenty centimeters in size. Perfect single crystals, doubles and crystal clusters might all be found in a single cavity. The cavity shown above was opened by Anne and Bill. It contained over one hundred quartz crystals in a variety of sizes, ranging from a few millimeters to several centimeters in length. A very nice prize for a day's work! Two large clusters from the cavity are shown below Large crystal cluster from cavity. Click to enlarge. Photo © Bill McIlquham Another cluster - "The Squirrel". Click to enlarge. Photo © Bill McIlquham Herkimer Diamond Specimens & Jewelry Why hunt for Herkimer Diamonds? It's great fun and every time you break open a rock you will look with anticipation to see if you liberated an unseen quartz crystal. Nice Herkimer Diamonds are highly prized mineral specimens and are sought by mineral collectors worldwide. Large numbers of Herkimer crystals are also used in jewelry because their natural facets are both beautiful and interesting. Some people also seek Herkimer diamonds because they are thought to have "holistic qualities". If you like minerals and have an opportinity to visit the Herkimer County area of New York, consider spending a day looking for Herkimer Diamonds. Be sure to wear clothes that are suitable for working outdoors. Safety glasses are required and you will be sorry if you don't wear gloves. If you need a sledge hammer or other tools you can rent them at the mine for a very small fee. If you want to obtain some nice Herkimer Diamonds but are unable to visit Herkimer to mine them yourself please visit Bill's site at HerkimerDiamonds.ca.

This Trike Motorcycle Concept Is Like A Big Wheel For Adults

This Trike Motorcycle Concept Is Like A Big Wheel For Adults       

TrailTrike Concept by Charles Bombardier

IMAGE BY Brian Miller

Cars // 

There's something about being perched above three massive plastic wheels that imbues ordinary crybaby toddlers with a terrifyingly kick-ass, gelled-hair attitude. Unfortunately, there's something about adult trikes that is really, really uncool. Now designer Charles Bombardier, one of the creators of the three-wheeled Spyder roadster and grandson of the inventor of the snowmobile, has developed a trike motorcycle concept that looks just as fabulous to ride as your childhood Big Wheel.

Unlike the Big Wheel, the Trail Trike concept has two wheels in front and one in back. Bombardier designed the motorcycle concept to ride on asphalt as well as dirt roads and trails. The seat is another invention of Bombardier's: To help maintain balance on bumpy backroads, the motorized "carving seat" tilts at various angles and speeds to respond to how a rider leans during turns and acceleration.
Bombardier tells Popular Science that he also imagines the TrailTrike with a so-called intelligent stability system, in which a rider can input a certain type of terrain (dirt, snow, or asphalt), and an algorithm will adjust engine power supply, braking on each wheel, and traction control as needed.
Powering the trike would be a 165-hp, 2-stroke, direct-injection engine with a continuously variable transmission. Two output shafts would provide power to each wheel. In order to concentrate most of the motorcycle's mass around its center of gravity-thus making it easier to handle-Bombardier mounted the front disc brakes on the chassis of the vehicle instead of on the wheel hubs.

What did giant extinct vampire bats eat?

What did giant extinct vampire bats eat?

Macrauchenia having a really bad day in the Pleistocene. This scene >>is a parody and almost certainly never happened<<. Tet Zoo dollars to whomever recognises the obvious derivation. Illustration by Darren Naish.

Prior to the spread of people and domestic livestock, vampire bats (here we’re mostly talking about the Common vampire Desmodus rotundus) most likely fed on capybaras, tapirs, peccaries, deer and birds, though we know that they also sometimes feed on fruit bats and reptiles. Populations that live on islands off the Peruvian and Chilean coasts feed on seabirds and sealions. Now that the Americas are full of millions of cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs and chickens however, vampires have largely switched to these domestic prey, and it’s said that the majority of modern vampires now feed almost entirely on the blood of livestock, particularly cattle, horses and donkeys. [Image of vampire skeleton below by Mokele.]

Skull of Desmodus rotundus, showing amazing dentition. Image by Mokele, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

There are three extant vampires. We know from fossils that two of them (the Common vampire and Hairy-legged vampire Diphylla ecaudata) were extant in the Pleistocene, and members of the same lineage as the third species (the White-winged vampire Diaemus youngi) must have been present too, since phylogenetic studies show that Diaemus is as old as Desmodus (Honeycutt et al. 1981, Wetterer et al. 2000, Jones et al. 2002).
But it gets better: there are numerous additional fossil vampires. They include Desmodus archaeodaptes from the Upper Pliocene of Florida (this is the oldest reported vampire species), De. stocki from the USA and Mexico, the Cuban endemic form De. puntajudensis, De. draculae from Venezuela, Belize and Brazil, and an unnamed related form from Buenos Aires, Argentina. De. stocki – sometimes known as Stock’s vampire – was 15-20% bigger than the extant Common vampire. Indeed, a specimen now included within this species was originally named De. magnus. De. draculae – sometimes referred to as a ‘giant vampire’ – was about 25% bigger than a modern Common vampire, suggesting a wingspan of perhaps 50 cm and a mass of about 60 g. This makes it on par with a large horseshoe bat or small fruit bat: keep in mind that the majority of ‘microbats’ weigh between 10 and 20 g!
What sort of animals were these fossil vampires feeding from? Of the living vampires, both the Hairy-legged vampire and White-winged vampire mostly prey on birds. However, the Common vampire mostly preys on mammals, and because the fossil species are all members of the genus Desmodus, it’s reasonable to assume that they, also, mostly fed on mammals. However, they surely exploited other prey when they were available. Here’s a wholly speculative reconstruction of a Pleistocene Desmodus feeding from the leg of a sleeping teratorn (aka teratornithid). Teratorns are giant, condor-like birds; the last time I used a version of this image I was reminded that they likely defecated down their legs as living New World vultures do today. Nevertheless, I’m sure the bat is safe in this particular instance…

Pleistocene Desmodus feeds from sleeping teratorn. Image by Darren Naish.

A few vampire bat fossils are preserved in association with large mammals. A fossil Common vampire from a Brazilian cave, radiometrically dated to about 12,000 years ago, was discovered adhering to the underside of a coprolite produced by the sloth Nothrotherium (Czaplewski & Cartelle 1998) and De. stocki fossils from Florida are preserved in the same caves as ground sloths. A skull belonging to De. draculae was preserved in association with a skull of the extinct horse Equus neogeus. None of these associations demonstrate the predatory preference of the extinct vampire species, but they are at the very least highly suggestive. The idea that some of these bats may have fed on giant sloths is likely and entirely acceptable, and one published life restoration – a drawing by Randy Babb, in Brown (1994) – depicts a De. stocki feeding on a nothrotheriid sloth.

An extinct Pleistocene vampire (probably Desmodus stocki) feeding from a giant sloth. Illustration by Randy Babb, from Brown (1994).

Intriguingly, the morphology of some of these vampires suggests that they differed in ecology and behaviour from the living vampire species. Both De. archaeodaptes and the Cuban species De. puntajudensis seems to have had far more freedom of movement in their jaw joint that the Common vampire, a feature suggesting that they somehow differed in how they procured and/or bit their prey (Morgan 1991, Suarez 2005). The robust hindlimb bones of De. puntajudensis and De. stocki also suggest that their style of terrestrial locomotion differed from that of the Common vampire, though exactly how it differed remains unknown. The large size of De. stocki, De. draculae and the Argentinean giant form of course indicate that they fed on larger prey than living vampires and, as noted, these fossil bats are sometimes found associated with ground sloths.

Bats have been covered on Tet Zoo quite a bit: there’s lots in the archives on vampires and vespertilionids in particular. However, there is still tons and tons to get through!

Vision of the future: 10 hi-tech inventions we'll hopefully be using in 2030

We’ve been promised flying cars, teleporters and jet packs for years but none of them – as yet – have made it to the high street

People have been trying to predict the future since Nostradamus was a lad.
We’ve been promised flying cars, teleporters and jet packs for years but none of them – as yet – have made it to the high street.
However, futurologist Ian Pearson has a list of 10 hi-tech innovations that he claims will be surefire hits by 2030.
A smart yoghurt, anyone?

1. Dream linking

Using pillows with conducting fibres in the fabric, it will be possible to see monitor electrical activity from the brain.
This will not only show when someone is dreaming, but recent developments indicate that we’ll also be able to tell what they are dreaming about.
It is also possible (with prior agreement presumably, and when both people are in a dream state at the same time) for two people to share dreams.
One could try to steer a friend’s dream in the same direction, so that they could effectively share a dream, and may even be able to interact in it.

2. Shared consciousness

Many people believe we will one day have full links between their brains and an external computer.
We will be able to directly access more information outside the brain, making us much smarter, with thought access to most of human knowledge.
The link will also allow us to share ideas directly with other people, effectively sharing their consciousness, memories, experiences.
This will create a whole new level of intimacy, and let you explore other people’s creativity directly.
This could certainly be one of the most fun bits of the future as long as we take suitable precautions.

3. Active contact lenses

Active contact lenses

 These nifty gadgets will sit in your eyes like normal contact lenses.
But they will have three tiny lasers and a micromirror to beam pictures directly onto the retina, creating images in as high resolution as your eye can see.
This could make all other forms of display superfluous.
There is no need to wear a wristwatch,have a mobile phone, tablet or TV but you could still have them visually.
The contact lens can deliver a full 3D, totally immersive perfect resolution experience.
They will even let you watch movies or read your messages without opening your eyes.

4. Immortality and body sharing

While computers get smarter, the brain-IT link will also get better, so you’ll use external IT more, until most of your mind is outside your brain.
When your body dies, you’ll only lose the bits still based in the brain. Most of your mind will carry on.
You’ll go to your funeral, buy an android body and carry on.
 Death won’t be a career problem.
If you don’t want to use an android, maybe you’ll link into your friends’ bodies and share them, just as students hang out on friends’ sofas.
Life really begins after death.

3. Smart yoghurt

A ‘quad core’ PC has for processors all sharing the same chip, instead of the single one there used to be.
This will increase until computers have millions of processors.
These might be suspended in gel to keep them cool and allow them to be wired together via light beams.
In separate developments, bacteria are being genetically modified to let them make electronic components.
Putting these together, smart yoghurt could be the basis of future computing.
With potentially vastly superhuman intelligence, one day your best friend could be a yogurt.

6. Video tattoos

Video tattoos

It will soon be possible to have electronic displays printed on thin plastic membranes, just like the ones you use for temporary tattoos that you put on your skin.
With them you could turn your whole forearm into a computer display. Anyone with ordinary tattoos will wish they’d waited a while.
You will also be able to get electronic makeup.
You would just wipe it all over your face and then touch it to, and it will instantly become whatever you want.
You will be able to change your appearance several times a day depending on your mood.

7. Augmented reality

You’ve seen films where the hero sees the world with computer generated graphics or data superimposed on their field of view.
That technology area is developing very fast now and soon we will all be wearing a lightweight visor as we walk around.
As well as all the stuff your phone does, it will allow you to place anything you want straight right in front of you.
The streets can be full of cartoon characters, aliens or zombies.
You can change how people look too, replacing them with your favourite models if you wish.

8. Exoskeletons

Exoskeletons

Polymer gel muscles will be five times stronger than natural ones, so you could buy clothing that gives you superhuman strength.
They are too expensive to make today, but not in the future.
Imagine free-running and leaping between buildings like a superhero, and having built-in reactive armour to make you bulletproof too, with extra super-senses also built in.
A lot of that stuff is feasible, so exoskeletons might become very popular leisure and sports wear, as well as the obvious military and emergency service uses.

9. Androids

Artificial intelligence is likely to make computers that you can talk to just like humans in the near future.
These can easily link wirelessly to robots.
Robotics technology will use polymer gel muscles too, and a nice silicone covering could make them very human-like, so they can mix easily with humans as servants, colleagues, guards or companions, pretty much what they do in the movie I, Robot, but with a much nicer appearance and probably much smarter.

10. Active skin

Active skin

 Tiny tiny skin-cell sized electronic capsules blown into the skin would enable us to record nerve signals associated with any sensation.
Then you could relive the experience days or years later.
From a favourite ski run to the feel of everyday objects, you can replay the full sensory experience.
Computer games will become totally immersive too.

High-Tech Cheetah Tracking Reveals the Cat’s Hunting Secret

Research into wild animal locomotion could inform the design of future robots.

Agile cat: A new study shows that cheetahs in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, such as the one shown here, are more agile than previously thought. This will help further refine robotic biomimicry of the animal, as conducted by an MIT engineering lab.

Biologically inspired robots could prove useful for all sorts of tasks (see “Just What Soldiers Need: A Bigger Robotic Dog”). But the design of such robots has been limited by our understanding of animal locomotion. Now, thanks to tracking technology, this is changing, and more nimble-footed machines could soon follow.
A recent study published in the journal Nature highlights this shift. A group of researchers tracked several cheetahs living in the Okavango river delta of Botswana. The solar powered collars collected GPS data along with information from accelerometers and gyroscopes. This data combination was set up, averaged, and analyzed in a way that overcame the many possible shortcomings, which include GPS inaccuracy during fast movement, battery life, and errors associated with each individual measurement.
Cheetahs have long been known to catch their prey, often small-sized antelope such as impalas or gazelle, by cutting corners during the chase and tripping them up with a paw swipe (this is in stark contrast to Africa’s other cats, such as leopards or lions, which bring down their prey by jumping or latching onto it to drag it down).
Yet the extent to which a cheetah’s agility and acceleration plays a role in its hunting prowess was underestimated. While cheetahs can run at around 60 miles per hour, the researchers found that many successful hunts occurred at relatively low speeds, with a top speed of only 30 mph, while their acceleration, and ability to quickly change direction, played a large role in hunting.
Meanwhile, at MIT, a robotic biomimicry group has been working on replicating cheetah locomotion by building a cheetah-like robot, which has been tested to jump, walk, and run (at a top speed of only 13 mph) with efficiency and stamina that arguably already overwhelms the abilities of its animal counterpart. To be like a realistic cheetah, it’s less important for MIT’s robot to run at 60 mph, than to change direction at 30.

10 Amazing Space Technology Developments to Watch For in 2013

10 Amazing Space Technology Developments to Watch For in 2013

10 Amazing Space Technology Developments to Watch For in 2013

As per NASA's prediction, the world did not end on December 21.
With that worry behind us, it is time to turn our eye to the future of the space industry, where 2013 looks to be an exciting year with the United States, Russia, and China all making huge strides.

1. NASA's Z1 Spacesuit

NASA's spacesuit has looked much the same over the years, but all of that is about to change. In 2012, scientists and engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center completed a prototype of the new Z-1 spacesuit, which was named one of the year's best inventions by TIME Magazine. The new suit, which bears a Buzz Lightyears-esque appearance with its green accents, boasts superior mobility over the old suits, a large entrance port for easy donning, and increased radiation protection to allow for longer spacewalks.
With the Z-1 protype ready and several successful tests completed, NASA looks to commence testing and creation of a Z-2 successor that incorporates additional improvements, and has set a goal of flying a final product by 2017. Look for updates from the agency in the next few months as it works towards this goal.

2. SpaceX's Grasshopper

On May 25, SpaceX became the first private company to dock a spacecraft at the International Space Station with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. On December 17, the company delivered its encore with a successful test of its Grasshopper reusable rocket, in which the rocket hovered at an altitutde of over 130 feet before landing safely. Over the next few months, SpaceX has higher and more sophisticated "hops" planned for the Grasshopper. As the first ever completely reusable spaceflight system, the rocket has the potential to dramatically lower the cost of future launches if SpaceX successfully sends it into low-earth orbit.

3. Orbital Sciences' Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Demo Flight

While SpaceX currently holds the distinction of being the only private space company to launch a vehicle into low-Earth orbit, the possibility exists that it will not hold this title for much longer. Orbital Sciences, a Dulles, Va. based space company, is scheduled to launch its Cygnus spacecraft in 2013 as part of its NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) agreement. The system, like SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, was developed under a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract with NASA. If Orbital's launch is successful, it could mark the beginning of a U.S. commercial space race, leading to more efficient technologies and increased private sector funding.

4. Asteroid Mining

As the exhaustion point of Earth's natural resources grows imminent, NASA scientists have suggested that elements such as platinum and cobalt may be mined from asteroids to satisfy our current demand.
In 2012, space entrepreneurs Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis launched Planetary Resources, a Seattle-based company dedicated to achieving this goal. So far, the firm has released details on three satellites it has developed (Akyrd 100, 200 and 300) used to assess asteroids for viability. The next step will be to develop spacecraft to capture asteroidal samples and perform extraction experiments. While Planetary Resources has not yet publicized its work on this front, look for some updates in 2013.

5. KickSat's Launch

In 1999, Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) jointly developed the concept of a CubeSat: A miniaturized satellite that has a volume of exactly 1 liter and has a mass of no more than 1.33 kg (2.93 pounds). The concept garnered widespread interest in academic circles due to its relatively low launch cost.
In 2011, this concept was adapted by Zachary Manchester, a PhD student at Cornell University, as a mode of mass deployment for miniature spacecraft. The project (which draws its name from its Kickstarter funding platform) is slated to launch in 2013, and, if successful, could revolutionize future access to space research.

6. Space Tourism and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo

Space Adventures, Ltd., has arguably been the most prolific global supplier of civilian space tourism, having sent clients such as Mark Shuttleworth and Anousheh Ansari up to the International Space Station for the reported price of $20 million per person. Virgin Group subsidiary Virgin Galactic, operating from New Mexico's Spaceport America launch site, seeks to eradicate the exclusivity of this venture. In 2004, the company completed the first privately-funded human spaceflight with its SpaceShipOne vehicle, wherein its pilot and only passenger, Mike Melvill, became the first non-governmental astronaut. Virgin Galactic will look to expand on this success in 2013 with the new SpaceShipTwo vehicle, with pre-bookings selling at $200,000 per seat, a significant discount over Space Adventures' prices.

7. Spaceport Colorado

With the rise of the commercial space industry, the United States will soon look to increase its launch sites past Cape Canaveral, Fla. and Spaceport America, New Mexico. First in line to claim this role is Colorado's Front Range Airport, located just east of Denver, which has received more than $660,000 in support from public partners as of November 2012. The next step towards the creation of "Spaceport Colorado," as the project has been dubbed, will be the satisfactory completion of FAA feasibility studies during the first six months of 2013. If achieved, launch activity from the spaceport could commence in early 2014.

8. NASA's MAVEN Probe

While NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a.k.a. Curiosity rover, has taken front stage in recent months, a project that remains in development is the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe, an unmanned spacecraft that will be used to sample Mars' environment. The probe is scheduled for launch in November 2013 and is expected to reach Mars in 2014. While Curiosity continues to relay data back to earth from Mars' Gale crater, MAVEN will provide measurements from Mars' atmosphere, allowing for a more complete picture of the planet's environment.

9. Russia's Angara rocket

This list would not be complete without some acknowledgement of non-U.S. space developments ... and so the first nod goes to Russia for its Angara rocket, scheduled for launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 2013. The rocket, while largely similar to existing launch technologies, will seek to secure Russia's independent access to space by phasing out the Ukranian rocket technology currently used for launches. If successful, Russia will see greatly reduced reliance on Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome as a launch site, and will instead keep its launches contained within the country.
To supplement its current Plesetsk Cosmodrome north of Moscow, Russia is also developing the Vostochny Cosmodrome towards the country's east side for additional Angara launches.

10. China's Tiangong-2 Space Station

The Tiangong-2 is a planned Chinese space laboratory expected to succeed China's current Tiangong-1 prototype module, which was launched in September 2011. The China National Space Agency has planned the new station's launch for 2013. While China's space program has so far lagged behind the United States' and Russia's, the country made international headlines in June with its successful Shenzhou-9 spacecraft launch. If the new space station is successful, it would solidify China's status as a serious space power, and might be the tipping point to start the new space race of this millennium.

Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Humans May Evolve To Grow An Endless Supply Of Teeth

In the future, you--like the pufferfish--could have so many teeth that you'll wear necklaces made out of your spares. It'll be weird.

Friendly Pufferfish Wikimedia Commons

The pufferfish is a very curious animal for lots of reasons; it swallows air or water to make itself larger and more threatening, it combines its combining pectoral, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins into one set of fins (like a seahorse), and it is often super poisonous. But Dr. Gareth Fraser of Sheffield University is focused on the puffer for a different reason: its teeth.
The puffer, like lots of bony fish (meaning, not cartilaginous), constantly regrows its teeth. The puffer doesn't have delineated teeth like most other fish, though; instead, after its first set of teeth have fallen out (like human baby teeth), it grows a solid structure that looks like a beak. This beak is made of horizontally growing layers of dentite, the usual tooth material for fish, but appears as a single band.
Fraser managed to map the specific cells responsible for the constant regrowing of teeth in the puffer. That's of great interest to us, because humans, unlike lots of other animals, only grow two sets of teeth. Your baby teeth fall out, then you grow your adult teeth, and then...that's it. That's all you get. And that's less than ideal, as most any professional hockey player can tell you (through gaps in their teeth).
Interestingly, Dr. Fraser thinks humans may evolve, in millions of years, the ability to regrow teeth past that second set. "With our extended lives and modern diets, the limited supply of human teeth is really no longer fit for purpose," he said. By figuring out exactly how fish regrow teeth, he may be able to accelerate that process of evolution.
So play hockey without fear! A fix for your broken grill may be in the works.
[via University of Sheffield]

Guess who just filed for an "iWatch" trademark in Japan?

By Will Shanklin

July 1, 2013

If Apple's rumored smart watch hits store shelves, a new report suggests it might indeed be called 'iWatch.'

Unless Apple is sending us all on a wild goose chase, it looks like there might be something to those smart watch rumors. Apple's alleged wrist-based computing device, which has been leaked several times during 2013, is looking even more likely now, as the company recently filed paperwork in Japan for a device called "iWatch."

The news comes from Bloomberg, which says Apple filed for the trademark on June 3 with the Japan Patent Office. The filing categorized the iWatch as a "handheld computer or watch device," which puts it right in line with previous expectations.

This is, however, the most solid clue about what Apple will actually call it. Apple's branding tendencies (iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iCloud, etc.) make "iWatch" the most obvious choice, but sources of the previous rumors only pointed to a nameless wrist-based computing device. It was the media that took the liberty of dubbing it "iWatch." But, if this filing is any indication, then it looks like Apple might embrace that obviousness as well.

The device, which could launch as early as late this year or as far off as late 2014, is expected to duplicate select iPhone and iPad functions. It could run a modified version of iOS, and could potentially combine native processing with notifications and select information transmitted from an iPhone. It could also rely heavily on Siri's voice control, and use some kind of biometric sensors for both security and health and fitness monitoring. Apple bought biometric sensor company Authentic last year.

Without a truly groundbreaking device since 2010's iPad, Apple (and its investors) would surely love to deliver another new landmark product. It might not be as easy this time around, though, as a handful of other big companies are also reportedly developing similar wrist-worn computing gizmos. Not long after the first iWatch rumors hit the press, we heard about smart watches from Samsung, Google, Microsoft, and LG. So much for flying under the radar

An absolutely Amazing Technology with Nano coating 2013