HRL Laboratories – formerly the (Howard) Hughes Research Laboratories – have just been granted a US patent for their ‘Power generation through artificial transpiration ‘ invention. The power system – which could perhaps be described as an ‘artificial tree’ – generates power by drawing water through a turbine, driven by pressure differences caused by transpiration […]
Tag: tree
Yet more plummeting dead mice over Guam
Krystal Paco reports, in Guam News: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s dead mice baits filled with acetaminophen being dropped from helicopters. As today marked the fourth mice drop atop forested areas of Anderson Airforce Base since September, U.S. Department of Agriculture assistant state director supervisory wildlife biologist Dan Vice explains the process […]
“Corpse Treatment Method”: The body of a tree, so to speak and also literally
This patent application describes how to use a human corpse to grow part of a copse: “Corpse Treatment Method,” U.S. Patent Application 12/160,699, Evert Dirk Van Ramshorst, filed January 15, 2007. “A new form of corpse treatment has also been developed: freeze-drying or lyophilization. In freeze-drying the body of the deceased is cooled to -18° […]
Yet another mathematician commits violence
Don Troop in the Chronicle of Higher Education reports yet another case of a mathematician committing a shocking act of violence: Math Prof Clobbers Gopher Mascot The year in college sports has brought us both mascot-on-mascot violence and mascot-on-fan violence. Last weekend the tables turned when a University of Minnesota fan landed a couple jabs […]