Crazy, Cool and Weird Stuff

In Marvel movie The Avengers, it is stated that the Tesseract contains an unimaginable power and can be used as weapon of mass destruction if the power can be unlocked. Well, the tesseract that i'm refering to is not in the movie but rather the one in field of geometry.

Tesseract from the movie The Avengers

According to wikipedia, a tesseract is a four dimensional analog of the cube and sometimes is called 8-cell, regular octahoron or cubic prism. Tesseract is a four dimensional hypercube, (cube with dimension higher than 3) and first proposed by Charles Howard Hinton, a British mathematician in the 19th century. 

A tesseract image in Schlegel diagram.

A tesseract can be unfolded into 8 cubes in 3D space, the same as a cube unfolded 6 squares in 2D surface. The image below shows how a tesseract can be build from 1 dimensional space until the first cube projection in 4 dimensional space.

How to draw a tesseract from a single point ie one dimension.

There are other types of tesseract for example truncated tesseract and rectified tesseract in which they have different Schlafli Symbol and Schlegel diagram.  The existence of higher dimension is by far an abstract concept and none have observed these higher dimensions. Nonetheless, the mathematics suggests the possibility and therefore could exist in this vast universe.


p/s: I read somewhere in which lower dimensional object couldn't possibly see the higher dimension but the higher dimensional object can definitely see the lower one. Not sure how this implicates the existence of higher deity though. 

For the past hundred years, many scientists tried to do alchemy, in which the ultimate aim is to create a philosopher's stone, an object powerful enough to convert normal metal to gold or silver. The stone also is believed to hold the secret of immortality through elixir of life. Though not all part from alchemy is understood nowadays, it did provide a foundation for modern science and chemistry.

Nonetheless, people are still trying to find ways to create gold because after all, gold is considered high value item and represents the wealth of an individual. Unfortunately, the status may change due to recent finding at Michigan University. The finding, which is a bacteria named Cupriavidus metalliduransc (right?) is found to be able to produce gold nugget through microbial processes.

"Gold nugget" after the microbial alchemy

Well, the amount, as you can see from the picture is not much compare to the gold that you'll find in nature but with more research, the capability to turn something into gold, though amazing, may bring impact to world's economy.

Gold nugget found in nature

The researchers presented their finding as an art project called The Great Work of Metal Lover by using a portable lab house where the bacterium performs the "microbial alchemy" thingy. And luckily, the researchers said that replicating the bacterium's actions on a larger scale would be impractical and cost prohibitive.

Source: here

Below are some characters, that you might have seen throughout your life. Some of them may be familiar to you and some of them are not. 

Blue strawberry is now available in real life. Scientists have try to come up with a way for strawberry to not degrade after being left in a freezer. While doing their research, the group of scientists discover an anti-freezing gene in Arctic Flounder Fish and use that to genetically modify the strawberry.

The Arctic Flounder Fish

Some concerns regarding this genetically modified strawberry are raised including the nutritional content and allergy. As for now, researchers created the blue strawberry for the purpose of research, not for production. So, for anti-GMO out there, just don't go on a demo just yet.

p/s: Somehow i wonder why they change red to blue. Last time there was an announcement saying that blue roses are now available and now, the strawberries. 

There's a difference between geek and nerd and this infographic tells you just that.


Image source: Here.

P/s: I feel kinda lazy these days cause i can't figure out few problems that i have with Matlab programming. Hence the infographics. Will continue writing about stuff as soon as all the problems are gone. 

Same hand gestures may not have the same meaning if you're in different part of the world. See the most common hand gestures and places where you should avoid using them.


Some things aren't just the same......

Source: Here.

If you've never heard of Amelia Earhart's, then you probably didn't know the fact that she was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Click on the image to view larger version

Map showing the location of Howland and Nikumaroro Island

As we all know, Saturn has around 60+ moons or natural satellites. Most of them are given names but some are not due to the lack of the characteristics in term "moon."  

Aegaeon - One of the three Hecatonchires, a hundred-hands giant that help the titans. 


Aegir - This sea giant is also King of the sea creatures in Norse Mythology.


Albiorix - Also known as Toutatis, the worshiped celtic god in celtic paganism. 


Anthe - Derived from the word Anthea in Greek, which means "flowery" and is used to symbolize spring


Atlas - A titan which was punished by Zeus to hold the celestial spheres on his shoulders. Modern understanding is that Atlas was punished to carry Earth on his shoulders. 

Atlas

Bebhionn - May derived from Bebinn, the goddess of beauty and seduction in Irish mythology.


Bergelmir - The frost giant that survived the blood flood after Ymir was killed by Odin. Bergelmir and his wife escaped the death and are believed to be the new ancestor of frost giant.


Bestla - The mother of the Gods Odin, Vili and Ve.


Calypso - A nymph in Greek mythology. She is famous because of Odysseus, a mortal man whom she tried to be with until the intervention from Zeus. 


Daphnis - This shepherd and flutist was the son Hermes and Sicilian nymph which was blinded by a Naiad after he cheated her.  


Dione - Mother of Aphrodites, the goddess of love and beauty. 


Enceladus - One of the Gigantes, the children of Gaia and Uranus. 


Epimetheus - the name means hindsight. Together with his brother Prometheus (foresight), they were the sons of Iapetus. 


Erriapus - From the Celtic mythology, Erriapus is believed to be the high god or the leader of the gods in celtic paganism.


Farbauti - Loki's father. 


Fenrir - A monstrous wolf which is believed to bit Tyr's right hand and together with Hati, they were foretold to kill Odin during the great battle, Ragnarok. 


Fornjot - The father of Aegi, Fornjot is believed to be the original ruler of Finland/Norway.

Read more about Saturn here.

Greip - One of two giantess. Daughter of Geirrod, and was killed by Thor along with other frost giants he could find after Geirrod tried to kill him.


Hati - is said to be the son of Fenrir, Hati chases the moon across the night sky and swallow this heavenly body during Ragnarok, which set Fenrir free to kill Odin. 


Helene - Most widely known as Helen of Troy or Helen of Sparta, the daughter of Zeus and Leda. Her abduction by Paris from her husband, Menelaus, brought upon the Trojan war.


Hyperion - One of the twelve gods of titans. He with his brothers, Krios, Koios and Iapetos conspire with Kronos to kill their father, Uranus when he descended to lie with Gaia. 

Hyperion, one of the original Titans of the Ancient Greece.

Hyrokkin - She was the giantess that help the Gods to move Hringhorni, Baldr's ship and the largest among them all to serve as the God's funeral ship. 


Iapetus - Also the son of Uranus and Gaia, the father of Prometheus is given the title "Titan of Mortal Life."


Ijiraq - A shape shifter from Inuit mythology, Ijiraq is believed to confuse Inuit people from entering their areas by being fatally deceptive. 


Jarnsaxa - A jotunn who happens to be Thor's lover and also the mother of Magni, Thor's son. 


Janus - A two faces god in ancient Roman religion facing eastward and westward. They are said to be able to look into the past and future at the same time. 


Kari - The son of Fornjot. Also the God of wind in Norse mythology. 


Kiviuq - An Inuit wanderer that travels across the north and with his supernatural powers, overcome the giants, spirits, cannibals, bear or sea monsters that obstruct his path. 


Loge - The germanize term of Loki, a weird God/Jotunn that sometimes creates troubles or help those in mischief. He's the father of Fenrir, Jormungandr, Nari and also the mother of Sleipner. 

Tom Middleton as Loki in the movie Thor

Source of names: Here

Imagine if there is a way to learn new things by directly download the new things into your brain.

Recently, experiment conducted by Boston University and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratory in Kyoto, Japan, has successfully demonstrated through stimulation on a person's visual cortex, one would be able to improve his/her own performance on visual tasks.


The researchers used decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging in order to induce a brain activity pattern from a previously determine state in a person. The method is believed can be used in inserting new knowledge through the visual cortex, eliminating the need for practice and hardwork.
"Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary, researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.

Neuroscientists have found that pictures gradually build up inside a person's brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example."


In the press conference, Watanabe, one of the co-founder in this project said;

"The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without presenting the feature or subjects' awareness of what was to be learned."

You probably have never heard of Amondawa tribe, but this tribe has given scientists chaos in their theory that time was deep-rooted in human brain.

Amondawa tribe, is believed to not have the concept of time. The concept of time is so loss that they did not have words for "year", "week", "month". According to Chris Sinha, a professor at the University of Portsmouth, Amondawa people live in a world of events without embedding the time in the event like normal human should, or at least, normal to us. 


This people, rather than splitting day into specific part like morning, evening, afternoon or night, they just have two, day or night! Their season is also divided into two, rainy and dry.


Well, living without the concept of time certainly can benefit us in some way, but can you imagine if time does not exist??

Source: Credit to Hannan who gave me the link to this tribe.

Name	Nationality	Description	IQ
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Germany	Poet/Writer. Universal genius.	210
Emanuel Swedenborg	Sweden	Religious writer. Universal genius.	205
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz	Germany	Philosopher/Mathematician, etc. The greatest universal genius together with Leonardo da Vinci.	205
John Stuart Mill	England	Philosopher/Economist/Political theorist	200
Blaise Pascal	France	Mathematician/Physicist/Religious thinker	195
Ludwig Wittgenstein	Austria	Philosopher	190
Bobby Fischer	U.S.A.	Chess player	187
Galileo Galilei	Italy	Physicist/Astronomer/Philosopher	185
René Descartes	France	Philosopher/Mathematician	180
Madame De Stael	France	Woman of letters/Novelist/Political Philosopher	180
Immanuel Kant	Germany	Philosopher	175
Sofia Kovalevskaya	Russia/Sweden	Mathematician/Writer	170
Thomas Chatterton	England	Poet/Writer	170
Charles Darwin	England	Naturalist	165
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Austria	Composer	165
Albert Einstein	Germany	Mathematician/Physicist	161
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)	England	Writer - Close friend to J.S. Mill.	160
Nicolaus Copernicus	Poland	Cleric/Astronomer	160
Rembrandt van Rijn	Holland	Painter/Etcher	155
George Sand (Aurore Dupin)	France	Writer	150

Well, if you have never encounter what the f*** is metamaterial, then click here. 

Example of gyroid.

The study suggests that fingers are associated with hormone such as estrogen and testosterone. The study also will be continued with the link between finger length and health problem, aggression, musical talent and sexual orientation. 

For men, the ring finger is usually longer than their index finger and the opposite is true for women. This is because the prenatal hormonal environment can affect the digit proportions. For example, high testosterone level will affect the proportion of ring finger and high estrogen on the other hand affect the proportion of index finger. 

**The picture is for illustration purposes only. It may not be true in all cases.

The study also lead to a point where outside events may leave a signature that can cause the hormonal imbalance and may link to diseases which can be diagnose at its early stage. Although the team only proved that 2D and 4D are affected by hormonal imbalance, we might aware of what this imbalance may cause especially in studying the behavioral trait. 

Read the full story here. 

Seriously???

***Source here***