Carnibore

[Image: Photo courtesy Nellis Air Force Base].

Black eyedrops made from a "chlorophyll analog" have allowed human subjects to experience night vision—without the use of special goggles.

The chemical, called Chlorin e6, "is found in some deep-sea fish and is used as an occasional method to treat night blindness," according to Mic.

The group who actually ran the experiment, Science for the Masses, is based in Tehachapi, California, somewhat amusingly described by Mic as being "a couple hours north of Los Angeles," which is rhetorically equivalent to saying they're in the middle of nowhere (in fact, Tehachapi is quite close to California City).

In effect, the modified eyedrop procedure was just a tactical misuse of a known cancer treatment: that is, Chlorin e6, or Ce6, is normally used as "a photosensitizer in laser assisted cancer remediation," the group explained. "The light amplification properties of the Ce6 are used to use the energy from a low power light source to destroy cancerous cells with literal laser precision."

It is this "light amplification" that enables the alleged night vision.

"To me, it was a quick, greenish-black blur across my vision, and then it dissolved into my eyes," Gabriel Licina, the team's voluntary guinea pig, explained.

[Image: Screen grab via Mic, courtesy of Science for the Masses].

According to the team's own report—which must be taken with a grain of salt, at least until other researchers have reproduced the results—it actually worked: it gave Licina night vision. From Mic:

It started with shapes, hung about 10 meters away. "I'm talking like the size of my hand," Licina says. Before long, they were able to do longer distances, recognizing symbols and identifying moving subjects against different backgrounds.

The team has posted a "review" of the experience on their website, which offers some more insight into the process.

But, again, assuming this isn't simply an exaggeration or even a hoax, the idea that humans can now see in the dark with the help of eyedrops based on chlorophyll—as if borrowing an optical superpower from the vegetable kingdom, incorporating other species and experiencing self-hybridization in order to capture light at even its wispiest and most ghostlike extremes—is jaw-dropping. Or eye-popping, as the case may be.

You can easily imagine this becoming standard for nighttime police operations or military raids—with Special Ops teams giving themselves eyedrops before sneaking into an unlit town—but one could even imagine this having an effect on global energy bills.

What if improving grid efficiency is at least partially also a medical question—that is, if you could just drop some Ce6 in a dark city without the need for streetlights, or even walk through your own apartment with pupils the size of dinner plates, seeing everything?

[Image: Photo courtesy Nellis Air Force Base].

The possibility that human self-augmentation might serve as an alternative to urban infrastructure is a pretty mind-boggling scenario, implying a whole new suite of possibilities for the future of urban design.

At the very least, it suggests a bizarre—if not quite dystopian—situation where we might find that redesigning the city is less effective than redesigning ourselves.

(Via @ziyatong).

Alternate of last where there is some trait stealing!

omgcindeocampo:

FOLLOW ;

OMGCINDEOCAMPO
FUNNIEST SHIT !!!

taigas-den:

zombikaze:

Tasmanian Tiger (extinct)

This is footage of an extinct animal. This blows my mind.

bjornenlinda:

Buster Keaton Escapes

radicalbundy:

Blood vessels of a real person who dedicated their body to science for display

A visualization by Halcyon Maps (previously) shows a sunset scene with the Sun being replaced by other stars of various size and brightness. The visualization only takes size and brightness into account, since the reality is that liquid water and life on Earth would most likely not exist at the same distance from the other stars.

Prints can be ordered through the Halcyon Maps site.

image via Halcyon Maps

via Huffington Post, Visual News

sixpenceee:

VeinViewer: an infrared device that detects the location of a patient’s veins and projects them on the skin so doctors and nurses don’t miss. It was developed by the Christie Medical Holdings company. They mainly show surface veins

Anything can happen during a launch or landing of a crewed spacecraft, and just in case the crew would end up stranded in a remote area of the world, astronauts and cosmonauts undergo survival training and carry survival kits. The kits contain items such as food rations, water, extra clothing, items for making a shelter and other miscellaneous survival gear.

Also, cosmonauts regularly used to carry handguns on their Soyuz spacecraft. This has long been known and discussed, but writer James Simpson recently wrote a great piece on Medium about the history and justifications for why a gun in space is seemingly a good idea.

“Having a gun inside a thin-walled spacecraft filled with oxygen sounds crazy,” writes Simpson, “but the Soviets had their reasons. Much of Russia is desolate wilderness. A single mishap during descent could strand cosmonauts in the middle of nowhere.”
(...)
Read the rest of Did You Know Soviet Cosmonauts Carried a Bear-Killing Shotgun into Space? (325 words)

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© nancy for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 9 comments |
Post tags: Guns, Outer Space Treaty, weapons in space

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“I want to be with you. It is as simple and as complicated as that.” - Bukowski

While some might argue that there are better ways to wash one’s face and hands than with a reminder of our mortality and the transient nature of life in general, we think these beautifully macabre bars of skull-shaped soap are pretty awesome.They’re called the Art of Dying soaps and they’re the work of Monterey, CA-based artist Eden Gorgós.

Eden just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of sets of skull-shaped Memento Mori soaps and lotions and the more ornate Vanitas bar soaps. All of these soaps and lotions are handmade in small batches using resin molds that Gorgós sculpted herself.

“Soaps are made with coconut oil, colored with natural clay/herb/flower, and formulated to moisturize without sacrificing lather. All but the white soaps are scented with a combination of essential oils. Solid lotions and unisex cologne are made with shea butter, beeswax, and calendula, arnica flower, and chamomile infused almond oil (and scented with a blend of essential oils).”

These delightfully creepy personal cleansing products come in a variety of tantalizing scents such as Roseclove, Lavender Musk, Sagebirch, Rosemarymint, Lemonginger, and Birch-Mint.

Visit the Art of Dying soaps Kickstarter page for additional photos and information.

[via Kickstarter]

the-creepatorium:

Art by 

Santiago Caruso

socialpsychopathblr:

'Lucifer (Morning star)' by Paul Fryer. Installation in the Holy Church in Marylebone, 2008.

red-lipstick:

Christian Schloe (Austrian, Salzburg, Austria) - Portrait Of A Heart    Digital Arts