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How the Turing machine works
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A Turing machine is a hypothetical machine thought of by the mathematician Alan Turing in 1936. Despite its simplicity, the machine can simulate ANY computer algorithm, no matter how complicated it is. Put simply, the Turing machine isn't a physical machine, but you can imagine it as an never-ending line of tape, broken down into squares. On each of those squares is a 1, a 0, or nothing at all. The machine reads one square at a time, and depending on what it reads, it performs an action - it either erases the number and writes a new one before moving on, or simply moves on to a different square. Each of those actions, which mathematicians call a 'state', are determined by the mathematical algorithm or problem the Turing machine has been desi ...
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4824 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
This nerve bypass procedure enables a quadriplegic man to move again
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After a broken neck left him quadriplegic, Ian Burkhart was told he would never be able to use his hands. Now he can grasp a bottle and pick up a credit card by using a computer plugged directly into his brain. Special software is able to decode his thoughts and convert them into electrical signals in his hand, bypassing the damaged nerves in his spine. Now Ian has regained an amazing degree of control over his hand, each movement stimulated by his own thoughts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_q_dFtPhU ...
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4401 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
You won't believe what this viper does to lure hungry birds
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The rare Iranian spider-tailed viper ( Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) waggles a fake "spider" - actually a fleshy lure with leg-like scales at the tip of its tail - to tempt birds within striking distance. Until 2001, the viper was known only from a single misidentified specimen collected during a U.S. expedition to Iran in 1968. The weird structure on its tail was so unlike anything documented in other snakes that it was written off as a birth defect or an abnormal growth. While scientists had suspected its unique tail was used for luring prey, new observations of the dramatic bird captures now confirm this. The new study also revealed the viper starts growing its tail lure after birth, and that it isn’t complete until adulthood.
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2731 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Watch how animals react to their own reflection
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A French photographer has conducted an interesting experiment in Gabon by installing mirrors in several locations in the wilds and observing the way the animals reacted to their own reflections. The result was most amusing, to say the least.
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16947 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
World's heaviest calculator?
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Oven a century ago, people were using technology to help them solve math problems. This 100-year-old calculator still works today, and it can calculate into the billions. While the machine may be mathematically accurate, it weighs approximately 70 pounds, significantly more than modern day calculators. That doesn’t sound very convenient. But then again, imagine how strong you would get carrying a 70-pound calculator around school ...
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20996 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
A Big Mac versus molten copper
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Here's what happens when you pour 1 984°F/1 085°C molten copper on a Big Mac. This demonstration has nothing to do with the fact that McDonald's uses preservatives in its ingredients. This is simply a demonstration of the Leidenfrost effect - a scientific principle explaining the phenomena that occurs when a liquid comes in near contact with a solid that is significantly hotter than its boiling point; the surface of the liquid comes to a nearly immediate boil, and creates a thin layer of protective steam. It's much the same effect as when one drops water onto a hot pan and the droplet is seen to dance across the surface. In this instance, the inherent moisture in the burger protects it for a few moments before the copper (at nearly 2 000 d ...
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12796 |
bio_man |
8 years ago |
Goat's milk, a cure for HIV?
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A medical doctor claims he has the cure for HIV, a cure so simple it's laughable. According to Dr. Samir Chachoua, the Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) in goats milk "destroys HIV and protects people who drink it for life". The so-called researched voluntarily infected himself with Charlie Sheen's HIV-infected blood, and cured himself shortly after with this cocktail. The moral of the story is, if you are traveling across the countryside and see a goat limping, please stop and milk it for Charlie. It's the least you can do. Joking aside, here's the interview with Bill Maher. ...
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6474 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Watch how the ancient Babylonians tracked Jupiter in the sky
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It's hard to fathom the difficulties our ancestors had to contend with given how our world has advanced with technological sophistication over the past century. We shouldn't, however, underestimate the power of the human-mind, and how everything that was discovered in the past paved the way for the practices used today, especially those used in science. Of the very first astronomers, the ancient Babylonian were the first to use simple arithmetic to predict the positions of celestial bodies. Evidence reveals that these astronomers, working several centuries B.C.E., also employed sophisticated geometric methods that foreshadow the development of calculus. Historians had thought such techniques did not emerge until more than 1400 years later, ...
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5416 |
bio_man |
8 years ago |
Watch how the human face develops in the womb
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Here's an astonishing video of the face as it forms in the womb and how all the pieces eventually come together to create a recognizable human face, taken from scans of a real baby developing.
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16833 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Watch this incredible bird tap dance to get the female's attention
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The blue-capped cordon-bleu ( Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) has a special talent. Not only can it sing, it can shake a leg or two. For its courtship display, it holds a piece of nesting material in its beak, points its head upward, moves up and down, and sings. Both males and females bob and sing like this, and choose their partner. Now, researchers have found that as the bird bobs, it does a quick tap dance where it stomps its feet. ...
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2844 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
This trick will make your brain see a black-and-white image in color
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Watch the video above, the trick is nothing short of incredible! This is due to a mechanism called the opponent-process theory, which was developed in the 1870s. It is the idea of perceiving color in terms of paired opposites such as red with green, and yellow with blue. The possible scientific explanation for this theory is that bipolar cells are excited by one set of wavelengths and inhibited by other, which are in extend attached to the cone retinal receptors.
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3675 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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9232 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
The Myers-Briggs test might just be a phony afterall
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Could the most widely used personality questionnaire simply be a farce? In case you don't know, the Myers-Briggs test is an assessment test believed by many to measure psychological preferences in how they perceive things and help them in making decisions. According to the Myers-Briggs test, there exist sixteen different types of personalities. This Myers Briggs Test has a series of questions that require your answers, which in turn determine the type of personality you have and provides you with general assumptions concerning how your personality type best suits you. Back in year-3 of my undergrad., I had to spend $20 to take the test for an assignment I had to write. While it was interesting to note how my personality could be read throug ...
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9116 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Why can't chimps walk upright?
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What can we learn from chimps swinging their hips? In this Nature Video, the walking style of our primate cousins are investigated, and we see what they can teach us about our ambling ancestors.
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5393 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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21313 |
duddy |
8 years ago |