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An ant raft stays on top of the water surface even when it is hardly pressed by a branch -- showing water repellency and buoyancy. What do Jell-O, toothpaste, and floating fire-ant rafts have in common?

It's a strategy the ants actually actively exploit in the wild: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A042J0IDQK4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04kAnzgjR4

somebody showed such videos some years ago in one of our talks on swarm cooperation ... probably Tobias? or P. Dario? ... still impressive indeed

A few years ago we did not even know if there was any planets outside the solar system. Now we know some of the stuff that happens on them. Wonder how long it takes until we discover life somewhere else!

I do not know what is yetto come, but I am looking forward to the "starshade" Sara Seager's team wants to couple to a telescope: "The star shade and the telescope have to be aligned perfectly at 125,000 miles away. Once aligned, the system will observe a distant star, and then move to another distant star and re-align. This is technologically speaking, unchartered territory." http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G68sqgRhP2E

I wonder how much energy you can extract from the ocean in a responsible way... Mixing up different thermal layers would probably a quite an influence on ecology.

The last available assessment report on the ecological impact seems to date from 1981 which would need to be brought up to current standards. On the other hand, this system could have a positive influence on fish population as deep cold water brings nutrients to the surface. The cold water could also be used to lower sea surface temperatures and affect hurricane genesis!

ssssoooooooooo  coooooooooool

... better food?

I thought insects and bugs would be our (food) future, but maybe it's plants grown via vertical farming...

I doubt that the associated homogenization of food will turn out to be "better" ....

...This slippery surface was bio-inspired by the carnivorous plant I showed you sometimes ago! I was sure it was a good idea! next time I will be quicker!!

And a good lesson that it is important to proceed quickly when you have an idea and don't wait ...

Yes, I will see what we could do, but they really did a good job, from the biomimetic of the surface, up to the realization of the material, and the tests...

Physicists: Can this work also outside water?

The Element Four WaterMill provides fresh, potable water from an unlimited source: the air.

They knew before crashing....

"Ants is a multi-player strategy game set on a plot of dirt with water for obstacles and food that randomly drops. Each player has one or more hills where ants will spawn. The objective is for players to seek and destroy the most enemy ant hills while defending their own hills. Players must also gather food to spawn more ants, however, if all of a player's hills are destroyed they can't spawn any more ants."

As the researchers desribe, the aquifer found is defined as a basin filled with aged snow (firn) that was saturated with water trapped within its porous structure. More ice cores to study! But in that case the time sequence along the length of the cores - to be extracted- would not be monotonic, as was the case in the dry cores we analysed. That's because there is constant input of surface water percolating through the ice-sheet to reach the depth of the aquifer, and since it flows downward its temperature could affect its partial pressure => its vertical position along the core

Some bacteria can influence the weather. Up high in the sky where clouds form, water droplets condense and ice crystal grow around tiny particles. Typically these particles are dust, pollen, or even soot from a wildfire. But recently scientists have begun to realize that some of these little particles are alive - they are bacteria evolved to create ice or water droplets around themselves. old but might be worth a discussion

Towing an iceberg from Newfoundland to the Canary Islands: how 3D computer simulations are used to study iceberg melting and fuel consumption in this concept.

The functional principle is similar to ordinary pumped storage plants: when power is needed, water flows into the sphere and drives the turbine thus generating power. If surplus power is available (usually during the night), water can be pumped out of the sphere again, thus effectively charging the storage system.