Memophobe

npr:

Ooooo.

jtotheizzoe:

Genetics of the Beautiful “Glass Gem” Corn

Corn gone viral? You’re looking at an ear of a corn variety called “Glass Gem”, grown by Greg Schoen of Seeds Trust. This is real corn! How does it grow this way?

First you have to understand a few things about corn. Each corn kernel is actually a sort of unique plant. A corn plant’s male parts (the “tassels”) sit at the top of the stalk, and drop pollen downward. Unfertilized ears (the female parts) catch the pollen with the sticky ends of their corn silks. Each corn silk (I hate when that gets in my teeth) grabs a pollen grain, shuttles it allllllll the way down inside the ear, eventually creating one kernel for each pollen-silk-ovum combination. It’s one of the more interesting and inefficient breeding schemes I know of.

If you’ve taken genetics, you know that the parents’ genes will combine by chance, leading to certain ratios of inheritance in the offspring. This is the basis of Mendelian genetics (great Khan Academy video here).

With corn, we’ve simply carefully bred all the interestingness out of them. Native Americans were used to multi-colored corn, because corn plants held many varieties of color genes that could combine at random. Now all we are left with are one-color clones.

This “Glass Gem” corn is the other extreme of the spectrum, a combination of corn color hybrid genes and random pollination. It’s almost too pretty to eat!  

(via Discover Magazine)

(via wnycradiolab)

brilliantbotany:

Asparagus officinalis is the scientific name of the vegetable you may be familiar with. Flowers on the plant are pale green or yellow and very small. Asparagus is only edible when it is young.

emergentfutures:

Chinese Physicists Smash Distance Record For Teleportation

The ability to teleport photons through 100 kilometres of free space opens the way for satellite-based quantum communications, say researchers

Full Story: Technology Review

Yuh!

emergentfutures:

How Microsoft’s Kinect Could Replace Your Tailor (No Pins Required)

Raj Sareen’s startup, Styku, was selected as a member of Microsoft’s Kinect Accelerator. He wants your game console to help make your clothes fit better—even if “no two boobs are alike.”

Full Story:FastCompany

science:

The antipode of a point on Earth is the point diametrically opposite it—where you’d end up if you dug a tunnel straight through the Earth. Most land is antipodal to the sea. Above is a map showing antipodal points, with the overlap (orange) showing places where, if you did manage to dig straight through our planet, you’d end up on land. As you can see, if you want to dig straight to China, you better start in Chile or Argentina. Parts of Spain are antipodal to parts of New Zealand, a fact exploited by the first “Earth Sandwich”, a response to a challenge by Ze Frank.

emergentfutures:

Microryza brings crowd-funding to scientific research

Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter have proven popular for groups and individuals looking to get a consumer product, movie, music or video game project off the ground. Now a group of researchers and scientists is adopting a similar crowd-funding model to raise money for scientific research projects. The Microryza website, which launched this week, lets the public get behind research they care about and maybe help it get out of the lab.

Full Story: GizMag

emergentfutures:

Paul Higgins: Sounds interesting  but vandalism/theft must be a concern

whisperoftheshot:

NYC Program to Replace Pay Phones with 32 Inch Touch Screens 

Considering that cellphone ownership in the U.S. has pretty much become the rule instead of the exception, you might expect that pay phones would die out entirely. It looks like they may, but not in the way you might expect. As part of a pilot program in New York City, 250 pay phones are going to be removed, but something will be put in their place: 32″ ad-supported touch screens, complete with Internet access for email, Wi-Fi hotspots for device use, and cameras for Skyping and what-have-you. Sounds a little better than holding a filthy piece of plastic up to your mouth, doesn’t it?

I see this as a great replacement for payphones in the digital age.

Geekosystem

emergentfutures:

The Computing Trend that Will Change Everything

Computing isn’t just getting cheaper. It’s becoming more energy efficient. That means a world populated by ubiquitous sensors and streams of nanodata.

Full Story: Technology Review

kickstarter:

Walk [Your City] began when a few, civic-minded friends in Raleigh, NC posted a network of signs around town that gave walking directions to cool, local spots. It was a simple way to help citizens navigate their city on foot, but (surprise!) it resonated worldwide. Now, with hundreds of folks eager to adopt the movement, the team is working to create an open-source, web tool that will allow anyone to make, print, and post their very own neighborhood walking signs. See you on the sidewalks — see them as our Project of the Day.

(via emergentfutures)