BBC NEWS | Technology | Paper battery offers future power: "Flexible paper batteries could meet the energy demands of the next generation of gadgets, says a team of researchers. They have produced a sample slightly larger than a postage stamp that can release about 2.3 volts, enough to illuminate a small light."
Simple, elegant, cool use of physics. Wow! Enough said.
Indians predated Newton ‘discovery’ by 250 years: "A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research"
Most of the comments focus on the fact that yet another white male’s accomplishments are being questioned. However, what is of interest to me, which is not discussed in the article, is what other conceptual achievements Kerala school innovated. The fact that there was the potential of cultural transmission of mathematical ideas makes me wonder about the universality of the concepts. There is a sense of wonder associated with the idea that multiple individuals from distinct cultural contexts innovated the same mathematical concepts. The universal feel to such a statement makes religions interest in mathematical and scientific pursuits comprehensible. In a way, this is not about Newton’s achievements but rather about the mystery of universality.
Baby Einstein DVDs Don’t Work | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source: Baby Einstein DVDs Don’t Work A research team at the University of Washington has determined that babies watching television for an hour a day learned less vocabulary than babies that watched no television. What do you think?
Rick Klein, Golf Pro, ‘True, but they develop witty comebacks and zingers a lot earlier.’
Cynthia Haggarty, Mail Sorter, ‘I’m happy to teach my baby personally, but are these researchers aware that everything I know also comes from TV?’
Paul Lamphert, Systems Analyst, ‘This is great news. Finally a proven method to get my baby to shut the hell up."
