An Amazing Storyrun By NPR Of A Chemist In Tanzania Who Is Training Rats To Sniff Out Patients Sputum

An amazing story run by NPR of a chemist in Tanzania who is training rats to sniff out patients’ sputum for positive TB strains. The rats can correctly pick out TB in samples 2/3 of the time and they can evaluate more samples in 10 minutes than a lab technician in one day! What a positive collaboration between two- and four-legged creatures! 

Read article here.

The sky out my back window at night is often this indescribable color that's halfway between purple and orange. Despite living here for years, I still think it's creepy and unnatural.

What do We Lose When we Lose The Night?

“I worry that our lack of contact with the night sky, is doing something to us very subtle.” - Ann Druyan

“I don’t know of a civilization that didn’t have a mythology of the night sky.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hey baby. If I woke up in your bed with a rubber duck and a spatula, would you let correlation imply causation?

No - correlation does not imply causation.

...

It is necessary to engage in additional testing.

Wink.

Does anyone else hear the tetris song playing when they look at this?

French artist Edouard Martinet (previously featured here) scours flea markets for everyday objects that he uses to create awesome animals and insect sculptures like the ones you see here.

“Working with a variety of refuse materials such as rusted kitchen pans, typewriter keys, car lights and other scrap metals, Edouard Martinet sculpts several types of animals and insects. His sculptures are made without the use of solder. He fits each component into place as if putting together a puzzle of random pieces and parts. Each masterpiece is carefully assembled after having drafted several detailed sketches.”

Visit Edouard Martinet’s website to view even more of his amazingly intricate creatures.

[via Free York]

This Week in Science - April 29 - May 5, 2013:

Smallest movie ever made here.

Sea horse armor inspires engineers here.

New insect-eye-like-camera here.

Bioengineered windpipe here.

Bionic ear here.

Anti-matter falling up here.

Harvard robotocists fly RoboBee here.

Saturn’s seasonal magnetosphere here.

Vega launches here.

Climate change causing painted turtles extinction here.

Black hole birth observed for first time here.

New species of mole rat here.