This ridiculous rhinestone-studded disco-ball is actually a high-precision laser-reflecting satellite still in orbit around the Earth. With only tiny reflectors and no active instruments, it’s provided vital data on the planet’s shape for decades.
Continue reading This Glittery Gem is in Orbit Helping us Measure the Shape of our Planet
The train line from mainland Kobe is a marvel of urban transportation. Opened in 1981, Japan’s first driverless, fully automated train pulls out of Sannomiya station, guided smoothly along elevated tracks that stand precariously over the bustling city streets below, across the bay to the Port Island.
Logically, elephants should get cancer much more than humans do—elephants have 100 times more cells than we do and live just about as long, providing ample opportunity for cancer-causing mutations to occur. But in fact they have less cancer; an analysis of hundreds of zoo deaths found that only five percent of elephants die of cancer, whereas 11 to 25 percent of humans do, according to the New York Times. Scientists hypothesize that, in order to get so large and biologically complex, elephants’ bodes must have evolved a way to suppress cancer. But they weren’t sure quite how they kept the cancer at bay.
Continue reading FOUND: A GENE THAT PREVENTS ELEPHANTS FROM GETTING CANCER
For the past year, the world’s corals have been getting increasingly pummeled by climate change. Now with El Niño kicking ocean heat into overdrive, much of the world’s oceans have turned deadly for the world’s corals.
Continue reading Hot Oceans Are Killing Coral Reefs Around the World
A YEAR AGO, Fiat Chrysler announced it would be spinning Ferrari off as its own company, offering around 10 percent of outstanding shares to the public. Today, Ferrari filed IPO paperwork to offer 17,175,000 shares on the NYSE, valuing the company around nearly $10 billion, at $48-$52 per share.
Continue reading Ferrari Files for Its Own IPO, Valued at $10 Billion
DeAndre Jordan had the first highlight of the preseason when he threw down a reverse alley-oop. The dazzling sight makes it easy to forget the greatness of the Chris Paul pass that led to it. You have to note that precision, that ability, and that excellent use of all 10 of his fingers.
The Fat Cat Collective 