Gaze Upon the Reconstructed Face of an Infamous 19th Century British Assassin

One of the most intriguing items on display at the Queen Mary Pathology Museum—the skull belonging to British assassin John Bellingham—has been used to create a digital reconstruction of the killer’s face. Continue reading Gaze Upon the Reconstructed Face of an Infamous 19th Century British Assassin

Brain-Destroying Prions Also Spread Through Victims’ Eyes

One of the strangest things that can sicken us—a rogue misfolded protein that destroys the brain, known as a prion—is even scarier than we knew. Researchers were able to find the prions responsible for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common prion disease in people, seeded everywhere in the eyes of 11 patients affected by it. Continue reading Brain-Destroying Prions Also Spread Through Victims’ Eyes

Ion-powered aircraft flies with no moving parts

As clean as electric aircraft can be, there’s still one kind of pollution they still produce: noise. Even that might go away before long, though. MIT researchers have successfully flown an ionic wind-powered aircraft that doesn’t use any moving parts. The 16-foot wide machine stays aloft by charging wires with a high enough voltage (40,000V) that they strip negatively-charged electrons from air molecules, which are promptly attracted to negative electrodes at the back of the aircraft. The collisions from that newly-formed ionic wind create the thrust needed to keep the vehicle airborne.

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Tim Cook Defends Apple Being Paid Billions by Google

Over the last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it a point to call out tech companies for indiscriminately collecting data on users and disregarding concerns about privacy. But one issue with his criticism is that Apple gets paid a boatload of money from Google for making its search engine the default on its devices. In a new interview, Cook finally addressed that issue. Continue reading Tim Cook Defends Apple Being Paid Billions by Google