Motion-controlled Holograms Are A Real Thing Now

If Minority Report and Iron Man have you pining for a future where we can control glowy blue holograms with the flick of a wrist, pine no more, my friends because the future is now! Robbie Tilton created a gesture-controlled hologram using a computer monitor, a prism and Leap Motion.

Check it out in action below:

Fingers crossed that we’ll all have sweet Tony Stark computer setups within the next two years.

So, NASA Found A Space Invader

Prepare the laser canons! NASA’s Hubble Telescope scoped out a harbinger of death and destruction headed right for Earth!

NASA explains that the gravitational field surrounding the galaxies works like a magnifying glass, brightening and stretching light from far away. So you’re seeing stretched and mirrored images—a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing—that just happens to look like a space invader. 

That’s what they WANT you to think!

(Source: Gizmodo)

Awesome Macro to Micro Science Sleeve

Whether or not you dig tattoos, you have to acknowledge the fact that there are some amazing artists out there providing great artwork that is personal to those who receive them.

This fantastic piece by Deanna Wardin at San Francisco’s Tattoo Boogaloo celebrates the wonder of life from the greatest to the smallest. It is a really beautiful piece that took 31 hours spread over 8 sessions. An impressive feat for both canvas and artist.

(Spotted on Reddit)

Check It: More Tattoos on Albotas
Buy It: Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed

Arcade Machine Hacked To Control RC Cars

Take a close look at the Sega Rally arcade cabinet pictured up top. Those aren’t the game’s graphics on the screen. It’s a live feed from a camera mounted onto an RC car that it controlled by the arcade. There’s even an option to switch between 1st and 3rd person views!

The cabinet is hooked up to an Arduino and I’m sure there’s all sorts of sciency stuff involved that I won’t ever understand, but it’s all pretty dang fresh.

The whole project was developed for the SAPO Codebits VI conference in Portugal.

Check out some footage of the Sega Rally Championship RC Cars Project below.

(Source: thearcademan.net)

NASA’s First New Space Suit In 20 Years Looks Awfully Familiar

With all the advancements in technology in the past five years alone, it blows my mind that it’s taken NASA 20 years to come up with a new space suit. Maybe it just took them a while to settle on the perfect design motif. To infinity, and beyond!

(via Gizmag)

A Little Bit on the Lucas Side: Sadly, Wednesday is the season finale of the Science channel’s Prophets of Science Fiction. They’re going out with a bang, though. This episode is about George Lucas of Star Wars fame. Hopefully there’s more than a passing mention of THX 1138, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. It will air at 10 PM.

While you’re at it, check out the Prophets of Science Fiction episode about the best sci-fi author ever (in my opinion, again), Philip K. Dick.

For the Ladies: Solar Jewelry Changes Color with the Power of the Sun!

Using futuristic sunlight-harvesting technology, ladies looking to fuse some science with their fashion can pick one of these up from FantastiquePlastique. You can also check out a video of the pendant’s color-changing powers in full effect HERE.

Shoutout to Miranda for the tip!

Also check out: More posts for the ladies.

Wacky Japanese Thing: Spray-can Cooling Foam.

If someone’s hot while on the go in America, you might see them using one of those little pocket fans, but in Japan they’re like “Eff that noise, let’s use science!” These cooling foams have been around for a while, but they’ve just recently gone mainstream and people all over Japan can be seen wearing foam bracelets and necklaces to bring down their core body temp.

I’d be the guy who made a shirt and pants out of this stuff and rocked it like nobody’s business.

(via News On Japan)