1. Floating Animals
www.sandfiredragonranch.com
Andre Geim from Netherlands and Sir Michael Berry were some of the many scientists who wanted to find a way to eliminate the gravity. They put a frog over super strong magnetic field and made it floating. They finally proved that although frogs are not magnetic they can attain magnetic properties if they are placed in an electromagnetic field. Most important, maybe in the future it might be used for levitation of people. So much work for one “maybe”…
2. Kamikaze Insects
www.mycor.nancy.inra.fr
All of us have experience with those kamikaze insects which clash with our vehicles and leave a mess and dirt after. If someone was curious about the species of the insects that have collided with them, he can read the book “That Gunk on Your Car” by University of Florida professor Mark Hostetler. The book will help you find out if it was a bee or a dragonfly on your windshield, just like the guys from CSI: New York.
3. Beer’s Froth Research
www.zastavki.com
Germans have maybe the best beer in the world and probably it’s result of their obsession with it. Physician Arnd Leike made a research that revealed the rate at which beer froth dissipates. He measured how much time is needed for the froth to disappear when pouring three different types of beer. His discovery: the longer the beer rests in the glass, the more slowly the remaining froth will disappear.
4. Whale Feces
www.dailygalaxy.com
Whales have a bad reputation related to global warming due to the fact that they breathe out a lot of CO2. However, a research of their feces could make them more lovable. It was revealed that whale feces are loaded with big amount of iron, which were good news for the marine life of southern oceans, which are really poor of iron.
5. Sword Swallowing
www.metro.co.uk
Sword swallowing is strange enough, so research named “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects” would be even stranger. This weird research made by Dan Meyer was even published in the British Medical Journal in 2006. In it he described the process to perfection: suppress the gag reflex, carefully slip the sword past his voice box and into his esophagus, flip his epiglottis (the small flap of tissue that ensures that food enters the stomach instead of the lungs), repress the waves of muscle contraction that normally push food down the esophagus, ever so gently nudge his heart to the left and finally repress the retching reflex in his stomach. It’s that simple.
6. Car TV
www.diytrade.com
Jay Schiffman is weird scientists who has invented very weird device – a car TV. Maybe you think that you have seen that before, but you’re wrong. This guy’s TV is for the driver. It’s unclear how he got the idea of watching TV while driving, although it is device that offers only information about the road conditions. Amazing but true, in the patent application Schiffman wrote: “This display actually enhances the attention of the driver to the visual task of operating the automobile.”
7. Fire the Burglars
www.caralarm.org
In the era of stealing cars in South Africa back in 1998, Charles Fourie and Michelle Wong went in a good mission to save the car owners. They invented new alarm system that was never seen before. When a pedal in the car was pressed, a fire blaster installed under the car shot fire from the sides of the car. It might sound like a useful invention, but it’s a little bit too weird.
8. Socks
www.ebike.org.uk
This is recent research, one of the most “famous” of 2010. Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest let us know how we could protect ourselves from slipping on the icy footpaths in winter. All we need is to wear our socks on the outside of the shoes, and the risk decreases.
9. Fast Barbecue
www.petticoatsandpistols.com
George Gobel is professor from Purdue University who invented a trick for barbecue ignition for only three seconds. He used liquid oxygen, an element used by NASA to launch the space shuttles. Three gallons of it and 60 pounds of charcoal are enough to ignite the barbecue, but it’s not enough to make a great grill. Gobel has said that the burgers were overdone.
10. Taking Pictures
www.good-times.webshots.com
Mathematicians Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization gifted the world with their amazing and useful discovery. They revealed the number of photographs that must be taken to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed. It’s good to know: for groups of less than 20, you divide the number of people by three if there’s good light or a decent flash, and two if the light’s bad.
