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Blu-Ray Succesor Under Works; Called Archival Disc
The Real Secret Behind Stonehenge?
DIY Miscroscope Costs Less Than $1 USD

Blu-Ray Succesor Under Works; Called Archival Disc

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Panasonic and Sony have confirmed to be working on their next-gen disc format, called the Archival Disc. This would replace the current Blu-Ray as the highest quality format yet.

It seems it was only a couple years ago when we were debating if the next gen format would be Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but now that’s old history, and Blu-Ray could potentially go the way of the vinyl. The new format will be known as Archival Disc, and will be capable of holding up to 300GB of data, with plans to eventually expand this to one terabyte. For reference, the highest capacity Blu-Ray discs right now can carry up to 25 GB in their one layer edition, and 50 thanks to dual-layer.

All this space is meant to be used, for example, by video games or home movies which would now be able to be displayed in higher resolution up to 4K. Also, the prospect of having an entire season of your favorite show in just one disc is quite something, isn’t it?

Source: Geeks Are Sexy

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The Real Secret Behind Stonehenge?

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Maybe there will never be an answer to the secrets and the mysteries behind Stonehenge, but it hasn’t stopped people from trying.

The most recent attempt has been by the Royal College of Art in London, suggesting that the famous rock formations in Wiltshire, England, were brought to the site because of their unique acoustic properties.

So sound? That’s what this whole thing is about? There are plenty of other theories about the site, as still no one is quite sure how they got there and by who: A floating glacier or people taking them from Wales.

As part of a larger study of the acoustic elements of the Pembrokeshire landscape where the bluestones hail from, it turned out that many of the rocks issue a metallic sound, similar to that of a bell or a gong, when hit with a hammer stone.

According to the study, a Presli village used the bluestones as a church bell through the 18th century. According to the BBC, thousands of rocks were tested and many of them rang just like a bell when hit.

And it’s not just one sound – there are different tones and the musically gifted can actually make a tune if they know where to hit them. The stones at the famous site did return a sound, although the fact that some of them are reinforced by concrete resulted in a slightly muted one.

So was it all one big musical conspiracy? It seems that with each study something new comes up – a theory is born, and another is scrapped. However, making such an effort just for the sound of it does sound like a bit of a stretch.

Image via National Geographic

DIY Miscroscope Costs Less Than $1 USD

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Part of being a geek is having an interest in science, but pursuing that interest can get expensive. Luckily, there seems to be a way to get to get the cost down without impacting the quality of research too much.

Meet the Foldscope, a project by Jim Cybulski, James Clements and Manu Prakash aimed to find a way to diagnose and treat diseases in a quicker, more efficient fashion in developing countries, where getting their hands on the proper gear might prove troublesome. Prakash explained In a TED presentation that regular microscopes tend to be bulky and expensive, so they set out to create a cheaper alternative, portable and easy to operate above all in order to be more effective, and the results seem to prove they managed to do exactly that.

The foldscope can manage amplification of up to 2,000X depending on the lens, and can be entirely printed on a card which also doubles as the instruction manual to both build and operate. Foldscope requires electricity only for its LED bulb, which lasts around 50 hours, and creating the whole thing costs only between $0.58 to $0.97.

If you want to become a tester for this futuristic but simple concept, head over to the Foldscope website and apply to become a beta testers.

Source: Technabob

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