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"In 2006, Michelle Khine arrived at the University of California­'s brand-new Merced campus eager to establish her first lab. She was experimenting with tiny liquid-filled channels in hopes of devising chip-based diagnostic tests, a discipline called microfluidics. The trouble was, the specialized equipment that she previously used to make microfluidic chips cost more than $100,000--money that wasn't immediately available. "I'm a very impatient person," says Khine, now an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine. "I wanted to figure out how I could set things up really quickly." Racking her brain for a quick-and-dirty way to make microfluidic devices, Khine remembered her favorite childhood toy: Shrinky Dinks, large sheets of thin plastic that can be colored with paint or ink and then shrunk in a hot oven. "I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels the right size for micro­fluidics," she... more... - April Buchheit from Bookmarklet

I loved shrinky dinks!! :D - Susan Beebe

"After I wrote about eating a lot of pork fat and sleeping better, David Shackleford commented that he had a related experience: When he started eating much more animal fat and meat, he started to sleep better. He had posted about his sleep improvement before he read about mine. I asked him for details. He answered:" - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

What causes nearsightedness? It doesn't appear to be genetic. Spending lots of time outdoors while growing up seems to greatly reduce the chances of being nearsighted. - Amit Patel

This peripheral blur theory sounds very interesting. I actually only need my glasses to drive or watch TV/movies... I should get back to what I used to do for years, which was go without the rest of the time. I've needed lenses for nearly 20 years now, but the progression (degradation) has been very very slow. - Andrew C

"Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was a chemist turned photographer ahead of his time who undertook an ambitious photographic survey of the Russian Empire for Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909 and 1915, he completed tours of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped train carriage which had been provided by the Ministry of Transportation. What made this project remarkable was his use of an innovative technique for taking photographs in full and extremely vivid colour. He was able to capture colour by using a camera that exposed one oblong glass plate three times in rapid succession through three different colour filters: blue, green, and red. To view his images, he printed positive glass slides of his negatives and projected them through a triple lens magic lantern. The images were projected through the three lenses and, with the use of colour filters, superimposed in full colour on to a screen." - April Buchheit from Bookmarklet

I know what you mean, Spidra. Somehow the detail of color make the people more real and their way of life somehow more relevant. - April Buchheit

I don't get it. People actually pay for points on their games? - Piaw Na

Its not always the advertisers, its how the offers are presented. Tatto Media suggested we block people from seeing more than 3 articles on our site without forcing the user to fill out an offer of their choice. Of course we didn't implement this and it wouldn't drive the user experience we are looking for. - Matt Ellsworth

How popular Facebook games work and why they're popular. via nelson - Amit Patel

"I just thought, 'please let it have killed Chris Kaman.'" - Ana from Bookmarklet

Whoa - Julie Parker

From the makers of the Big Dog robot. - Simon

I wish there was more toe flexion of the foot. - Andrew C

While touring Canada's Banff/Yoho National Parks, we went to Emerald Lake. It's very pretty. It's glacial fed, so the water is silty instead of clear. But the big surprise here was that this is the site of the Burgess Shale! It's an incredible fossil site that led to the discovery of the creatures of the cambrian explosion (500 million years ago), my favorite time period in the evolution of life. The animals were odd — five eyes? spiny legs? This was before the common forms today (like two arms, two legs, one head, two eyes) beat the competing forms. The site is up on the mountain in the distance, and was unfortunately closed when they designated it a heritage site. - Amit Patel

I don't blame him. That is one freaky looking teddy bear. - April Buchheit

Handsome boy is so handsome. :) - April Buchheit

What you’re seeing here are sand dunes on Mars. This region is in the center of a large crater at mid-north latitude on Mars, a couple of hours past local noon, and with a resolution of 50 cm (18 inches) per pixel. Sand dunes are common in crater beds, where the wind can blow steadily [...] - Jason Wehmhoener

"The important thing to note here is that the sand in the craters of Mars is actually dark grey in color, since it’s made of basalt. The reason it looks red in pictures is because covering the sand is a thin layer of much finer dust, and the dust is what’s red. When a dust devil moves over the Martian surface, it can pick up the very light dust particles, but not the heavier sand... more... - bob

"We're going to extract the DNA from a pumpkin." – using household materials and chemicals - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

I'm amazed that one can extract DNA without specialized equipment. Thanks Simon! - Amit Patel

"DNA dissolves in water, so it stays in the juice. But when we float some alcohol on top, the DNA comes out of solution, and precipitates into the white goo we see at the bottom of the alcohol layer." That's not really an explanation though, why does the DNA come out of solution? - Benjamin Golub

"Gay Wilkinson enjoys blowing anvils more than 100 feet in the air. So much so that is a world champion at the activity." (via http://www.boingboing.net/2009...) - Gary Burd from Bookmarklet

Wasn't there something like this in the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" with Reese Witherspoon? My daughter rented the DVD and I watched it with her. One of the characters had an eccentric grandfather who was always blasting something into the air... I don't think it was anvils, but something similarly "thud-worthy." Hilarious! - Mark Jepsen

"The experiment has important implications for the eventual development of a technology to create false human memories. We could one day “learn” by having experiences directly inputed into our brains." - Simon from Bookmarklet

Whoa! - Anne Bouey

This is one lucky dude! - Alex

New religions aren't always that hard to start. Sure, Lutheranism might not have been easy, but Scientology certainly was. - Gabe

"Sometimes we catch a glimpse of the truth, and discover the actual rules of a system. Once the actual rules are known, it may be possible to perform "miracles" -- things which violate the perceived rules." - Indeyets

;) - Paul Buchheit

very punny. - winterismute

:) - j1m from Bookmarklet

Beautiful. - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

Amazing! - Matter of Attitude

Some good examples on the often counter-intuitive nature of management and incentives. - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

By "scales", I mean it works for populations of tens of millions of people without rampant poverty or starvation. For instance, communism works fine, but doesn't scale well to thousands of people, let alone millions. - Gabe

"Preventing and eliminating infection is at the core of medicine, just as cutting is at the core of manufacturing. My discovery reveals that my doctor — and by implication, the whole health care establishment — failed to know something basic and simple about this. If they understood what I figured out, there would be no need for anti-foot-fungus medicine. A gazillion dollars a year is spent on medical research, medical schools and research institutes around the world are full of faculty doing research — and they haven’t figured out something as basic and simple as this." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

I went to a dermatologists (at a military hospital, if that makes a difference) when I was a teenager for an acne related problem and found out I was zinc deficient. I remember having to take the zinc pills, which were awful, but I don't remember if it actually helped. However, for the past 20 years, I have not had any acne issues. - Andy Bakun

Eleven elite paleo enthusiasts were flown into the Tyaughton area near Castle Peak north of Goldbridge in a new Jet Ranger. We were interested in the local geology and fossils from the Jurassic/Triassic exposures high in the alpine. Camping at about 7,500 ft, we were treated to all four seasons and some great collecting over the course of the week. - Fossil Huntress

Past trips have included grizzlies at close quarters. This year we saw fresh tracks each day, but the bears were actively avoiding our camp but still leaving enough scat to give us the heads up that this is their territory. - - Fossil Huntress

"A sun dog or sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[1] Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° (or more) distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season. In Europe and North America, they might be seen as often as twice a week but they are not always obvious or bright. They are best seen and at their most conspicuous when the sun is low. ... Sundogs are formed by plate shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or - during very cold weather - by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low level. Sundog forming rays enter a near vertical prism side face of a crystal and exit through a second side face inclined 60° to the first. There is net refraction at each face and the light is dispersed into colors. There is no... more... - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

Well I think they are just a bunch of UFO's. - Meryn Stol

"tested subjects’ recall for the hues of colored squares flashed briefly on a screen up to 10 seconds earlier. Subjects marked their answer on a color wheel. If memories decay gradually, the guesses should have become increasingly imprecise as time wore on, evidenced by participants selecting yellow or red, for example, when the correct choice was orange. Instead subjects went straight from fairly accurate answers to random choices—no better than chance—indicating the memories were decaying all at once." - Clare Dibble from Bookmarklet

Graphics research is amazing. This project: sketch and label something you want a photo of, then the system finds photos on the web, cuts out the parts that it wants, and composes everything together. Watch the video too. - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

This made me wonder once more how things spread through the social web. When I posted this the site was up! Then it got on gizmodo, reddit, etc. and the site went down. :( - Amit Patel