subject: What Would You Say On The Very First Recording Of Human Speech? [print this page] Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were both seeking a way to record sound in the 1880s. Edison would eventually invent the phonograph, which became the standard method for making recordings. But Bell actually made recordings several years before Edison. In recent years, however, no one could listen to Bell's recordings because they were too fragile to play. New optical scanning technology has managed to make the sound audible again. Six of the recordings are available for listening on YouTube, including a reading from the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Secrets Hidden in Underground Antarctic Lake
Russian scientists have spent twenty years drilling their way to a lake under Antarctica that has been untouched for twenty million years. Assuming that the drilling process hasn't contaminated the water two miles below the surface, scientists believe that they may have just opened up an opportunity to learn about both Earth's past and the wider solar system. Life may well exist in the lake, which exists in conditions thought to be like those under ice on Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. Waleed Abdalati, NASA's chief scientist, has affirmed the importance of the breakthrough. "In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life," he said.
Where's the Beef? In The Test Tube
Many people our concerned that the demand for food will soon outstrip our ability to produce it. To battle that problem, a team of scientists at a university in the Netherlands is hard at work creating synthetic meat. In fact, they hope to have the first synthetic burger ready for cooking and tasting by October. Mass production of the test tube meat could still be as many as twenty years away, and the head of the team admits that taste hasn't been a top priority so far. A few strips of the meat have already been produced using a cow's stem cells.
Will 'Google Goggles' Hit The Market Yet This Year?
Word from some Google employees is that "heads up display" glasses are just around the corner. Sporting the look of Oakley sunglasses, the new gadget will boast a tiny screen in the lens. 9to5 Google, a website devoted to news about Google, suggests what product might do: "A user can walk around with information popping up and into displaybased on preferences, location, and Google's information." You'll control things like scrolling and clicking by tilting your head, which may mean the device looks cool, but you look a little strange using it.
