Anty-Venom | Lunar Lidar | Oreology - The Convo Kit #45

Why Oreos remind me of rugby: My second position was backup fly-half (like an NFL quarterback, but cooler). We used hand signals to call plays and my favorite was “Oreo” since it involved acting like I was eating one. Laughing to myself and bracing for impact.

-Steve

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Anty-Venom

Bull ants really, really hate being eaten. Their poison evolved to specifically target Australian marsupials, like echidnas, the ant connoisseurs.

• Echidna (e-kid-nas): short-beaked, egg-laying mammals

• Poison studied by getting ants to bite wax paper, then collecting the drip

• Rather than outright pain, poison increases sensitivity to future pain

Next time the echidna digs in for a meal, those little ant bites hurt more. So they avoid it. Scientists believe studying bull ant’s uniquely targeted venom will help us better understand how pain works at a molecular level.

Baby echidnas are called puggles

Lunar Lidar

If you’ve ever been lost 238,000 miles from home, you’re probably an astronaut. Lunar explorers won’t have GPS, so NASA is giving them a KNaCK.

• KNaCK = Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack

• Generates real-time 3D maps using lidar

• Currently 40 lbs., tech improvements expect to shrink it to soda-sized

Moon walks are naturally limited by the oxygen carried on a spacesuit. Getting lost is not an option. NASA believes this is better than our suggested method: Leaving floating breadcrumbs.

Let's go KNaCKpacking

Oreology

Does Oreo filling stick to the left cookie, or the right? MIT researchers sought to answer this question for those of us that enjoy playing with our “trilayer laminate composites”, aka Oreos.

• A rheometer was used to asses twist tension

• Multiple Oreo types were studied (regular, double stuff, Golden…)

• Researchers noticed similarities between Oreos & carbon nanotube stress fluids

Researchers found the cream filling’s split bias is determined by the level of adhesion generated during manufacturing. Twisting the cookies faster or slower only affects the probability of breaking the wafer.

What’s your favorite Oreo?

Wearable Chopsticks

Salty: Fries, your haters, the average American diet. Meiji University researchers in Japan have developed chopsticks that use electricity to make foods taste saltier, reducing total sodium consumption.

• US individuals avg. 3,600 mg of sodium per day (2,300 mg recommended)

• Electrical stimulation alters the perceived flavor

• 1 chopstick is plugged into a power supply worn like a watch

Electricity moving through the chopstick is not strong enough to affect humans. It’s just enough to alter the sodium chloride and sodium glutamate ions to affect flavor. No word on when to expect a charged spork.

Chop chop

Robo SQuRo

Beijing Institute of Technology’s robotic SQuRo is almost as adorable as you’d expect. But it’s a rat.

• SQuRo = Small-size Quadruped Robotic…rat

• Weighs 7.8 ounces, carries 7 ounces of gear (sensors/cameras)

• Modelled after the Norway rat, or rattus noregicus

SQuRo developers hope it will soon assist in disaster relief and inspecting hard-to-reach areas. You’re right, odd to prototype this on a rat instead of a squirrel. It’s nuts.

Not another cheesy pun

1 More Thing

When low-sodium tastes like mo-sodium

Thank you for reading!

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