Added 1 new A* page:
"I like the format of Super Massive Blackhole because I can flip through the comic easily. The one-panel per page format and the dialogue on the bottom gives the entire comic a cinematic feel. The sci-fi elements are futuristic, but the look is black and white and classic."
-- Tony DiGerolamo, The Webcomic Factory |
I've asked my webcomic author peers to say something nice about A*, in return for which I'll link to their own comic when I post the quote, so that's what's going on up there. Response so far has actually been quite good, so this could go on for a while. Hopefully this little indulgence of mine won't be too annoying, but you just might find a link to a nifty webcomic you hadn't seen before!
And just to prove this won't distract me from my usual tumultuous forays into science news and beyond, here's a bunch of stuff!
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I came across a NewScientist.com article highlighting a black hole simulation program that shows how the hole's gravity would bend light around itself, distorting the view of distant stars.
You can even download the program, written by two fellows from the University of Stuttgart. I couldn't seem to get its OpenGL renderer to work on my computer, drat the luck.
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Innovation News Daily ran an article recently about the Navy's test of their "Maritime Laser Demonstrator," a ship-mounted prototype of a laser weapon. It isn't all that powerful, but in the tests they've been able to use it to burn through outboard motors after a second or two, as is supposedly shown in this video:
video on Youtube
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It isn't just the Navy shooting lasers these days, though--even green fluorescent protein ("GFP") is getting into the act, according to this LiveScience.com article: scientists working at Massachusetts General Hospital, it says, using genetically engineered kidney cells containing the protein (which normally occurs in some fluorescent sea creatures) and a pair of tiny mirrors to generate a laser from the green light the protein emits.
They came up with the idea because GFP emits its light along very specific wavelengths, which is exactly what you need a laser to do! So they were able to use the tiny mirrors to gather the light emitted by the protein, and focus it into a beam, albeit a pretty weak one.
Neat! Now they've just got to move that from kidneys to something a little more accessible, like say fingertips or eyeballs, and we'll be in business! Or at least, we'll have some cool natural super-hero special effects. :P And maybe the Navy could harness herds of fluorescent jellyfish to take out pirate speedboats!
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