Another giant leap
This week, if all goes well, outer space will get its first humanoid from planet Earth. Robonaut 2 is destined for the International Space Station, Associated Press reports. Imagine, its creators say, a future where Robonaut could take over space station cleaning duties; spend hours outside in the extreme heat and cold, patiently holding tools for spacewalking astronauts; and handle emergencies such as toxic leaks or fires. "While it might be just a single step for this robot, it's really a giant leap forward for tinmankind," said Rob Ambrose, acting chief of Johnson Space Center's automation, robotics and simulation division.
An immortal child?
"Brooke Greenberg is almost 18, but she has remained mentally and physically at the level of a toddler," Philip Bethge writes for Der Spiegel. "It is possible that the key to immortality is hidden in this delicate girl, who is only about 76 centimetres (2 feet, 6 inches) tall and weighs seven kilograms (15.4 pounds). Her arms and legs are as fragile as the branches of a young tree. Her laugh sounds like the whimper of a puppy; she has hazel eyes. And when Brooke Greenberg wants her mother she stretches out her tiny arms, shakes her head slowly and twists her face into a lopsided moue. … 'Brooke is a miracle,' says her father, Howard Greenberg. 'Brooke is a mystery,' says Lawrence Pakula, her pediatrician. 'Brooke is an opportunity,' says Richard Walker, a geneticist with the University of South Florida college of medicine. … At issue is nothing less than immortality: Brooke Greenberg apparently isn't aging."
Improved titles
The website BetterBookTitles.com collects readers' suggestions for improved book titles and cover designs. Its collection includes:
- William Shakespeare's Ghost Dad ( Hamlet)
- George Orwell's The Social Network ( 1984)
- Jonathan Swift's Size DOES Matter ( Gulliver's Travels)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's Drink Responsibly ( The Great Gatsby)
- Homer's Never Flirt With a Veteran's Wife ( The Odyssey)
- Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Russians and Napoleon and Hard Names to Remember and Even Harder to Pronounce and Lots of Talk, Talk, Talk. And Snow ( War and Peace)
Kids all look alike
A Swedish grandfather who went to pick up his granddaughter from nursery school took home the wrong child by mistake, The Sunday Times of London reports. "He realized the three-year-old wasn't the little girl he was supposed to collect only once he'd got home. Neither the granddad nor the child was any worse for the experience, but Hasselmusens nursery in Varberga, Sweden, said: 'There were gaps in our procedures that we're trying to correct.' "
Name that tune
The Indonesian Trade Ministry provoked a lively debate last month after it was discovered asking job applicants questions about songs composed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, The Jakarta Post reports. "The person who disclosed the information to the media said applicants were given several titles and asked to correctly identify which songs were composed by [the president] 'Of the following titles, which song is included in President Yudhoyono's third album' a multiple-choice question reportedly asked. … People in coffee shops and talking heads alike discussed the issue with either glee or cynicism."
Workaholic spider
"A species of bark spider recently discovered in Madagascar spins the largest webs ever recorded - up to 82 feet [25 metres]wide - over streams, rivers and lakes," Smithsonian magazine reports. "Named Caerostris darwini after Charles Darwin, the spider has evolved exceptionally tough silk for 'bridgelines,' which anchor its giant, orb-shaped webs to vegetation on land and keep the webs suspended above water. The spider itself is only a few inches long and eats insects such as bees and mayflies."
Good dolphin moms
"Your mom always told you hanging out with the wrong kids would get you into trouble. Dolphin mothers should probably warn their daughters, too," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Social factors, not just genes, influence the reproductive fitness of female dolphins, according to a study based on more than 20 years' worth of observations of a wild Australian bottlenose dolphin colony. … 'Females who do well hang out with other females who do well,' said Celine Frère, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 'If you hang out with a bad crowd, your kids won't be in as good shape. When you go out to forage, there's a higher chance your calf gets eaten by a shark.' "
Thought du jour
"If you believe everything you read, better not read."
- Japanese proverb