For everything from family to computers…
A study of more than 700 men with prostate cancer found no difference in rates of death among men who had their prostates surgically removed compared to those who didn’t. The findings suggest that men with low-risk cancers could forgo surgery.
from News
Maryland young maker Jack Andraka isn’t old enough to drive yet, but he’s just pioneered a new, improved test for diagnosing pancreatic cancer that is 90% accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than existing methods. Andraka had gotten interested in pancreatic cancer, and knew that early detection is a challenge. He gleaned information on the topic from his “good friend Google,†and began his research. Yes, he even got in trouble in his science class for reading articles on carbon nanotubes instead of doing his classwork. When Andraka had solidified ideas for his novel paper sensor, he wrote out his procedure, timeline, and budget, and emailed 200 professors at research institutes. He got 199 rejections and one acceptance from Johns Hopkins: “If you send out enough emails, someone’s going to say yes.†Andraka was recently awarded the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his groundbreaking discoveries. [via Fast Company]
Watch Andraka talk about his improved test:
from MAKE
If you use an RFID card for your transit pass or ID card at work you can embed that card right into your phone so you don’t have to carry it around. Electronics DIY web site Adafruit shows you how to do it. More »
from Lifehacker
If your smartphone’s too quiet, you can always buy some speakers. If you’d rather keep your budget to under $1, you can make your own amplifier out of a plastic cup and two bobby pins. More »
from Lifehacker
With AT&T desperately trying to move away from unlimited data plans, it only makes sense for AT&T to follow Verizon’s lead in creating ridiculously priced shared data plans. Shared data plans lets users pool together their data plan for use on multiple devices like their phone, tablet, MiFis and more but for a more ridiculous price than it should be. More »
from Gizmodo
Most simple explanations of climate change suggest that rising sea levels are a result of melting ice in the polar regions. While that’s true to an extent, there’s a simple piece of physics behind the rising waters that you might not have been made aware of. This video helps explain why it’s thermal expansion that’s the real problem—now we just need to work out how to stop it. [YouTube] More »
from Gizmodo
Basically, have a plastic wrap with you at all times if you want to light a fire in emergency. 😛
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If you’re a normal person who happens to find yourself in a desperate need to light a fire and you have, like, no fire lighting equipment… you’re screwed. But wait if you can pee, you’ll be totally fine. The guys at The King of Random figured out how to light a fire with urine. More »
from Gizmodo