geekosystem

When the contract you have with your cell phone provider expires you usually get a new phone. Maybe you trade in your old phone, or donate it. You might even just throw it away, but what if instead of any of those options, it simply dissolved? That's the kind of future we could live in soon thanks to the development of "transient electronics." They are devices designed to operate for a set period of time before dissolving, and they just hit a major advance that could see them being used more and more.

A new type of camouflage paint could protect soldiers in the field from the searing heat of bomb blasts. Developed by the University of Southern Mississippi at the direction of the Department of Defense, the paint replaces its traditional carbon base with silicone that is non-flammable and can absorb heat. The change means that just a thin layer of camouflage face paint could not only help soldiers escape detection, but prevent burn injuries and facial scarring from run-ins with explosives. The substance made its debut today at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia.

A paper published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry has made known that there have been successful experiments in which human genes were inserted into yeast in order to grow "large amounts" of human gelatin. The journal's publisher, the American Chemical Society, feels that the human gene gelatin could become a substitute for all of the animal-derived gelatin being used in common products, like marshmallows and candy. One can't help but feel that replacing animal parts with genetically grown human bits isn't exactly the next logical step for which animal rights groups have hoped.