The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo. The product of one Alex Roman, this incredible video of architecture as viewed through a photographer’s eye is composed entirely from computer graphics. Yes, it’s all CG, and it puts movies like Avatar to shame. We thoroughly encourage you to watch this in full screen. Enjoy! More of details on Roman’s work can be found here. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER JOIN THE POPSCI AU FACEBOOK GROUP Popular Science Australia - reporting on the intersection of science, technology and everyday life. Whether you want to learn about high tech gadgets, find science projects, read the latest space news or search for the best computers or best digital cameras...you'll find it at PopSci.com.au

AZM Ally Mike Watford sent along this excellent animation of some awesome parkour action. This is such a clever idea. It must have taken many many patient hours to figure all of this out. I want more please!

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Happy New Year all, and welcome to 2010, or, as my friend Professor Orbifold prefers it, MMX. I hope your festive holiday season was as festive and enjoyable as mine. The extended Lippert family continues to grow; this year at the annual Boxing Day party we needed two overflow tables for dinner instead of the usual one. The older cousins are now all married, some of them are bringing new babies, and some of the younger cousins are starting to bring boyfriends and girlfriends. I pointed out that the youngest person at the table was my brand-new “first cousin once removed”, which touched off a long discussion of how exactly one computes degree of cousin-hood and removed-ness. As a public service, here’s how it works. Recursive explanation for computer programmers and mathematicians: Base case: if X and Y are zeroth cousins no times removed then X and Y are siblings. Recursive case 1: if n > 0 and X and Y are nth cousins no times removed then X.Parent and Y.Parent are (n-1)th cousins no times removed. Recursive case 2: if m > 0 and X and Y are nth cousins m times removed then WOLOG assume that X is of a later generation than Y. In this case, X.Parent and Y are nth cousins (m-1) times removed. Explanation for normal people: Take two different people who have a common ancestor but who are not related by direct succession (that is, neither is the mother, father, grandmother, and so on, of the other): Degree of cousin-hood is the minimum of the numbers of generations back that you have to go to find the nearest common ancestor, minus one. Removed-ness is the absolute difference between the numbers of generations back you have to go to find the nearest common ancestor. For example, consider this fragment of a family tree:         Mary       /     \   Laura     Bob     |        |   John     Helen     |        |  Xerxes   Melinda Take Helen and Xerxes for example. Their nearest common ancestor is Mary. Helen has to go back two generations to get to Mary. Xerxes has to go back three. The minimum of two and three, minus one, is one. The absolute difference of two and three is one. So Helen and Xerxes are first cousins, once removed. So are John and Melinda. “Zeroth cousins” are not called cousins, but have special names for the relationship. “Zeroth cousins no times removed” are of course brothers and sisters. “Zeroth cousins once removed” are uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews. “Zeroth cousins twice removed” are great-uncles, great-aunts, great-nieces and great-nephews. (Or sometimes grand-uncles, and so on.) Summing up this family tree: Mary is Laura and Bob’s mother, John and Helen’s grandmother, and Xerxes and Melinda’s great-grandmother. Laura is Mary’s daughter, Bob’s sister, John’s mother, Helen’s aunt,  Xerxes’ grandmother, and Melinda’s great-aunt. Bob is Mary’s son, Laura’s brother, John’s uncle, Helen’s father, Xerxes’ great-uncle, and Melinda’s grandfather. John is Mary’s grandson, Laura’s son, Bob’s nephew, Helen’s first cousin (no times removed), Xerxes’ father, and Melinda’s first cousin once removed. Helen is Mary’s granddaughter, Laura’s niece, Bob’s daughter, John’s first cousin (no times removed), Xerxes’ first cousin once removed, and Melinda’s mother. Xerxes is Mary’s great-grandson, Laura’s grandson, Bob’s great-nephew, John’s son, Helen’s first cousin once removed, and Melinda’s second cousin (no times removed). Melinda is Mary’s great-granddaughter, Laura’s great-niece, Bob’s granddaughter, John’s first cousin once removed, Helen’s daughter, and Xerxes’ second cousin (no times removed). Of course, this is all perfectly straightforward. If, say, your mother dies and your father marries her sister and has more children, then working out who is whose cousin can get rather trickier. And heaven only knows what happens if you are your own grandfather. Incidentally, it is illegal in the state of Washington for a man to marry his widow’s sister. Anyone care to guess why?  

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

Have you lost your camera recently? Mislaid it somewhere in a national park? Left it in a taxi? Dropped it in the gorilla pit? Anyone can be a victim of the thoughtlessness and/or sleepiness that can lead to Camera Loss. ‘How can I prevent Camera Loss?’ I hear you ask, wishing I’d get to the point. Well, you can’t prevent cameras from getting lost, but you can do something so your camera can be found very soon after it has vanished. All you have to do is take some photos – which you never delete from your camera – so when someone finds your camera at the bottom of the gorilla pit they are able to locate you and return the lost property to its rightful owner. To illustrate just how you can safeguard your camera from the crippling effects of Camera Loss, here are the pics that I always keep on my camera.

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One rider and one robot to do all the work The project began as a challenge. Carl Morgan’s son Justin, recalling how he used to have to crank up a nasty hill outside their Bainbridge Island, Washington, home every day, asked his dad, a retired electrical engineer, if he could build something that would take care of the pedaling for a lazy biker. The “yes” arrived about a year later—an electric-motor-powered tandem bicycle featuring a gleaming robot named Joules. Morgan spent months modeling how to transform a motor’s spin into pedal-pushing legs. The motor inside Joules’s torso turns a series of linked belts and chains that transfer power from one area of the robot to the next. Each upper leg pivots at the hip, raising and lowering its knee and forcing the lower legs to turn the pedals. He also added “bones” (rods on the outside) for needed stiffness. Morgan was nervous when he climbed in front for the final test, but Joules easily cruised to the top of the hill. The bike could probably do more, even hit 30 mph, but Morgan says he doesn’t plan to find out: “Abject cowardice on my part means we’ll never know for sure.” Turning Trick: Morgan had to position the knees at the correct angle relative to the pedals to transfer enough force.  Courtesy Carl Morgan How It Works Time: One year Cost: $3,000 Robo-lance:  Courtesy Carl MorganPOWERED-DOWN With its 14-horsepower electric motor, Joules “is so powerful, it could probably climb a tree,” Morgan jokes. In fact, the motor would push too hard had he not added an electronic speed and current controller that limits it to 28 percent of its total horsepower. (It maxes out at 2,400 rpm, which is far too fast for a bike—pro cyclists usually crank at 100 to 110 rpm.) Morgan also managed to slow the rotation of the pedals to a more manageable maximum of 90 rpm, or an estimated top speed of 30 mph, by adding several rotating belts and chains to Joules’s torso. That increased the torque as well, giving the robot enough power to carry the rider up the hill and beyond.

STABLE AND SAFE Morgan added large custom-made training wheels to the rear of the bike, guaranteeing that Joules won’t topple when Morgan climbs on or off. Wiring the motor to the controls in front was easy for the electrical engineer. He added a key ignition and emergency toggle switch to the left side that cuts the power to the motor, and a motorcycle-style throttle in the right handlebar grip to crank up the speed. CURB APPEAL The robot’s sleek aluminum design and racing-helmet-shaped head add eye-catching flash, something Morgan believes is an important part of any project. “It’s cool to make a paper airplane that flies,” he says, “but it’s just as cool to draw dragon wings on it.” PEDAL-FREE Morgan trimmed down the tandem bike’s pedals and machined a pair of cylindrical aluminum links between Joules’s feet and the end of the crank arm (the part that’s attached to the pedals). If the angles of rotation of Joules’s legs were off by even a millimeter, the robot would not be able to pedal smoothly, so he added a circle of deformable urethane foam inside the cylinder, creating a little bit of extra leeway. As for Morgan himself, he keeps his feet on the pedals but doesn’t have to do any work. “Why build a helper whose only purpose is to pedal—and then get in the way of his sole means of expression?” he says. “Besides, I put months of effort into this chance for a few minutes of sloth.” The H2Whoa Credo: DIY Can Be Dangerous We review all our projects before publishing them, but ultimately your safety is your responsibility. Always wear protective gear, take proper safety precautions, and follow all laws and regulations.