How smartphones make us superhuman

 

Editor's note: This story kicks off an in-depth CNN series, "Our Mobile Society," about how smartphones and tablets have changed the way we live.

(CNN) -- Both men lit themselves on fire in protest. But only one of them is credited with starting a revolution.

The difference between the two? Mobile phones recorded Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor, as he set himself ablaze in despair over his economic plight. Those videos kicked off the wave of 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations.

Abdesslem Trimech, the other man, fell into relative obscurity.

The example, cited in the book "The Mobile Wave," highlights just one of the many superpowers that mobile phones -- and to a lesser extent, tablets -- have bestowed upon humanity. In addition to enabling us to video events on a second's notice, potentially altering the course of global politics, these high-tech human "appendages" increasingly have become tools for fighting corruption, buying stuff, bolstering memory, promoting politics, improving education and giving people around the world more access to health care

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Nasa's 'untried' technology to land Curiosity on Mars

On 6 August, the largest rover ever sent to Mars should touchdown on the planet’s surface. For the landing, the mission uses a complex – and untried – “sky crane”. Our space columnist finds out how it’s going to work. (Video of landing courtesy of Nasa).

If you’re contemplating a mission to Mars, Nasa’s Chronology of Mars Exploration makes depressing reading. For every successful Russian Mars 3 or American Viking 1, there’s a failed Beagle 2 (UK) or Mars Polar Lander (US). In fact, of the 42 missions listed, only 17 have been successful. The odds, over the past half-century, of a Mars mission succeeding are around 40%.

To be fair, several early missions didn’t even make it off the launch pad and the chances of success have improved considerably over the decades. But you don’t have to go back far to see failure. Only last year, Russia’s Phobos-Grunt mission to the Martian moon Phobos failed to make it out of Earth orbit (well, it did eventually when it burned up on re-entry). Perhaps the most infamous though is Nasa’s 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter, where a mix-up between imperial and metric measurements sent the spacecraft careering into the Martian atmosphere to be destroyed.

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Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

 

Claudia Hammond examines what causes the wince-inducing sound, and sifts through the evidence to see whether it actually damages your joints.

Some people crack their knuckles by pulling the tip of each finger one at a time until they hear a crack. Others make a tight fist or bend their fingers backwards away from the hand, cracking the lot at once. If you are one of those people who sits and cracks your knuckles while others wince, at some point somebody is bound to have told you that cracking your joints gives you arthritis.

For some it’s a nervous habit; for others the sensation brings relief. Depending on which research you read, between 25 and 54% of people do it, with men more likely to do so than women.

Whichever method is used, the noise is created in the same manner. The space between the joints increases, causing the gases dissolved in the synovial fluid bathing the joint to form microscopic bubbles.  These bubbles merge into large bubbles which then get popped by additional fluid which rushes in to fill the enlarged space.

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Just Giving awards for Midsummer Skinny Dip's Alison Powell, and Richard Parks

The organiser of a beach skinny dip that saw hundreds of naked swimmers take to the sea has won an award from a charity website.

 

Alison Powell's Midsummer Skinny Dip at Rhossili, Gower, in June raised over £25,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the National Trust.

She was named most creative fund raiser at the JustGiving Awards.

Meanwhile, former Welsh rugby international Richard Parks picked up the celebrity fundraiser award.

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Hundreds of swimmers have braved the cold of the Northumberland coast in an attempt at a record-breaking skinny dip.

 

Despite more than 200 naked people running into the 12C sea at Druridge Bay at sunrise, they failed to break the world record.

Organiser Jacqueline Higginson said the event was still a "lot of fun".

The North East Skinny Dip was organised to held to raise money for mental health charity Mind.

Miss Higginson, 34, from Whitburn, took part in a previous Guinness World record dip last year in south-west Wales.

She said: "Today loads of us ran naked into the sea to raise money for Mind and to celebrate ourselves and our bodies.

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Pictures Flying cars

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Flying cars: Grounded reality or ready for take off?

Despite centuries of promise, flying cars remain largely confined to films and fiction. But a host of new projects hope to finally let them fly.

 (more Flying cars picture, please click here)

Blade Runner. Back to the Future. The Fifth Element. Science fiction classics that all have one thing in common: flying cars.

Whether it’s gliding taxi cabs or hovering DeLoreans, Hollywood has embraced the idea of a vehicle that is as happy on the motorway as it is in the clouds. But away from the silver screen, this science fiction staple has failed to take off.

Over the years, there have been ambitious and attempts – such as the Taylor Aerocar - but few would agree that the designs are in any way practical or user-friendly.

But the ever increasing number of cars on the roads means that a vehicle that can soar into the skies remains an attractive option.  “We need to try to relive congestion on our road, and one potential solution is an aerial vehicle” says Dr Michael Jump, a lecturer in aerospace at Liverpool University in the UK.

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Druridge Bay skinny dippers set to attempt world record

 

Swimmers are preparing to bid for a record-breaking skinny dip, on the Northumberland coast.

Jacqueline Higginson, from Sunderland, is urging as many people as possible to take part in the attempt, at Druridge Bay on 22 September.
Miss Higginson, 34, took part in a previous Guinness World record dip last year in Wales.
Everyone who takes part in the North Sea attempt is expected to get at least waist deep during the sunrise swim.
Miss Higginson, a paramedic, said she loved every minute of the event on Rhossili beach last year when 413 people took part.
"I think it was arranged after a few drinks in the pub but it ended up being an amazing experience," she said.

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How a movie changed one man’s vision forever

 

Bruce Bridgeman lived with a flat view of the world, until a trip to the cinema unexpectedly rewired his brain to see the world in 3D. The question is how it happened.

Good movies change people’s view of the world all the time, but how many can say a movie has fundamentally altered their vision forever? One person who can is Bruce Bridgeman. In terms of how he sees the world, there is life before Hugo, and life after Hugo.

On 16 February this year, Bridgeman went to the theatre with his wife to see Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure. Like everyone else, he paid a surcharge for a pair of glasses, despite thinking they would be a complete waste of money. Bridgeman, a 67-year-old neuroscientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, grew up nearly stereoblind, that is, without true perception of depth. “When we’d go out and people would look up and start discussing some bird in the tree, I would still be looking for the bird when they were finished,” he says. “For everybody else, the bird jumped out. But to me, it was just part of the background.”

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How the world’s oceans could be running out of fish

 

Global fish stocks are exploited or depleted to such an extent that without urgent measures we may be the last generation to catch food from the oceans. 

It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal that we hunt in large numbers. And yet, we may be the last generation to do so.

Entire species of marine life will never be seen in the Anthropocene (the Age of Man), let alone tasted, if we do not curb our insatiable voracity for fish. Last year, global fish consumption hit a record high of 17 kg (37 pounds) per person per year, even though global fish stocks have continued to decline. On average, people eat four times as much fish now than they did in 1950.

Around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Only this week, a report suggested there may be fewer than 100 cod over the age of 13 years in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. It’s a worrying sign that we are losing fish old enough to create offspring that replenish populations.

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Putting a price on computer nostalgia

 

Keep hold of your old computers, iPods and video games - they may be worth more than you think, say Tom Chatfield. 

For people who tend to have one eye on the future, geeks also indulge in their fair share of nostalgia.

Ask one of a certain age (ask me, indeed) about the changing nature of computing, and it won’t be long before they’re reminiscing about the look, feel, sense and weight of a beloved old BBC Micro Model B, Sinclair ZX81, Macintosh 128K, - or perhaps how they used to creep into the smoky semi-darkness of a local arcade to feed small change into Donkey Kong and Galaga.

Despite the rise of the internet and the amount of time we invest in seemingly transient, digital worlds, we cannot help becoming emotionally attached to physical objects.

The fetishistic power of them looms as large as ever in our lives. What is shifting, however, is the ways in which this fetish plays out.

Once upon a time, books, LPs, battered posters and photograph albums were the physical expression of our lives, on display for all to see. Today, in a word of Kindles and iPads, affection flows down narrower channels - towards the tools that gift us entry to the online world. Just ask a teenager how they feel towards the sleek smartphone in their pocket, or the tablet peeking out of their tote bag.

Or, for a more extreme example, look to a recent auction in New York where one of only 200 Apple 1 computers ever created was sold for $374,500 – more than double its estimate. It’s one of only a handful of working models remaining in the world, but it’s unlikely that the buyer is interested in actually using it. Like a Ming vase or a first folio of Shakespeare’s complete works (yours for not less than $5m), it’s the aura of the object that matters, along with its unique place in history.

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