A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon has started using the human fat left over from liposuction as biofuel to power his SUV. It’s the American Dream: turning your fat ass into free gas.

Dr. Craig Allen Bittner claimed that his patients actually requested that their fat be used to power his car. You know, for the environment’s sake. But of course, he also recently shut down his practice and moved to South America after becoming the target of a bunch of lawsuits, so he’s not exactly the most trustworthy source in the world.

But powering a car with human fat is in fact possible, although the fat, like animal fat, would need to be treated to remove fatty acids. Lots of companies such as Tyson and Nova Biosource are looking to power their own fleets of vehicles with the animal waste that they produce already.

But really, the main question is this: what did it smell like to drive behind Bittner’s Navigator? I’m not sure I want to know. [Forbes]

Here’s something you’ve never seen before: Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, caught on video as its orbit takes it behind the gaseous giant. Incredible.

This movie shows Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, as it ducks behind the giant planet. Astronomers combined a series of images taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to make the 18-second movie. The 540 movie frames were created from Hubble images taken over a two-hour period on April 9, 2007.

Hit up the Hubble site for the full HD 1280×720 version. [Post Gazette via HubbleSite]

Hurricanes, as we’ve seen, can wreak serious havoc when they strike populated areas. We’ve never had control over them before, but one researcher thinks they could be broken up with F-4 fighter jets.

In theory, sending in a pair of the jets to do loops around the eye of the hurricane while it’s still out over the ocean, creating sonic booms, would break it up before it hits the shore.

Jet fighters flying at supersonic speeds along special trajectories with a hurricane/typhoon at various altitudes would create supersonic booms. In one such embodiment, the trajectories for the supersonic booms of the present invention are counter to the rotational component of the hurricane and/or typhoon being targeted. As such, supersonic booms can be tailored and/or designed to partially and/or fully -negate the basic rotational contribution in a hurricane by slowing down a hurricane’s/typhoon’s rotation. Additionally, when supersonic booms propagate downward to the surface of the ocean they also destabilize a hurricane’s/typhoon’s structure by increasing the pressure in the central part of a hurricane’s/typhoon’s eye.

It’s a pretty crazy idea, but I guess it makes sense. It would be pretty amazing to be able to stop any hurricane before it hit shore, saving millions and millions of dollars and who knows how many lives. I can’t wait for them to test this out. [Patent via AV Web; Thanks, Jason!]

While conducting research for one of our client projects, we stumbled across an in depth??discussion on tinkering written by??Alex Soojung-Kim Pang following a conference entitled??”Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge: Production in the Digital Age” p…

Do you remember the 5,300 year old man they found frozen in the Tyrolean Alps?
A team of Italian and British scientists who sequenced his mitochondrial DNA ??? which is passed down through the mother???s line ??? found that Otzi belonged to a genetic l…

A study commissioned by Professor Semir Zeki of University College London sought to explore the difference between love and hate in the human mind. It found, oddly enough, that hate tends to be more rational than love. What does this all have to do with gadgets? It just might explain why you commenters fight incessantly about Apple and Microsoft.

The study is a little small for my liking, at only 17 people, and the results seem a bit anecdotal, but they do make sense. Imagine trying to explain why you like somebody: you’re bound to use vague words. “Oh, she’s really, um, nice, and cool, and funny.” But then explain why you dislike somebody: “Oh GOOD LORD if she says ‘utilize’ instead of ‘use’ one more time I’m just going to explode all over her and she’ll have to UTILIZE all sorts of cleaning products to get my rage shrapnel off her shirt!” See what I mean? The hatred is so much more specific than the love.

So when you Apple fanboys blurt out nonsense like “No but Mac OS just works better! It’s, um, well, easier!” and yet Apple haters can compose long and tiresome rants about the enclosed architecture and infuriating attitude of OS X, it’s neither of your faults. It’s science. Sort of.

Honestly, I’m a little dubious. Sure, I can think of situations in which the rationality of hate over love makes sense, but not in all cases, and it seems like too much generalization to make statements about “love” and “hate” like either is any one simple thing. But maybe I’m just being overly rational in my hatred of this study. [CNET]

Is pure light better than Botox? German researchers have formulated a theory that high intensity light from LED lamps could be as effective as the Botulinum toxin in removing facial wrinkles. They say the light removes moisture on sub-surface tissue, …

Internal bleeding is bad, bad news, especially if you’re on the battlefield and far away from a hospital. That’s why the military is very interested in any technology that can help stop internal bleeding that can be applied by people other than doctors. And they may have come upon a pretty amazing solution: an ultrasound cuff that uses sound waves to stop internal bleeding. Amazing.

DARPA is working on what they’ve dubbed the Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation Cuff (DBAC). It’s a “semi-automated, ultrasound device designed to cut blood loss and shock resulting from combat limb injuries, one that can be operated by any GI with minimal training.” Since an injured soldier can lose up to 25% of their blood volume while waiting to be transported, it would be hugely helpful to be able to stop that bleeding and stabilize them before being treated in a hospital.

By focusing a high-powered ultrasound beam at the bleeding area, the cuff can coagulate the blood and stem the bleeding quickly. They’re hoping to have a prototype ready within 18 months. [CNET]