What We Learned This Week: Killer Drones, Hydraulic Presses & Tardigrades
by Ryan WardApril 14, 20162 min read
Hiya,
You like drones? If you're like most people or the head of a insect colony, the answer is yes.
Most drones that can kill you are designed to do so with missiles and smallpox (I imagine). The halfway house is modding yours in order to maim, incapacitate and kill your fellow man.
Enter Finland.
Keeping it in Finland, you just can't beat things getting crushed. If you have access to a hydraulic press, I'm sure you've always wondered how a hockey puck or a bowling ball would hold up against it. Wonder no more!
Harder than a diamond made of tardigrades in an ice storm where the storm is also tardigrades.
The implications are that organic materials, such as crops and vaccines, can withstand being dehydrated if they harness the power of the glass proteins derived from tardigrades.
There we have it. A creature who when confronted with overwhelmingly arid conditions, turns into glass, hopefully as an ornate middle finger to its creator.
Meh. Close enough.
So, the most hardy of creatures that we're aware of have a new feature, which, unlike Charles VI of France, doesn't think it's made of glass...it is made of glass...sometimes.
