Light Start – Gravity found, falling drones, compli-clock, and space balls

Yeah, science! Scientists observe gravitational waves with upgraded LIGO detector

It took them long enough, right? Right? Actually, nobody’s going to be nasty about the LIGO experiment which has officially detected gravitational waves, which are actual ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by gravity. We feel more scientific just writing that. We’ve been waiting an extremely long time to observe these waves, which were spotted during an event called a black hole merger. The waves were seen by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors in two locations in the States in September last year. The waves were predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which was formulated about a century ago. Now we’ve found them the question seems to be: Where to next? The scientists seem to have some idea, hit the link below to see where we’re off to next.

Source: via Ars Technica

Getting high with some drones in Dubai

There are no shortage of awesome drone videos on the internet and if you don’t see what you like, you can always just get yourself a drone and make something yourself. But it’ll probably be a while before you’re making videos like the one above. The video is a promotional effort for a drone called the FPV Racer and its capabilities are… impressive. We’re more impressed with the points of view that it gets coasting down the side of some of Dubai’s most impressive buildings, however. We’re probably not going to get any shots like that in a hurry, unfortunately. We’re also almost hoping that the video has been sped up in places (it hasn’t) because the FPV Racer in the hands of an amateur is an accident waiting to happen.

Source: via Gizmodo

Because watchmaking isn’t hard enough, let’s make the clock write the time

We can’t even find our socks most mornings and there are people out there designing mechanical clocks that are able to keep time. But not using hands, or digital faces or any other easy ways. No, they’ve gone and made it out of 400 pieces of wood, first of all, and then they’ve made the face out of what looks like an Etch’n’Sketch or something called a Magna Doodle. Each time that a minute ticks by, the clock writes the time down on the little strip using four little arms arranged in front of the face. This project was the creation of students at the Tohoku University of Art And Design. And now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to sob quietly into the clean socks we’ve only just located.

Source: via YouTube

Okay… OK Go go to a zero-g environment to their newest music video

You’ve seen treadmills, rally cars, a drone, and a Rube Goldberg machine. Now OK Go, they of the amazing one-take music videos (and a couple of catchy tunes, to be fair) have gone for a parabolic flight and shot a video in what amounts to zero gravity. The song, called Upside Down and Inside Out, will not stick in your mind quite as much as the video itself, which practically screams CGI. Except that it’s not. Bit of a mind-f… reak.  Unfortunately Facebook’s embed code is for losers and OK Go haven’t made their amazing video available on YouTube in its entirety yet. So hit up the link below and go and watch it. Right freaking now – you were headed to Facebook next anyway.

Source: OK Go (Facebook)