5-kilowatt industrial laser with a pistol grip
By Kelsey D. Atherton from popularscience.com: Sometimes, a fancy new cutting tool just needs that special human touch. TWI, a British company with a long history of welding innovation, recently added a pistol grip to a 5-kilowatt industrial cutting tool. Scary as the idea of a handheld laser cutting tool is, the machine was originally attached to […]
Stamp of Approval: A Paper Snippet and the Spanish Inquisition
By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) from medievalfragments: This blog entry focuses on a book fragment I encountered in Leiden University Library earlier this week while studying twelfth-century material with my research team. As discussed in an earlier blog, after the invention of printing many handwritten books from the medieval period were cut up to be recycled […]
Deadly lake turns animals into statues
(Images: Nick Brandt) According to Dante, the Styx is not just a river but a vast, deathly swamp filling the entire fifth circle of hell. Perhaps the staff of New Scientist will see it when our time comes but, until then, Lake Natron in northern Tanzania does a pretty good job of illustrating Dante’s vision. […]