Author: Brent Lambert

In a medical first, a 54-year-old Spanish cancer patient had a large portion of his ribcage and sternum replaced by a customized 3D-printed titanium implant. The company behind the groundbreaking procedure is Melbourne, Australia-based CSIRO. In a September 11th press release from the Australian government, Australian Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane said, “This breakthrough is an impressive example of what can be achieved when industry and science come together. This collaboration crossed disciplines and international boundaries, with a clear benefit for both this individual patient and for surgical practice.”

Nestled on a private island just off Norway’s toothy-edged western coastline is this beautiful cabin designed by the Norwegian design studio Lund Hagem. Built using three primary materials — white concrete, glass, and ash wood — the gorgeous home blends seamlessly with the rocky terrain of the site. The cabin’s integration with its natural surroundings was carefully considered in three regards: color, form, and the elements.

Today was an incredibly strange day. I’ve always been hyper-sensitive to major weather changes, so the fact that Atlanta’s been getting slammed by a huge rain storm all day long has a lot to do with it I’m sure. Sure it’s Monday and all, but it seems everyone at work today was either on edge, grumpy, or having a personal meltdown. Add the mega-downpour and soggy skies into the mix, and boom — a heavier than usual day for pretty much everyone. On the drive home I happened to be listening to Radiolab and caught the very beginning of a woman’s story…

Imagine you’re an astronaut aboard the Apollo 10 mission to the Moon in 1969. As you and your team enter lunar orbit and pass around the dark side of the Moon, you realize you are going to lose all radio contact with mission control back in Houston for more than an hour. It’s already an unsettling experience in its own right, when all of the sudden you and your crew begin hearing what sounds like creepy alien music coming in through your headsets. That’s exactly the scenario that happened to the Apollo 10 crew in 1969.

I often find myself wondering what my golden years will look like. Where will I be living? What will my life look like? And will I have finally gotten around to building my dream home? One person who has answered all of his golden years questions is Mexican architect Carlos Herrera. Watch as NOWNESS gets a personal tour of his weekend home, thirty minutes south of Mexico City. “This is a place for weekends, few people live here full time,” Herrera tells NOWNESS. “There were a lot of foreigners in the 60s and 70s who lived here because of the…

In a piece of brain tissue smaller than a dust mite (measuring 2% of 1mm), there are thousands of brain cell branches and connections. Researchers from Harvard University in Boston have mapped them all in a new study appearing in Cell. They find some unexpected insights about how the cells talk to each other, and you can see the extraordinary complexities they discovered by watching the video above. You can read the full paper at Cell.com.

In the opening segment of their short documentary, What Is Consciousness?, The Economist asks, “It is the most fundamental experience of all: defining our waking moments and giving rise to all that we think and feel. Without consciousness we have no way of proving we or anything else exists — and yet what it is, and why we have it, remain a mystery that the greatest minds have been unable to solve.” You can watch the fascinating doc in full above, as well as Charlie Rose’s terrific episode exploring the same topic.