Science & Technology

This Butter Sculpture Could Power A Farm For 3 Days

Credit Bradley C. Bower / AP

A 1,000-pound butter sculpture is unveiled at the 97th Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg last week.

Credit Scott Detrow / NPR

The butter sculpture will be dumped into this pit of rotting fruit and vegetables on the Reinford family's farm. Then, all that food will get ground up and put into the farm's methane digester.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 8:49 pm

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For more than a week, it was the belle of the ball, the butter with no better: a giant 1,000-pound dairy sculpture that occupied the place of honor at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa.

3:45 pm

Thu January 10, 2013

'M-Commerce' On The Rise As More Consumers Use Mobile Devices To Shop

By Laura Sydell

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 5:26 pm

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A new report says that people buying stuff with their mobile devices — known as "m-commerce" — is way up this year over last year.

The Two-Way

2:57 pm

Thu January 10, 2013

Agreed, Baby Pandas Are Cute. But Why?

Credit Avie Schneider / NPR

Tai Shan and his mother, Mei Xiang, enjoy frozen fruit treats at the National Zoo in 2006.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 12:05 pm

Xiao Liwu made his public debut Thursday at the San Diego Zoo. Fans crowded around the exhibit, their camera lenses extended, hoping to catch a glimpse of the 5-month-old giant panda cub. If they're lucky and actually do see the 16-pound panda (his Chinese name means "Little Gift"), there'll be much oooing and aaahing.

You'd have to be heartless not to agree that pandas, especially the youngest of them, are as cute as all get-out. Right? But why?

11:42 am

Thu January 10, 2013

SA Researchers Find More Effective Way To Treat Hepatitis C

Credit UT Health Science Center

By David Martin Davies

A San Antonio research team has uncovered a way to cure the deadly Hepatitis C – promising shorter treatments and fewer side effects than today’s standard treatment.

Hepatitis C can be treated today with a battery of interferon interventions treatments -- which takes 48 weeks and the side effects are debilitating -- but a new treatment using a combination of drugs needs only 12 weeks to kill the virus with much fewer side effects.

10:13 am

Thu January 10, 2013

Artist's State-Shaped Steaks Explore Beef's Origins

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Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Sarah Hallacher came up with the idea to represent the beef industry as "raw" steaks while she was researching on the web about where her own steak dinner came from.

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Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

The Texas rib-eye gets a whole new look. The Beef Stakes project illustrates the U.S.'s top meat producers with steaks sculptured into each state's shape.

Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Each steak is made with modeling clay and then packaged in green foam trays and shrink wrap. Sarah Hallacher considered using real steaks for the project, but she couldn't stand the thought of wasting all that food.

Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Each label gives the total pounds of beef produced annually in the state, the cost to produce that much beef and how much steak each person in that state would need to eat for the beef to be consumed "locally."

Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Super-sized steaks for big beef producers. The height of each steak, from top to bottom, is scaled to the state's annual beef production. Iowa made 6.5 billion pounds of beef last year, so its steak is about 6.5 inches tall.

Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Hallacher says she choose the traditional Styrofoam and shrink-wrapped packaging because people are familiar with it. She also wanted to emphasize how little information is typically given about the beef's origin in this packaging.

Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Sarah Hallacher swirled in white clay with red to mimic the fat marbling, just like you see in prime cuts of meat.

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Credit Courtesy of Sarah Hallacher

Sizing Iowa's steak. The height of each steak, from top to bottom, scales with the state's annual beef production. Iowa ranks second in the U.S. with over 6.5 billion pounds of beef made in 2011, so its steak is about 6.5 inches tall.

By editor

Originally published on Mon January 14, 2013 12:14 pm

If there's one thing we love more than talking about beef here at The Salt, it's visualizing the U.S.'s insatiable appetite for meat through infographics and charts.

So when we ran across Sarah Hallacher's Beef Stakes project over at Fast Company's Co.Design blog, our eyes lit up like the charcoal grill on Super Bowl Sunday.

4:39 am

Thu January 10, 2013

Latest TV Technoloy: Ultra-High Definition TV.

By editor

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 2:04 pm

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Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Television makers are trying to find the next big thing that will get you to throw out your current TV and buy a new one. They thought it might be 3D TV. That didn't work out. So now they've come up with something new. They're showing it off this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is where we found Rich Jaroslovsky. He writes about technology for Bloomberg News, and he told us about the newest new viewing experience.

2:28 am

Thu January 10, 2013

In Video-Streaming Rat Race, Fast Is Never Fast Enough

Credit Tommy Ingberg / iStockphoto.com

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 12:55 pm

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On average, YouTube streams 4 billion hours of video per month. That's a lot of video, but it's only a fraction of the larger online-streaming ecosystem. For video-streaming services, making sure clips always load properly is extremely challenging, and a new study reveals that it's important to video providers, too.

Maybe this has happened to you: You're showing a friend some hilarious video that you found online. And right before you get to the punch line, a little loading dial pops up in the middle of the screen.

4:22 pm

Wed January 9, 2013

3-D Sensors Could Change Shopping Experience In Real-Time

By editor

Originally published on Wed January 9, 2013 5:31 pm

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The Consumer Electronics Show started Tuesday in Las Vegas. There's a lot of excitement about widespread use of 3-D sensor technology in smartphones and tablets.

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2:34 am

Fri January 11, 2013