In honor of my friends Jayne and Aaron one of which works at N.I.S.T. and the other that I worked with to propel a solar car across the USA with, I’ll be bringing you a four pack of sweet new science joy today. Special thanks to ScienceDaily, who,, on a,, er,, ahem,,, daily basis have great new info on science (talk about good word use!)

These first two are from N.I.S.T. and if you don’t know who they are, I don’t blame you. However, they are the United States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology.

One Standard Bullet. As opposed to those non-standard ones held in guns. this helps to optimize the bullet matching process. You know when you watch CSI and some hot person looks at a magical 36″ flat screen display with a UI no one has EVER had matches a bullet to a particular gun in nothing flat. Well, now the people who have to do it in real life, with 3 to 10 year old computers and old 15″ crt monitors will be able to do their jobs better. They deserve better, this is a great start (you know, these are those “To protect and serve people” that we should be thanking every day!”

Keep reading for the other three (they’re even better!)

A plan for a new type of lab on a chip,, how they ever fit dogs on a Dorito I’ll never know! This is a new type of small electrophoresis instrumentation that works a lot like how they (scientists) sequence DNA (you know those neat little gel bands you see on shows, there you go!). In this great little kit it handles up 8 different channels (testing for whatever you design). This system is new because it incorporates buffers to separate out solutions in a different way versus previous lab on a chip systems.

Next, NanoSpider Silk that could bring about a real spider man (who needs a radioactive spider?!) This is just what it sounds like. These are likely to improve product packaging and body armor type solutions, where light weight and flexibility are the key.
Finally, Dazzling white beetle light believe it or not, due to the crazy surface structure of this kick butt beetle, it gives off a bright white lite. This is good because things like paint and paper which are designed for the “brightest white possible” can be even whiter. Keep in mind, a darker black was developed in the middle of last year to line the inside of cameras from light leakage.

Go science!!!!