Sara Gates
Law student & former journalist
- HuffPost
You May Soon Be Able To Charge Your Phone By Yelling At It
The team is working to develop a prototype charger that could replenish the battery of a mobile phone using human voices, music or even background noise. "Being able to keep mobile devices working for longer, or do away with batteries completely by tapping into the stray energy that is all around us is an exciting concept," researcher Dr. Joe Briscoe said in a statement released by the university. To harvest energy from sound, the team used a type of nanotechnology called nanorods, which are capable of generating electrical energy and responding to vibration in sound.
- HuffPost
Hawks Are Dive-Bombing Pedestrians On University Campus
Students at New Mexico State University have been advised to avoid a part of the campus where a family of hawks is currently nesting. According to local reports, the parent hawks are dive-bombing passersby who dare near the nesting spot. "[J]ust out of nowhere, I got hit in the back of the head," Neva Williams, the NMSU student who was attacked, told KVIA-TV.
- HuffPost Life
How One Rubik's Cube United People In 11 Countries
How many people does it take to solve a Rubik's Cube? Packing light, the economics major decided to bring his Rubik's Cube around the world with him as a way to de-stress. "When I asked people to do their move, I told them which move they have to take," Yassin explained to The Huffington Post.
- HuffPost
WATCH: U.S. Coast Guard Rescues Gigantic Turtle
It's not every day an 800-pound sea turtle needs a hand. After a recreational fishing boat spotted the trapped turtle off the coast of New Jersey, boaters alerted the U.S. Coast Guard and provided the animal's location, The Associated Press reports. Members of the Coast Guard near Atlantic City were dispatched to rescue the giant marine animal on Saturday.
- HuffPost
Robin Williams Memorial Pops Up In Serbia
As fans of Robin Williams mourn the actor's passing, memorials to the beloved comedian have popped up all around the world. The most recent addition to the growing collection of tributes appeared Wednesday in Serbia. Unidentified street artists painted a graffiti mural of William's face on a wall under the Brankov Bridge in Belgrade overnight.
- HuffPost
Siri Image Presented At Murder Trial: 'I Need To Hide My Roommate'
Did a Florida man suspected of killing his friend ask Siri for advice on hiding a body? Siri responded, asking: “What kind of place are you looking for?” Apple's personal assistant offered options ranging from swamps to dumps, according to the picture. Bravo, 20, is currently on trial for murder following the death of 18-year-old University of Florida student Christian Aguilar in September 2012.
- HuffPost
'Death To Jews' Is A Place In France
Now, amid a slew of anti-Semitic attacks in France, a Jewish human rights organization is urging officials to rename the settlement. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. The call for "Death to Jews" to be renamed comes just months after a Spanish town voted to drop "Kill Jews" from its name.
- HuffPost
Couple Reportedly Dies While Trying To Take Selfie On Cliff
A couple reportedly plunged to their deaths Saturday while attempting to take a selfie on a cliff in Portugal. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. The two children were taken into custody by Polish officials shortly after the incident.
- HuffPost
Brain Scans Show We Judge Others In A Snap
Previous research revealed which facial features tend to be perceived as trustworthy -- such as a U-shaped mouth and big baby-like eyes. "Our findings suggest that the brain automatically responds to a face's trustworthiness before it is even consciously perceived," Dr. Jonathan Freeman, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University and the study's senior author, said in a written statement. For their study, Freeman and his colleagues focused on the amygdala, a brain region known to play a key role in decision-making and emotional behavior.
- HuffPost
15-Year-Old Mass Shooting Survivor Gets Letter From Dumbledore
Cassidy Stay, the 15-year-old survivor of a mass shooting in Houston that killed her her parents and siblings, received a handwritten letter from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, according to reports. Rowling's team has remained tight-lipped about the contents of letter, which was reportedly written from the perspective of her character Professor Albus Dumbledore. "We can confirm that J.K. Rowling was in touch with Cassidy Stay, however, the contents of the letter remain private," an unidentified spokesman for the author told The Telegraph.
- HuffPost
LOOK: How Topless Models Are Blended Into NYC Skylines
Merry, who recently relocated from California, initially conceived the idea for the series when she was trying to answer a friend's question about what New York means to her. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. "It's not an easy answer," Merry told The Huffington Post.
- HuffPost
Now There's A Cookbook For Lab-Grown Meat
The In Vitro Meat Cookbook is the world's first "cookbook" for lab-grown food. "This cookbook aims to move beyond in vitro meat as an inferior fake-meat replacement, to explore its creative prospects and visualize what in vitro meat products might be on our plate one day," Koert van Mensvoort, who contributed heavily to the book and heads the Next Nature Lab at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, said in a written statement. It features essays and interviews about the burgeoning technology used to make meat from cultured cells in a lab.
- HuffPost
Badly Burned Bear Cub Saved After Wildfire
Cinder is a pretty fitting name. After a bear cub survived a wildfire in Washington state last week, she limped up a man's driveway before collapsing on the ground. Speaking to local outlet KOMO News, Love explained how the bear gradually warmed up to him after he settled near her and spoke in a soothing tone.
- HuffPost
Ancient Species Of Penguin Would Have Been Taller Than Humans
Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche of the La Plata Museum in Argentina has been excavating deposits on an island off the Antarctic peninsula that's rife with ancient penguin fossils. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Acosta Hospitaleche described the era as "a wonderful time for penguins, when 10 to 14 species lived together along the Antarctic coast," according to The New Scientist.
- HuffPost Life
Ohio City Warns Area Residents Not To Drink Tap Water
People who live in the greater Toledo, Ohio, area are being urged not to drink water from the tap. The city's water supply may be contaminated by a toxin harmful to humans. Health officials for Toledo issued the advisory overnight Friday into Saturday after readings at a water treatment plant revealed an excessive amount of microcystin.
- HuffPost
Mysterious Lake Appears In Middle Of Desert
After the lake was discovered earlier this month, Gafsa's public safety office warned visitors to avoid swimming in the waters, since officials had yet to confirm the safety of the mysterious body of water. Some speculated that the water could be harmful to humans or, possibly, carcinogenic since there is phosphate mining in the region.
- HuffPost
LOOK: These Blue Sea Creatures Recently Washed Ashore In California
Ever heard of Velella velella, the marine life so nice they named it twice? The jellyfish-like invertebrate may be a common sighting for sailors in the Pacific Ocean, but the Velella velella (the species shares the same name as the genus) rarely washes ashore before the end of its lifespan. "It's been eight years, plus or minus, [since] we've seen them," Nancy Black, a marine biologist and owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, told San Jose Mercury News.
- HuffPost
So THAT'S Why The Moon Is Shaped Like A Lemon
As detailed in a new paper published online in the journal Nature on July 30, 2014, it's all about tidal and rotational forces. "Early tides heated the Moon's crust in different places, and those differences in heating in different areas gave the Moon most of its shape," lead researcher Ian Garrick-Bethell, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told the Agence France-Presse. In other words, during the moon's infancy some 4.4 billion years ago -- when it was still super-hot as the result of an impact between Earth and another object -- the Earth's gravitational (tidal) forces molded its shape ever so slightly.
- HuffPost
Physicist Creates Ice Cream That Changes Color With Every Lick
For most people, ice cream is all about flavor. Linares has created an ice cream that changes color as it's eaten. The fruity confection, called Xamaleón -- as in, chameleon -- starts out as a periwinkle blue and gradually morphs into hues of purple and pink.
- HuffPost Life
How Your Face Affects First Impressions
The eyes may be the window to the soul, but apparently the face is key for first impressions. In a new study, researchers in the United Kingdom investigated how facial features can impact first impressions. "If people are forming these first impressions, just based on looking at somebody's face, what is it about the image of the face that's giving that impression -- can we measure it exactly?" lead researcher Dr. Tom Hartley, a neuroscientist at the University of York, told BBC News.