Biosuit

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather's spacesuit--think more Spiderman, less John Glenn.

Newman's prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut's body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Key to their design is the pattern of lines on the suit, which correspond to lines of non-extension (lines on the skin that don't extend when you move your leg). Those lines provide a stiff "skeleton" of structural support, while providing maximal mobility.

Italian scientists are testing a new diet pill that turns into a clear, gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball that may help shrink waistlines by giving dieters a sense of satiety.

"The effect is like eating a nice plate of pasta," said Luigi Ambrosio, lead researcher on the project.

The unnamed pill is made from a cellulose compound of hydrogel, a material that's powdery when dry but plumps up to a cousin of Jell-O when wet. The gel can soak up to 1,000 times its weight. A gram in capsule form quickly balloons from the size of a spit wad to a ball that holds nearly a liter of liquid.

Let's recap:

Exhibit A: A Nice Plate of Pasta.

Exhibit B: Happy Fun Ball.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Christina Ricci is joining Larry and Andy Wachowski's live-action adaptation of the 1960s cartoon Speed Racer. Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman already have boarded the high-octane project, which is based on the anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Japanese audiences and later imported to the United States.

Speed centers on a young race car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his thundering, gadget-laden vehicle, Mach 5. Ricci will star as Speed's girlfriend, Trixie, his formidable ally on and off the track.

Gaultier gets in on the act:

See also, last week:

Though I think the one on the left has more of a tempura thing going on than the sashimi on the right.

For all your late night spandexman.com needs.

This man is thinking impure
thoughts about Warren Ellis:

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

New Dinosaur Discovered: T. Rex Cousin Had Feathers

A tiny, earlier cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex sported at least a partial coat of hairlike feathers, scientists reported today. Although predicted by several paleontologists, the discovery marks the first time featherlike structures have been directly observed on a tyrannosaurid.

According to Norell, the American Museum of Natural History paleontologist, large adult tyrannosaurs like T. rex probably lacked primitive feathers, an indication that the hairlike structures evolved to insulate warm-blooded dinosaurs rather than to enable flight.

"It's doubtful a 40-foot-long tyrannosaur was covered with this stuff, if we are right that [the feathers] were needed for insulation. As the dinosaurs get bigger, they need to dump heat, not hold onto it," Norell said. Xu added that even large dinosaurs like T. rex may have had feathers when they were young. "They are not likely to be completely featherless animals for [their] whole life," he said."

Exhibit A

Exhibit B