…Biodegradable Fashion, Einstein as Super Lover, Self-Cooling Soda Bottles, Toyota’s Bizarre Recall and More!

Microsoft’s Bigger-Than-Foretold iPod-Rivaling Plans, Codenamed: Argo
Last week we let you know of Microsoft’s plans to begin selling a wireless digital music and video player to compete with Apple’s iPod later this year (Third item).

With speculation already aflutter, news now comes that the software maker had set a much larger goal than simply a rival to iPod. Apparently, reports NewFactor, “a full line of devices is in the works at Microsoft” — under the project codename “Argo,” named after the massive warship captained by the mythological Greek hero Jason. (Gizmodo reported that the product’s final name likely will be “Zune.”)

The project will reportedly create products that will compete against handheld-gaming devices such as Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo’s GameBoy.

The reports indicate that the portable devices will include wireless technology so users can download music and videos directly to the players without first connecting them to a PC. Additionally, the players are said to have higher-quality displays than the video iPod.

Jon Erensen, an analyst at Gartner, says he expects wireless capabilities to be the next major step for the iPod as well.

Formula 1′s Big Bucks and Special Blend
Sponsorship, of course, fuels the sport of Formula One. In addition to the tens of millions of bucks “splashed” around the track calendar, now comes a new blend — of whiskey, that is.

McLaren Mercedes began its partnership with Johnnie Walker last race season, and the sponsor re-signed for the 2006 race calendar for an undisclosed amount.

Now, to mark 40 years since McLaren made its debut in Monaco in 1966, the pair have created a special blend, reports CNN International.

In Scotland, McLaren Mercedes team principal and McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis has worked with Johnnie Walker master blender Jim Beveridge at the Scotch whisky maker’s distillery.

The Ron Dennis blend will be auctioned for charity during China’s Grand Prix in October — decanted into a diamond-encrusted bottle by team McLaren Mercedes associate partner Steinmetz.

Swimsuit Design Uses Supercomputing
These days, most competitive swimmers wear some type of body suit to reduce high skin-friction drag from water. And with the 2008 Olympics fast approaching, makers of swimwear are already busy at work on new models.

Speedo, the world’s leading swimwear brand, is now nurturing the next generation of its well-known Fastskin performance swimwear — using a supercomputer to refine its designs, according to Textile & Apparel.

Speedo’s engineers run a Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program on an SGI Altix system. The CFD modeling shows how the water flows around the body and the Fastskin material that resembles a shark’s skin down to the tiny riblets (ridges) on the surface. In rerunning CFD models of previous Fastskin designs, the data will provide a background for designers to decide the best material and structure for the swimsuit so that newer, more hydrodynamic models can be created.

While We’re On the Subject of Models…
Yesterday models strutted up the catwalk in designer clothes made from fermented corn sugar, as a fashion show held at the World Congress on Industrial and Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference in Toronto attempted to “make green sexy.”

The one-of-a-kind outfits created by big name designers included a strapless black dress, a strapless beige ball gown, a, um, “cream baby-doll dress with ribbon and sheer overlay,” a men’s transparent dress shirt, a blue blazer and a, er, “pink and yellow taffeta skirt with a silver recycled polyester bustier.” (I have NO idea what I just typed in this sentence. Hence the quotation marks.)

After the fashion show, Christopher Ryan, chief technology officer of Natureworks LLC, the maker of the “bio-based” fiber, pointed out the three steps to get from the corn sugar to the polymer, which is used to make the clothing.

Reports Reuters:

“First, the sugar is fermented into lactic acid, then that is converted into lactide,” Ryan said. “Then lactide is converted into PLA, or polymer. It takes a matter of hours, but longer than that to get through our plant.” PLA polymer is most commonly used as a plastic in packaging for environmentally friendly products, but can also be used as a versatile fibre [sic.] that can be made to have the appearance of silk, polyester, leather or elastic.

Natureworks has branded its PLA fiber as Ingeo and is the first company to use biodegradable polymers produced from renewable resources for commercial products, according to Reuters.

Inflatable (Mini) Space Hotel Launches
On Wednesday, a Russian rocket blasted off carrying (among other things) an experimental inflatable spacecraft and an American entrepreneur’s dream — a miniature hotel filled with some cockroaches and a bunch of Mexican jumping beans.

The Genesis I spacecraft lifted off aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile, according to the Russian Strategic Missile Forces and CNN, and reached its designated orbit about 320 miles above Earth minutes after liftoff. Only once it was aloft did it inflate with compressed air.

The launch was a first for Bigelow Aerospace, founded by Las Vegas real estate mogul Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain.

Having committed $500 million toward the project, Bigelow envisions building a private orbiting space complex by 2015 that would be made up of several expandable Genesis-like modules linked together and could be used as a hotel for holidaymakers, or perhaps a science lab or college for researchers.

Self-Cooling Soda Bottles Possible
U.S. scientists working to shrink technology that harnesses the sun’s energy say their research could lead to self-cooling soda bottles, reports United Press International.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are working on Active Building Envelope technology, a thin-film technology wherein solar panels can be shrunk to micrometer-thin sizes, allowing them to be stuck on walls, roofs or soda/pop/cola bottles, and thus turn them into climate control systems.

If efficient enough, the thin-film technology could prove revolutionary and move our energy consumption more toward renewable solar power. If not efficient enough, at least it could keep your Diet Coke cooler for a bit longer.

Who Says Science Nerds Aren’t Good with the Ladies
Jewish-German scientist Albert Einstein, renowned for his theory of relativity as much as for his gonzo hair, and who wrote hundreds of letters to his family during his time spent traveling and lecturing…also had half a dozen girlfriends and told his wife they showered him with “unwanted” affection.

In a new volume of letters released on Monday by Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Einstein described about six women with whom he spent time and from whom he received gifts while being married to Elsa, reports Reuters.

Previous-released letters suggested his marriage in 1903 to his first wife Mileva Maric, mother of his two sons, was miserable. They divorced in 1919 and he soon married his cousin, Elsa. He cheated on her with his secretary, Betty Neumann.

Scientists Exhume Opera Singer’s Body to Understand Musical Importance of ‘Nipping the Tip’
The remains of Farinelli, the famous Italian opera singer of the Baroque period, were exhumed in Bologna so scientists could learn the secrets of his vocal range.

His body, originally buried in 1782, was exhumed on Wednesday and studied by researchers in Italy to see how childhood castration, performed on prospective singers to stop their voices breaking, affected bone structure.

Reports New Scientist:

A lack of testosterone should have limited the growth of the hyoid bone of the larynx, giving the castrati a child’s voice, while the ribs should grow longer, making space for larger lungs with greater volume and sound control.

Called the “divine Farinelli,” the singer traveled throughout Europe and to the court of King Philip V of Spain — who was said to be cured of depression by hearing Farinelli sing.

‘Star Trek’ Nerd Alert!
A British fan of the original “Star Trek” has created a giant maize plant maze to celebrate 40 years since the original TV show’s first episode.

Trekkie Tom Pearcy used satellite technology to help him cut the maze in the cornfield at his farm near York, northern England, reports Reuters. The maze, supposedly the biggest of its kind (at least in this world), used 1.5 million maize plants.

The maze’s design includes images of half-Vulcan/half-human character Mr. Spock and the U.S.S. Enterprise spaceship.

Toyota’s Recall to Make Cars Less Safe
This fall, Toyota will voluntarily recall nearly 160,000 Toyota Tundra pickups so that they can be made less safe for children riding in the front seat.

The recall, announced Monday, is supposed to make Tundras comply with a set of safety regulations that say vehicles built after 2002 must have a child-seat anchor system known as LATCH in the front seat if they also have a front-seat airbag shut-off switch.

The Tundras in question were built with an airbag shut-off switch but not the LATCH (“lower anchorages and tethers for children”) system. So Toyota is spending lots of money and inconveniencing customers to deactivate front-seat passenger airbag cut-off switches in these trucks to avoid having to install a costlier child safety seat anchoring system.

Deactivating the switch means the airbag will always deploy — not only not enhancing the safety of these vehicles, but also making it unsafe to ever put a child in the front seat. The shut-off switches exist because airbags can injure and even kill small children even in minor crashes.

Toyota originally discovered the compliance issue and, in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in July 2005, the company asked regulators to let them ignore it as “inconsequential to safety.” NHTSA denied that petition. Toyota asked NHTSA to reconsider, arguing that the solution would be worse than the problem.

So, apparently, Toyota has no choice. What’s more Toyota has already disabled the cut-off switch in the 2006 Tundra in an effort to comply with the regulation.

Beats Writing a Bible-Length Thesis
So one of the guys here in our department can complete the Rubic’s Cube in something like three minutes; impressive, indeed. But University of Michigan students Doug Li, Jeff Loevell and Mike Zajac have created this “Rubik’s Cube Solver” robot for their university final project — and it does the job in 54 seconds. This bizarre but cool robot ranked No. 2 on TechEBlog’s “Top 5 Strangest Student Projects.”

Cheers.