Surprising Science — March 10, 2011

The $200 Andriod OS Tablet

Brett Arends tells how he transformed his Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader into a functioning tablet device with an Android OS using free and legal software from the Internet.

bigthinkeditor

While people line up to get their hands on the next generation iPad for $500, an alternative is available. Brett Arends explains how to transform an e-reader into an Android OS tablet: “I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color tablet. And then I downloaded a very simple, perfectly legal software fix from the Internet that turned it into a fully functioning tablet running on Google’s Android platform. The fix, known as a ‘rooting,’ unlocks Barnes & Noble’s proprietary overlay. The instructions came via Ars Technica, a reputable site devoted to technology, and were pretty easy to follow. I wasn’t really expecting it to work. I tried it as an experiment. But the results were remarkable.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Technology & Innovation

Can Green Tech Drive a Recovery?

An Intelligence Squared debate hosted this week by New York University asks whether cleaner sources of energy can power our economy and drive a recovery from the Great Recession?