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Say hello to Keiko. She’s the world’s first robot with Down Syndrome. She’s designed to help doctors diagnose people who come into the ER with a bad case of the Downs by answering their questions and responding to touch. What’s that? She’s not supposed to be retarded? Well what the hell is with that forehead then? Come on, Japan. The first retarded medical robot was kind of funny, now I’m worried that I’ll accidentally get diagnosed with Downs if I ever end up in a Japanese hospital. [CrunchGear]

The Hubble space telescope, despite its foibles, is perhaps best known for the humbling, amazing, and awesome image known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF). The HUDF, assembled from 800 separate exposures, offered humans an incredible look back at the history of the universe (and no fewer than 10,000 galaxies). Well, another magnificent piece of human engineering, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, played some cosmic Chasing the Jones’ this past week when it captured the deepest ground-based U-band image of the universe. Ever. We are so small.

Space junkies, go to town with the full presser below. And, for those of you with some time on your hands, the ESO has a link to the full 80 MB TIFF image in the page we linked to below.

A Pool of Distant Galaxies – the deepest ultraviolet image of the Universe yet

Anyone who has wondered what it might be like to dive into a pool of millions of distant galaxies of different shapes and colours, will enjoy the latest image released by ESO. Obtained in part with the Very Large Telescope, the image is the deepest ground-based U-band image of the Universe ever obtained. It contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument.

This uniquely beautiful patchwork image, with its myriad of brightly coloured galaxies, shows the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), arguably the most observed and best studied region in the entire sky. The CDF-S is one of the two regions selected as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), an effort of the worldwide astronomical community that unites the deepest observations from ground- and space-based facilities at all wavelengths from X-ray to radio. Its primary purpose is to provide astronomers with the most sensitive census of the distant Universe to assist in their study of the formation and evolution of galaxies.

The new image released by ESO combines data obtained with the VIMOS instrument in the U- and R-bands, as well as data obtained in the B-band with the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) attached to the 2.2 m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, in the framework of the GABODS survey.

The newly released U-band image – the result of 40 hours of staring at the same region of the sky and just made ready by the GOODS team – is the deepest image ever taken from the ground in this wavelength domain. At these depths, the sky is almost completely covered by galaxies, each one, like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, home of hundreds of billions of stars.

Galaxies were detected that are a billion times fainter than the unaided eye can see and over a range of colours not directly observable by the eye. This deep image has been essential to the discovery of a large number of new galaxies that are so far away that they are seen as they were when the Universe was only 2 billion years old.

In this sea of galaxies – or island universes as they are sometimes called – only a very few stars belonging to the Milky Way are seen. One of them is so close that it moves very fast on the sky. This “high proper motion star” is visible to the left of the second brightest star in the image. It appears as a funny elongated rainbow because the star moved while the data were being taken in the different filters over several years.

[European Southern Observatory via Slashdot]

I know I’d want a velociraptor more than a funny-lookin’ little computer. Other things per child we’d like to give kids in developing countries:

•One Game Boy Per Child
•One Pizza Per Child
•One Eliza Dushku Per Child
•One Terminator Per Child
•One Flux Capacitor Per Child
•One Sunny Day Per Child
•One Pogo Stick Per Child
•One Egg McMuffin Per Child
•One Ed McMahon Per Child
•One Mac Per Child (kidding)

Your suggestions, in the comments. [OVPC]

Who knew that lightbulb design could suddenly become so interesting? Since we’re all well aware that regular old light bulbs are bad for the environment, we’re seeing new designs for LED bulbs come in. And man, they’re strange looking.

The weird designs, such as the one above, are the result of the LED being lit from the back. The design around the light is actually a heatsink that’s meant to dissipate the heat generated by the LED. This design gives the LED much longer life by dissipating the heat quickly. Fortunately, bulbs like this are designed for recessed lighting, meaning you won’t see them at all once you have them in place. You’ll just reap the benefits on your electricity bill, which is something that no weird-looking bulb can make any less awesome. [NY Times]

Kotaku’s Ashcraft’s book on Japanese arcades may document how well those gaming centers are doing in Japan, but arcades are pretty much on their last legs here in the US. These high quality Supermandolini arcade buttons are how you can keep hope alive. Sixteen euros ($20) gets you ten badges, or buttons, that you can shove on your backpack or shirt or pants to show just how much you love putting quarters into things. Bonus: putting any one of these 10 on strategic areas of your pants can make for a funny joke. [Super Mandolini]

A study commissioned by Professor Semir Zeki of University College London sought to explore the difference between love and hate in the human mind. It found, oddly enough, that hate tends to be more rational than love. What does this all have to do with gadgets? It just might explain why you commenters fight incessantly about Apple and Microsoft.

The study is a little small for my liking, at only 17 people, and the results seem a bit anecdotal, but they do make sense. Imagine trying to explain why you like somebody: you’re bound to use vague words. “Oh, she’s really, um, nice, and cool, and funny.” But then explain why you dislike somebody: “Oh GOOD LORD if she says ‘utilize’ instead of ‘use’ one more time I’m just going to explode all over her and she’ll have to UTILIZE all sorts of cleaning products to get my rage shrapnel off her shirt!” See what I mean? The hatred is so much more specific than the love.

So when you Apple fanboys blurt out nonsense like “No but Mac OS just works better! It’s, um, well, easier!” and yet Apple haters can compose long and tiresome rants about the enclosed architecture and infuriating attitude of OS X, it’s neither of your faults. It’s science. Sort of.

Honestly, I’m a little dubious. Sure, I can think of situations in which the rationality of hate over love makes sense, but not in all cases, and it seems like too much generalization to make statements about “love” and “hate” like either is any one simple thing. But maybe I’m just being overly rational in my hatred of this study. [CNET]

Check out JVC’s Sound Garden concept: it’s come leaping forth like a delighted lamb from the creative spring that is Tokyo’s Design Week, and just like a newborn lamb finding its legs, it sure looks funny. An attempt at blending eco-friendliness with interesting design, it’s a full hi-fi speaker system with bass-reflex ports and the whole deal, alongside little pot-like areas to insert plants. And it’s all made of “eco-plastic,” designed so you can connect together several of the elements to make a whole hive-like sculpture of audio and greenery. Did I point out it’s weirdness? Oh I did. Thank goodness it’s just a concept. [AVWatch]

1968 was not only a great time because the entire nation was in political and social upheaval, but because it produced videos of Mr. Rogers mildly geeking out over a synthesizer. Considering how relatively mundane a device like this is today, it’s funny to see the expression on the face of our PBS neighbor. He looks like he’s somewhere between approaching a hostile animal and regretting that last hit of acid he dropped the night before. But humor aside, we should also take a moment to honor the other man in the video— synthesizer pioneer Bruce Haack.

Bruce Haack is up there with the likes of Leon Theramin, Robert Moog, Kraftwerk and Raymond Scott when it comes to electronic music. Throughout the 60s, Haack produced some of the earliest pieces of music in the genre, and despite not having a tech background, built many of his own synthesizers—including one that made noise by running a current through human bodies. According to the always authoritative Wikipedia, he was doing Mescaline with Native Americans when he was eight years old. That’s awesome. [YouTube via Makezine]

If bath time’s gotten boring for you recently, why not try reenacting the Cold War in your tub? Here’s a submersible radio-controlled replica of the USS Seawolf SSN-21 submarine, with a funny little periscope themed remote thrown in for good measure. The real Seawolf was commissioned in 1989 as a response to the Soviet Akula class of submarines. No word on whether RC-versions of those are out there somewhere. Available at Brando for $55. [Brando via Geek Alerts]

So you may have noticed, dear commenters, that when you move onto the second page of comments, they’re mostly collapsed. What’s the deal with that? Well, now, when you move onto the second page of comments, the only expanded comments will be those written by star commenters and those written by your friends. Want more of them to be expanded? I have two simple solutions for you.

The first is to use the “Expand All” link right at the top of the comments. There was previously a bug that caused this link to not work. It is now fixed. Simply click this and all the comments will be expanded and easy to read. Bingo bango.

The second option is to add more friends. Like what certain commenters have to say? It’s pretty easy to just click the little heart icon under their name to start following them. Once you do that, their comments will always be expanded for you to read, enjoy and respond to.

As for star commenters, stars are doled out by the staff to our favorite commenters. Want a star? Write better comments, and you’ll probably get one. You’ll probably get more followers as well! Funny how that works. Don’t ask for a star, by the way; that’s just tacky.

I hope that clears things up a bit. And thank you, as always, for commenting. Writing for Giz would be no fun without you.