The Digital Digest: 21/03/2011

The Best Of The Web

Art

Apartheid art

A new exhibition opens at New York's Museum of Modern Art next week with a first-of-its-kind theme. MOMA has created an artistic history of South Africa during apartheid. The collection is an mix of prints, posters, linocuts and screen prints produced by the art collectives and underground studios that flourished out of the view of the regime. ind.pn/SouthAfArt

Science

Stop-motion revision

So, you're trying to learn all those concepts and formulae ready for your science exam but aren't having much luck. What do you do? Try a mnemonic; make a poster, or – maybe – you could create a five minute stop-frame animation. That's what three super-talented American students decided to do at Rising Star Middle School in Fayetteville, Georgia. ind.pn/BIOLOGYVID

Technology

Space shuttles made of scallops

Just as we start to get used to the idea of 3D printers making furniture, Cornell University's Computational Synthesis Lab (CCSL) has taken things to a whole new level with its 3D food printer. The team there have used the machine to produce intricate mini space shuttles made entirely out of ground scallops and melted cheese. Hmm. ind.pn/3Dfoodprint

Dating

Find man a wife, earn $10k

Chas hasn't had much look with online dating. So the Philadelphian (no surname) is offering matchmakers $10,000 to find make him a match of a perfect wife. The entrepreneur admits the cash prize sounds "kind of sketchy" but "if it helps him find a soulmate, it'll be worth billions". Hook Chas up here: http://www.hookchasup.com/

Transport

Mocking up Crossrail

With engineering projects as vast and complicated as London's Crossrail, it's incredibly difficult to plan the small things. Which is why engineers have made a mocked-up version of the 250m platforms that will be buried in the capital's innards. Here, the BBC head to the secret location to see what's what. ind.pn/fakecrossrail

Diet

The 'French Atkins plan'

You can expect to hear a lot more about the Dukan diet in the near future, as the book is published in North America for the first time next month and the New York Times has just run a feature on it. Although the French diet has already made its way to our shores, expect it to explode when US celebs pick it up. Ind.pn/thedukandiet

Hollywood

History of a sign

For many, the Hollywood sign represents the earthly home of that otherwise ethereal world of fame, stardom, and celebrity and it embodies the American yearning to stand out of the landscape. Slate is running a slide-show essay on the history of the famous lettering. ind.pn/hollysign