The first patent, granted on July 31, 1790, secured the rights for a thrilling new process for “the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash.” In the 224 years since, there’ve been millions of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. And for every cotton gin and light bulb, there are a few more…interesting… patents issued. Like these…   U.S. Patent No. 3,216,423: The Spinning Birthing Table In the 1960s, the centrifuge was still a rite of training passage for budding Apollo astronauts. Bronx residents George and Charlotte Blonsky thought another group of people might benefit from that technology: pregnant women. The plan: The expectant mom would be strapped firmly into a frame that would spin, generating a force (really centripetal force, since centrifugal force—the idea that there’s a force pushing outward on an object traveling in a circle around a point—is not actually real) that would ease a baby’s passage. The baby, rather than flinging off on a doomed trajectory, would be caught by a “pocket-shaped reception net.” Why, dare we ask, would such complicated midwifery be necessary? The Blonskys designed their contraption for “more civilized Women who often do not have the opportunity to develop the muscles needed” …

The premise in Luc Besson’s movie Lucy is the silly trope that 90% of human cerebral capacity goes unused. This is flat-out false. The human brain uses 20% of the body’s total energy but it represents only 2% of the body’s mass. Natural selection drives biological organisms to minimize waste; why would an animal build such a costly organ and let 90% of it go idle.

We delved into the physics and chemistry of comic book superheroes earlier this week, but there are some paneled pages where science doesn’t lurk beneath a cape. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorite science-themed comics on the web and in print.

At New York City’s Javits Center this week, people were waving their hands around in front of bulky glasses, throwing up what looked like dorky gang signs. No, it wasn’t a nerdy sequel to “The Warriors”; it was attendees of the Wearable Tech Expo playing an augmented reality version of “rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock,” a game once mentioned on the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” The glasses recognized your hand sign, and displayed an icon of your choice and a computer’s choice, with the result (for example, lizard eats paper, but paper “disproves” Spock”).

Humanity’s war against the HIV has been a constantly shifting battle, thanks to the wily nature of the virus. But humans, being quite wily themselves, have persevered in the search for a cure despite setback after setback. Just this week, scientists found a way to snip HIV’s genetic code out from the genomes of infected cells. The technique’s only been tried in cultured cells so far, but it could represent a powerful new weapon in the arsenal against AIDS. But just what makes HIV such a formidable foe?