Festo’s BionicKangaroo is yet another impressive
addition to the company’s already mind-blowing bionic zoo that includes,
among other things, bionic seagulls, dragonflies, flying penguins, elephant trunks and a whole selection of robotic marine critters.
Just like its animal cousin, the robo-marsupial developed by Fasto’s
Bionic Learning Network is able to store energy from the landing phase
of a jump and reuse it efficiently on subsequent jumps. The technology
developed for the BionicKangaroo may hold the key to more
energy-efficient machines based on both pneumatic and electric drive
technologies. Read More
Generally speaking, we use robots to help us
build or create things. An artwork on display at the UK's Foundation for
Art and Creative Technology (FACT), however, does quite the opposite.
Accomplice comprises a number of robots systematically destroying a
gallery wall. Read More
You may never be able to afford your own Segway,
but soon you'll be able to buy something similar for just a hundred
bucks. You won't be able to ride it, but it might ultimately end up
being more fun. It's Wowwee's MiP toy robot, which performs a variety of
activities while balancing on its two wheels. Read More
When we last heard about the modular snake robot
designed by Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor Howie Choset,
it had been used to explore an abandoned nuclear power plant. Now, however, a new line of robots based on it are set to explore something a little more confined – the human body. Read More
Anyone who has ever tried to grab a minnow out of
the water knows that it's almost impossible. Not only can they swim
forward very quickly, but they can also make near-instantaneous
right-angle turns, unpredictably shooting off to one side or the other
in mere milliseconds. Now, scientists at MIT have replicated that
capability in a soft-bodied robotic fish. Read More
A specially designed robot known as Cubestormer 3
has been used to break the world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube. The
robot, which broke the previous record by more than two seconds, is
powered by an octa-core Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. Read More
Last week, at SXSW, creative tech studio Chaotic
Moon demonstrated CUPID, a drone equipped with an stun gun that can
incapacitate people with an 80,000 volt shock. The brave intern used as a
guinea pig can no doubt testify to its effectiveness. The studio says
the exercise was aimed at raising awareness of the extent to which
technology is outpacing our ability to regulate and live with it. Read More
3D-printing robot creates freestanding metal structures
By Stu Robarts
February 21, 2014
Although the world of 3D printing is hurtling
through milestones at the moment, to a large extent the technology still
remains in its infancy. If you thought it was all Etsy jewellery and
plastic toys, though, think again. Joris Laarman has created a
free-standing 3D printing robot that creates beautiful metal sculptures
with the graceful brush strokes of an artist. Read More
Paralyzed woman walks again with 3D-printed robotic exoskeleton
By Stu Robarts
February 19, 2014
3D Systems, in collaboration with Ekso Bionics,
has created a 3D-printed robotic exoskeleton that has restored the
ability to walk in a woman paralyzed from the waist down. The Ekso-Suit
was trialled and demonstrated by Amanda Boxtel, who was told by her
doctor that she'd never walk again after a skiing accident in 1992. Read More
Table tennis champ to face robot in man vs. machine face-off
By Stu Robarts
February 17, 2014
German robotics manufacturer Kuka has arranged a
table tennis contest between one of its robots and former world number
one Timo Boll. The showdown will take place on March 11. Read More
Scientists watch bioengineered self-healing muscle tissue grow within a mouse
By Jan Belezina
April 2, 2014
The living skeletal muscle tissue grown by Duke
University researchers is 10 times stronger than any previously
bioengineered muscles. Not only does it contract as strongly and as
rapidly as the real thing but it is also capable of self-healing, both
in the lab and after implantation into an animal. This has been proven
beyond any doubt through a novel approach that involves peeking at the
growing muscle tissue through a glass window in the back of a living
mouse. Read More
If you're a parent wondering what your child will
look like as an adult, now you don't need to wonder anymore.
Researchers at the University of Washington claim to have developed
software that can accurately predict what a child will look like as an
adult, up to the age of 80. The technique can even work from poorly lit
photos, and could prove a big help in missing persons cases. Read More
Although no one is saying that aircraft carriers
will soon be able to fuel their jet fighters using water from the ocean,
such a scenario has recently come a step closer to reality.
Scientists from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have successfully
flown a radio-controlled airplane that was running purely on fuel
derived from sea water. Read More
If you’re someone who is happy to spend an hour
setting the clock on the microwave because it has to be just right, then
the news out of the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) is right up your alley. NIST has
announced the launch of a new atomic clock as the official standard for
civilian time. Called NIST-F2, it is so accurate that it will lose only
one second in 300 million years. Read More
Researchers at Lancaster University, UK have
taken a hint from the way the human lungs and heart constantly
communicate with each other, to devise an innovative, highly flexible
encryption algorithm that they claim can't be broken using the
traditional methods of cyberattack. Read More
It may be a little late for April Fool’s, but
your skepticism is nonetheless warranted when reading that researchers
have shown nanoparticles to disobey a fundamental law of physics which
dictates the flow of entropy and heat in, it was believed, any
situation. Specifically, researchers from three universities
theoretically proposed then demonstrated that a nanoparticle in a state
of thermal non-equilibrium does not always behave as larger particles
might under the same conditions, with implications for various fields of
research. Read More
Pressure makes diamonds, but according to recent
findings, there may also be a much quicker, hassle-free way. A team of
researchers at Stanford University has stumbled upon a new way of
turning graphite (the material used for pencil leads) into a
diamond-like carbon structure simply by applying hydrogen over a
platinum substrate, without the need to apply external pressure of any
kind. The discovery could lead to easier and more flexible manufacturing
of diamonds used in cutting tools and other industrial devices. Read More
A team of researchers from MIT may have found new
evidence to shed light on the cause of the most devastating mass
extinction in the history of our planet. The event, estimated to have
taken place around 252 million years ago, was responsible for the
extinction of roughly 90 percent of all life on Earth. Read More
Campus Martius, also known as the Campus of Mars,
was built by the Roman Senate just outside the ancient Rome city walls
back in 9 BCE. It was built to celebrate the peace brought upon the
Roman people as a result of Emperor Agustus’s military conquests. Thanks
to a complex computer simulation created by the Institute for Digital
Intermedia Arts (IDIA) for Indiana University's School of Informatics
and Computing, it is now possible to verify if and how solar alignments
influenced the positioning of the different objects on site. Read More
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of
Technology and the US Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute
have engineered a bacterium that could yield a new source of high-energy
hydrocarbon fuel for rocketry and other aerospace uses. High-energy,
specific-use hydrocarbon fuels such as JP-10 can be extracted from oil,
along with more commonly used petroleum fuels, but supplies are limited
and prices are high – approaching US$7 per liter. That’s where the new
bacterium, engineered by Georgia Tech scientists Stephen Sarria and
Pamela Peralta-Yahya, could come in. Read More
Scientists at MIT are developing hybrid materials
that are a cross between living bacterial cells and non-living
components such as gold nanoparticles or quantum dots. The resulting
"living materials" are able to respond to their environment like regular
living cells, while also doing things like conducting electricity or
emitting light. Read More
London's Science Museum is wildly popular, hosting over 2.9 million visitors a year. It's currently showing 3D: printing the future, an exhibition about 3D printing and how it will impact our lives. Gizmag payed the exhibition a visit. Read More
As any fan of just about any TV cop show will
tell you, it's possible to determine someone's sex and race based on a
sample of their DNA. In the future, however, such samples may provide
police with even more valuable information ... they might allow
investigators to construct an image of the person's face. Read More
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
has become a widely used technique for reaching into a person's brain
and altering the way in which it functions. Vanderbilt psychology
Professor Geoffrey Woodman and graduate student Robert Reinhart have
just published the results of a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience
in which they found that tDCS stimulation of the mediofrontal cortex
for a period of minutes can change one's ability to recognize and learn
from error for a period of several hours. Read More
Computer better than a human at telling if you're faking it
By Grant Banks
March 26, 2014
A computer-vision system able to detect false
expressions of pain 30 percent more accurately than humans has been
developed. Authors of the study, titled Automatic Decoding of Deceptive Pain Expressions,
believe the technology has the potential for detecting other misleading
behaviors and could be applied in areas including homeland security,
recruitment, medicine and law. Read More
Harvard researchers create termite-inspired robot builders
By Anthony Wood
February 16, 2014
Researchers at Harvard University have taken
inspiration from the swarm construction method used by termites to
create TERMES. These robots are intended as the first step in a project
with the ultimate goal of creating a fully automated robotic workforce
that can create complex structures without the need for centralized
control. Read More
In the southeast United States, snow storms are
as about as common as canoes on Mount Everest, which is what makes the
current task of digging the region out from under the recent deposit of
the white stuff so irksome. To aid the inexperienced snow shoveler,
SuperDroid of Raleigh, North Carolina is selling a remote-controlled
robotic snow plow that allows you to clear the drive while sitting where
it’s warm with a cup of cocoa. Read More
Study of ant necks could help develop stronger robots
By Nick Lavars
February 12, 2014
Though ants have long been known to carry loads
many times their own weight, a new study has cast light on the extent of
this strength and the mechanics responsible for it. Research conducted
by a team from The Ohio State University suggests an ant can lift 5,000
times its own body weight, with its neck bearing most of the load,
providing a potential blueprint for the development of much stronger
robots. Read More
Riverwatch uses robotic symbiosis to study waterways
By David Szondy
February 11, 2014
The string of disastrous floods currently
plaguing Britain demonstrate that managing rivers and other waterways is
about more than protecting curlew nests and counting otters. To help
provide a better understanding of riverine areas, a team headed by José
Barata and Pedro Santana of the University of Lisbon are developing a
“marsupial” robotic system called Riverwatch that teams a robotic
catamaran with an on-board hexacopter to survey areas beyond the reach
of the hip-boots and rubber raft brigade. Read More
Scientists from the School of Computer Science,
University of Lincoln, UK are using expressive robot ERWIN (Emotional
Robot with Intelligent Network) to study how long-term relationships may
form between robots and humans. In its current form, the robot has the
ability to display five distinct emotions whilst interacting with humans
via the manipulation of its mouth and eyebrows. Read More
Robot thinks like a bee, to learn from what it sees
By Ben Coxworth
February 10, 2014
Because of bees' small size, maneuverability and
almost machine-like swarm mentality, it shouldn't come as a surprise
that scientists are developing tiny flying robots based on the insects. In order to navigate autonomously, however, those robots' artificial bee brains
will have to be capable of identifying objects in their environment,
and reacting accordingly. Well, thanks to research recently conducted in
Berlin, they may soon be able to do so. Read More
Something fishy about new robotic filleting machine
By Darren Quick
January 28, 2014
Manual filleting of fish can be a time-consuming
task. Due to higher salaries in Nordic countries, processing of fish
caught there is often carried out in places like Asia, Eastern Europe
and Russia where labor costs are lower, before the fish is returned to
Scandinavia for sale. The APRICOT (Automated Pinbone Removal In Cod and
WhiTefish) project set out in January, 2012 to find an automated
solution that would keep fish processing local and it has now developed a
machine that achieves just that. Read More
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and the University of
California (UC) Berkeley have created sensitive, tactile sensors that
are similar to a cat's whiskers. The so-called "e-whiskers" could be
used to help robots feel their way around a space. Read More
A team from the Institute of Systems and Robotics
at Portugal's University of Coimbra is developing a minesweeping robot
to assist in the monumental task of clearing the millions of active land
mines around the globe. Currently putting it through a series of field
testings, the team is working to optimize the robot to automate the
manual, and exceedingly dangerous, humanitarian de-mining effort. Read More
Researchers use arm sensors to improve robot control
By Stu Robarts
January 21, 2014
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of
Technology have created a system that makes a human-controlled robot
more "intelligent," and improves the amount of control that a human user
has over it. It incorporates a number of sensors that are placed on the
user's arm to read muscle information, and help the robot to anticipate
the user's intentions. The system has been developed to improve safety
and efficiency in manufacturing plants. Read More
When looking for the best materials with which to
construct a solar cell, the obvious preference is for one that absorbs
light, not emits it. But researchers from Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore have discovered a material that does both.
Amongst a variety of potential applications, the researchers say the
material, Perovskite, opens up the possibility of mobile devices with
displays that double as solar cells. Read More
Tough-as-nails ceramic inspired by mother-of-pearl
By Ben Coxworth
March 25, 2014
Although you may know it simply as the shiny
iridescent stuff on the inside of mollusk shells, mother-of-pearl (or nacre)
is a remarkable material. It allows those shells, which otherwise
consist almost entirely of brittle calcium carbonate, to stand up to the
abuses of life in the sea. Now, a team led by the Laboratoire de
Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques (CNRS) in Paris, has
copied the structure of nacre to create a ceramic material that's almost
10 times stronger than conventional ceramics. Read More
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The counterfeiting of high-end products is a
growing problem, and has led to the development of countermeasures such
as invisible woven patterns, butterfly wing-inspired printing techniques, and even synthetic DNA.
One of the drawbacks of some of these approaches, however, is the fact
that implementing them can be quite a complex process. Now, a team from
the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has come
up with something simpler – tiny jumbles of nanowires that form
item-specific "fingerprints." Read More
If you’re going to do something like building a
Porsche 911 that fits on the head of a pin, or make a microscopic
medical pump, you need a microscopic engine. A team of researchers from
the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the Russian Academy of
Sciences, and Germany’s University of Freiburg have developed a
micro-engine that burns oxygen and hydrogen, but there’s a small
problem; they’re not sure how the thing works. Read More
Could it one day be possible to generate
electricity from the loss of heat from Earth to outer space? A group of
Harvard engineers believe so and have theorized something of a reverse
photovoltaic cell to do just this. The key is using the flow of energy
away from our planet to generate voltage, rather than using incoming
energy as in existing solar technologies. Read More
In regular microchips, work is performed via the
movement of electrons within the chip. Thanks to the recent creation of
the thinnest-ever LEDs, however, such chips may one day be able to use
light instead of electrons, saving power and reducing heat. Of course,
those LEDs could also just be used as a really flat form of lighting, in
any number of applications. Read More
In a discovery that has profound implications for
our understanding about the beginnings of the universe, the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics this morning announced
evidence of so-called primordial B-modes in the cosmic microwave
background (CMB). These B-modes directly show quantum gravitational
waves originating during the inflationary period of cosmic evolution,
from about 10-36 sec to 10-32 sec after the Big Bang, and give us a direct view of physical processes taking place at 1016 GeV – a trillion times more energetic than particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Read More
Turn on any old science fiction film and odds are
that you'll see someone listening to the ominous chirping of a Geiger
counter. It's very dramatic, but not very precise and, unfortunately,
nuclear scientists and engineers of today are stuck with the same
problem. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a
faster, cheaper way for nuclear power plants to detect and map
dangerous hot spots and leaky fuel rods using a camera that maps
radiation in real time. Read More
World's first 3D acoustic cloaking device created
By Darren Quick
March 11, 2014
Metamaterials are already being used to create invisibility cloaks and "temporal cloaks,"
but now engineers from Duke University have turned metamaterials to the
task of creating a 3D acoustic cloak. In the same way that invisibility
cloaks use metamaterials to reroute light around an object, the
acoustic cloaking device interacts with sound waves to make it appear as
if the device and anything hidden beneath it isn't there. Read More
Folding paper microscope could reduce deaths from malaria
By Ben Coxworth
March 11, 2014
According to the World Health Organization, there
were approximately 207 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2012,
627,000 of which proved fatal. Unfortunately, the disease most often
occurs in developing nations, where diagnostic equipment may not be
available. This means that doctors can't determine the particular strain
of malaria from which a patient is suffering, and thus don't know which
medication will work best. Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of
bioengineering at the Stanford School of Medicine, hopes to change that
... using his disposable folding paper microscope. Read More
X-ray observations shed new light on dark matter
By Brian Dodson
March 10, 2014
New analyses of the x-ray and gamma-ray emissions
from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, and the
Perseus galaxy cluster have detected significant signs of two possible
dark matter particles. One is likely a 7.1 keV sterile neutrino, and the
other appears to be a 35 GeV WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive
Particle). Read More
In 2012, Jason Barnes lost the lower part of his
right arm after being electrocuted. Though he could have pursued his
dream of becoming a professional drummer using only his remaining limb
(like Def Leppard's Rick Allen, for example), he decided to build his
own stick-wielding prosthesis. The attachment certainly allowed him to
make some noise, but it wasn't flexible enough to give the speed or
bounce control he was looking for. Now, thanks to the work of Georgia
Tech's Professor Gil Weinberg, Barnes is preparing for a gig later this
month where a novel robot drumming prosthetic arm will help him pound
out precision rhythms with a live band. Read More
Tiny aquatic bio-bots swim like sperm and are powered by heart cells
By Ben Coxworth
January 20, 2014
If you were asked to think of something
microscopic that moves quickly, chances are that sperm would be the
first thing to come to mind. The tiny reproductive cells are able to
swim as fast as they do thanks to their long whip-like tails, known as flagella.
So, imagine how helpful it might be if sperm-like machines could be
used for applications such as delivering medication to targeted areas of
the body. Well, that's what scientists at the University of Illinois
are in the process of making possible, with the creation of their heart
cell-powered "bio-bots." Read More
Who wouldn't want to slip into Iron Man's armor
or try out the gigantic Jaegers that saved the world in the movie Pacific Rim? Wearable exoskeletons currently being built, from the military-based TALOS, XOS 2 and HULC to rehabilitative models like the ReWalk, MindWalker and X1,
all have one thing in common; they are all robotic automated body suits
designed to enhance or assist people. Is there a place for a
skill-oriented, non-robotic walking exoskeleton, that a person would
have to master physically by feel, much like how one might master riding
a bicycle or using a skateboard? Jonathan Tippet thinks so. He and his
team of volunteers are building Prosthesis, claimed to be the world's
first human-piloted racing robot. It's a 5-meter (16-ft) tall behemoth
that will rely entirely on the pilot's skill to balance itself or walk
or run. Read More
A network and repository of data, where robots
can share and learn from each other about the tasks they perform, has
been demonstrated at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). The
project is the culmination of four years of research by scientists from TU/e, Philips, ETH Zürich, TU München and the universities of Zaragoza and Stuttgart. Read More
Leddar, short for LED Detection and Ranging, is a
new type of detection and ranging sensor that uses LEDs to detect
objects and determine their distance. While the Leddar is low
resolution, it is also low cost, and it may find new applications in
vehicles, traffic management, robotics and safety. Read on for our
hands-on review. Read More
Coffee-filled robotic gripper becomes a commercial product
By Ben Coxworth
January 13, 2014
Back in 2010, we first heard about a clever device known as the robotic universal jamming gripper.
With its business end composed of a party balloon filled with coffee
grounds, it could form a secure grip around objects of varying sizes and
shapes. Now, that device has been commercialized – although
incorporating higher-tech materials than balloons and coffee. Read More
Parrot debuts rolling MiniDrone and Jumping Sumo bot
January 9, 2014
Well-known drone-maker Parrot
has been drawing quite a few onlookers to its booth at CES with two
high-flying additions to its robotic lineup: the MiniDrone and the
Jumping Sumo. The MiniDrone is a small quadcopter that can fly in the
air and roll along the ground using detachable wheels, while the Jumping
Sumo is a remote-controlled ground bot that leaps into the air using a
high-powered piston. Read More
CES always throws up some gadgets that are more
radical and fun than most, and this year is no different. Keecker,
founded by ex-Google employee Pierre Lebeau, has unveiled an
all-singing, all-dancing smart robot aimed at “redefining the home
entertainment and connected devices market.” Read More
Ez-Robot, a small company based in Calgary,
Canada, is aiming to start a new "revolution" in robotics. The company's
new Revolution line is a series of small, hobby-sized robots with
modular parts, easy-to-use features, and snap-together mechanics. The
line consists of three new robot kits: a humanoid two legged walker, a
rover with tracks, and a hexapod, or six-legged spider-bot. Read More
Leave it to DARPA to turn disaster relief into a
competitive sport for robots, and for Google to walk away with the
prize. On Saturday, 16 robotics teams from around the world competed in
the DARPA Robotics Challenge
Trials for 2013, as part of DARPA’s project for developing robots
capable of autonomously navigating disaster areas and doing useful work
using tools and materials at hand. The two-day event was streamed live
on December 20 and 21 from Florida’s Homestead Miami Speedway. Google’s
Schaft humanoid robot scored 27 points and won first place as it
navigated an obstacle course which was made to simulate a disaster area,
while carrying out a series of tasks. Read More
Cube-shaped robot balances on one corner and can move on its own
By Ben Coxworth
December 23, 2013
Back in October, we heard about MIT's M-Blocks
– they're metal cubes that use internal flywheels to hurl themselves
around, sticking together magnetically to form simple structures. Now,
scientists from ETH Zurich have unveiled something similar. Their Cubli
cubic robot also uses flywheels to move around, plus it can actually
balance on one corner. Read More
So first of all ... yes, flying snakes do exist.
Disappointingly, though, they don't have scaly dragon-like wings.
Instead, they're able to flatten out their bodies after launching
themselves from tree branches, proceeding to glide through the air for
up to 100 feet (30.5 m). Recently, scientists figured out why that
technique works as well as it does. Their findings could have some major
applications for us humans. Read More
NASA scientists have successfully launched a
sounding rocket into the heart of an aurora. The launch, which took
place on March 3rd, was part of the NASA-funded Ground-to-Rocket
Electrodynamics-Electrons Correlative Experiment (GREECE) mission, the
purpose of which is to discern the cause of the distinctive shape of
auroral curls. Read More
There's a conundrum of growing food in outer
space: the same optimal conditions that create quick plant growth also
leaves them missing a nutrient that protects human eyes from radiation,
such as astronauts experience. However, scientists under the direction
of Barbara Demmig-Adams at the University of Colorado Boulder have
developed a method of using bright pulses of light to trick plants into
producing more zeaxanthin, which humans cannot produce on their own but
is essential for long-term eye health and visual acuity. Read More
Perhaps you've seen footage from National
Geographic's "Crittercam," an underwater video camera that has been
attached to animals such as sharks and whales. Well, scientists from the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the University of Tokyo have gone
one better. Not only have they been putting cameras on sharks to see
what they get up to, but they've also been slipping them ingestible
sensors, to monitor their dietary habits. The data that they've gathered
could help protect shark populations, and the overall health of the
ocean. Read More
In many parts of the world, the presence of
harmful bacteria makes it vitally important that water from lakes or
rivers be thoroughly filtered before being consumed. While materials
such as silver nanoparticles and titanium dioxide
will do the job, people in developing nations or rural settings
typically need something a lot cheaper and easier to manufacture. As it
turns out, wood from pine trees works great. Read More
Stamp of approval for new living cell printing technique
By Grant Banks
February 27, 2014
Researchers in Houston have developed a cost
effective method for printing living cells, claiming almost a 100
percent survival rate. The method, which is akin to a modern version of
ancient Chinese wood block printing, allow cells to be printed on any
surface and in virtually any two dimensional shape. And while current
inkjet printers adapted to print living cells can cost upwards of
US$10,000 with a cell survival rate of around 50 percent, this simple
new technique could see the cell stamps produced for around $1. Read More
Shipping ports are major sources of air and water
pollution, due in part to anchored or docked ships using diesel
generators to keep their onboard systems powered up. A year from now,
however, the Port of Honolulu will be trying out a mobile hydrogen fuel
cell unit, as a more eco-friendly and fuel-saving alternative. Read More
Sugarcane grows like crazy, so if it could be
used as a source of biofuel, well ... not only might it produce higher
yields than other crops, but it could conceivably do so using less land.
With that in mind, scientists from the University of Illinois are
creating a strain of the plant that produces more oil, gets more energy
from the sun, and can be grown in colder climates. Read More
A meter-wide (3 ft) asteroid impacted the Moon's
surface September 11, 2013, producing a bright explosion and digging a
new crater about 40 meters (130 ft) in diameter. The video of the event
shows a bright flash of light against the stark blackness of the Moon's
dark side. Similar in brilliance to the brightest stars in the Big
Dipper, the asteroid impact is the largest confirmed impact on the Moon
since continuous monitoring started some 15 years ago. Read More
Powerful artificial muscles made from ... fishing line?
By Ben Coxworth
February 24, 2014
Artificial muscles could find use in a wide range
of applications, including prosthetic limbs, robotics, exoskeletons, or
pretty much any situation in which hydraulics or electric motors just
aren't a practical means of moving objects. Scientists have been working
on such muscles for a number of years, using materials like vanadium dioxide, graphene, carbon nanotubes and dielectric elastomers.
Now, however, some of those same scientists have discovered that very
powerful artificial muscles can be made from much more down-to-earth
materials – regular polymer fishing line, and metal-coated nylon sewing
thread. Read More
New bioprinting technique creates thicker, healthier tissue
By Nick Lavars
February 23, 2014
The notion of 3D printed biological tissue
holds all kinds of possibilities for drug testing and the reparation of
damaged cells, though replicating the complexities of human tissue in a
lab presents some very big challenges. A new bioprinting method
developed by researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically
Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has enabled the creation of
tissue constructs with small blood vessels and multiple cell types,
marking important progress toward the printing of living tissue. Read More
Spongy material could charge phones using vibrations from cars
By Ben Coxworth
February 21, 2014
While it's already possible to wirelessly
recharge smartphones in cars, those cars need to be equipped with a
special charging pad
that the phone has to be placed on. Thanks to a newly-developed
"nanogenerator," however, it might eventually be possible to place the
phone anywhere in any car, letting the vehicle's vibrations provide the power. Read More
Hybrid anode quadruples the lifespan of lithium-sulfur batteries
By Nick Lavars
February 20, 2014
Increasing the range of electric vehicles and
improving the storage of renewable energy systems are two examples of
the benefits offered by lithium-sulfur batteries.
Though they can hold four times the energy per mass of the lithium-ion
batteries used today, their considerably shorter lifespan has proven
something of a roadblock. Researchers from the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory (PNNL) have now designed a lithium-sulfur battery
with four times the longevity, bringing the technology that little bit
closer to maturity. Read More
Reusable gecko-inspired adhesive tape shrugs off the "dirt"
By Ben Coxworth
February 20, 2014
Geckos' feet
are right up there with adhesive tape, when it comes to being able to
stick to things. Unlike tape, however, those feet retain their adhesive
qualities even after many, many uses. Now, thanks to research being
conducted at Carnegie Mellon University and Germany's Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology, we may one day be using self-cleaning reusable
gecko-inspired tape. Read More
Cambridge scientists uncover the sticky secrets of stick insects
By Grant Banks
February 19, 2014
Could studying the slow moving stick insect help
Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt cover 100 meters faster? Researchers at
Cambridge believe it could. It's all to do with sticky toes versus hairy
toes. Read More
In order to better understand and protect wild
stocks of salmon, it's necessary to track their whereabouts using
implanted acoustic tags. Needless to say, the longer that those tags are
able to transmit a signal, the greater the amount of data that can be
gathered. Scientists at Washington state's Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory (PNNL) are helping make that happen, by developing batteries
that have both a smaller size and higher energy density than
conventional fish tag batteries. Read More
Stretchable optical circuits could find use in robot skin and more
By Ben Coxworth
February 19, 2014
If flexible electronic devices are ever going to
become practical for real-world use, the circuitry incorporated into
them will have to be tough and resilient. We're already seeing progress
in that direction, including electrical wires
that can still carry a current while being stretched. However, what if
the application calls for the use of fiber optics? Well, scientists from
Belgium may have that covered, too. They've created optical circuits
utilizing what they believe are the world's first stretchable optical
interconnections. Read More
With any medical condition, the earlier it's
detected, the better the chances are of successfully treating it. When
assessing biological samples from a patient, however, it's often quite
difficult to see the indicators of a disease when it's still in
its early stages. That could be about to change, thanks to the
development of a solution known as "living liquid crystal." Read More
Various institutes around the world have long
touted the potential of breath testing as a form of early and
non-invasive disease detection.
Now a research team from Australia's University of Adelaide has
developed a new kind of laser with the ability to detect low
concentrations of gases, opening up even more possibilities for disease
diagnosis and other applications such us measuring the concentration of
particular greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Read More
Graphene is truly a 21st-century wonder material, finding use in everything from solar cells to batteries to tiny antennas.
Now, however, a group of European research institutes have joined
forces to create a graphene knock-off, that could prove to be even more
versatile. Read More
Scientists announce breakthrough in quest for fusion power
By David Szondy
February 13, 2014
In a perfect example of beating swords into
plowshares, a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory's (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California
reached a milestone in the quest for practical fusion power using a
process designed for the development and testing of nuclear weapons. The
announcement in the February 12 issue of Nature claims that
the team used the world’s most powerful laser barrage to produce a
controlled fusion reaction where more energy was extracted from the fuel
than was put into it. Read More
Your next fridge could keep cold more efficiently using magnets
By Darren Quick
February 13, 2014
The fridge is the most common of common household
appliances. Despite improvements in efficiency over the years, they
remain one of the biggest users of electricity in the home, relying on
chemical refrigerant and a compressor to transfer heat from the inside
to the outside of the fridge. GE researchers have now developed a new
type of refrigeration technology using magnets that is more
environmentally friendly and is predicted to be 20 to 30 percent more
efficient that current technology ... and it could be in household
fridges by the end of the decade. Read More
Despite efforts to limit their use through
implementation of charges or bans, billions of plastic bags continue to
clog landfills, waterways and the world's oceans every year. Already a
potential source for carbon fiber and carbon nanotubes,
researchers have provided another reason not to throw the ubiquitous
bags away by converting them into a range of petroleum products. Read More
Could moly sulfide be the key to cheaper hydrogen production?
By Grant Banks
February 9, 2014
Chemical engineers have found a 30-year-old
recipe that stands to make future hydrogen production cheaper and
greener. The recipe has led researchers to a way to liberate hydrogen
from water via electrolysis using molybdenum sulfide – moly sulfide for
short – as the catalyst in place of the expensive metal platinum. Read More
The Concordia Research Station, a joint interest
between the French IPEV polar institute and the Italian PNRA Antarctic
program, is by all accounts one of the most isolated and inhospitable
locations available to humanity, requiring more time to reach than it
takes to travel to the International Space Station (ISS). The European
Space Agency (ESA) takes advantage of the facility's unique location and
conditions, conducting extensive research into the implications of
long-term space flight on the human body. Read on as we take a look at
the conditions at the station, and the importance of the research being
carried out there. Read More
Stretchy, self-healing paints and other coatings
recently took a step closer to common use, thanks to research being
conducted at the University of Illinois. Scientists there have used
"off-the-shelf" components to create a polymer that melds back together
after being cut in half, without the addition of catalysts or other
chemicals. Read More
Although high-capacity lithium batteries make
many of today's mobile electronics possible, they do have one flaw –
they occasionally catch fire.
This can happen when they overheat, and their liquid acid electrolyte
ignites and leaks out. Now, however, scientists at Washington State
University have created a gummy electrolyte material that could make
such fires a thing of the past. Read More
When we first covered the electronic tongue
developed by a team led by Professor Manel Del Valle at Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona, it was enjoying a glass or two of cava wine.
Now the researchers have turned to beer, and report that their
electronic tongue can correctly identify different beer varieties with a
success rate of almost 82 percent. Read More
Hey, that smells like Frank – body odor ID is on its way
By Ben Coxworth
February 4, 2014
Move over, fingerprints, iris scans and facial
recognition, because a new form of biometric identification may soon be
joining you – body odor. According to scientists at Spain's Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid, peoples' unique scent signatures remain steady
enough over time to allow for an ID accuracy rate of approximately 85
percent. Read More
How is it possible that cold-blooded fish such as
cod can live in Arctic waters without just freezing solid? As it turns
out, they've got proteins in their bloodstream that act as a sort of
antifreeze. British scientists have now copied the fashion in which
those proteins work, to create a process by which donated human blood
could be frozen for storage, then quickly made available for
transfusion. Read More
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