Learning from sand castles to build future chips
In the United States, data centers already consume two percent of the electricity available with consumption doubling every five years. In theory, at this rate, a supercomputer in the year 2050 will...
View ArticleCan a Robot Get Into Japan’s Most Prestigious University?
Tokyo University’s notoriously difficult entrance exam shatters the dreams ofthousands of Japanese high school students each year. Can it also crush the hopes of Japan’s best robot scientists? The...
View ArticleRobots and humans could 'talk' via new software
The code will be used to help robots complete tasks more efficiently and could pave the way for human-to-robot business meetings. Robots now carry out tasks in a range of industries, from...
View ArticleGerbils regain hearing thanks to stem cell therapy
Scientists have restored hearing in gerbils using a stem cell therapy that may hold promise for deaf humans. Using human embryonic stem cells, researchers at the University of Sheffield were able to...
View ArticleBrain Implant Improves Thinking in Monkeys, First Such Demonstration in Primates
Scientists have designed a brain implant that sharpened decision making and restored lost mental capacity in monkeys, providing the first demonstration in primates of the sort of brain prosthesis that...
View ArticleNASA Selects Advanced Robotics Projects For Development
NASA has selected eight advanced robotics projects that will enable the agency's future missions while supporting the Obama administration's National Robotics Initiative. The projects, ranging from...
View ArticleThe Next Generation of Rescue Robots
Next month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the sci-fi research wing of the U.S. military—will pit companies and universities against each other in a competition to design the best...
View ArticleEuropeans welcome robots
More than two-thirds (70%) of EU citizens have a positive view of robots and the 88% of them consider that they "are necessary as they can do jobs that are too hard or too dangerous for people", says a...
View ArticleCeria nanoparticles could lessen the damage from ischemic strokes
The most common form of strokes are caused by a sudden reduction in blood flow to the brain (ischemia) that leads to an inadequate supply of oxygen and nutrients. These so-called ischemic strokes are...
View ArticleResearchers develop transparent memristor tech
Researchers at Oregon State University claim to have made a breakthrough in memristor development, creating the first memristors from cheap and readily-available zinc tin oxide. Dubbed the fifth...
View ArticleThe raw materials for fluorescent inks serve eggs
In luminescent carbon nanodots (C-points) are very interesting optoelectronic properties. But most importantly their biocompatibility, which is allows their use as a contrast to visualize biological...
View ArticleThis Picture Shows Individual Atomic Bonds Inside a Molecule
This isn't the view through your childhood kaleidoscope. Nor is it an alien craft come to beam you up. In fact, it's the world's first atomic force microscopy image of chemical bonds inside an...
View ArticleBoffins receive quantum key from moving plane
A group of German researchers has taken a step closer to achieving quantum key distribution with satellites, receiving quantum keys transmitted by a moving airplane. The experiment is described in this...
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Vanadium oxide bronze: A replacement for silicon in microchips?
The next generation of computers, however, may not rely so much on silicon. University at Buffalo researchers are among scientists working to identify materials that could one day replace silicon to...
View ArticleThe most badass thing you’ll see today: a bald eagle with 3D-printed beak
Here's some feel-good news for your Thursday, not to mention one of the most inspired applications of 3D-printing we've seen yet: a bald eagle with a prosthetic, 3D-printed beak. When this bald eagle,...
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'Bed of nails' material for clean surfaces
Water-repellent surfaces can be used as a coating for windows, obviating the need to clean them ever again. These surfaces have an orderly arrangement of tiny pillars less than one-hundredth of a...
View ArticleRobot mastery in the blink of an eye
Michael Phillips has spinal muscular atrophy. He can't move his body, use his fingers, sit up, speak or even eat or breathe unaided. But from his bed in Tampa, where he has a Mac computer connected to...
View ArticleTaking elevator from Earth to Moon
A Russian scientist has developed a concept of a 400,000 kilometer long nanotube-based cable elevator to deliver cargo from our planet to the Moon, news agency RIA Novosti reports. Alexander Bagrov, a...
View ArticleMicrostructural improvements enhance material properties
DARPA’s Materials with Controlled Microstructural Architecture program combines engineering principles developed for large structures with emerging fabrication techniques to engineer and control the...
View ArticleThomson Reuters Predicts Nobel Laureates
With just two weeks until the recipients of some of the world’s most coveted research prizes are named, Thomson Reuters is releasing its picks for 2011 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates – researchers...
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