‘Spider threads’ bring great self-healing power
US and Hong Kong scientists have invented a material that can heal itself from millimetre-scale cracks when heated, using spider-silk inspired plastic threads. In composites made by Guoqiang Li from...
View ArticleBrain's stem cells 'eavesdrop' to find out when to act
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how stem cells found in a part of the brain responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation decide to remain dormant or...
View ArticlePhD Studentship : Genova, Italy
We are seeking a highly motivated candidate for a PhD student fellowship to join our team at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), in Genova, Italy. The goal of the project is to create an...
View ArticleMIT students reveal PopFab, a 3D printer that fits inside a briefcase
There are plenty of different 3D printers to choose from these days, from the popular Makerbot Thing-O-Matic to the budget-priced Solidoodle. These all have one drawback however in that they aren't...
View ArticleRobot & Frank’s Vaguely Creepy Ads Want to Sell You an Android
Indie sci-fi movie Robot & Frank is built around a somewhat messed-up premise: Buying a robotcompanion to take care of your aging father when you’re not around. Even though such care-bots aren’t...
View ArticleIn Argentina, controlling a robot with ‘brain waves’
Even without scare quotes, those two words used as a scientific explanation do not inspire confidence. They’re just too close to an Austin Powers catch phrase. So when the chief technology officer at...
View ArticleSoft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm
Earthworms creep along the ground by alternately squeezing and stretching muscles along the length of their bodies, inching forward with each wave of contractions. Snails and sea cucumbers also use...
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Wyss Institute to Receive up to $37 Million from DARPA to Integrate Multiple...
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Agreement worth up to $37 million with the Defense Advanced...
View ArticleComputer scientists reveal how aquatic olympic gold is captured -- above and...
The work, conducted by Manhattan Mocap, LLC, together with New York University’s Movement Laboratory and The New York Times, analyzes Dana Vollmer, who won three gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics...
View ArticleDisruptions: Dining With Robots in Silicon Valley
Millions of people watched a robot descend last week on Mars, about 154 million miles away, while it shared video, photos and status updates from its own Twitter account. I had my own encounter with a...
View ArticleBlind Mice Temporarily Regain Vision After Chemical Injection
Our ability to see depends on two factors: light-sensitive rods and cones in the retina, and the nerves that transmit signals from these cells to the brain (along with the brain itself, of course)....
View ArticleHuman-Plant Interaction – and More – at SIGGRAPH 2012
The annual SIGGRAPH conference, which recently concluded in Los Angeles, always draws an eclectic bunch of developers, artists, filmmakers, scientists, academics and students from around the globe....
View ArticleUse Your Body's Electrical Field To Uniquely Identify Yourself
You are unique. This is one of the more obscure ways you're unique: An alternating current of different frequencies running through you causes a reaction that's noticeably different from anyone else's....
View Article3D printer helps 4-year-old girl who can't use her arms play with toys
A 4-year-old girl with a rare disease that robbed her from using her arms can now pick up toys and play for the first time with the help of a 3D printer. When Emma Levelle was born, her legs were up by...
View ArticleNon-stick coating gives biofilms the slip
A new class of material has been created that bacteria find incredibly hard to stick to. An estimated 80% of infections acquired in hospitals involve sticky biofilms of bacteria that build up on...
View ArticleDisney Is ‘Face Cloning’ People to Create Terrifyingly Realistic Robots
The Hall of Presidents is about to get a whole lot creepier, at least if Disney’s researchers get their way. That’s because they’re “face cloning” people at a lab in Zurich in order to create the most...
View ArticleStudy of fruit fly chromosomes improves understanding of evolution, fertility
The propagation of every animal on the planet is the result of sexual activity between males and females of a given species. But how did things get this way? Why two sexes instead of one? Why are sperm...
View ArticleSandia modular robotic hand is most lifelike yet
Science is hard at work developing ever more freaky robots to take over the world. To that end, DARPA, in partnership with private-public-hybrid Sandia National Laboratories, has developed a...
View ArticleCamouflage bendy robot changes colour for disguise
A robot that can change colour to either blend in with or stand out from its surroundings has been created by scientists. The machine, designed by researchers at Harvard University, was inspired by the...
View ArticleSynthetic Biology Book Published in DNA
A trio of researchers has encoded a draft of a whole book into DNA. The 5.27-megabit tome contains 53,246 words, 11 JPG image files and a JavaScript program, making it the largest piece of...
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