His team recruited 24 volunteers, 12 of whom were non-Scrabble players, and 12 of whom were Scrabble experts. Each of them were placed in front of a computer that displayed a jumble of letters. Their task was to identify, as quickly as possible, which letters could be re-arranged to form proper English words. While this was happening, their brain states were being monitored by an fMRI scanner.

Read More → "Playing Scrabble changes the way you use your brain"

University of Texas researchers may have licked this problem, though. They’ve developed a “cut-and-paste” manufacturing method for tattoo-like patches that whittles the assembly time down to 20 minutes, and should reduce the cost in the process. The technique involves little more than cutting shapes out of metal placed on polymer sheets, and then printing the electronics on to polymer adhesives. Effectively, it’s 3D printing in reverse — you’re taking material away until you get the design you want.</ … Read More → "Tattoo-like electronic health patches are now easy to make"

Flower stalls have been embellished, for the last two years, with a special kind of orchid known as the “Big Pink.” Researchers thought it was a hybrid. Turns out it’s totally new to science.

When researchers spotted this odd orchid showing up at flower shops, they figured it was a hybrid of two established species. … Read More → "People have been buying an undiscovered species of flower since 2013"

Most attempts at creating artificial veins don’t come close to replicating organic processes, but researchers at the Queen Mary University of London might change that. They’ve developed a technique that makes proteins and peptides self-assemble into tubular shapes that could stand in as arteries, veins and similar structures. There’s no 3D printing or moulds involved — you only need to guide the material as it builds itself. It can even grow … Read More → "Self-assembling material could produce artificial veins"

It’s no Michelangelo, but a robotic arm wielding a brush has completed a multi-colored oil painting at the behest of nothing other than human eyes. The system has been developed as engineers search for intuitive means of controlling robotic limbs, demonstrating how one day we might be able to wash the dishes while playing video games at the same time.
via Gizmag

</ … Read More → "Painting robot controlled entirely by a look"

Tiny robotic bugs have lots of potential for search and rescue, surveillance, and exploration, but what’s been all the rage recently is adaptive multi-modal robotics: robots that can creatively handle a combination of terrains, making them much more versatile. With some exceptions, robots are usually pretty bad at this, and with some exceptions, humans and animals are too. There are ground robots that can handle water, and a few flying robots that aren’ … Read More → "Harvard’s robot bee is now also a submarine"

While scientists have had success in the past printing structures like “bionic ears,” a clear path to making functional internal organs and tissue hasn’t really emerged. However, researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville have developed a way of printing complex objects in gel, a method that could help pave the way to 3D-printed organs in the future.

The hard thing about … Read More → "3D printing in gel shows how scientists could print human organs"

A research team led by professors Wilfried van der Wiel and Hajo Broersma is walking a different path. Remarkably, their device takes people out of the the circuit design equation altogether and leaves it to the chip itself to figure out how to best manipulate its inputs into the desired output through artificial evolution.

Their proof-of-principle device consists of a network of up to 100 densely interconnected gold nanoparticles, 20 nanometers in size, each acting as a tiny transistor. … Read More → "“Designless” brain-like chips created through artificial evolution"

Sensible Data by Martin Hertig, is a test: a test of how much you might be willing to give away about yourself in exchange for a little fun.

On the surface it seems harmless enough. You can exchange a photograph of yourself for a line drawing portrait; an email for an assessment of your mood, age, gender and beauty; press a … Read More → "Art installation tests how much you value your personal data"

Building a rope bridge with flying machines in the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena: The video shows quadrocopters autonomously assembling a rope bridge. This is part of a body of research in aerial construction, a field that addresses the construction of structures with the aid of flying machines.

In this work, a rope bridge that can support the crossing of a person is built by quadrocopters, showing for the ?rst time that small ?ying machines are capable … Read More → "Watch these drones build a rope bridge you could actually walk across"