Even in today’s GPS-enabled world, asking someone to point you in the right direction can often be easier than wrestling with your smartphone. Enter the Animotus, a wirelessly-connected, 3D printed cube that acts like a sort of haptic compass. Developed by Yale engineer Adam Spiers, the device literally changes shape to point you in the right direction.
via Gizmag

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Sometimes, despite the doctors’ best efforts, the transplanted lung begins to malfunction in the recipient’s body. This disorder, called primary graft dysfunction, is the leading cause of death for patients in the immediate aftermath of surgery. 

The new sensor can predict, before transplantation, which donated lungs will malfunction. Biomedical engineer Shana Kelley and her colleagues at the University of Toronto created a tiny electrochemical … Read More → "New sensor predicts which lung transplants will fail"

The study, conducted by psychologist Rebecca Graber of the University of Sussex, surveyed 400 adolescents, ages 11 to 19. According to New York Magazine, the kids were recruited from three schools in low-income neighborhoods in England. They answered questions about their friend groups, the nature of their friendships, and their ability to cope with different obstacles. The study’s specific goal was to learn how friendship affects “psychological resilience in socio-economically vulnerable British adolescents,” but has broader … Read More → "The psychological benefits of having a childhood best friend"

In the not-too-distant future, patients with damaged hearts or livers might receive tissue patches grown in a lab. This week, researchers announced an important development toward that goal: A biodegradable scaffold that allows strips of beating heart tissue to snap together like Velcro.
via Gizmodo

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NASA recently released this composite image of 9 round objects. 8 of them are the bottoms of frying pans. 1 of them is Europa, a moon of Jupiter. It was taken by NASA’s New Horizons space probe in 2007.

Can you guess which is Europa? Attempt no landing there, but make a guess. Then check it against the answer in the Daily Telegraph</ … Read More → "8 photos of frying pans and 1 of a moon of Jupiter"

Internet artist Darius Kazemi has created an online tool called Leaving Everywhere that randomly generates “Why I’m Leaving [City]” style essays using United States Census data. The tool pulls data like population, industry statistics, average income and uses them to justify why a person would decide to leave a city.
via Laughing Squid

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Researchers at MIT have invented a robot bartender and waiters to bring them ice-cold beers as they work. It might sound like a collegiate stunt from 1985’s Real Genius, but the project serves a scientific purpose: Not only do the robots deliver cans of frosty Yuengling to thirsty researchers, but they also make real-time decisions about the best way to do their job.

< … Read More → "MIT hires a robot bartender"

Researchers ought to be able to duplicate the findings of other scientists’ work, but a new study suggests that many published psychology results can’t be recreated.

A huge, collaborative research project attempted to recreate 100 studies that were recently published in major psychology journals, and it found that only 39 of those studies’ results could be replicated. That could mean that the studies were wrong in the … Read More → "A surprising number of psychology studies can’t be reproduced"

As the movies have shown us, space travel is an intimidating prospect, what with the possibilities of running out of air, the rocket engines conking out, or the shipboard computer deciding to bump off the crew. Another danger is fast-flying orbital debris piercing the hull. Scientists may be on their way to a solution to that one, however, in the form of a new self-healing material.

Developed by a team from the University of Michigan and … Read More → "Self-healing material could plug holes in space ships"

A PR2 humanoid robot recently learned to cook pizza and pancakes after watching a series of Youtube videos and reading WikiHow articles. The experiment, which was part of a European project called RoboHow…

The researchers behind the four-year project see exploring ways to teach robots to understand language as the route to achieving their goal. They aim to enable machines to perform everyday human-scale activities as competently as humans. Put simply, they want to be … Read More → "Robot learns how to cook pizza by watching Youtube and reading WikiHow"