Researchers working at the University of California, San Diego have claimed a world first in proving that artificial, microscopic machines can travel inside a living creature and deliver their medicinal load without any detrimental effects. Using micro-motor powered nanobots propelled by gas bubbles made from a reaction with the contents of the stomach in which they were deposited, these miniature machines have been successfully deployed in the body of a live mouse.

The … Read More → "Nanobot micromotors deliver medical payload in living creature for the first time"

A few years ago, Ludovic Daler showed us a flying robot that he was working on that had the ability to “walk” by rotating its wings while on the ground. We love seeing designs like this that are completely, utterly out of the box, and Ludovic promised even more: 

We aim to make adaptive deployable wings… their shape could be adaptively modified to augment efficiency of forward flight, … Read More → "Flying, walking vampire bat robot is back"

The project essentially automates a 2D platformer hero’s behavior according to four “emotional” matrices: hunger, happiness, curiosity, and fear. For its demonstration video, the research team employed a modified version of Super Mario World that uses the SNES classic’s sprites on custom stages—and played a piano-ditty version of the original Super Mario Bros. 1 theme for nostalgic kicks—then added a … Read More → "Mario teaches feelings: How an AI team added emotion to old-school games"

If the Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game left you craving a more authentic look at the brilliant-but-misunderstood British mathematician Alan Turing—and you have a seven-figure budget for discretionary spending—you might want to check out Bonhams Fine Books & Manuscripts’ sale in New York on April 13.

The auction house will be selling, on behalf of an anonymous vendor, a hand-written notebook kept by Turing during the period … Read More → "Alan Turing’s hand-written notebook to go up for auction"

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee conducted a hearing today on the current state of research and development in the drone industry. The goal was to discuss with industry advocates how best to safely integrate this new class of flying craft into our national airspace.

For the most part it was your typical C-SPAN fare, with a lot of lengthy soliloquies on what drones are, what they can do, and how to make flying them safer. But to give our elected officials some perspective, Colin Guinn, senior vice president of … Read More → "A drone was flown on the floor of Congress"

The cosmic commandos at Moog Music are bringing back some classic synthesizers from the golden age of electronic music. These aren’t just any keyboards, mind you, but three Cadillacs of bleep-bloop, the System 35, System 55, and Model 15 first developed in the 1970s. Moog Music will be recreating these storied synths using the original designs and making them available on a very limited basis— … Read More → "Moog Music recreates a trio of its legendary modular synths"

The practice of creating false identities to fool others on social media is so widespread that it even has its own hour-long reality drama on MTV, where duped Facebook users tearfully demand explanations from the impostors with which they’d fostered imaginary long-distance connections. But you know who we never expected to be found guilty of catfishing? Federal law enforcement.

Back in 2010, Drug Enforcement Agency officials took  … Read More → "Feds have to pay woman $134K for using her picture to catfish drug dealers on Facebook"

It’s the end of October, when the days have already grown short in Redmond, Washington, and gray sheets of rain are just beginning to let up. In several months, Microsoft will unveil its most ambitious undertaking in years, a head-mounted holographic computer called Project HoloLens. But at this point, even most people at Microsoft have never heard of it. I walk through the large atrium of Microsoft’s Studio C to meet … Read More → "Hands-on with Microsoft’s holographic goggles"

A new study from two scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics posits that way we group and grow across the Earth is remarkably similar to the way that galaxies grew in space during the early days of our universe. According to them, we can learn a lot about the mysteries playing out on the Earth’s surface by looking at what we know … Read More → "Astrophysicists find that cities grow just like galaxies"

fahz is a custom 3D-printed vase with an asymmetrical form that is computer generated from the silhouettes of multiple people’s faces. The vases are created from multiple photos, each showing a different person in profile. The profiles are morphed so different silhouettes are visible depending on viewing angle (the effect is reminiscent of a Rubin’s vase image). fahz was created by Nick and Martha Desbiens … Read More → "Fahz, a custom 3D-printed vase with a sculptural form based on multiple face silhouettes"