A well-maintained shopping cart can last a decade before it’s worn out and no longer serviceable. But it can still be useful if it’s repurposed. Designer Xavier Degueldre remade several into chairs. You can view more photos of them at Design Boom.

Degueldre added padded seats to some of the chairs, which is no doubt more comfortable than bare metal.
via Read More → "Old shopping carts made into stylish chairs"

While most are familiar with the potential for 3D printers to pump out plastic odds and ends for around the home, the technology also has far-reaching applications in the medical field. Research is already underway to develop 3D bioprinters able to create things as complex as human organs, and now engineering students in Canada have created a 3D printer that produces skin grafts for burn victims.
via Read More → "PrintAlive 3D bioprinter creates on-demand skin grafts for burn victims"

For his senior project at Bauhaus University Weimar, Weng Xinyu designed several household objects that activate when you’re not using them. The title of the collection is “Good Medicine Tastes Bitter,” which is a proverb by Confucius.

Xinyu askes, “Do products always have to satisfy the users?” I’m inclined to think so, provided that you want to sell those products. But Xinyu wanted to design household goods that frustratingly send moral messages to owners.</ … Read More → "This clock saws itself in half when you’re not looking"

What is the Moon good for? Aside from inspiring poets, helping you see at night, and giving Neil Armstrong some place for a stroll, what can you do with it? If you ask scientists at the University of Southampton, they’ll tell you that it makes a cracking particle detector. With the help of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, the team hopes to use the mass of the satellite to detect … Read More → "Scientists plan on turning the Moon into a giant particle detector"

At the Sydney Opera House, seagulls are a bigger nuisance than pitchy tenors. Management is desperate to keep the ravenous sky rats away, so much that they’ve installed a large robotic bird of prey as a modern-day scarecrow.

They say it costs $6500. Which seems like a large … Read More → "Robotic birds are the (ridiculously expensive) modern-day scarecrows"

Thailand, as you’re likely aware, is home to some delicious food, and the government now wants to make sure that its most popular dishes are being represented well. To do so, “e-Delicious,” a robot capable of tasting food and making sure it meets various quality standards, was built. The idea came from Thailand’s Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, as she became interested in fighting against bad Thai food in Thailand and elsewhere across the … Read More → "Thailand built a robot to taste-test authentic dishes"

Scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia have discovered that mantis shrimp have an incredibly useful ability – the marine creatures are able to see a variety of cancers inside our bodies. And they’ve now replicated that ability in a camera that could eventually be put into a smartphone.

Mantis shrimp can see cancer, and the activity of our neurons, because they have unique eyes, known as … Read More → "Mantis shrimps can see cancer, and scientists have now created a camera that does the same"

New research from North Carolina (NC) State University has manufacturers and science fiction fans buzzing. Traditionally, the surface tension of metal has made it impossible to form liquid metal into any shape other than a sphere. But a new discovery allows reachers to control the surface tension to manipulate metal into a variety of new shapes. It’s not Terminator 2‘s T-1000, but it’s a step in the right direction.
via mddi online

< … Read More → "Researchers create shape-shifting liquid metal"

The subject enters a room in which a 12-year-old boy is seated. A 20-minute conversation ensues. The subject quizzes the boy about current events and other topics to get a sense of his intelligence and personality. But the boy is not what he appears to be.

Unbeknownst to the subject, the boy is wearing a radio receiver in his ear, and every word he says is transmitted to him by … Read More → "If someone secretly controlled what you say, would anyone notice?"

It might not be as heartbreaking as saying goodbye to a pet, but no one wants to see their plants die—it’s a sign of failure. And since using a device that reminds you to water them is useless if you’re never home, this simple set of shelving will serve as your horticultural assistant, keeping your plants watered—and alive—for up … Read More → "Shelving that automatically waters your plants, even when you forget"