If you have access to a 3D printer, then you can build your own space fleet courtesy of NASA – provided you don’t mind spacecraft that are plastic and four inches long. As part of its continuing program of education and outreach, the space agency has released 22 printable models of NASA and European space probes, asteroids, and planetary landscapes for the hobbyist and space enthusiast.

The 3D models are available from the& … Read More → "NASA releases 3D-printable models to the public"

A team of engineers invented a material with thousands of tiny electroplated metal bristles that can move in response to a magnetic field. When the field shifts, so do the bristles, and together they can force a fluid into unlikely directions, even against gravity.
via The Verge

… Read More → "MIT researchers made a material that forces water up walls"

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Baby activity trackers really are a thing, and a new one from a company named Sproutling is now available for pre-order.

Sproutling’s baby activity tracker, designed to be worn at night and during naps, is a baby-safe ankle band equipped with sensors that track the baby’s heart rate, temperature, mood, whether it’s still sleeping, and if it has rolled over onto its stomach. This last … Read More → "You can now plug your baby into the Internet of things"

There are numerous research efforts underway to develop new treatments and improve the lives of people suffering type 2 diabetes, whose ranks have increased dramatically in recent decades due in large part to the so-called obesity epidemic. A new generation of safer and more effective diabetes drugs could be in the offing with researchers at the Salk Institute discovering that when mice with diet-induced diabetes were given a single injection of a protein, … Read More → "Single injection reverses type 2 diabetes symptoms in mice without side effects"

Photographer David Slater is currently entangled with editors at Wikimedia Commons — a database featuring a large amount of “freely usable media files” — over whether a crested black macaque owns a photo it took of itself. The photo comes by way of a 2011 trip to an Indonesian national park taken by Slater. The monkey grabbed Slater’s unattended camera and proceeded to snap … Read More → "Photographer and Wikimedia currently fighting over whether a monkey owns a selfie"

We marveled at the way these expressions—the ones we understood, anyway—captured the spirit of the era in which they were defined. It makes sense, for instance, that the Times defined acid (“a slang term for the drug LSD”) in 1970, grunt (“a slang word for an infantryman”) during the Vietnam War, diss (“a slang term for a perceived act of disrespect”) in 1994, and macking (“a slang … Read More → "The evolution of slang as explained by the New York Times"

DSME’s prototype exoskeleton (pictured above) weighs 28 kilograms, but it’s entirely self-supporting (the exoskeleton includes a frame that extends to the ground), meaning that the human inside it doesn’t feel any of that weight.

Electric and hydraulic actuators, all powered by a three-hour battery, enable its wearer to walk normally while assisting with up to 30 kg of lifting force. So, you’d be able to lift 30 kg … Read More → "Korean shipbuilder testing industrial exoskeletons for future cybernetic workforce"

While attending Euromold 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany, last December with a band playing 3D-printed instruments, Olaf Diegel was set a challenge by the head of 3D Systems, Avi Reichental. The Professor of product development at Lund University, Sweden was given the task of creating a 3D-printed working saxophone. The first ODD prototype was revealed last week in a short demonstration video
via Read More → "Olaf Diegel reveals first prototype of 3D-printed alto saxophone"

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission launched a decade ago to intercept, study, and put a lander on Comet 67P. The spacecraft “woke up” earlier this year, and it will reach its goal early tomorrow morning with live streaming coverage beginning at 4:00AM ET.

So far we’ve been speculating what comet 67P looks like as Rosetta gets closer. We’ve seen a rubber ducky, a … Read More → "Tomorrow the ESA Rosetta Mission will intercept a comet after a 10-year mission"