[Patrick McCabe] is a student at MIT and for his final project in his Microcomputer Project Laboratory course he decided to build a clever Connect 4 Robot.

The only criteria for the project was that you have to use the Cypress PSOC 5LP kit along with a 8051 micro-controller or equivalent (programmed in the same assembly language as the PSOC). All in all, [Patrick] had 5 weeks to work on the project.

… Read More → "Connect 4 Robot taunts you before kicking your butt"

Remember when dozens of mating turtles shut down a whole runaway at JFK International Airport in 2009? It was only the start of a turtle invasion that has vexed travelers and perplexed biologists for years. But we may have figured out why turtles are all over the tarmac, and it has to do with raccoons.

… Read More → "The weird reason why so many turtles are delaying flights at JFK"

Most robots are powered by electrical motors that are big, bulky, heavy, and if they break, you have to replace them. Animals, on the other hand, use a biological motor—a muscle—that also requires electricity, but is far more efficient and, given a chance, can repair itself. We’re just starting to be able to manipulate biological structures like these in clever enough ways to let us harness their awesomeness, and … Read More → "Tiny walking robots powered by muscle cells"

The FDA has proposed a new set of social media guidelines that will require drug companies to tweet their products’ side-effects to the world, reports The Wall Street Journal. Though still tentative, the proposal would make it so that all the benefits and the side-effects of a company’s products — even the most dangerous ones — … Read More → "Drug companies may soon have to tweet dangerous side effects"

Chimpanzees are extremely intelligent animals, there’s no doubt about that, but a new study published in Current Biology reveals the extent of their intelligence in the area of communication.

It seems chimps have developed a rather elaborate intentional communication system that consists of nineteen different messages, ranging from Let’s Groom! to Flirt with me…, which are relayed using 66 different gestures.
via Read More → "The 66 gestures chimpanzees use to communicate with each other"

Andrei Alexandrescu didn’t stand much of a chance. And neither did Walter Bright.

When the two men met for beers at a Seattle bar in 2005, each was in the midst of building a new programming language, trying to remake the way the world creates and runs its computer software. That’s something pretty close to a hopeless task, as Bright knew … Read More → "The next big programming language you’ve never heard of"

Now that the Iron Curtain has fallen (sort of) Russians are allowed to listen to anything they want, but how did the oppressed music loving masses of the past listen to their favorite Western artists like Elvis Presley and Duke Ellington?

They created their own copies of these albums using X-rays, of course! This delightfully artistic practice was an example of crafting for music lovers:

They would cut the … Read More → "Soviet-Era records of banned western music made from x-rays"

In 1927, acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a gas station for Buffalo, New York, envisioning a gleaming center of commerce and social interaction for the bustling industrial city. Almost 90 years later, the structure has finally been completed—in the lobby of an automobile museum.

The Pierce-Arrow Museum has been working to … Read More → "A gas station Frank Lloyd Wright designed 87 years ago is now finished"

The last time ISEE-3 fired its engines, Madonna was moving up the charts, the stock market was booming and President Reagan was busily denying that he’d secretly sold weapons to Iran. After that final gasp from its thrusters, in February 1987, the International Sun-Earth Explorer probe would have drifted into permanent retirement — if a $150,000 crowdfunded project hadn’t come along to save it at the last minute. That project has just scored … Read More → "Retired NASA probe brought back to life after 27 years drifting in space"

Instead of taking a pill a day, what if you could take one pill that lasted 16 years? That’s the premise for a new project funded by the Gates Foundation, which looks at innovative ways to deliver drugs into the body. A single smart capsule could release drugs into a patient’s body over the span of years, and respond to … Read More → "The Gates Foundation is developing a remote-control contraceptive"