We last looked at Lytro’s funny little tube camera a couple of years ago when we sat down with one of the devices during a crowded PR event at 2012’s CES. The camera’s light field capture technology uses a high-megapixel CMOS sensor to record a large amount of “extra” data points over a standard camera CMOS sensor. Rather than using the extra data to pump up the scene’ … Read More → "Lytro’s new Snapdragon-powered “light field” camera coming in July"

… Read More → "An electronic orchestra created using 30 cell phones and four pagers"

UNStudio has created a beautifully constructed archway that brightens up the retail sphere of Xintiandi Mall in China. Because it’s lined with mirrors, you can track your movements from beginning to end and watch your surroundings skip playfully across the different planes of the mall’s entrance. It’s like walking down the inside of a wormhole—except you stay safely grounded in both time and space.

The installation also … Read More → "Twisting mirror bridge reflects every detail of a Shanghai street"

This is Norwegian engineer Kåre “Zenta” Halvorsen’s MorpHex, a hexapod robot that can transform and roll out in a ball.
via Geekologie

… Read More → "Hexapod robot can transform, roll out in a ball"

My engineer friend George sometimes looks at me as if I’m a rancid chicken wing in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

He doesn’t understand why I don’t think logically, rationally, understandably — in short, why I don’t think like him.

It causes him to foam at the lips and emit high-pitched noises, not unlike those created by sheepdogs that have been run over by tractors.

I never quite grasped what his problem was until I saw a YouTube video called “The Expert.”
via Read More → "This is how an engineer feels when he’s surrounded by idiots"

Southern Italy is dotted with hulking aqueducts that went out of service years ago. In an attempt to find a new use for the structures in lieu of tearing it down, the government held a competition. One of the winning designs will blow your mind.

This proposal to repurpose an abandoned concrete viaduct in Calabria … Read More → "Italy wants to turn its old bridges into inverted skyscrapers"

… Read More → "This incredible animation was made by code that could fit on a floppy disc"

The method used is called somatic cell nuclear transplant. It involves taking an unfertilized egg and removing its nucleus, thereby deleting the DNA of the egg donor. At the same time, a nucleus from the cell of a donor is carefully removed and injected into the egg. After some time, during which the environment of the egg resets the developmental status of the donor’s DNA, cell division is activated. If the process is successful, the end result is a small cluster of cells that starts along the path of forming an embryo.

… Read More → "75-year-old human cloned for the production of stem cells"

LED lighting is great. The right bulb gives the same warm incandescent glow you love from a fraction of the energy. But there’s a downside: while LEDs make cities look awesome, the most common type of LED lighting dims the ultraviolet trick laundry detergents use to make white clothes look whiter. The future is bright, but it’s also kind of dingy.</ … Read More → "LED lights are ruining laundry detergent’s white-brightening trick"

Because TV and film-based creations like the Enterprise and the Death Star have prompted us to pore over every little detail of fictional universes at the expense of a social life, it’s easy to assume that unsettling pop culture obsessions are a relatively new phenomenon. But unless your concept of a “nerd” is a Depression-era newsie shooting pre-YouTube fan trailers, you might be surprised to learn that nerd culture has existed for way, … Read More → "Six nerd culture stereotypes that are way older than you think"