Who cares about plastic 3D-printed models of your head when an amazing, ornate room is being 3D printed out of sandstone? Digital Grotesque, as the project is called, looks like it was ripped from the frames of a sci-fi film.
Designers Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer recently previewed … Read More → "Artists are 3D-printing a room that looks like an alien cathedral (video)"
Neuroscientist have attached an electronic “backpack” to dragonflies that jack into the insect’s brain and wirelessly transmit the data back to a base station. Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Anthony Leonardo and his collaborators hope the telemetry will deepen our understanding of how dragonflies target and catch their pray.
via Boing Boing
Read More → "Dragonflies outfitted with brain sensor backpacks"
Developed in the laboratories of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the “cheetah-cub robot” is a four-legged metallic critter modeled after a house cat. The scientists focused on designing legs that can move like our feline friends’, paying particular attention to their stability while moving on uneven surfaces. While it has a long way to go before it becomes a graceful daredevil, it’s a fast little bugger that … Read More → "Swiss scientists create catbot: a robot that runs like a cat (video)"
In late May, French artist Mademoiselle Maurice created three colorful origami installations in Angers, France for the ARTAQ 2013 festival. The large-scale outdoor installations were made from 30,000 pieces of origami made by the people of Angers in the months before the festival. The Saint-Maurice cathedral was adorned with two installations—a geometric pattern on the front gate and a rainbow of origami on the front steps. A third … Read More → "Colorful origami street art installations by Mademoiselle Maurice"
Their five-tier system is made from semi-transparent plastic embedded with LEDs. These are controlled via an OpenFrameworks script, which draws information about the location of attendees from six nearby Kinects. When a person moves or jumps onto one of the platforms, the lights turn on and change in intensity as their movements are tracked—meanwhile, a Processing-based program pushes generative, dynamic animations to five hanging screens behind the platforms. It’s lovely, in a … Read More → "Dance like Kinect Is watching: The interactive LED amphitheater (video)"
… Read More → "Paper anatomical model"Papercraft artist Horst Kiechle created an incredible anatomical model, complete with removable organs, and posted all the templates and instructions online for free.
via Boing Boing
This company has a tempting and comforting value proposition for new parents: around-the-clock baby monitoring without so much sleep deprivation.
Sensible Baby, which was born out of Startup Weekend Boston just three months ago, is hoping its high-tech onesie could calm some of parents’ anxiety around sudden infant death syndrome. SIDS is the leading cause of deaths among infants between the ages of one and 12 months old.
Of course there … Read More → "Sensors and smartphones bring the baby monitor into 2013"
Ever been to a whispering gallery — a quiet, circular space underneath an old cathedral dome that captures and amplifies sounds as quiet as a whisper? Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are applying similar principles in the development optomechanical sensors that will help unlock vibrational secrets of chemical and biological samples at the nanoscale.
via Read More → "Whispering light hears liquids talk"
The ultimate accessory in exact timekeeping — the atomic clock — is set to become even more precise, after ultrashort laser pulses were successfully transmitted across open air to help synchronize the “ticking” of new optical atomic clocks.
Keeping extremely precise time is not just a question of scientific achievement. It is a key to many modern technologies, fromGlobal Positioning Systems (GPS) to mobile phone networks and broadcasters’ transmitters. For GPS systems, an … Read More → "Atomic clocks to become even more accurate"
It might surprise you to find that this 34-story residential skyscraper proposed for Stockholm’s cultural hub is composed not of steel, but almost entirely of wood! Though not often used in such vertical structures, the material was chosen for its lightness, natural climate regulation, acoustics and exposed aesthetic quality. While the exterior facade shines with glass, the full effect of the construction is felt inside where every wall, ceiling and floor is … Read More → "Wooden skyscraper"
