For the first time ever, a whole lab-grown kidney has been successfully transplanted into a rat, where it allowed the creature to process urine like a really kidney would—and it could someday save your life.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston took kidneys from donor rats and washed away the cells using chemicals, to leave behind the basic collagen structure which supports the organ. Then, … Read More → "This lab-grown kidney can keep rats—and maybe even you—alive"

With all the stories about “de-extinction” of animal species lately, there’s one method that doesn’t get much notice -when scientists decide that an extinct species never existed in the first place. That applies to the case of Pelusios seychellensis, which, according to specimens collected by German naturalist August Brauer over 100 years ago, lived in the Seychelles off the east coast of Africa. Curiously, these turtles closely resembled turtles on the … Read More → "The curious case of the nonexistent turtle"

The success of Lego’s Mindstorms NXT has been one of the main contributing factors to the widespread interest in robotics. NXT enthusiasts of all ages have created some of the coolest designs, even capturing the attention of engineers who develop industrial robots.

Now, Lego has announced that the third generation of its NXT bot, dubbed EV3, will be available this August and will be easier than ever for anyone to get into building new bots. To celebrate, we thought we’d take a look at the best NXT bots to come … Read More → "Six of the best robot videos of Lego Mindstorms NXT"

Before there was Adobe Creative Suite, digital art degrees, and New Aesthetic, there was Manfred Mohr grappling with ideas of logic, programming, and what he could make computers do in the early 1970s. Now, you can watch some of Mohr’s beautiful experiments on YouTube.
via Gizmodo

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< … Read More → "Watch the mind-bending mathematical films of an early computer artist"

While startups like Treehouse and Codecademy are bringing simple coding lessons to teens and adults, a new service launched today to help younger children learn how to code.

The company is Tynker. Its core philosophy is that elementary school-aged children should understand the basics of how computers work and how they’re programmed.
via Venture Beat

< … Read More → "Check out this learn-to-code platform just for kids"

Tiny, glowing probes packed with LEDs and sensors are scientists’ newest tool for measuring and manipulating the brain and other living tissues. They’re flexible, they can operate wirelessly, and yes, they’re small enough to fit through the eye of a needle.

This kind of device could potentially improve researchers’ ability to influence neural activity in live animals and measure a variety of physiological and … Read More → "Tiny injectable LEDs manipulate the brain with light"

American entomologists studying the effect in the 1940s noted the bed bugs “could hardly be induced to move from the leaves,” and microscopic images suggested that fine, curved hairs called trichomes on the bottom of the leaves snagged the bugs’ feet.

Now, the California-Kentucky team has zoomed in even closer to reveal that the leaves’ sharp trichomes actually pierce the bugs’ feet like meat hooks, immobilizing them.
“ … Read More → "Hairy bean leaves trap bed bugs"

This crazy looking thing is a simulated robot, made up of two different kinds of muscles along with bones and soft tissue for structure. This robot wasn’t designed, it was evolved over a thousand virtual generations to move as fast, as far, and as functionally as possible.
via IEEEE … Read More → "Bizarre soft robots evolve to run (video)"

As it turned out, Projo (short for Projective Agent) was able to solve the problems, and he drew a plastic hand across his forehead in relief when Okita praised him for a job well done. But in many ways, his potential fallibility was the point. Okita and her students write programs for robots and avatars—virtual characters animated by humans through computers —to help small groups of learners (mostly elementary- and middle-school … Read More → "Robots that get it wrong (by design)"

Today in Scientific Studies Sure To Make You Go ‘Huh’ we bring you the latest news from researchers at the Karolinska Institutet, who have succeeded in inducing phantom limb sensations that can make people feel like they have a third arm. After just a few minutes being exposed to an illusion — having their own arm, which they can’t see be stroked with a paintbrush while the air in front of … Read More → "OK, but why? Phantom limb sensation induced in people with all their limbs (video)"