Scientists believe hagfish slime or similar proteins could be turned into tights or breathable athletic wear, or even bullet-proof vests.

For years, scientists have been looking for alternatives to synthetic fibres like nylon and lycra, or spandex, which are made from oil – a non-renewable resource.

Hagfish slime has the potential to provide a natural and renewable alternative.

But first, the experts need to work out how to increase the slime … Read More → "Hagfish slime: The clothing of the future?"

Kicking a cocaine addiction may be as simple as beaming a laser straight into the brain — at least in rats. That’s the result of a new study of cocaine-addicted lab rodentspublished today by US researchers working with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But the scientists behind it think that their results could be easily and quickly replicated in humans using a less intrusive therapy that involves stimulating the brain with magnets on … Read More → "Lasers used to turn off cocaine addiction in rat brains, may translate into human therapy"

Currently, wind turbines are inspected for damage in two main ways: someone stands on the ground below them and uses a telescope, or people use rigging systems to actually climb across them. Now, Oregon-based Helical Robotics is offering an alternative – camera-equipped turbine-climbing robots.

The HR-MP series of wheeled robots cling to the turbine tower’s metallic vertical surface using magnets, and then proceed to climb up to get a better look at the … Read More → "Helical Robotics announces new wind turbine inspection robots (video)"

While carnivorous plants may seem rather strange and exotic, the principles that underlie the insect-eating pitcher plant are pretty simple — bugs fall down the slick sides of the tube shaped plant, landing in a small pool of water where they drown before being digested and turned into plant food. A new study by researchers at Harvard, though, suggests that the plant’s methods are anything but simple, though. According to a recently published … Read More → "Carnivorous plants host unexpected ecosystems in their guts"

This is a super impressive video game themed stop motion animation made by Michael Birkenusing Post-Its. It took over 2,304-hours (the equivalent of 96 days) spanning 11 months to create and consists of 5,772 individual frames.
via Geekologie

… Read More → "Arcade themed Post-It stop motion video"

Over in The New Yorker‘s new tech vertical, Maria Bustillos presents a thorough look at how the virtual currency works, how it got started, and the potential challenges it faces.

The Future of … Read More → "Everything you ever wanted to know about Bitcoin, but were afraid (or weren’t sure what) to ask"

… Read More → "Researchers have taught a sea lion to keep a beat to music (video)"

Can you really claim to love your pet if you haven’t printed out its skeletal structure for your mantle? Sure everyone expresses themselves in different ways, but the “3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets” outlined by a team of Notre Dame students and a rep from MakerBot certainly beats getting your pet’s face printed on a sweater. The researchers have outlined a method … Read More → "Notre Dame students highlight method for 3D printing skeletons of living animals"

The term mad scientist gets thrown around quite a bit, but in the case of one Matt Denton it most certainly applies. His company, Micromagic Systems, has been working steadily over the past four years to design and build a walking robot that’s big enough to carry a human passenger. The resulting beast is described as “the biggest, all-terrain operational hexapod robot in the world.”
via Read More → "Mantis – a two ton turbo diesel hexapod you can drive (video)"

To see what Facebook has become, look no further than the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer.

Sometime last year, people began sharing tongue-in-cheek online reviews of the banana-shaped piece of yellow plastic with their Facebook friends. Then those friends shared with their friends. Soon, after Amazon paid to promote it, posts featuring the $3.49 utensil were appearing in even more Facebook feeds.

At some point, though, the joke got old. But there it was, again and again – the banana slicer had become a Facebook version of that old knock-knock joke your weird uncle has been telling … Read More → "Is Facebook losing its edge?"