Large oceangoing creatures, like whales and seals, keep warm with thick layers of blubber. But smaller mammals like beavers and otters have a different method of insulation: Their dense fur, which traps warm air bubbles to separate their body from cold waters. MIT engineers have devised a wetsuit featuring a similar hairy layer made of rubber to insulate divers and surfers.

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You may not have heard of the Quadruplex, but it was once a machine of great importance. … Read More → "How Hollywood gets its old-school tech"

A new phone accessory called Sgnl is the exact opposite of a hands-free device like a Bluetooth headset—it’s entirely dependent on your hand. The device, which has blown its Kickstarter goal of $50,000 out of the water, is a high-tech watch band that can be attached to any watch face, whether it’s an Apple watch or an analog timepiece, to let you make … Read More → "A watch band lets you hear phone calls through your fingertip"

When commercial-scale crops in First World countries get diseases, lab-equipped experts are typically called in to identify the affliction and advise treatment. Such resources aren’t always available to smallhold farmers in developing nations, however, who may lose entire crops without ever knowing what was wrong with them. That’s why scientists are now creating software that could be incorporated into an app that identifies crop diseases, based on user-supplied smartphone … Read More → "Artificial intelligence could make for healthier crops"

Scientists recently made a huge stride toward finding a cure for HIV. A team of researchers from five UK universities reported the apparent disappearance of the virus from the blood of a trial subject. According to The Telegraph, the 44-year-old British man may be the first person fully cured of the disease using the new treatment.
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Spectators of the DARPA Robotics Challenge finals in 2015 would have noticed that many of the competing robots were padded up for protection in case they took a tumble. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is looking to build customizable shock-absorbing protection into robots by using 3D printing to produce soft materials that not only dampen the impact of falls, but also allows them to carry out safer, … Read More → "MIT applies soft touch to robots with programmable 3D-printed skins"

Artists struggling to find inspiration might benefit from a session with Gravity Sketch. Instead of making computer animations by punching buttons on a keyboard, the technology allows users to fill the space around them with 3D designs.

The “paintbrushes” used by artists in this case are a pair of handheld controllers. When users wear a VR … Read More → "‘Gravity Sketch’ app mixes art and virtual reality"

After years of study, the US Fish and Wildlife Service have placed seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees on the endangered species list, the first time any bee have received such classification.

The service worked in conjunction with the Xerces Society, which advocates for invertebrate species, as well as local Hawaiian officials, … Read More → "For the first time, bees have been placed on the endangered species list"

Do not piss Deltu the delta robot off or it will stop playing games, ignore you, take a selfie and post it to Instagram. Cold.

Developed at the Swiss design school ECAL by Alexia Léchot, Deltu has been designed to interact with humans using two iPads and has a simple AI “ … Read More → "This gaming robot is a moody narcissist"

A new synthetic material called hyperelastic bone, or HB, could be “the next breakthrough” in reconstructive surgery, new research shows. The HB can be implanted under the skin as a scaffold for new bone to grow on, or used to replace lost bone matter altogether. Though it hasn’t been tested in humans yet, early … Read More → "3D-printed ‘hyperelastic bone’ could be the future of reconstructive surgery"