MIT engineers say they’ve found a way to generate electricity just by drawing on the water vapor in the air.

They’ve created a new polymer film that changes its shape after absorbing tiny amounts of evaporated water, allowing it to repeatedly curl up and down.

There’s enough energy produced, says the team, to drive robotic limbs or power devices such as environmental sensors. Potential applications include large-scale, water-vapor-powered generators, or smaller … Read More → "New polymer harvests energy from water vapor"

3D printers are the wave of the future. They allow for the at-home or highly customizable creation of real-world objects. But whether you’re a hobbyist or the owner of a 3D printing business, the one thing holding you back is the same: the cost of materials.

3D printers themselves currently cost anywhere between $400 and $2,800 for desktop models. That wouldn’t be so bad by itself. We’d call it “start-up … Read More → "Filabot recycles everyday plastic into 3D printer ‘ink’"

VentureBeat has emerged triumphant from CES 2013, with only one writer stricken with a mysterious convention illness. The past week went by like a whirlwind, but now that we have some time (and distance) away from Las Vegas, we can finally sit back and take a look at what worked best at this year’s show.
via Venture Beat</ … Read More → "Venture Beat’s “10 things that blew our minds at CES 2013”"

… Read More → "Stunning iPhone photos of the American West by Kevin Russ"

An armed mob set out into the Florida Everglades on Saturday to flush out a scaly invader.

It sounds like the second act of a sci-fi horror flick but, really, it’s pretty much Florida’s plan for dealing with an infestation ofBurmese pythons that are eating their way through a fragile ecosystem.

Nearly 800 people signed up for the month-long “Python Challenge” that started Saturday afternoon. … Read More → "Florida is offering cash prizes for whoever brings in the longest and the most pythons"

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’ … Read More → "This isn’t the petition response you’re looking for"

Microsoft developers in the UK working with researchers from Newcastle University have recently announced an intriguing project: a wrist strap sensor that tracks finger motions in real time. Appropriately called Digits, the wireless system allows wearers to control computers remotely by recognition of individual finger movement and orientation using an infrared camera and an inertial measurement unit. That means not only the orientation of the wrist but the angles of each … Read More → "Microsoft researchers developing wrist-work sensors that track finger movements"

Properly finishing a DIY project that involves wood is always a giant pain in the ass for one reason—sanding. It makes a giant mess that inevitably results in us getting yelled at. It’s hard to get into tight or awkward spots on the project and that always leads to screwing up the other surfaces by trying to get sandpaper (or worse, the orbital sander) into a rounded groove. Sandables from … Read More → "Quirky Sandables moldable sandpaper"

Would you be surprised if we told you that Black Ops II was the best-selling game of 2012? No? We weren’t surprised to hear that fact either. I think we all knew that despite the fact that Black Ops II launched late in the year, it would be the biggest game of 2012. NPD group has recently offered up its details on the top games of 2012 confirming our suspicions.

The … Read More → "Black Ops II was the best-selling game of 2012"

Lego bricks are getting cozy with the iPhone and other Apple devices in the latest incarnation of the Mindstorms robotics kit.

Lego is set to announce Monday that a new, $350 Mindstorms EV3 kit will have the ability to talk to iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches through Bluetooth wireless connections. That means Lego builders can use the devices as remote controls for their robots, or create simple programs that are then sent to … Read More → "New Lego Mindstorms communicate with Apple devices"