3D printing has done a lot for medical science. It’s helped us create better prosthetics, manufacture artificial vertebrae and even develop smaller internal cameras. Next, it could help us revolutionize medication delivery. MIT researchers are using a new 3D-printing process to create tiny structures that change shape at specific temperatures — opening the door for a new drug delivery system that only medicates patients if they have a fever.
via < … Read More → "MIT’s new 3D-printer makes objects that remember their shape"

A team of engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

has created a unique device that uses a bubble-wrap-encased sponge to boil water fueled by nothing but sunlight. The inexpensive nature of the device makes it an ideal candidate for use in applications such as wastewater treatment, residential water heating and medical tool sterilization, and continues to pave the way for … Read More → "Bubble-wrap key to creating a sponge that boils water"

We joke around a lot about bringing about a horrific robot apocalypse, but let’s get real: sometimes, building a killer robot is just the right thing to do. Well, at least when those robots are being used to cull invasive species. Researchers at Robots In Service of the Environment (RISE) are developing a robot to fight an invasive population of Lionfish that’s threatening ecosystems off the coast of … Read More → "Researchers are building a robotic Lionfish exterminator"

Last year, we reported that researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine made the breakthrough discovery that the immune system and the brain are not isolated from one another as previously thought, but connected through a system of lymphatic vessels. The astonishing discovery of a “new” part of the human body opened the door to new ways of looking at immunity. Now, … Read More → "The immune system may influence our social interactions"

In what’s being hailed as one of the biggest astronomical discoveries of the century, scientists with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) today confirmed the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri—our nearest neighboring star. Details of the team’s discovery … Read More → "New Earth-like exoplanet could be discovery of the century"

According to Inhabitat, Japan is aiming to make their Olympic medals from recycled smartphones.

Unwanted electronics are a rich resource of precious metals: Many use elements struck from gold, silver, and copper. Nikkei Asian Review reports that in Japan, it’s estimated that about 315 pounds of gold was thrown in the trash in 2014, … Read More → "Japan’s 2020 Olympics will make medals from smartphones"

A group of anthropologists describe their discovery in PLoS One, filling in details of what appears to be a rabbit farm and butcher shop in a Teotihuacan neighborhood called Oztoyahualco. From roughly the 4th through 6th centuries, this neighborhood was home to an apartment compound that immediately stood out for a few reasons. Several rooms contained … Read More → "The proto-Aztec bunny farmers of ancient Mexico"

We’ve seen a tiny chair that can assemble itself from MIT, but now the lab responsible for that adorable experiment has their eye on a much more complicated project: self-assembling cellphones. Specifically, MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab is looking at how putting together a handful of components in a rotating tumbler could come together as a complete cellphone, Fast Company reports
via Read More → "MIT is exploring phones that put themselves together"

The fake flowers covering the rooftop of a building in Chengdu may not look like much during the day, but at dusk they come to life. According to inhabitat, the 25,000 LED roses are part of a traveling art installation currently on display in the Chinese city.

The project, titled & … Read More → "25,000 LED roses illuminate a rooftop garden in China"

Robots that are soft in nature have come along in leaps and bounds of late, forming the basis for machines that are safer to work with, can grasp different objects and better handle rugged terrain. But the need to pack things like power sources and actuators inside has generally meant that miniaturization is out of the question. Researchers … Read More → "Soft robotic caterpillar uses light to get a wriggle on"