Though producing 3D images with an electron microscope isn’t the newest of the new, being able to display the 3D images in real time is, which is why it’s pretty neat that a Japanese research group has created an electron microscope that does just that.
via Geekosystem

< … Read More → "World’s first scanning electron microscope that displays images in 3D"

Legendary distance running coach Jack Daniels analyzed the stride of many elite runners, and he found that they almost all took 180 steps per minute (or 90 steps with each leg). Since this revelation, 180 has become the bullseye pace. To hit this number, runners usually need to take more steps—most people have a bouncy stride, which wastes energy and strains joints through excessive impact.

You don’t need to run with a metronome to measure the 180 beats per minute (BPM) tempo. The right songs do the counting for you. Now, you won’t find a lot … Read More → "The most mathematically perfect playlist for running"

Supermoon 2011, from my front porch (Photo: Laura Domela)

The biggest full moon of the year is due to arrive this weekend.

The moon will officially become full Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.

< … Read More → "Biggest full moon of 2012 happens on Saturday"

I don’t know all that much about the Naval Research Laboratory when I arrive in DC for “the public’s first opportunity to look inside” the space’s new $17 million Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research(LASR). I give the cab driver the address, and he casually tells me that it “stinks,” illustrating this notion with a universally familiar hand gesture. He means it literally, too – that you can smell the … Read More → "LASR: behind the curtain of the Navy’s robotics laboratory"

Been dreaming of a having a robot at home but want something more than Romo the iPhone robot and can’t afford to lease anAsimo? Thecorpora may have just the robot for you. After six years of work, their cute and cuddly Qbo is finally ready to roll into our open source hacking and … Read More → "Want a robot at home? Qbo is up for pre-order"

Each year inventors of the world get together to show off their big ideas at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the gathering where 1,000 inventions were proudly displayed.

Whether or not each inventor should be proud is open for interpretation. Our money is on that trike that looks like a Dyson vacuum went into Willy Wonka’s factory and came out awesome on the other side. The … Read More → "Invention show features 1,000 ideas from bizarre to inspired"

A system first made for robot navigation could give blind people the equivalent of a Braille head-up display, according to French researchers. Two cameras mounted to a pair of glasses generate a three-dimensional image of a person’s environment and their place in it, displaying the information on a handheld Braille device.

The goal is to help visually impaired people move around more efficiently without physical aids, according to Edwige Pissaloux of the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.
via Read More → "Head-mounted 3-D mapping device, developed for robots, can help blind people navigate"

The history of the F-22 Raptor, perhaps the most advanced fighter jet in the U.S. fleet, has been a troubled one, with only a fraction of the aircraft being built and the program dogged by concerns over the aircraft’s oxygen system. Though a USAF report has put some changes in place, it seems that a few pilots are refusing to fly the Raptor.

< … Read More → "Some pilots refusing to fly F-22 over oxygen concerns"

High hopes have been maintained for decades concerning optical logic, optical switching matrices (e.g, for communications), and optical computing. The missing link in realizing this promise is a practical circuit element that allows one light to be turned on or off purely by application of another light to the device – rather like voltage on the control gate of a field effect transistor. … Read More → "One + one = zero: coupled lasers turn each other off"

NASA has been studying a region of Texas where four of the world’s largest wind farms are located. According to the NASA research, this area has had an increase in land surface temperature over the last nine years that researchers are connecting to local effects of the turbines. These for wind farms are located in West-Central Texas.

According to the NASA research, the wind farms … Read More → "NASA researchers link wind farm to increased surface temperatures"