… Read More → "Ooh yeah fluid dynamics"

Starting soon, people will be able to download apps for their personal robots just like they download apps for their iPhone or iPad.

It’ll be some time before households have a domestic robot that can handle the chores, but we’re living at a time when robots are more accessible to the average person than any other point in human … Read More → "The robot app store is almost here"

Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was a pioneering electronic musician and sound engineer at the famed BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The Young Americans label has just issued a luxurious 4 LP vinyl collection drawn from Oram’s massive sound archives. “The Daphne Oram Tapes” includes 46 tracks, a total of 2.5 hours of previously unreleased material. And this is just volume one! From the album description:

“‘ … Read More → "Electronic pioneer Daphne Oram recordings now available"

Macoto Murayama’s exquisite “Inorganic Herbarium” diagrams will be on display at Frantic Gallery’s booth in the Art Stage Singapore Art Fair next weekend, January 12-15.

Stunning. via Boing Boing

Read More → "Macoto Murayama’s incredible digital flower diagrams"

If you live in the United States and value fuel efficiency, you might catch yourself looking longingly overseas at super efficient vehicle fleets and wondering, why not us? One MIT researcher looked into the predicament and found that though it might not look like we are making strides, we are. The average, fuel efficiency for US vehicles actually increased by 60 percent between 1980 and 2006. The problem is that cars in the US got bigger (by 26% on average) and their horsepower increased (by 107 hp on average), which, when factored in, means that the average fuel … Read More → "MIT researcher explains why gas mileage is still low despite advances in fuel economy"

Biologists and bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have teamed up to create living neon signs made up of millions of bacterial cells that fluoresce in unison like light bulbs.

In order to create the light they needed to attach a fluorescent protein to the biological clocks of bacteria and then synchronise the body clocks of the bacteria within the colony so that they glowed on and off in unison. The team created signs that spelled out “UC SD”. via Read More → "Bioengineers create living ‘neon signs’ from bacteria"

For NASA’s Martian rovers, it seems that bigger is better. The $2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) Curiosity — which is currently whizzing towards the red planet following its November 2011 launch — is five times bigger than twin predecessors Spirit and Opportunity.

In fact it’s taller than most basketball players at 2.2 meters high, and is about the size of a small SUV with its three-meter length. … Read More → "NASA wants to power robots with microbes"

I’ve been saying this is a great idea for years. Bluetooth is great, but I never want to walk around all day with the thing in my ear. And keeping it in my purse or my pocket kind of defeats the purpose when I have to dig for it every time I get a call. There should be a little bluetooth kit for jewelry makers.

You can now use a hands-free Bluetooth device without sacrificing … Read More → "Bluetooth pendant necklaces"

Snapshots normally capture narrow slices of time, but photographer Michael Chrisman preserved an entire year. He aimed a pinhole camera at Toronto’s skyline and exposed the photosensitive paper inside on January 1, 2011. He then closed the aperture precisely one year later.

via Read More → "2011 as a single, year-long exposure from a pinhole camera"

A swarm of robots working flawlessly in tandem have successfully built a beautiful undulating tower in a warehouse outside of Paris. The world’s first building built by flying robots was designed by architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler of Gramazio & Kohler, and it was assembled in a matter of days by levitating robots engineered and built by ETH Zurich. The installation, entitled Flight Assembled Architecture, was built in an … Read More → "The world’s first tower built by flying robots rises in France"