At the Atlantic, science historial Suzanne Fischer has an interesting post about the development of pointe shoes. In the early 20th century, at a time when all sorts of technologies were remaking the way people lived, worked, and played, pointe shoes were doing the same thing for ballerinas.

Ballet pointe shoes are not typically thought of as technological artifacts, but they certainly are. But, as Whitney Laemmli of the University … Read More → "Ballet shoes as technology"

El Al Airlines Israel Airlines plans to convert many of its Boeing 737s into hybrid electric airplanes. The electric power is not used during flight, but instead to power the airplane on the ground while it is taxiing to and from the runway. Electric motors will drive the nose gear allowing pilots to leave the gate without the need for a separate tow vehicle. via Read More → "Company wants to upgrade Boeing 737 to hybrid electric"

Photo of Toyota’s latest fuel cell vehicle fueling at the Shell hydrogen station in Torrance, California: Toyota

Toyota is pushing ahead with plans to offer a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle to consumers in 2015, but it looks like you’ll have to be among the 1 percent to buy one.

For all the love being lavished upon hybrids and electrics these days, hydrogen remains … Read More → "You can’t afford Toyota’s fuel cell vehicle"

Launching Satellites from Airplanes (DARPA)

Launching satellites from launchpads is cool and everything, but if DARPA has its way the military could soon be launching small satellites from airliners, granting the Pentagon the ability to put satellites aloft from virtually any airfield and at a fraction of the cost. via Read More → "To keep a steady stream of satellites going up, DARPA wants to launch them from airplanes"

RAMCloud creators say yes.

The idea of replacing hard disk drives with flash memory has been gaining steam in the IT industry. But a research group at Stanford University is going even further: they say the goal should be to replace hard disks with DRAM.

While it’s just in the prototype phase, the Stanford group is trying to make it a reality with a project called RAMCloud, which can aggregate memory from thousands of commodity servers to dramatically speed up data access. Hard disks, and perhaps flash, would still be used for … Read More → "Can DRAM replace hard drives and SSDs?"

You’re looking at the most recent prototype of Japanese robotics manufacturer NSK’s mechanical seeing-eye dog. This model uses Microsoft Kinect to navigate obstacles, and its creators are adding such features as voice recognition to prevent the robot from leading its master astray. via io9 

… Read More → "This robot guide dog navigates using Microsoft Kinect controller"

An Italian physicist claims he has managed to achieve ‘cold fusion’ – a procedure that could solve the world’s energy crisis by creating huge amounts of safe nuclear energy without dangerous radiation.

Andrea Rossi says his new machine fuses nickel and hydrogen at room temperature creating almost unlimited energy.

But there is one problem – many scientists claim it defies the very laws of physics. Several high-profile demonstrations of ‘cold fusion’ have been proven to be hoaxes in the past – and no one can adequately explain how or why … Read More → "Italian scientist claims he has achieved ‘cold fusion’ but most physicists say ‘impossible’"

The SCV (Slug Crawler Vehicle) from the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan relies on a flexible, waterproof “skin” to protect it from the elements while still allowing it to get around. via IEEE Spectrum

… Read More → "Slug robot has tank treads for skin"

If the horse is not humanity’s favorite animal, it should be, as it has served us far better than any other domesticated animal. It has been the predominant form of personal transport for the last millennia, has done more work for us than any animal, and its mastery became the fundamental military technology which helped Genghis Khan build the biggest empire in history. Indeed, Honda’s choice of the horse as a metaphor … Read More → "Honda’s intelligent horse – biomimicry gives us the all-terrain-vehicle of the 23rd century"

Prof Natalio Krasnogor, who leads the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Systems Research Group, said: ’We are looking at creating a cell’s equivalent to a computer operating system in such a way that a given group of cells could be seamlessly re-programmed to perform any function without needing to modifying its hardware.’

The technology could accelerate synthetic biology research and development, which has been linked to myriad applications — from the creation of new sources of food and environmental solutions to medical breakthroughs such as drugs tailored to individual … Read More → "Scientists at Nottingham University are leading a research project to develop a biological cell-equivalent of a computer operating system"