Intelligent fastening removes the physical link between the tool and fastener. Designed with actuating mechanisms, intelligent fasteners feature embedded microchips that control the fastening process through digital instructions from a remote tool.

Many of us are familiar with covers from Popular Science that depict commuters buzzing around in tiny aircraft and landing on rooftops, or fanciful drawings of vehicles that run on roads, float on water and also take to the air. The basic problem many of us face each day– how to get from Point A […]

Brad Feld: While creating a growth business can be exhilarating, many entrepreneurs – especially those starting a company for the first time – don’t pay enough attention to some core issues surrounding the financial management of their businesses.

A new type of pump to help failing hearts will undergo clinical trials in autumn 2004 in the UK. Its design is intended to solve the problems of mechanical failure and blood clotting that have bedevilled artificial hearts and pumps since they were invented.

The pump also has a curious side effect: people implanted with the […]

Wil McCarthy: Science and technology are powerful tools for understanding and interacting with the universe around us, but they contribute to a kind of hubris. “We know all this stuff, ergo we must know everything.” But you can’t know everything.

Fatigue is in the mind, not the muscles, suggests a new study. But it can still have a serious impact on athletic performance. The finding could lead to treatments for conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, or the development of illicit performance-enhancing drugs.

Steve Hanke: Oil reserves are not fixed. Proven reserves in 1971: 612 billion barrels. Since then the world has produced 767 billion–and still has 1,028 billion left.

Tighter UK and European regulation over some aspects of nanotechnology -manipulation of molecules - is needed to ensure its long-term safety.

Everyone struggling against obesity wishes for a safe, effective treatment to keep them from putting on the pounds. But, as this ScienCentral News video reports, a natural hormone thought to do just that is turning out to be tougher to test than was hoped for.

So, you’re thinking of buying one of those gas-electric hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. They’re trendy, conserve fuel, and reduce pollution. But to really go “green,” some entrepreneurs and academics say, you should try a Volkswagen Jetta.

Not just any Jetta. A dark blue one that a California electric-car company has modified […]

Bruce Sterling: Since when do machines need an ethical code? For 80 years, visionaries have imagined robots that look like us, work like us, perceive the world, judge it, and take action on their own. The robot butler is still as mystical as the flying car, but there’s trouble rising in the garage.

“Traditionally, stuttering is thought of as a problem with how someone speaks, and little attention has been given to the complex interactions between neurological systems that underlie speaking,’ says Christine Weber-Fox, an assistant professor of speech sciences who is interested in the brain’s involvement in language processing.”

ATP, the vital energy source that keeps our body’s cells alive, runs amok at the site of a spinal cord injury, pouring into the area around the wound and killing the cells that normally allow us to move, scientists report in the cover story of the August issue of Nature Medicine.

W. Bruce Cameron: My son keeps me well informed whenever he earns a good grade on something at school, which means there are long periods of time during which he does not want to discuss his classes with me. So I was heartened when he offered to show me his science project: Sure enough, […]

Scientists have taken a big step toward developing an earlier, safer and simple test that could help prevent perhaps 175,000 premature births in the United States each year.

Chris Locke: It is worth noting that Maslow was one of the first psychologists to take the psychology of women seriously.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and the University of Oxford in England have devised a way to use hologram patterns to shape the intensity of different portions of a light beam so that several different particles can be simultaneously trapped and individually controlled in three dimensions.

Federal regulators should look more closely at the potential health effects of some genetically modified plants before they can be grown as commercial crops, a scientific advisory panel said Tuesday.

It also said regulators should check for potential food safety problems after people eat the products.

Punctured fruit flies have helped researchers unlock some of the mysteries of wound healing in a step to speedier injury recovery with fewer scars.

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida, has achieved another world record in magnet development with the successful testing of its 21.1 Tesla, superconducting, ultra-wide bore, NMR magnet.

Four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have won a patent for a car that they say can help drivers communicate better by glaring angrily at another car cutting through traffic as well as appear to cry, laugh, wink, or just look around.

Skype is taking another swipe at traditional telecoms. The company that lets users make computer-to-computer calls for free is launching a service that makes computer-to-phone calls for less than 2 cents a minute in some areas.

A report released by Nielsen/NetRatings indicates that growing demand for search-engine advertising is outstripping the supply of available advertising space. This scarcity is pushing the cost of popular keywords upwards. If the escalation continues, it could make search engine advertising cost-prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers.

Lisa DiCarlo: There is probably no quantifiable way to prove that Americans are an impatient breed. We want what we want, when we want it, and we’re willing to pay for the privilege. Today, companies rake in millions–sometimes billions–giving people the ability to have sex on demand, sleep on demand, television on demand and technology […]

Four adults quickly learned to play a simple video game—and win—by using only their thoughts to control the computer.