Make a goat happy. Let ‘em eat your lawn!

Forget gas-guzzlin’, smoke-belchin’ lawnmowers. The eco-friendly way to mow grass and get rid of unwanted vegetation is to … rent some goats!
The city of Andover, Massachusetts has some unwanted guests: invasive species like the European buckthorn tree and the strangling bittersweet vine from Asia are shouldering out [...]

A clear silk film, about one centimeter squared, with six silicon transistors on its
surface about to be implanted into a mouse (Photo: Rogers/Omenetto)

 Tattooing dates back to at least Neolithic times and has experienced a resurgence in popularity in many parts of the world in recent years. Advancements in tattoo pigments and the refinement of [...]

What a nifty idea! Many folks insist that toothbrushes should be sterilized, after all, if you don’t, your toothbrush could become a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty bacteria. This concept toothbrush will harness the kinetic energy that we generate through the activity of us brushing out teeth. If you brush for 3 minutes, [...]

Lingerie makers Triumph have unveiled the ‘Nice Cup in Bra’, which can be removed, rolled out and used as a putting mat for the keen golfing lady.
The green corset-style garment can be removed and unrolled to create a 1.5m-long putting mat.
When the user sinks a putt into one of the cups, a built-in speaker pumps [...]

Honda Hybrid hits pedestrians
Hybrid vehicles, which creep along almost silently at low speeds on electric power, are more likely to hit pedestrians or bicycles than regular cars, a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds.
 

The Human eye
Autism affects an estimated 1 in 150 children today, making it more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. Despite its widespread effect, autism is not well understood and there are no objective medical tests to diagnose it. Recently, University of Missouri researchers have developed a pupil response test that [...]

A new contact lens technology responds to UV light.
Transition lenses–which darken automatically in response to bright sunlight–have been available for eyeglasses for 40 years. But adapting this flexibility to contact lenses has proven challenging. Now researchers in Singapore have developed UV-responsive, or photochromic, lenses that darken when exposed to ultraviolet light, protecting the eyes against [...]

Software being developed by American and Australian scientists will hopefully allow patients simply to cough into their phone, and it will tell them whether they have cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases.
 

The seatbelt inflates over the shoulder and torso in a 40 milliseconds
A car maker is introducing seatbelts that inflate like airbags to give extra protection to passengers.  Ford is fitting the back seats of vehicles with belts that inflate automatically during a crash.
 

Live to 149, program your nerves for pleasure, and eat entrail-fed meat machines, all by 2020.
Check out Part I of our series about life in the year 2020.
Nobody delivers profanity better than Bruce Willis. Nobody. Perhaps that’s why he’s seen so much of it in practically every script he’s tackled during the last 20-odd years. [...]

Gifted is a project by Will Carey which seeks ways of shaping the future by engaging with the generation who will be faced with such scenarios and decisions, seeking the reactions and opinions of children themselves.  It raises questions about how children could use their fantasies and dreams to imagine an alternative genetic future. 
 

The ReCell kit, hardly bigger than a designer sunglasses case, houses a miniature lab for harvesting skin basal cells.
Traditionally, treatment for severe second-degree burns consists of adding insult to injury: cutting a swath of skin from another site on the same patient in order to graft it over the burn. The process works, but causes [...]

Body maps in our brain may influence how we perceive our physical bodies — for example, if there is a lot of brain area associated with our right arm, we will view it being as longer compared to our left arm.
There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of [...]

Power that literally ROCKS!

Rochus Jacob designed and built the Murakami Chair. As the user rocks back and forth during the day, the chair charges a battery that powers the lamp. Jacob writes: I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the [...]

The Irish accent has beaten its French counterpart as the world’s sexiest.
Men with an Emerald Isle brogue came top in a poll of 5,000 women worldwide, while the French accent only came fourth, just ahead of Australian.
Italian was second. In third place was the Scottish burr. English was sixth and Swedish was seventh, with Spanish, [...]

 CyberWalk has developed an omni-directional treadmill, which allows humans to walk in any direction yet stay centered on the treadmill. The user should be able to walk seemingly endlessly in any direction without leaving a small room.  Underneath the walking surface is many densely packed small balls which let the friction of the user’s shoes do [...]

New research finds that a quick glance at someone’s facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression.
Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a quick glance at someone’s facial structure may [...]

This thin-section transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted the ultrastructural details of a number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) virus particles, or virions.
Researchers have shown how an antiviral protein produced by the immune system, dubbed tetherin, tames HIV and other viruses by literally putting them on a leash, to prevent their escape from infected cells. The [...]

Splash your way into the future!

What will bathrooms look like in 10 years time? Will it be the boring old room like the ones we currently use? Well, if the Roca Active & Relax Bathroom is anything to go by, the future is looking pretty clean (pun intended). How would you like a giant display [...]

Friends create great motivation for losing weight
To reach the conclusion, Professor Shiriki Kumanyika and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, conducted the two-year trial. The study included 344 men and women.
The volunteers’ goal was to achieve and maintain a 5 per cent to 10 per cent weight loss. They were educated [...]

It is an international symbol of love and romance. But the kiss may have evolved for reasons that are far more practical – and less alluring.
 

British scientists have developed an anti-snoring jab that they claim can cure noisy snoozing in just two minutes.  The “snoreplasty” involves injecting a chemical called sodium tetradecyl into the roof of the mouth — the two-minute treatment eases snoring by stopping the soft tissue at back of the mouth from vibrating, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

The AuraLevée is a Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
AuraLevée is a proprietary breakthrough technology – the first to employ high frequency alternating magnetic fields for applications in cosmetic medicine by Rocky Mountain Biosystems, Inc. Treatment with the AuraLevée system results in an immediate cosmetic skin tightening that reduces the appearance of wrinkles and [...]

Beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer. I love beer!

Beer lovers are being given the chance to take the plunge in a health spa pool – filled with 42,000 pints of lager.
Spa bosses in Starkenberg, Austria, claim that beer can treat skin conditions, blood circulation and can even help cure wounds. The spa – [...]

Nymphaea lotus.
Approximately 120-130 million years ago, one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth occurred: the first flowering plants, or angiosperms, arose. In the late 1800s, Darwin referred to their development as an “abominable mystery.” To this day, scientists are still challenged by this “mystery” of how angiosperms originated, rapidly diversified, [...]