These robots can fool shoals of fish into thinking they are their ‘leader’ and have in tests changed the direction the group swims in.
They might look like a child’s toys, but these robotic fish could one day save the lives of thousands of undersea creatures.
Continue reading… “Robotic Fish Could Lead Marine Life Away From Danger”
Barbara Barclay of Tobii Technology, Inc. demonstrates a prototype laptop that tracks and can be controlled by the eye movements.
Ever wish your eyes were lasers? A laptop prototype brings that wish closer to reality. It tracks your gaze and figures out where you’re looking on the screen. That means, among other things, that you can play a game where you burn up incoming asteroids with a laser that hits where you look.
Eye damage caused by a high-powered green laser.
So far, the reports have been scattered and anecdotal. But eye doctors around the world are warning that recent cases of teenagers who suffered eye damage while playing with high-powered green laser pointers are likely to be just the first of many.
Continue reading… “Eye Doctors Warn of Retinal Injuries From High-Powered Green Lasers”
Might it be the United State’s fragile economy? Or maybe, just maybe, a slow awakening to the inherent fallacy in the myth that bright, shiny new products will make us happy? Whatever the root cause, Americans seem to be embracing pre-loved products over virginal, with a new fervour. At least, it seems so for the reuse businesses run by Winmark Corp. who recently announced that their profits had nearly doubled ($10.3 million for 2010), against the previous years trading…
Continue reading… “Profits Double For Business Selling Pre-Loved Products”
Yes, some flowers are simply magical
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.” – Yogi Berra
Ormia ochracea is a small parasitic fly best known for its strong sense of directional hearing.
It’s no surprise that many bugs have excellent hearing thanks to finely honed antenna. Checking out the giant antenna on the tiny bug above, it seems no surprise that they can hear surprisingly well. In fact, some insect antennae are so powerful, engineers haven’t yet been able to come close to mimicking nature. And that’s especially when it comes to small, directional antennae. It’s one thing to have whip-like “ears” like the bug above, but what stumps engineers is making very small, but very acute sound sensors. Yet a minute fly — with minute antenna — is about to change that, and help revolutionize how we built these structures.
Continue reading… “Parasitic Fly Could Help Revolutionize Antenna Technology”
A quieter version of the biodegradable SunChips bag.
Frito-Lay hopes to make some big noise with a quieter version of its biodegradable SunChips bag. The company introduced a biodegradable bag for the snacks in April of 2009 with a big marketing effort to play up its environmentally friendly nature as it was made from plants and not plastic and could break down in compost.
Bendable graphene battery concept
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) may be on the cusp of creating something special: Bendable batteries that could have better performance than their stiff, inflexible cousins.
New discovery could lead to new treatments for other types of cancer.
Researchers believe they have found a key gene involved in Ferguson-Smith disease, otherwise known as multiple self-healing squamous epithelioma (MSSE), a skin cancer that grows rapidly but then a few weeks later, inexplicably, heals itself.
The Rockville Central, a community news site in the Washington D.C. area, will move all its operations and news coverage to its Facebook Page starting on March 1. This risky move by the site’s editor, Cindy Cotte Griffiths, highlights Facebook’s growing role as a platform for journalists to use for social storytelling and reporting.
Continue reading… “Facebook’s Growing Role in Social Journalism”
Scientists Nathan Putman and Ken Lohmann have determined that turtles can navigate across entire oceans by using the earth’s magnetic fields to determine their longitude and latitude. To test this hypothesis, they used a special water tank that permitted them to alter the magnetic fields inside. They then placed the turtles in the tank to see how they would respond to simulations of different locations…
Continue reading… “Turtles Use Earth’s Magnetic Fields as a Navigational System”
Some chemicals are more detrimental than others.
This week Europe proposed to add seven more chemicals to the list of substances of very high concern (SVHC). The addition of a chemical to the SVHC list enables European regulators to ban the chemical from the market unless it is proven that the risks are adequately controlled, or there is not a feasible substitute and the socio-economic benefits justify the risk. The proposal contains more of the usual suspects such as phthalates, glycol ethers, and a chromate (the “Erin Brockovich chemical”), as well as some potentially difficult to replace chemicals like a widely used reducing agent and a common universal solvent…
Continue reading… “Europe Proposes Seven New Chemical Substances of Very High Concern”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.