Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2009

The Strange Ingredients in Fireworks

Fireworks for the 4th of July are all about light, color and sound. But inside, there are some bizarre ingredients, from aluminum to Vaseline and even the stuff of rat poison. An ancient mix of black powder, essentially gunpowder little changed from its invention in China a millennia ago, gets...

Jun 30, 2009

Light's Repulsive Force Discovered

A newly discovered repulsive aspect to light could one day control telecommunications devices with greater speed and less power, researchers said today. The discovery was made by splitting infrared light into two beams that each travel on a different length of silicon nanowire, called a waveguide. The two light beams...

Jun 30, 2009

Tomorrow's Tires Made Partly from Trees?

The fibers in trees could be useful addition to car tires down the road, a new study suggests. Microcrystalline cellulose can be made from any plant fiber, researchers say, and it could partly replace silica as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires. Tests find the tires would...

Jun 30, 2009

Robot Model Hits the Runway

What appeared to be petite woman in an elaborate wedding dress walked slowly down the runway in an Osaka fashion show earlier this week. The twist is that this was no blushing bride; this was the HRP-4C female robot. Though encumbered by an elaborate wedding dress, HRP-4C easily navigated the...

May 31, 2009

Air Writing: Next Big Thing in Cell Phones?

Forget fumbling with tiny cell phone keys. A prototype of a new application allows cell phone users to write short notes in the air and send them automatically to an e-mail address. This represents just one possible step toward allowing people to naturally merge the real world with the information...

May 31, 2009

'Unlimited Potential' Seen in Biomedical Engineering

Editor's Note: ScienceLives is an occasional series that puts scientists under the microscope to find out what makes them tick. The series is a cooperation between the National Science Foundation and LiveScience. Name: Niren Murthy Age: 38 Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology Field of Study: Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineer Niren...

May 31, 2009

Idea to Stop Squealing Brakes

There are lots of mechanical myths about what causes a car's brakes to produce that biting howl. The all too familiar piercing squeal is heard at road junctions and traffic lights the world over as drivers hit the brakes. But, understanding what causes brake squeal might help researchers find a...

May 31, 2009

New Radar Aims to Detect Illegal Tunnels on U.S. Border

Radar technology could help U.S. border patrol agents spot underground tunnels dug by human smugglers and drug traffickers along the border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Tunnel diggers have been hard at work along the U.S. border in recent days and months, the agency knows. Of every tunnel...

Apr 30, 2009

My Wife is a Zillow Addict

We used to choose cell phones for their basic functionality, carrier quality and maybe relatively unimportant things like color or ring tones. But more and more, it's about apps. Take, for example, Zillow, an app that rhymes with pillow probably because the company knew my wife would choose one over...

Mar 31, 2009

Robots Getting More Like Us

This is not a newsflash, but at the Robobusiness conference in Boston last week, companies showed off everything from a robot firefighter to a mechanical gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. What we may sometimes forget is that an incredibly sophisticated robot can be just a computer hooked up...

Mar 31, 2009

Cell Phone Unlocks with Arm Swing

We all have cell phones that will lock out unauthorized users. But few of us use this feature because it is a pain in the neck. Who wants to type in a code when you want to make a call? Thanks to some new software from KDDI R&D Laboratories, you...

Feb 28, 2009

Coming Today: Robot Madness

Robots have not taken over the world. Yet. But with recent advances in humanoid robots and the growing field of cybernetic enhancement of humans, a convergence looms. Exciting? Scary? In a three-week full-court press of videos and stories, LiveScience will examine how: Robots are being made in our image.Robots are...

Feb 28, 2009

You Pay, Computer Prays For You

Information Age Prayer is a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each day. We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume...

Feb 28, 2009

Vacuum Cleaner Senses Human Emotions

A specially-equipped Roomba robot vacuum cleaner can now sense human emotional states. University of Calgary researchers published their results in a paper titled Using Bio-electrical Signals to Influence the Social Behaviours of Domesticated Robots. Using a special headband to capture bioelectric signals from the forehead of a human user, the...

Feb 28, 2009

World's Most Powerful Laser Starts

The force of the sun itself has been harnessed in the world's most powerful laser, which is set to come online after decades of effort and $3.5 billion. The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is ready to start experiments, AP reports. An announcement is...