Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2004

The Terminator Tether Aims to Clean Up Low Earth Orbit

You wouldn't think that humanity has been this busy in space - but there are over eight thousand satellites and other large objects in orbit around the Earth, along with many smaller objects. These objects include spent vehicle upper stages, separation bolts, lens caps, momentum flywheels, nuclear reactor cores, auxiliary...

Oct 31, 2004

Wrist-y Business: The iBand Data Exchange Bracelet

As the makers of the new iBand remark, initial meetings and introductions build relationships, but only if you can remember whom you shook hands with. That's why the iBand gathers and processes information automatically when it registers a handshake with someone wearing another unit. Put 'er there, pal. iBand gives...

Oct 31, 2004

Carbon Nanofiber Makes Smart Yarn

Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson wrote about arachnofiber uniforms in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. These bulletproof and lightweight uniforms were worn by the Deliverators, the world's best pizza delivery guys. Carbon nanofiber can now be spun like yarn to make an amazing variety of new inventions possible, including lightweight...

Sep 30, 2004

Rise of the Robots: Segway Platform Gives Mechanoids Motion

A military project aimed at building smarter robots has given researchers the wheels they need to make their automatons go. Originally developed by New Hampshire-based Segway for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program, the firm's Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) allows robot developers to focus more on the thinking...

Sep 30, 2004

Franken-Rodent! It's Alive! ALIVE ... ! (Well, kinda ...)

In his excellent 1999 novel Starfish, science fiction writer Peter Watts wrote about cultured brains on a slab - a smart gel - that could pilot a plane as well as a person. Now, University of Florida biomedical engineer Dr. Thomas DeMarse has created a brain in a dish that...

Dec 31, 2003

Abalone Armor: Toughest Stuff Theoretically Possible

Centuries of warfare have seen body armor develop from cow hides to Kevlar. Now scientists are using lab experiments and mathematics to discover a stronger bullet-proof solution in the beautiful, helmet homes that seaweed-eating abalones make for themselves. Abalones create a highly ordered brick-like tiled structure for their shells that...

Nov 30, 2005

Racing Robots: DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

CajunBot (Image credit: Team CajunBot)Several creative robots are competing for $2 million in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. CajunBot, the MAX 6-wheel amphibious all-terrain vehicle with a 25 hp twin-cylinder engine, seen during the second NQE run. CyberRider1 (Image credit: Team CyberRider)The CyberRider Vehicle, a robust vehicle designed and developed...

Nov 30, 2005

Reality Check on Video Game Violence

The debate about violence in entertainment has surfaced once again. In late November, a media watchdog group, the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), issued its annual report on video games. Not surprisingly, the institute was not happy with what it found: animated violence, profanity, and some sexual...

Nov 30, 2005

The Smart Home Is Here

Want the lights to dim and the blinds to close when you press play on your DVD player? Want to receive an alert on your TV when the mailman opens your mailbox? No problem. ZigBee, an emerging wireless home-networking standard expected to be widely available next year, is about to...

Nov 30, 2005

Crickets Have Their Own 'Holodeck'

Amy Young, who creates mixed-media interactive sculptures and digital media works, has vaulted the common cricket into the 23rd century of human imagination with her Cricket Holodeck. (Cricket Holodeck) The 'holodeck' consists of a hand-blown glass enclosure, sand and microphone, with a computer running a video projector. She writes: If...

Nov 30, 2005

Ultimate Mood Light: New LED Panels Snap into Electronic Walls

Electronic walls and ceilings with interchangeable LED panels would allow you to change room lighting at a whim, in a new design proposed today. The modular panels snap in and out of an electrical grid so light fixtures can be moved anywhere. The new concept represents a paradigm shift in...

Oct 31, 2005

Implant Relieves Nausea Without Drugs

Johns Hopkins University has just patented a new device for relief from nausea. In the patent, Dr. Ronald Lesser, MD and Dr. Robert Webber, PhD propose a system that could help pregnant women cope with nausea without using drugs that could endanger the health of the fetus, among other uses....

Oct 31, 2005

Britain to Deploy Roadside 'Big Brother' System

ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras are being used to create a 24x7 national vehicle movement database that will log the movement of every vehicle on the United Kingdom's roads. Your every move will be retained in the system for two years. Besides denying criminals the use of the roads,...

Oct 31, 2005

Robot Mouse Has Real Whiskers

The AMouse artificial mouse is a robot with two active whisker arrays -- made from real mouse whiskers. Part of the intent in building the robot mouse is to study biological models of mouse behavior and to investigate the interplay between different sensory modalities (visual and somatosensory). Science fiction fans,...

Sep 30, 2005

Like a Hawk, Robotic Plane Rides Thermals

Hawks and eagles glide on currents of rising warm air called thermals to extend their flight time without needing more fuel. NASA aerospace engineer Michael Allen and a team of engineers working on the Autonomous Soaring Project at Dryden Flight Research Center have succeeded in extending the range of small...