Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 13, 2017

All in the Wrist: Smart Jacket Houses Touch-Screen Tech

The jean jacket is getting a 21st-century upgrade: Levi's and Google are planning to launch a new smart jacket later this year, according to news reports. The companies' so-called Project Jacquard was first announced in June 2015 as a line of connected clothing that would interact with wearers' smartphones, reported...

Mar 15, 2017

Transparent Touchpad Works Even When It's Bent and Stretched

A new transparent, flexible touchpad can sense the touch of a finger even when the material is stretched or bent, which could help engineers one day create advanced wearable touch screens, according to a new study. Increasingly, researchers around the world are developing flexible electronics, such as display screens, cameras,...

Mar 23, 2017

US Military's 'Gremlin' Program Lets Pilots Launch and Snag Drones in Midair

The U.S. military is developing a fairy-tale-inspired Gremlin program that aims to launch and retrieve drones in midair. Gremlins are a swarm of drones that can be deployed from a manned aircraft, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the U.S. military charged with developing...

Mar 30, 2017

Wind Tunnel for Birds Could Result in Agile Drones

A specially designed wind tunnel for birds could help scientists learn the secrets of avian aerial abilities and translate them into drones that are masters of flying through rough-and-tumble conditions. Unmanned aircraft called drones are unreliable in heavy turbulence, said David Lentink, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford...

Apr 5, 2017

Iron Man-Style Exosuit Turns Inventor into Real-Life Superhero

Residents of the quiet town of Salisbury, in the south of England, had no clue until last week that their neighbor, a 38-year-old oil trader named Richard Browning, is a real-life Iron Man in the making. The amateur inventor had been secretly building a jet engine-powered exoskeleton suit, and he...

Apr 5, 2017

Computers of the Future May Be Minuscule Molecular Machines

Zeroes and 1s are so last century. The next computer revolution may rely not on a binary number system, but one that can store millions of pieces of information in the minuscule attributes of molecules, such as orientation, size and color. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch...

Apr 10, 2017

Melding Mind and Machine: How Close Are We?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Just as ancient Greeks fantasized about soaring flight, today's imaginations dream of melding minds and machines as a remedy to the pesky problem of human mortality. Can the mind...

Apr 14, 2017

Just Add Heat: New 4D-Printed Objects Morph on Cue

Objects that can change shape within seconds after being exposed to heat demonstrate a novel 4D-printing technique that could one day be used to create medical devices that unfurl on their own in the body during surgical procedures. Engineers created a 3D-printed plastic lattice that quickly expands when submerged in...

Apr 25, 2017

Straight Out of 'Star Wars': This 'Death Star' Laser Actually Works

Though it's not big enough or strong enough to destroy a planet, scientists have developed an amplified laser reminiscent of the Death Star from Star Wars, according to a new study. The futuristic superweapon combines multiple laser beams into one destructive blast, the researchers said. The idea of merging laser...

Apr 27, 2017

Scientists Can Now Create Glass Figurines with a 3D Printer

Intricate glass creations such as miniature castles and tiny pretzels can now be fabricated using 3D printing, according to a new study. The technique could one day be used to manufacture lenses for smartphone cameras as well as other key glass components, researchers said. Archaeological research suggests humans have employed...

Apr 27, 2017

Really Micro Machines: Molecular Cars Prep for First-Ever Race

Tiny vehicles made from a single molecule will go head-to-head in the first ever NanoCar Race tomorrow (April 28), and the competition will be broadcast live on YouTube. The race is made possible by a one-of-a-kind scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse,...

May 2, 2017

Spherical Drone Display Looks Like 360-Degree Flying Screen

Forget plane-pulled banners ― there may be a new way to advertise in the sky. The Japanese telecom company NTT DOCOMO recently revealed what it claims is the world's first spherical drone display. Although it appears to be a solid, globe-shaped screen while in flight, the display is actually an...

May 4, 2017

'Star Wars' Tech: 8 Sci-Fi Inventions and Their Real-Life Counterparts

'Star Wars' Tech The Millennium Falcon battles TIE fighters. (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)A long time ago in a studio far, far away, filmmaker George Lucas created one of the seminal works of science fiction: the Star Wars movie series. Nearly 40 years later, the ideas introduced by the films are still...

May 11, 2017

Laser-Printed Nanotech Makes Colors That Never Fade

Laser printers that sculpt images at miniscule scales could one day make color photos that don't fade over time the way ink does, according to a new study. Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark made a sheet of polymer and semiconductor metal that reflects colors that never fade, using...

May 17, 2017

Stretchy Holograms Could Power 3D, Morphing Projections

Holograms are a staple of science fiction, but the kinds of 3D, multicolored moving images floating in midair from movies like Star Wars are still a long way from reality. Now, though, researchers have developed the world’s first stretchable hologram, which could one day enable holographic animation, according to a...