Engineering

If you think that cockroaches are creepy and useless, we can prove you wrong. Well, at least the “useless” part. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: University of Queensland , Cyborg , Insect , Rescue , Disasters

Few things make the career jump from regional cuisine delicacy to robotics actuator. Yet, in research vaguely reminiscent of RoboCop, scientists have used skeletal muscle from a literal frog leg as an actuator to control a tiny robotic manta ray. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: Chinese Academy of Sciences , Muscle , locomotion , Biomimicry , Swimming

Nature is undoubtedly the smartest engineer. Scientists have borrowed ideas from armadillos, elephants and birds to build robots capable of doing things that conventional man-made machines struggle with. Now, researchers at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering have turned to fish. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: New York University , Biomimicry , Fish , locom…

Following over a decade of development, costing around one billion dollars, and requiring a team of over 150 architects, engineers, and designers, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is now finally complete. Looking like a strange spaceship has landed in Los Angeles, the incredible building holds a huge amount of art dedicated to storytelling – everything from Star Wars props to ancient Egyptian po…

You can’t brighten a room with darkness, you can’t dry a towel by soaking it, and you surely can’t cool things with heat. Right? Well, maybe. Scientists have just built a solid-state cooling device that can use heat to generate cold, potentially opening a way for processors and other hot-running electronics to recycle some of their own waste heat for cooling. Continue Reading Category: Energy , E…

Epoxy is one of the great unifiers of modern materials science, bringing different materials together to form composites with combined properties that exceed those of any individual component. The problem is that once conventional epoxy cures, the resulting union is practically permanent. Separating the constituent materials for recycling can be extremely difficult. Continue Reading Category: Mat…

There are a few pretty well-known trade-offs associated with desktop 3D printing. Faster speeds generally mean a compromise in quality, multi-color 3D printers often waste some filament, and higher volume loads usually demand more hardware. LightMake’s L4 Kickstarter project aims to tackle all these issues head-on. Continue Reading Category: 3D Printing , Manufacturing , Engineering Tags: Kicksta…

In the 1960s Hanna Barbara animated series The Flintstones, prehistoric human beings lacked modern technology, so they used ancient animals (including dinosaurs, who for some reason in this universe lived at the same time people did) as household appliances and industrial machinery. And, for extra-cheap laffs, these animals routinely mugged to the camera about how awful their lives were at the ha…

The British Ministry of Defence is looking into a novel way to drop troops behind enemy lines, with a £6-million (US$8.1-million) study to evaluate the use of foot-launched powered paragliders as transports for reconnaissance and troop insertion. Continue Reading Category: Military , Engineering Tags: U.K. Ministry of Defence , Aircraft

Some companies build a desalination plant and call it a day; others build a data center, while others, still, build power generation facilities. One project wants to build all three … into one facility … offshore … on a movable ship. Continue Reading Category: Energy , Engineering Tags: Data Center , Ships , Water

If anyone could defeat the “man of steel,” it would be a “man of stainless steel.” However, even stainless steel has its electrochemical kryptonite. Scientists have now created a new version of stainless steel that can withstand conditions only a “man of titanium” typically could, and without the cost, paving the way for more cost-effective green hydrogen production. Continue Reading Category: En…

Fast fashion drastically changed the world by making clothes cheaper and more affordable than ever, but it came with a huge environmental cost. This has pushed scientists to look for new, more sustainable materials that could replace conventional synthetic fabrics. Continue Reading Category: Materials , Engineering Tags: Fungus , Textile , Biodegradable

Scientists have been presenting evidence that the Earth is round for well over 2,000 years. Yet flat-Earthers remain unconvinced, with some willing to go to the end of the Earth to prove their point. They just haven't been able to find them. Pun very much intended. Earth aside, scientists have just developed a technology where flat is a clear winner over round: optical fiber sensors. Continue Rea…

In a two-for-one move, the US Army has announced that it has authorized the construction of up to 20 nuclear micro-reactors across military bases in the continental United States to provide reliable power and boost the country's nuclear industrial base. Continue Reading Category: Military , Engineering Tags: US Army , Nuclear , Power

This cute little robot duck isn't actually a toy. It's actually a platform for budding roboticists to train on and develop skills. But heck, this might be the most fun design for a hackable machine we've seen yet. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: Robot , Artificial Intelligence

Chances are you’ve seen Hoberman spheres, those kinetic lattices made of joint-connected rods that, with a little manual effort, can contract or expand. Inspired by the ancient Japanese arts of origami (paper-folding) and kirigami (paper-folding-and-cutting), a team from Harvard University in the US and Tokyo University in Japan has developed expandable structures that, like Hoberman spheres, use…

3D-printed construction is still definitely on the cutting edge, but it's moving toward the mainstream remarkably quickly. The latest major stride comes from Denmark, where a team has completed what it calls Europe's largest 3D-printed housing project, creating a community of 36 self-contained student apartments. Continue Reading Category: Architecture , Engineering Tags: 3D Printing , Housing , …

Norway is getting a knowledge and experience center next year that's all about the whales that inhabit the waters near its northern coast. Fittingly, the building's form resembles one of these majestic sea creatures diving into the water. Continue Reading Category: Architecture , Engineering Tags: Museum , Norway , Whale

What looks like a sailboard but packs a punch like a warship? Thanks to Saildrone and Lockheed Martin, it's the Saildrone Surveyor Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV), which recently fired two Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM) during a naval exercise. Continue Reading Category: Military , Engineering Tags: USVs , Lockheed Martin , Sail , drones , Missile Defense

Today, you can buy almost anything with a few clicks on your phone. Online shopping has created millions of small deliveries, and a lot of them could be handled more efficiently if humans had a little mechanical help. That’s where delivery robots come in. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: Quadruped , Delivery robots