Are your Calendar apps, Post-It notes, and calls from your mother still not helping stay on track? Well, this colorful concept clock might not solve all your procrastination woes, but at least it looks good in the process. More »
Well before Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, IBM's design team grappled with a different challenge - getting beaten to the punch by someone else inventing a trivia-savvy artificial mind. Final Jeopardy discusses Watson's early development and how this Q&A juggernaut overcame the "Basement Baseline." More »
This morning, we decided we think axes are awesome. Beautiful, functionally perfected, and, yes, great for elegantly chopping the crap out of things. Below, a roundup of our favorite old school cutting contraptions. More »
The default iOS lockscreen is little more than a glorified wristwatch; functional, but not very useful for much else than checking the date. Having a jailbroken iOS device opens up a Pandora's box of possibilities, allowing you to add more info and a personal touch to the most basic of your phone's functions: the lockscreen. More »
In the most compelling man versus shadow conflict since Peter Pan, Japanese actor Taichi Saotome does battle with vague clouds, then his own darkspace doppelgänger. It's a light show built around darkness, and it's pretty terrific. [Metafilter via The Daily What] More »
Slide a microSD card into the $95 Mame-Cam from Japanese purveyors-of-USB-craziness Thanko, and be on your way taking sneaky pics and vid on the sly. Video is shot in VGA res at 30fps, and the battery is good for 36 minutes' shooting. [Thanko via CrunchGear] More »
The only thing worse than getting hit by a car is having your desktop littered with crap. Folders filled with porn! Tax documents! Stolen music! Animated GIFs of varying hilarity! It accumulates, and accumulates, and before you know it you're flung into a rage, mowing down people in your car. We don't want that. You don't want that. So, do yourself a favor and bump up your desktop real estate a little. This 1600 x 900, 20-inch HP S2031 LCD monitor ($120 with free shipping) will add another 1,440,000 pixels for you to fill up. And once you fill all THAT desktop space up? Well, then you've really got something to think about, don't you. More »
Earlier roadmaps for printed electronics have been almost entirely erroneous. It is not primarily about cost reduction, nor is there a trend towards organic versions taking over most applications. It is no longer focussed mainly on improving existing products. It targets doing what was previously impossible to create radically different consumer propositions.
LayTec AG announces its conversion from LayTec GmbH (a limited liability company) into LayTec AG (Aktiengesellschaft, joint stock corporation). With today's entry into the commercial register of Berlin/Charlottenburg, LayTec will operate in future as LayTec AG.
Novel green chemical technologies will play a key role helping society move towards the elimination of waste while offering a wider range of products from biorefineries, according to a University of York scientist.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have developed a unique technology that stabilizes an otherwise unstable form of calcium carbonate. This mineral form provides significantly higher biological absorption and retention rates than other sources presently used as dietary calcium supplements.
Some of science's most powerful statements are not made in words. From the diagrams of DaVinci to Rosalind Franklin's X-rays, visualization of research has a long and literally illustrious history. To illustrate is to enlighten. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the journal Science created the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge to celebrate that grand tradition - and to encourage its continued growth.
Die Philipps-Universitaet Marburg weitet die Kooperation mit Leica Microsystems aus: Derzeit testet das Institut fuer Zytobiologie als eines von weltweit vier Instituten ein Mikroskop mit einer Aufloesung weit unterhalb der Beugungsgrenze (Nanoskope).
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed the world's first certified nanoparticle reference material based on industry-sourced nanoparticles. This new material will help ensure the comparability of measurements worldwide, thereby facilitating trade, ensuring compliance with legislation and enhancing innovation.
Using a skin tissue model for the study of low-dose radiation-induced tissue responses.
Researchers have reported on the first combined quasi-hydrostatic, high-pressure, small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and micro x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies on individual faceted, 3-D supercrystals self-assembled from colloidal 7.0-nm PbS nanocrystals.
Magnetic nanoparticles could be used to track neural stem cells after a transplant in order to monitor how the cells heal spinal injuries, say University College London (UCL) scientsts.
Previous research has shown that high performance piezoelectric ceramics PZT (lead zirconate titanate) could be printed as nanoribbons onto biocompatible and flexible substrates for applications such as harvesting energy from human motion like walking or breathing. While some motions, such as walking, only require flexibility, others, such as breathing, require that the materials be not just flexible but also stretchable. However, the PZT ribbons cannot stand stretching operation modes due to their brittle nature, which leads to cracking. The research team therefore has been looking to overcome this difficulty by fashioning the piezoelectric ribbons into wavy shapes, and integrating them with stretchable silicone rubber, such that the composite material can withstand large amounts of elastic strain.
The Mimosa plant, which folds its leaves when they're touched, is inspiring a new class of adaptive structures designed to twist, bend, stiffen and even heal themselves.
To build the next generation of sensors - with applications ranging from medical devices to robotics to new consumer goods - Chang Liu looks to biology. By creating artificial hair cells using micro- and nanofabrication technology, Liu's group is increasing sensor performance while deepening the understanding of how different creatures use these sensors.
