Technology
MIT Creates New Energy Source
This is some pretty exciting news. It seems that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious science and engineering schools in the United States, has created a new energy source -- and it's clean and renewable. The odd thing is that the only way you can see this energy source is with a very powerful microscope, because it is created by using nanotechnology.
LED eye projector
Okay, this is just freaky. We know LED lights are versatile enough to be used for practically anything, but LED contact lenses? Really?! Yes, as it turns out, really. University of Washington researchers have figured out how to implant semitransparent red and blue LED lights in contact lenses, for the purpose of receiving and displaying data in sharp visual images and video. This means wearers will literally be able to watch TV or view photos that are projected directly onto their eyeballs.
Treepods
‘Treepods’ – the trees of tomorrow. Big cities these days have little space for trees and we have little time to care about their absence. The Treepods are more like alien-designs that dropped out of Hollywood. But the fact is that they could not be more earth-like, if they tried. Inspired by nature (Biomimicry), the designs imitate the look of a Dragon tree .
Magnesium Injection Cycle (MAGIC) is an engine design currently under development by Mitsubishi Corporation and the Tokyo Institute of Technology which uses magnesium and water to generate power. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The engine also makes use of solar-powered lasers . The joint project, initiated in 2005 and still in the experimental stage, developed a prototype carbon dioxide (CO 2 )-free engine in 2006 that ran successfully without the need for fossil fuels . The chemical reaction between magnesium (in a powder form) and water at room temperature produces high-energy steam and hydrogen . The hydrogen is burned at the same time to produce additional high-energy steam. These two steam sources power the engine.
Magnesium injection cycle
ZeroTouch 'optical
The rise of tablets and smartphones has made the touchscreen a rather ubiquitous interface , but they aren't everywhere quite yet. A group of students from Texas A&M intend to change that, however, with the invention of ZeroTouch: a seemingly empty picture frame that lets you turn any surface into an interactive touchscreen. It might not look like much, but ZeroTouch is packing a series of pulsing LEDs and infrared sensors that turn that blank space into a highly sensitive surface. Basically, the strategically placed LEDs cover the open area in a sheet of invisible light.
Geminoid, Skin On and Skin Off Geminoid The latest Geminoid robot is one of the most realistic, and thus creepiest, android we've ever seen. The skin, hair, goatee (!), and facial expressions are real enough to fool you for a few seconds while it sinks in that something very, very weird is going on. This specific model is called the Geminoid DK, and it comes from the same studio that gave us the robotic actress, Geminoid F . The DK is the first Geminoid model that's based on a non-Japanese person (in this case, Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Denmark's Aalborg University) and also the first bearded model (if you consider a goatee a beard, which in my full-bearded opinion is debatable).
Goateed Geminoid Robot
Despite its incredibly low density, aerogel is one of the most powerful materials on the planet. It can support thousands of times its own weight, block out intense heat, cold and sound – yet it is 1,000 times less dense than glass, nearly as transparent and is composed of %99.8 air. The lowest-density silica-based aerogels are even lighter than air. Despite its fragility in certain regards and its incredible lack of density, aerogel has amazing thermal, acoustical and electrical insulation properties as illustrated by the images here. A single one-pound block can also support half a ton of weight. NASA continues to find new space-based applications for this incredible material.
