Inspired by the folding technique of origami, US researchers said Monday they have crafted cheap, artificial muscles for robots that give them the power to lift up to 1,000 times their own weight.
Date archives "January 2019"
A startup is publishing India’s first braille lifestyle magazine. Here’s how they break even.
The shrill clatter of pointed keys, piercing through white paper at a frantic speed? Certainly not my idea of music. On a visit last month to the offices of braille lifestyle magazine White Print, I was expecting a standard printing press.
Link: https://www.thesplicenewsroom.com/india-braille-magazine-white-print/
Marginalized Communities Are Building Their Own Internet
Being stuck without access to the internet is often thought of as a problem only for rural America. But even in some of America’s biggest cities, a significant portion of the population can’t get online.
Link: https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/kz3xyz/detroit-mesh-network
Coral sex conceives new growth for the Great Barrier Reef
For the first time, researchers have accelerated the formation of new coral colonies on small areas in the Great Barrier Reef using ‘baby corals’ conceived and successfully settled directly on the Reef through a pioneering pilot project funded by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Link: https://www.barrierreef.org/latest/news/coral-sex-conceives-new-growth-for-the-great-barrier-reef
With a Bikeshare-Powered Tree, a Town Chooses Sustainability Over Tradition
On a chilly Saturday evening in a suburb just outside Washington, D.C., a crowd of kids were furiously pedaling away on a dozen bikes bolted to the base of a 35-foot Christmas tree display. We were just minutes from Silver Spring’s annual tree-lighting ceremony at the downtown plaza, and some were seriously giving themselves a full workout.
Link: https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/11/christmas-tree-bikeshare-display-silver-spring-maryland/545726/
Fun With Stelarc
Youbionic gives augmented humans a helping hand, or two
In development since 2014, Youbionic started taking pre-orders for its 3D-printed robotic hand early last year. The company recently launched a new improved version, but hasn’t stopped there. Looking to a near future where robotic enhancements make for improved humans, a bizarre two-handed prosthetic has been developed and gone up for sale.
Download Influential Avant-Garde Magazines from the Early 20th Century: Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism & More
“I’m tired of politics, I just want to talk about my art,” I sometimes hear artists—and musicians, actors, writers, etc.—say. And I sometimes see their fans say, “you should shut up about politics and just talk about your art.”
Spider drinks graphene, spins web that can hold the weight of a human
These are not your friendly neighborhood spiders: scientists have mixed a graphene solution that when fed to spiders allows them to spin super-strong webbing. How strong? Strong enough to carry the weight of a person. And these spiders might soon be enlisted to help manufacture enhanced ropes and cables, possibly even parachutes for skydivers, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
Why The Woobie Is The Greatest Military Invention Ever Fielded
There have been some amazing military innovations over the years: freeze-dried food for MREs, jet aircraft, rail guns, and the soul-sucking website, Army Knowledge Online. But none of these compare to the simplest, most wonderful invention known to mankind: the poncho liner, affectionately known by all those who have felt its life-giving warmth as the “woobie.”
Does a sea of viruses inside our body help keep us healthy?
A century after they were discovered killing bacteria in the feces of World War I soldiers, the viruses known as bacteriophages, or simply phages, are drawing new attention for the role they might play within the human body. Phages have been found most everywhere, from oceans to soils. Now, a study suggests that people absorb up to 30 billion phages every day through their intestines.
Link:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/does-sea-viruses-inside-our-body-help-keep-us-healthy
California’s Plastic Bag Ban Appears to Be Kicking Some Major Ass
Either California’s first-in-the-nation plastic bag ban is working really well or volunteer litter hunters are suddenly doing a horrible job.
Last November, California voters passed Proposition 67, upholding a ban on single-use plastic bags passed by the state’s lawmakers in 2014. A year later, preliminary data from thousands of volunteers who collected trash during California’s Coastal Cleanup Day in September appears to show a remarkable drop in plastic bag refuse.
Link:https://earther.gizmodo.com/california-s-plastic-bag-ban-appears-to-be-kicking-some-1820443038/amp