Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2005

Mouse With Human Brain May Live

Animals have been getting a real work-out in science lately. Methuselah mice are helping humanity with aging, pigs are trying artificial corneas and monkeys get gene manipulations that force them to work hard with no thought of reward. Now, Stanford University has given famed researcher Irving Weissman permission to create...

Jan 31, 2005

Military Aims for High-Tech, Life-Like Limb Replacements

WASHINGTON D.C. - While a higher percentage of U.S. soldiers are surviving their time in war thanks to life-saving technologies such as advanced body armor, many are returning home maimed and have had arms or legs amputated as a result of injuries. A new research agenda set out by the...

Jan 31, 2005

Record-Setting Round-the-World Flight Could Start Monday

An attempt to make the first solo, non-stop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the globe could start Monday, Feb. 28 after weeks of weather delays. The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is Code Green for a flight attempt on Monday, according to officials. Weather conditions locally and along the flight path have prevented the...

Jan 31, 2005

Historic Round-the-World Flight Set for Monday Takeoff

A one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft is ready to attempt the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the globe without refueling. The flight is firmly slated for Monday, Feb. 28, though takeoff is still dependent on weather. An official announcement is expected later Sunday. Launch of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer from Salina, Kansas...

Jan 31, 2005

Historic Globe-Circling Flight Underway

A solo attempt to fly non-stop around the globe is underway. Billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett is at the controls of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, climbing into the skies after departure from the Salina Municipal Airport in Salina, Kansas. The one-of-a-kind experimental plane is a single-engine turbofan aircraft designed expressly for...

Dec 31, 2004

Virtual Snowflakes: Closing in on Reality

Some of the loveliest snowflakes you might see this winter glow warmly on a computer screen. Lafayette College mathematics professor Cliff Reiter might share the joy of a kid making snowflakes with scissors and paper, but his computer simulations of crystal growth aim at deeper revelation. The sublimity of his...

Dec 31, 2004

Presto! Instant Petrified Wood Created in Lab

Achieving what would take millions of years in only a few days, scientists have drastically sped up the process of petrifying wood. Yongsoon Shin and his colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have recreated, under laboratory conditions, the conversion of wood into a ceramic, the very process of petrification....

Nov 30, 2006

RoboSalmon to Spy on Fish

RoboSalmon, an underwater robot meant to spy on the real fish, is being developed at Glasgow University. The robot has a built-in camera to broadcast images of real fish back to the operators of the device. Zoologists will use RoboSalmon to monitor various fish species in their natural habitat. A...

Nov 30, 2006

Paul Bunyan Robot Dives For Trees

Sawfish is a real-life robotic underwater lumberjack; it swims down to harvest trees that are now underwater due to flooding to create reservoirs. The Triton Sawfish Underwater Harvester is the world's first viable marine technology for logging underwater forests. It is the only deep water logging machine. Piloted and powered...

Nov 30, 2006

Human Thoughts Control New Robot

Scientists have created a way to control a robot with signals from a human brain. By generating the proper brainwaves—picked up by a cap with electrodes that sense the signals and reflect a person's instructions—scientists can instruct a humanoid robot to move to specific locations and pick up certain objects...

Oct 31, 2006

Miniature Robot to Power Through the Spine

In the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, a full-size underwater vehicle was shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the blood vessels of a person. Now, a team headed by Dr. Moshe Shoham of Haifa's Technion has created a novel propulsion system for a miniature robot to travel through the spinal...

Oct 31, 2006

Antiviral Paint Kills Flu on Contact

A remarkable new anti-viral polymer can be applied like paint and could help reduce the spread of germs in public areas and hospitals. The biocidal paint was developed by MIT's Alexander Klibanov. In a graphic demonstration (see photo), a regular commercial glass slide and another one coated with alkylated PEI...

Oct 31, 2006

Humans Inhabit Body of Experimental Robot

A pair of new, immersive technologies allows a person to inhabit the body of a distant robot in an experiment conducted in Germany. The first is the haptic system (from a Greek word meaning touch) that allows the operator to don a pair of gloves that can actually feel what...

Sep 30, 2006

Snail Mail with Real Snails

We often jokingly refer to delivery of letters by the post office as snail mail, comparing it to the lightning speed of email and instant messaging. RealSnailMail is a performance art piece in which the artists create snail mail with real snails. The intent is to harness the power of...

Sep 30, 2006

Microscopic Robot Lends Helping Hand

A microscopic robot hand, made of silicon and plastic balloons, could help perform surgery and defuse bombs. The microhand is so tiny that when clenched into a fist it measures a little over one millimeter across, or roughly as thick as a dime [image]. It is made using silicon finger...