Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2006

Poll: Ban Cell Phones While Driving

A new survey finds two-thirds of Americans would support a law banning cell phone use while driving. Fewer than half, however, wish to make them illegal in restaurants and movie theaters. The poll of 849 adults, of which 69 percent owned cell phones, was conducted in March and announced this...

Apr 30, 2006

Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants

Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16. Silverman was being interviewed on Fox & Friends. Responding to the Bush administration's call to know who is...

Mar 31, 2006

Cell Phones Make Many Americans Frustrated Liars

Cell phones are changing habits of Americans in ways you might not have thought much about. Some 41 percent of cell phone owners fill free time, such as when traveling or waiting for someone, by making phone calls, according to a new national survey of 1,500 people by the Pew...

Mar 31, 2006

Incredible New Military Robot

Meet BigDog, a mechanical mutt that does more than snare Frisbees and irrigate fire hydrants. It totes hundreds of pounds of gear so soldiers won't have to, and it will never spook under fire. Developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the U.S. military, the BigDog prototype is arguably the...

Mar 31, 2006

Tipping Point: Half of America Wants a Hybrid Car

More than half of all Americans say they would seriously consider buying or leasing a fuel-saving hybrid car, according to a new poll. Price is the obstacle for many, however. The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found 48 percent of Americans have cut back significantly on the amount they drive because of...

Mar 31, 2006

State Would Outlaw Mandatory Microchip Implants

RFID microchips implanted in humans? Who would think of such a thing? Here are a few examples: VeriChip RFID Tag Patient Implant Badges Now FDA ApprovedU.S. Company Implants Chips in WorkersRFID Tags Proposed to Halt Blackmarket Cadaver TradeYou're not even safe from being 'chipped when you're dead. But you'll be...

Mar 31, 2006

Tough All-Terrain Military Robot Unveiled

Researchers unveiled today a unique unmanned military vehicle prototype that combines mobility, payload-carrying capacity, and ruggedness to aid troops in combat. The Crusher is a 6.5-ton vehicle made of high-strength aluminum tubes and titanium nodes protected by a steel skid plate that can absorb shocks from impacts with rocks and...

Feb 28, 2006

Mouse Hearts Glow Like E.T.'s

Researchers at Cornell University have created mice whose heart muscles are genetically engineered to fluoresce when the muscles contract. Junichi Nakai of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Wako-shi, Japan, developed the fluorescent molecule by modifying a green fluorescent protein (derived from bioluminescent jellyfish) and making it glow brightly enough...

Jan 31, 2006

Don't Bring Home the Bacon, Print It

Ink-jet printing has come a long way; we used to use it for what was called hard copy. Soon, you will be able to use a modified ink-jet printer to make yourself some breakfast. Tissue engineers like Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina, and Thomas Boland of...

Dec 31, 2005

Why Cell Phones Should be Allowed in Hospitals

The prohibition against mobile phones in hospitals may do more harm than good, a new report reveals. Medical facilities prohibit cell phone use, but some doctors already use them. And it turns out they reduce medical errors because communication is more timely, a new study finds. Mobile phones rarely cause...

Dec 31, 2005

Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company's web site, if you click on Telegrams in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue...

Sep 30, 2007

Three-Legged Robot Has a Swinging Walk

A unique three-legged robot called STriDER is under development at Virginia Tech University. It's name stands for (Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot. This cunning four-foot tall stick-figure bot has a totally unique way of walking. One researcher described it as being like a biped with a walking stick. The STriDER...

Sep 30, 2007

Hillary Clinton Promises Science-Friendly White House

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today accused the Bush Administration of conducting a war on science and vowed to promote scientific discovery in research, medicine and space exploration if elected. For six and half years under this president, it's been open season on open inquiry, Clinton said in a wide-ranging science...

Sep 30, 2007

Stem Cells Printed in 3-D with Inkjet Devices

The creation of implantable human organs with an ink-jet printer isn't as far-fetched as it might seem, a materials scientist said—at least in the future. Scientists already use ink-jet cartridges to print stem cells into exacting patterns, and now engineers are taking the technology to a whole new dimension—quite literally—by...

Sep 30, 2007

Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050

Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows. My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his...