UnderstandingSociety: Skilled work

UnderstandingSociety

By Daniel Little

Watch an active construction site for a few minutes and you will see some amazing examples of skilled work and deft problem solving. That was true today in Ann Arbor where I happened to see one complicated step in the construction of a new wing of a five-storey building. The problem was this. A fifty-foot girder was lifted by crane to its intended location within the vertical steel frame. Already I was impressed with the skill of the crane operator, who deftly maneuvered the beam into position where two steel workers were waiting on the existing beam. The crane suspended the beam in place and the steel workers bolted the near end to the frame. So far so good. But the far end was to attach to an isolated vertical beam fifty feet away, and I couldn't picture how that end would be attached. The steel worker answered that question quickly. He scuttled the length of the beam to the isolated vertical while the beam was suspended by the crane cable and the attached end. But now the resistance of the material world intervened -- the beam was a little too long to fit. The worker used two crow bars he'd brought with him to lever it into place -- no good. It was just half an inch too long given the position of the vertical. So are we stymied? Need to send it back? No. The worker stood up on the beam and started gently rocking the vertical. After two or three oscillations he was able to lever the beam into place, and quickly bolted it down.

It's not a completely amazing instance of problem solving on the job, but it is impressive nonetheless. Certainly the users' manual doesn't have a section on what to do in this circumstance. But given his prior training, experience, and embodied skills, the worker was able to come up with a solution that worked.

Richard Sennett describes this kind of artisanal intelligence in The Craftsman. He describes craftsmanship as "the skill of making things well" (8). Further,

The Craftsman explores these dimensions of skill, commitment, and judgment in a particular way. It focuses on the intimate connection between hand and head. Every good craftsman conducts a dialogue between concrete practices and thinking; this dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and these habits establish a rhythm between problem solving and problem finding. The relation between hand and head appears in domains seemingly as different as bricklaying, cooking, designing a playground, or playing the cello— but all these practices can misfire or fail to ripen. (9)

A part of the interest of Sennett's work here is the help it provides in redressing the idea that mental work is professional and cognitive, while manual work is repetitive and rote. Sennett gives many contemporary examples of work that is both head and hand, both cognitive and skilled, both creative and manual. Sennett gives many examples of this kind of artisanal intelligence. Here is one from the construction of a large shopping mall in Atlanta.

The lighting in these aboveground car-houses turned out to be uneven in intensity, dangerous shadows suddenly appearing within the building. Painters had added odd-shaped white strip lines to guide drivers in and out of irregular pools of light, showing signs of improvising rather than following the plan. The craftsmen had done further, deeper thinking about light than the designers. (44-45)

Sennett's point here is that the implementation of a complex space is not simply the translation of a computer-generated architectural drawing into material form. Rather, it is a process that requires real workers to find solutions to the inevitable fact of gaps and inconsistencies in the plan--in this case, the fact that the lighting didn't fully illuminate the space, leading to risks for pedestrians and drivers.

A dominant tradition of philosophy identifies our human essence with our ability to think and reason. Descartes represents this line of thought ("cogito ergo sum"). But there is another tradition that places labor and our capacity to transform the material world at the center of the human essence. Hegel represented this line of thought, as did Marx. It is the homo faber tradition -- man the creator -- and all in all, it seems to do a better job of defining us. Labor and skilled intelligence lie at the core of human capacities. And that is a good thing to remember on May 1, the international day celebrating labor.

Hands on: 18 hours with Google Glass

Fox News

The author's first experience with Google Glass, a futuristic headmounted computer that Google hopes will change the world. (FoxNews.com / Perry Chiaramonte)

By Jeremy A. Kaplan
Today is my first full day as a cyborg.
I’ve spent the past 18 or so hours wearing Google Glass -- the Internet giant’s vision of an always-on, digitally connected future, disguised as a pair of glassless eyeglasses.
Looking past the double-takes and outright stares from everyone looking at me, it’s easy to see the potential of this crazy gizmo. But for now, well, it’s weird being one of the borg.
Glass is a lopsided yet oddly comfortable hunk of plastic, silicon and titanium. The brains of my device were housed in two hunks of gray plastic, all on the right side (and no, there’s currently no option to swap sides). Google has versions in a variety of colors, including a gorgeous bright orange. If you’re going to call attention to yourself, may as well do it in style.
At the back is a battery and a tiny speaker that rests against your head, and uses the bones in your skull to amplify its output. The front contains the camera, processor and a tiny display screen -- your interface to the world of Google.
I picked mine up from Google’s temporary Glass office in New York. And after a 90-minute walkthrough with several “Glass guides,” I was ready to set out in the world.
I found using Glass to be remarkably intuitive and straightforward. Others who tried it had mixed luck, however, which mainly revealed an eagerness to play around without knowing what exactly to do. The lesson: Read the directions.
Tap the touch-sensitive temple piece or simply tilt your head up and the screen activates, displaying the time and two words: “Ok Glass.” Speak them aloud and the voice-activated device gives you a menu with a few simple options: Google, take a picture, record a video, get directions, send a message, make a call, hang out.
Ask the device to Google something and, thanks to a Bluetooth link to your smartphone or the built-in Wi-Fi, it will search the Web almost immediately. I tried Googling the length of the Golden Gate bridge (8,980 feet), how to say “I love you” in Japanese (“Watashi wa anata o aishite”), and checking the weather (“No, it isn’t raining in New York, the weather is 58 and clear”).
The future is a robotic voice literally telling me to skip the raincoat, apparently.
Pictures with Glass are reasonably good; it has a 5 megapixel camera, comparable to that of a newish smartphone. That’s not the greatest quality, but it works. I immediately found myself wanting to edit images, crop out the backgrounds and boost the colors. You can do that all on Google+, of course, but there’s little interface directly through Glass itself.
The real charm of Glass comes in sharing, however, not touching your temples. Glass integrates deeply with Google+, which you’re probably a member of already, like it or not. It’s no Facebook, sure, but it does have tens of millions of users.
Using the simple MyGlass smartphone app, you can configure the Google+ sharing features on Glass: Which of your contacts you want ready access to, which groups you want to share videos and pictures to, and so on. For what it’s worth, Google+ actually does social networking better than Facebook in some ways, and sharing pics with groups and individuals is as easy as taking them.
On the other hand, social networking is both a Glass strength and its Achilles Heel: Everyone I saw while wearing Glass stared, then eventually asked me if I was recording them. Are we live right now? Is this online?
For the record, no, Glass is not violating your privacy. No, it is not surreptitiously recording you. No, it does not do face recognition. No, I am not seeing through your clothing.
While Google’s wild invention does raise those questions, the device is designed to skirt them all: To start recording a video or snap a shot, you need to actively turn it on. And there’s no red light on the front to indicate activity, but whoever you’re speaking with should be able to see the active screen.
And Google told me face recognition would require some processing power that’s simply out of the question, at least for now.
That said, what it does do is tantalize. Want directions? There they are. Want to share a picture of your trip? Done. Need a fact to wow a dinner party? There it is.
Just don’t wear Glass during the dinner party. At least, that’s what my wife says.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/01/hands-on-18-hours-with-google-glass/#ixzz2S472dMGr

Laser scanner that can produce three-dimensional maps with unprecedented speed and accuracy [Video]

ReutersVideo

Researchers at Australia's CSIRO have developed a hand-held, spring-loaded laser scanner that can produce three-dimensional maps with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Called Zebedee after a French, spring-propelled television puppet of the sixties, the scanner fires laser light, giving surveyors and archaeologists a powerful new tool for discovery.  

America's engine of the future to get 'Made in China' label

mazautolv 

Fox News

Thanks to generous support from a foreign backer, there is renewed hope for an American attempt to revolutionize, modernize and sanitize the automobile engine.

The catch?  The finished product will be stamped “Made in China.”

EcoMotors, a startup engineering company based in Allen Park, Mich., plans to produce up to 150,000 of its opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder (OPOC) two-stroke engines annually in a factory funded by Zhongding Power. The facility will be located in China’s Anhui Province, west of Shanghai.

EcoMotors CEO Don Runkle told FoxNews.com that Zhongding has committed to building a plant for the engines with the hope of supplying generator companies and builders of medium-duty trucks.

“We have talked to a number of automobile manufacturers in the United States, as well as in China,” Runkle said.  He added that EcoMotors has “a letter of intent with Generac,” an American manufacturer of generators that currently buys engines from John Deere and Iveco.

Although Chinese-built generators and motorcycles are becoming more common in the United States, engines produced there have rarely seen duty in American automobiles. The first was when General Motors dropped a Chinese-made 3.4-liter V-6 into its 2005 Chevrolet Equinox and Pontiac Torrent crossovers.

In 2010, when Zhongding agreed to invest up to $18 million toward engineering costs for the OPOC engine, Runkle announced that “this initiative will create a range of high-skill R&D jobs here in southeast Michigan, further underscoring the region's critical role as the incubator of tomorrow’s high-efficiency powertrain solutions.”

The OPOC two-stroke engine is a markedly different concept than the four-stroke engines fitted to most modern automobiles. While two-strokes are generally lighter, have fewer moving parts and a higher power density than comparable four-strokes, they are often not as durable and burn a lot of oil, resulting in worse emissions. EcoMotors claims to have overcome these hurdles with its new technology.

The EcoMotors-designed power plant does without valves and cylinder heads, and places two pistons facing one another in each cylinder like boxers' gloves, with the pistons in turn connected to identical counterparts in an adjacent cylinder. The expansion stroke on one side creates a compression stroke in the other.

“Our innovation is an unusual engine architecture,” Runkle said.

The company says the motors can be configured to run on a variety of fuels, including gasoline and diesel, and will be cheaper to build while delivering between 20 and 50 percent better fuel economy than conventional internal combustion engines, depending on their application.

Production of the OPOC is set to begin in 2014.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/04/24/america-new-engine-future-to-be-made-in-china/#ixzz2RPLVRI4O

Secret weapon? How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

usnews

www.worth1000.com

Thermal-imaging devices have been used to seek out pot-growing operations, map Martian geology — and now, to watch the prime suspect in this week's Boston Marathon bombings as he was holed up in his last hiding place.

Authorities said helicopters equipped with thermal imagers spotted the heat signature of a person inside a tarp-covered boat, sitting in a backyard in Watertown, Mass. Police used the sensors after a woman in the area reported seeing a trail of blood leading to the boat. The thermal readings confirmed that there was someone under the tarp, and that the person was still alive.

"Probably been there all day," a senior police official told NBC News. "He wasn't moving at first. He is now."

After monitoring the body in the boat for more than an hour, police moved in and seized the wounded bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Thermal imagers can spot the signature of a body or other heat source even if it's inside a house, a vehicle, or in this case, a vessel. Walls may stop visible-light wavelengths, but infrared wavelengths can still pass through. The variations in heat emissions can be picked up by camera chips designed to be sensitive to the infrared part of the spectrum. The signature would be particularly noticeable when there's a significant difference between the background temperature and the temperature of the heat source.

Police have long used such devices to find out whether marijuana is being grown inside a house, using heat lamps. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of thermal scans to monitor heat sources inside a person's home should be considered a "search" under the Fourth Amendment, and thus would require a warrant. The court said such scans could reveal private details about the homeowner, including the time of night when "the lady of the house takes her daily sauna and bath."

Thermal imagers have been taken to other worlds — for instance, aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which analyzes variations in the composition of the Red Planet's surface using the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS.

Immigration authorities have used thermal scanners to look for the signs of fever among arriving passengers, and researchers have been experimenting with them as a lie-detector technique.

In 2009, FBI investigators used thermal imagers to search for bodies in the neighborhood where Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell lived. That may well have been the most notorious case where the technology was brought to bear. Until now.

Hovercraft golf cart

MultiAngelVideo

Is Ford building an inflatable car?

Fox News

We’re guessing this will come with a very big fix a flat kit.
Ford has filed trademark applications for something called an Inflatable Light Urban Vehicle, or iLuv.
Classified under “vehicles; apparatus for locomotion by land, air or water,” there’s little more information about what it could be.
The outlet that first discovered the applications, Ford Inside News, suggests that they could be intended for use on some sort of small, collapsible personal urban transportation device, rather than a traditional car, but Ford isn’t saying. A spokesperson tells FoxNews.com that the company regularly trademarks various names and won't comment on any speculation surrounding these.
Mercedes-Benz has shown a prototype vehicle fitted with inflatable steel beams in its doors that expand in the event of a crash to absorb energy, while a San Francisco startup company called XP Vehicles has proposed a car made from flexible panels filled with lightweight expandable foam.
As for a blow-up Ford, the only one we’ve seen was a car-shaped airbag used during the demonstration of a crash test avoidance system, and it was not called iLuv. As least not as far as we know.
Nevertheless, while you can’t yet buy an inflatable Ford, you can get one with rear seatbelts that inflate during an accident to help cushion the blow.
An air-filled vehicle that goes on “land, air or water” sounds like more fun.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/04/09/is-ford-building-inflatable-car/#ixzz2Q4ds1ZN1

Chair that grows and packs itself: Smart foam technology designed in Belgium

itnnews

Synthetic Biology and Conservation Biology Meet

phenomena

Listen:
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El cine 3D llega a Cuba con timidez y sin revuelo

finanzas.com

Poco a poco y sin gran revuelo, el fenómeno del cine 3D ha llegado finalmente a Cuba mediante contadas exhibiciones en salas estatales y con el impulso de algunos negocios privados, el sector que está apostando más rápidamente por esa tecnología.
Hasta hace poco la experiencia de usar las "gafas especiales" era imposible en la isla, donde filmes famosos por su formato en 3D como "Avatar", "Tintin" y "The Hobbit" fueron vistos sin el añadido de la tercera dimensión.
En un intento por acercar al público a esos "efectos", esta semana la duodécima edición de la Muestra de Jóvenes Realizadores en La Habana programó por primera vez en la historia del evento una serie de exhibiciones en 3D.
Las proyecciones se hicieron en una pequeña sala para unos 45 espectadores, ubicada en la sede del Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (Icaic), la entidad impulsora del cine nacional desde el triunfo de la revolución cubana en 1959.
"Es una tecnología que no está ni siquiera puesta en Cuba para uso comercial, aunque existen sitios privados que exhiben películas en 3D", dijo a Efe Sara Vega, del comité organizador de la Muestra.
Vega explicó que utilizaron tecnología del Icaic y organizaron la entrada mediante "inscripciones" previas, porque se trataba de un local con poca capacidad, aunque no hubo lleno total en todas las funciones.
Pero en realidad la primera exhibición pública de 3D en Cuba auspiciada por el Icaic se hizo fuera de la capital del país, durante un evento de crítica cinematográfica en la ciudad de Camagüey (este) en marzo pasado.
"Fue más simbólico que otra cosa, porque lo que teníamos eran 20 gafas, pero a los efectos históricos sí debe quedar como la primera exhibición en un espacio público, por parte del Estado", afirmó a Efe el crítico Juan Antonio García.
En Camagüey, precisó García, no existen todavía salas de cine en tercera dimensión privadas, un tipo de negocio que en cambio sí ha ido proliferando en la capital cubana.
Se trata de novedosas y pequeñas salas surgidas en los últimos meses a raíz de la apertura para los negocios autónomos que desde 2010 impulsa el Gobierno del presidente Raúl Castro como parte de sus reformas económicas.
"Una buena opción para navegar en un viaje lleno de experiencias mágicas", reza el anuncio online de uno de esos sitios, que en sus promociones destacan el "buen trato", el confort y la "espectacular" experiencia de sus servicios de 3D.
Como en la mayoría de los nuevos negocios privados en Cuba, los locales se han improvisado en viviendas particulares y cuentan con habitaciones climatizadas, pantallas y proyectores de alta definición, sillas, sofás o lunetas, según el espacio o la inventiva de cada dueño.
En algunos sitios el pago de la entrada incluye palomitas de maíz y refrescos, junto a una amplia lista de títulos donde predominan las películas de 3D de entretenimiento, infantiles o aventuras, según constató Efe.
Casi todos esas salas privadas advierten en sus anuncios que funcionan mediante reserva previa, y los precios por entrada oscilan entre uno y tres pesos convertibles (CUC, equivalente al dólar), la moneda fuerte de las dos que circulan en el país.
Ese precio es elevado en comparación con los dos pesos cubanos (cuyo valor es 24 veces menor al del CUC) que cuesta actualmente la entrada subvencionada en los cines estatales de la isla.
Según datos oficiales, Cuba tenía hasta 2011 casi 300 salas de cine con formato de 35 y 16 mm, muchas de las cuales fueron construidas en la primera mitad del siglo XX con amplias capacidades y que actualmente no cuentan con la tecnología necesaria para dar el salto al 3D.
Las nuevas salas privadas en La Habana no suman más de 15 ó 20, a juzgar por los anuncios que aparecen en los sitios de clasificados de internet, pero han roto la inercia con la introducción del 3D en el país y llevan la delantera.
En los próximos meses las cosas podrían cambiar de acuerdo con los planes del Icaic de extender la tecnología a las salas estatales.
"Estamos estudiando la posibilidad de llegar a acuerdos conjuntos con alguna institución o entidad que facilite la ampliación de estas salas", dijo a Efe el funcionario del Icaic Roberto Romay.
La pequeña sala 3D que tiene esa institución y que ha usado la Muestra Joven esta semana es "absolutamente experimental", señaló Romay, pero en los próximos meses se realizará "un ensayo" más ambicioso en el cine Charles Chaplin, uno de los más modernos y céntricos que existen en La Habana.
"La intención es hacer una prueba con equipamientos, obras pensadas para el 3D y espejuelos (gafas) más aptas, un ensayo para unas 300 personas", adelantó el funcionario.

Guns and garden gnomes: 3-D printer revolution is now

Technology on NBCNews.com

LANCE ROSENFIELD / Redux Pictures

LANCE ROSENFIELD / Redux Pictures

Cody Wilson, who is in the process of developing a gun that will be printed on a 3-D printer, in Austin, Texas.

Addressing a packed auditorium at Austin’s South by Southwest festival last March, Bre Pettis, keynote speaker and co-founder of MakerBot, one of the leaders in desktop 3-D printers, described the increased interest and affordability of his company’s product as heralding the “the next Industrial Revolution.”

"Revolution" is often used even when the result doesn't match the definition — a complete change from the way things were before. Add "Industrial," and the comparison implies not just a change in manufacturing, but society as well, from improved living standards to changes in social class structure. Whether — and how — desktop 3-D printing can bring such changes is much debated, and remains to be seen.

Thanks to companies such as MakerBot, the bulk, expense and technical inefficiency that kept the 30-year-old technology known as Additive Manufacturing — or 3-D printing — confined to major laboratories and factories, is a thing of the past. Now, for less than $3,000, anyone with basic computer skills and an interest in learning more can download and personalize or create a computer-assisted design (CAD) that a printer will fabricate, layer by layer of filament.

Pettis is not the first to make the “next Industrial Revolution” comparison. For some within the maker community — subculture of tech-based do-it-yourself-ers — the increased accessibility of 3-D printer technology means "the end of consumerism.” Conversely, tech analysis firms Gartner predicts that 3-D printing could create opportunities for new product lines created in-house by local retailers. And Daniel Suarez, who spent a decade developing logistics and production planning software for major multinational corporations (and is also a best-selling novelist who writes about near-future technologies) predicts that "3-D printing will be a disruptive economic force in the next two decades — but I also think this disruption will benefit average Americans by causing a resurgence in local manufacturing."

Fervor over 3-D printing’s potential has only increased since SXSW, when Pettis introduced a prototype for the MakerBot Digitizer, which will scan small objects with the end goal of 3-D fabrication. He illustrated the Digitizer’s potential with a projection of a garden gnome, scanned to create … another garden gnome.

For those who don’t so much see an endless supply of home-printed garden gnomes as “revolution,” so much as a shot at getting on A&E’s “Hoarders,” there’s Cody Wilson, the notorious public face of Defense Distributed. Wilson is a University of Texas law student recently licensed to manufacture guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In March, Defense Distributed, much to the consternation of gun control advocates, printed the plastic lower receiver for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle — the portion of a firearm that carries the serial number — which that can fire more than 600 rounds.

Scary, legal and — as Wilson points out — a 3-D printed result that actually does something.

MakerBot

Wilson latched on to Pettis’s garden gnome to express his frustration with the maker community to make something more than geegaws during his riveting yet sparsely attended SXSW presentation about Defense Distributed and DefCAD, an open-source CAD design website he launched after MakerBot’s Thingiverse CAD site dumped all the gun designs from the site following the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A cursory scan on Thingiverse finds a sea of files to create iPhone cases, and myriad holders and stands, but other than clock components, parts to complete a cigar box ukulele, and a theoretical design for a working camera, there isn’t a lot on the open source data base that does stuff.

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Wilson is using the platform of 3-D printing to make a political statement about— and push the boundaries of — liberty and the freedom to share information. “I think this isn't a project about firearms, it’s a project about political equality,” Wilson recently told NBC’s Nightly News.

The potential Wilson sees for for 3-D printers isn't just about guns, but prosthetics and other medical devices, even drugs, putting the means of production in the hands of the people.

Pettis and Wilson are often portrayed as polar opposites in the 3-D printer movement, but they both face the inevitable roadblock of all new digital technology — intellectual copyright law.

"When it comes to 3-D printers, groups producing tools, weapons, and reproducing patented or copyrighted objects will be where all the debate and legal fireworks will occur," Suarez told NBC News.

"Sure, a copyright holder might get upset when individuals reproduce their trademarked cartoon character as little plastic tchotchkes, but I suspect this will follow the same path as digital music and torrented video — namely, there will be several high profile legal cases against perceived infringers until big companies realize technological advances have made this an unstoppable tide."

And so begins the revolution.

Chinese firms dominate Cuba IT fair

 NY Daily News

Havana, March 20 (IANS/EFE) Chinese firms such as Haier, ZTE and Huawei are the largest contingent at Cuba's 15th International Information Technology Fair and Convention.

Spain and Italy are also well represented at the event in Havana.

Companies from China are Cuba's "strategic allies" in the telecommunications sector, the fair's executive secretary, Raul Bejerano, said during the opening ceremony.

The fair will showcase products and services that contribute to "technological sovereignty" and to identifying projects favoring regional integration, he said.

The agenda includes the first International Forum on Digital Television, an opportunity to share experiences with the China's DTMB digital television standard.

Present at the fair's opening was the deputy director of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Wu Hao, who said Beijing is "finalizing" the demonstration of DTMB in Havana and will offer Cuba and other Latin American nations assistance in implementing the standard.

--IANS/EFE

Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/business/f8d31f39aff1c123b4e25b494f7d432b/chinese-firms-dominate-cuba-it-fair#ixzz2O5e5D8kK

Toyota's i-ROAD bike

ReutersVideo

Toyota's new i-Road three-wheel electric personal mobility vehicle is making its debut at the 2013 Geneva Car Show. The company says the vehicle is no wider than its two-seater competition and its Active Lean Technology helps the vehicle lean into bends in the style of a motorbike.

3D Print Demo

Pajamasmedia

Smart Lighting: A Future Illuminated by LED Technology

ForaTv

Would You Eat Steak From a Printer?

freakonomics

(Photo: Cea)

We’ve talked before about one possible future of food production: food printers.  Andras Forgacs is the CEO of a company called Modern Meadow, which is working on printing leather and meat products. He recently took questions on reddit.com; here’s his take on his company’s progress with replicating hamburger and steak:

Real steak is a big stretch. It won’t be the first product since steak is very hard to make for now. Instead, the first wave of meat products to be made with this approach will likely be minced meats (burgers, sausages, etc.) and pates (goose liver pate, etc.). Also seafood is an early possibility since the texture requires may be easier to achieve than premium cuts.

While I doubt anyone will make commercial quantities of premium steak within 10 years, we will eventually get there but it will be an Nth generation product.

And here’s an interesting talk Forgacs gave on the technology:

(HT: Daily Dish)

Space-based solar farms power up

kurzweilai

Space-based solar power (SBSP) has once again begun to attract attention with projects emerging in the US, Russia, China, India and Japan, among others. All are driven by increasing energy demands, soaring oil and gas prices, a desire to find clean alternatives to fossil fuels and by a burgeoning commercial space industry that promises to … more >>

Flexible battery completes stretchable electronics package

kurzweilai

Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated the first stretchable lithium-ion battery — a flexible device capable of powering innovative stretchable electronics. This development makes it now possible that these stretchable electronic devices could be used anywhere, including inside the human body. The implantable electronics could monitor anything from brain waves to heart activity, succeeding where flat, … more >>

3D printed car is as strong as steel, half the weight, and nearing production

kurzweilai

Picture an assembly line not that isn’t made up of robotic arms spewing sparks to weld heavy steel, but a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles. If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced, Wired reports. His creation is called the … more >>

First direct brain-to-brain interface between two animals

kurzweilai

Researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats for the first time, enabling them to communicate directly to solve simple behavioral puzzles. They even brain-linked two animals thousands of miles apart — one in Durham, North Carolina and one in Natal, Brazil. The researchers think linking multiple brains could form the first “organic … more >>