Ben Coxworth
As anyone who has ever tried to swat a fly will know, the little beasties have almost impossibly-fast reflexes. It turns out, in fact, that they have a response time faster than that of any computer. If only we knew what their secret was, perhaps we could develop robots that could react just as quickly. Well, scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology are working on it. Since 1956, a mathematical model has existed that accurately predicts how a fly’s brain will recognize and process visual movements. What hasn’t been understood is how the individual nerve cells interact, to make that recognition and processing possible. Given that a fly’s tiny brain contains over 100,000 nerve cells per cubic millimeter, it would seem impossible to observe the reactions of any one of those cells. That, however, is just what the German scientists have done. Read More
Gardening can be physically-demanding work. Whether you’re weeding, planting or harvesting, almost every garden-related task seems to involve kneeling down and/or bending forward - definitely not so easy on the knees or the back. For commercial garden workers, however, help could be on the way in the form of the Wunda Weeder, a device which allows workers to lie down as they tend to the crops. Read More
Hidden explosives, chemical weapons, biological agents and illegal drugs could one day be optically detectable from up to 20 meters away. How? Well, every substance has its own unique terahertz (THz) radiation “fingerprint”, the waves of which pass through anything other than metal or liquid. Scientists from New York state’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are working on a way of analyzing those waves, then determining what substance they’re emanating from. The process would be harmless to both the subject and the observer, and could make the world a much safer place. Read More
Some people might see it as a natural progression in the digital age, while others might see it as kind of blasphemous, but LEGO is set to launch an online video game based on its popular building blocks. Using over 2,000 types of pieces in 26 colors, players of LEGO Universe will virtually create their own avatars and other props, joining fellow subscribers worldwide on interactive adventures in the Land of Imagination. Picture a kid-friendly version of something like World of Warcraft, but one in which players have to build all the structures, vehicles, animals and whatnot that surround them, and you get the idea. Read More
With all the publicity the Gulf Oil Spill is currently receiving, it’s easy to forget about another disaster from which the city of New Orleans is still recovering - the flood caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That flood, of course, occurred because the levee along the city’s coastline couldn’t stand up to the assault of the storm-driven waves. Daniel Wren, a hydraulic engineer who works for the USDA Agriculture Research Service in Oxford, Mississippi, is now working on a system that might have kept that from happening. He has developed floating barriers that can dissipate up to 75 percent of a wave’s energy, before that wave reaches the levee. Read More
Blooms of blue green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, are not something you want occurring in your water system. When ingested, the microorganisms can cause rather unpopular reactions such as headaches, stomach aches, fever, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Oh yes, and they can also kill people, not to mention livestock and wildlife that unsuspectingly drink from affected lakes and rivers. Fortunately, researchers may be on the way to a green (as opposed to blue-green) method of controlling the problem: low-frequency ultrasound. Read More
OK, first of all, what’s a light mill? It’s a simple rotary motor consisting of four flat vanes mounted to a central axis, which spins when subjected to light. Light mills have been around since 1873, mostly just as novelty items, and have pretty much always been at least a few inches tall. Less than a week ago, however, scientists at California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced the creation of a light mill just 100 nanometers in size. Unlike its bigger brothers, this tiny device might actually have some very practical applications. Read More
After much anticipation, UK-based Gordon Murray Design has finally unveiled the full, complete versions of its two microcars, the T.25 and the T.27. The three-seater combustion-engined T.25 got its first public exposure last week at Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, in Oxford. Details of the T.27, essentially an all-electric version of the T.25, have recently been published on the company's website. Besides looking dead sexy, the little auto has been promoted as “the world’s most efficient electric car.” Read More
Bored with your plain old ceiling fan, with its old school, conservative straight blades? Perhaps what you need is the Ribbon. A one-off exercise from Australian industrial designer Ben McMahon, the Ribbon not only looks radically different than traditional fans, but is also claimed to be much more effective at air circulation. The designer obviously believes his invention has potential, as he has entered it in this year’s James Dyson Awards. Read More
It’s a frustrating situation. You’re aimlessly circling the blocks, hoping to stumble across a free parking space, but with no clue as to where such a space might be. Well, as we so often like to say here at Gizmag, “A new invention could change that.” Researchers from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have helped develop a system that detects free parking spots, then guides drivers to the closest ones using a process that’s reportedly better than GPS. Read More
