Ben Coxworth
EcoBoomer iGo joins the self-balancing electric unicycle parade
Cats may love batting at tantilizingly-dangled kitty toys, but most of us can’t dangle those toys for our felines all day long – not even by remote control. The Solar Chaser was designed to pick up the slack, using an integrated solar panel to power its toy-bobbing arm. Read More
No matter what sort of wondrous implantable medical devices are created, they’re not going to do anyone much good if the recipient's body simply rejects them. With that in mind, scientists at the University of Washington have developed a synthetic biomaterial that they claim is “exceptional” at keeping implanted materials from being attacked by the immune system. Read More
Four years ago, we heard about Brinno’s GardenWatchCam – a fairly simple weatherproof camera, designed for getting time-lapse footage of growing plants. Since then, the company has set about making more general-purpose time-lapse video cameras. Its latest offering is the 1.3-megapixel High Dynamic Range (HDR) TLC200 Pro. Read More
Last month, recently-revived American automaker Detroit Electric unveiled its Lotus-bodied SP.01 – it’s said to be the fastest pure-electric car on the market. Although only 999 of the cars will be built, the company did state that other models were in the works for next year. At the recent Shanghai Auto Show, Detroit Electric and China’s Geely Automobile Group (which owns Volvo) announced they they would be teaming up on one of those – the EC7-EV. Read More
When a nerve in the peripheral nervous system is torn or severed, it can take a long time to regenerate – if it does so at all. Depending on the location of the injury, it can leave the affected part of the patient’s body numb and/or paralyzed for years, or even for the rest of their life. Now, however, scientists from Israel’s Tel Aviv University have created a gel and an implant that they claim could vastly aid in the healing of damaged nerves. Read More
In the gold-mining process, the precious metal is often extracted from low-grade ore in a technique known as gold cyanidation. As its name suggests, the process utilizes highly-poisonous cyanide, some of which ends up entering the environment in the mines’ tailings. That’s not so good. Scientists at Illinois’ Northwestern University, however, recently announced their discovery of a new gold recovery process that’s based on a non-toxic component of corn starch. Read More
For professional-looking videos, one of the fundamental rules for the vast majority of shots is to use a tripod. Doing so can be a hassle, however – particularly if you’re running around banging off quick shots for some sort of extreme sports video. With that in mind, New Jersey-based Wild Iron Inc. is introducing a little something known as the Flex Shot. Essentially, it’s a deformable 4 x 4-inch (10 x 10-cm) heavy-duty rubber bag full of a “sand-like material,” with a coated aluminum camera mount on top. I recently had a chance to try out a prototype unit, and I think the idea has a lot of merit. Read More
California-based engineer Faizal Ali was riding his motorcycle on a San Diego freeway one day and downshifted in order to slow for an exit. Because he didn’t actually apply the brakes, however, his brake light didn’t come on. As a result, the following car almost ran into him. That experience prompted him to partner with Jesse Szynal and designer Fausin Mdisa to create Vololights – it’s a rear lighting system that activates no matter what method the rider is using to decelerate. Read More
Back in 2009, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) set an endurance record for electric unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when its fuel cell-powered Ion Tiger aircraft managed to stay aloft for 26 hours and 1 minute. Now, NRL has announced that the same aircraft has trounced that record, by remaining in flight for 48 hours and 1 minute. Read More
