The vertical counterparts of green roofs – green walls are becoming more popular. Besides the calming effect of the greenery in our urban world the walls can be arranged to be visually engaging as well. Walls covered in vegetation provide the benefits of natural insulation and removal of air pollutants. PNC Financial Services Group Inc…. »

The mantis shrimps found on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and have the most complex vision systems known to science. They can see in twelve colors (humans see in only three) and can distinguish between different forms of polarized light. The research of the sea shrimp’s remarkable eye, that could inspire a new generation… »

As much as we like to think that things like business cards are no longer important in our digital world, the fact is that they are still a very valuable tool for anyone in business. However, as most of the old objects find their more contemporary successors today,  the business cards found their new way… »

From flies to fish to lobsters, small insects and animals have long been ideal models for robotic and computer scientists. Bees, for example, possess unmatched elegance in flight, zipping from flower to flower with ease and hovering stably with heavy payloads. A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists at Harvard received a 10… »

Swedish researchers have developed an interactive touchscreen 3D autopsy table that allows pathologists to examine virtual representations of real bodies in minute detail and from different viewing angles. The Virtual Autopsy Table has been developed by Norrköping Visualization Center in cooperation with Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization using science and technology which is… »

The energy available in sunlight is a resource we’ve only begun to really get a handle on. Current photovoltaic-cell technology, typically a semiconductor-based system, is expensive, not very efficient, and only does instant conversions from sunlight to electricity. But an artificial photosynthesis system or a photo-electrochemical cell that mimics what happens in plants could potentially… »

We already wrote about modular and shape-shifting robots in our previous articles. Swarm robotics is inspired by the social insect behavior, and emphasizes aspects such as decentralization of control, limited communication abilities among robots, use of local information, emergence of global actions, and robustness. Most current studies in swarm robotic systems have focused on robotic… »

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Research Office awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to iRobot to create the flexible military robot. The maker of the Roomba and Scooba, along with University of Chicago researchers, develops the palm-size ChemBot as a mobile robot that can move over soft terrain and navigate through small… »