A team of researchers at Penn State University (PSU) has developed the very first optical fiber made with a core of Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) – a light-yellow compound that can be used as a semiconductor. The new class of optical fiber, which allows for a more effective and liberal manipulation of light, promises to open… »

When people communicate, the way they move has as much to do with what they’re saying as the words that come out of their mouths. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found that when robots move in a more human-like fashion, with one movement leading into the next, that people can not only better… »

Advanced Technologies Centre (ATC) is open for research and teaching at Swinburne University of Technology’s Hawthorn campus. Aside the building’s transparency and interesting design, the ATC has achieved a 5 Star Green Star – Education Design v1 rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, which evaluates buildings on their environmental design and performance. Located… »

Researchers at University of Michigan (U-M) and Penn State University are studying how plants like the Mimosa can change shape, and they’re working to replicate the mechanisms with artificial cells. Currently, their artificial cells are palm-size and larger, but they’re trying to minify them by using microstructures and nanofibers to construct them. They’re also exploring… »

If you like to sing or listen to the music while you shower, here is another way to annoy your neighbors. The team that helped commercialize the award winning Wind-Up Radio has launched the world’s first water powered radio named H2O Shower Powered Radio. It uses the water pressure provided by household showers to power… »

The Wind Explorer is a lightweight electrically-, wind- and kite-powered vehicle all in one. It might seem as a concept, but it already exists and it is on its route across the Australian continent. With extreme efficiency, the Wind Explorer combines technologies that are available today, but neither sensibly nor fully utilized. The wind explorer… »

A group of about 35 people, part of the European project RoboEarth, is currently creating a worldwide, open-source platform that allows any robot with a network connection to generate, share, and reuse data. RoboEarth is developed in hope that it will greatly speed up robot learning and adaptation in complex tasks, as well as providing… »

Some forms of plankton and bacteria have the ability to build an extra natural layer of nanoparticle-like armor. That ability has inspired chemists at the University of Warwick to create a remarkably simple way to give drug bearing polymer vesicles (microscopic polymer based sacs of liquid) their own armored protection. The technology could be used… »