Boeing Phantom Eye – liquid-hydrogen powered UAV

By Damir Beciri
2 Comments7 June 2012

boeing-phantom-eye-1Nearly two years after it has been revealed to the public during a ceremony in St. Louis, Boeing recently revealed that their high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) named Phantom Eye managed to complete its first take off and landing. Although its performance is still far from the goals set by Boeing, it does… »

Natural adhesives and adhesives inspired by nature

By Damir Beciri
One Comment6 June 2012

natural-adhesiveGlue finds its uses in many objects ranging from sticky notes to airplanes. It is all around us, even in objects we don’t expect it to be. Until now, the majority of glues (adhesives) have been manufactured from petroleum-based materials, but the researchers from Fraunhofer Institute are looking for ways to improve them by developing… »

Multi-touch table educational games improve learning

By Damir Beciri
2 Comments5 June 2012

multi-touch-table-educational-gamesAn interdisciplinary team consisting out of computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts, conducted a pair of studies where they investigated the actual learning outcomes of educational games in both formal and informal settings. The results revealed that educational games succeeded at making the process of learning difficult material engaging… »

Silkmoth antenna biomimicry for better explosive detectors

By Damir Beciri
4 June 2012

cnrs-silkmoth-biomimicry-1A cooperation between researchers from the ISL:Research for Security and Defence with the University of Strasbourg resulted with development of a molecule detection system inspired by silkmoth antennas. The system is able to detect explosives with one thousand-fold of the detection limit attainable by currently used methods, and it could eventually be used to detect… »

Green architecture – VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre

By Damir Beciri
One Comment3 June 2012

vandusen-botanical-garden-visitor-centre-1Located between Oak Street and Livingstone Lake in an area once occupied by a collection of hollies that have been transferred to other botanical gardens, the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre is a great example of Vancouver green architecture . The building exceeds LEED Platinum certification status, and it is designed to meet much stricter… »

Nanotechnology dramatically improves medical diagnosis

By Damir Beciri
1 June 2012

princeton-chou-group-1Princeton University researchers developed a new nanomaterial which dramatically improves the sensitivity of immunoassays – a common medical test which mimics the action of the immune system to detect the presence of chemicals associated with diseases. According to researchers, their method increases the sensitivity over 3 million times more sensitive compared to other similar tests…. »

SSTs – self-assembling synthetic DNA “building blocks”

By Damir Beciri
31 May 2012

sst-dna-structuresIn an emerging field of science known as DNA nanotechnology, DNA is being explored for use as a material that can be used to build small and programmable structures. Researchers at the Wyss Institute have used short synthetic strands of DNA to developed interlocking DNA “building blocks” able to form complex nanostructures. Named single-stranded tiles… »

Mimicking quorum sensing to synchronize dancing Nao robots

By Damir Beciri
30 May 2012

aldebaran-nao-robots-mit-quorum-sensingSo far, there have been research groups and companies who demonstrated how their robots can function in sync. However, influence from various parameters and events in real world applications do affect robots. A group of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, developed an approach able to partially handle these problems by… »