Cutting Edge

The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station Friday, leaving behind a new habitation module and observation deck that virtually complete the U.S. segment of the lab complex after more than 11 years of construction.

With pilot Terry Virts at the controls, Endeavour pulled directly away from the station's forward docking port at 7:54 p.m. EST after nine days of joint activity.

"Zambo, it's been good having you, sorry to see you guys leave," station flight engineer Timothy Creamer radioed to shuttle commander George Zamka. "We'll watch and wave.&… Read more

Appreciate androids with a taste for technology tipples? BarBot 2010 may be just the event for you.

A dozen drink-making droids served up their mixology skills this week, pouring cocktails for booze-hungry hackers at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. BarBot 2010, the third event of its kind to celebrate robots and cocktail culture, is the place to get perfectly mixed drinks from well-oiled machines. Watch as these robots use automated algorithms to serve up White Russians, cosmopolitans, and shots of whiskey with a bit of futuristic flare.

The event was put on by the same folks behind the RoboGames, … Read more

If you're someone who's never had to deal with sleep apnea, as I am, it may come as a surprise to learn that the most effective--and frequently prescribed--device to treat the disorder, CPAP, is an enormous, unwieldy in-the-vein-of-a-bad-Halloween-costume mask that tends to find its way to such places as the closet, waste basket, or list of inventions to improve before you die.

So it is with great relief that I, even with my lack of sleep apnea, have been tipped off to a new technique currently being tested in Belgium that, if effective, could do wonders for those whose health can seriously suffer from sleep apnea.

ImThera, a privately funded start-up, has developed a tiny neurostimulator surgically implanted near the tongue that is programmed to essentially keep parts of the tongue awake enough to not block one's airway at rest.

Called Targeted Hypoglossal Neurostimulation (THN) Sleep Therapy, the technique consists of a small electrical device implanted under the skin near the lower jaw and along the Hypoglossal (12th cranial) nerve, then connected to a programmable implantable pulse generator (IPG) implanted near the surface of one's upper chest. … Read more

Picture a tent that could be dropped from a helicopter and kept aloft by balloons with computer-controlled rotors attached. It might sound like some kind of offbeat interactive media installation, but Canadian designer Richard Kuchinsky imagines his structure more practically: as a cheap, easy-to-deploy emergency shelter.

Kuchinksy's "balloon tent pop-up shelter" is just one submission to a contest by design site Core 77, which, in light of last month's Haiti earthquake, has tasked designers with creating innovative short-term shelters. Submissions for the site's latest "one-hour design challenge" will be accepted through February 28, but the Core 77 online submission forum is already hopping with some highly creative solutions to a pressing problem.

Kuchinsky found inspiration for his balloon tent pop-up shelter in the Dymaxion manufactured-housing-unit concept by Buckminster Fuller. The floating tent could be moved as needed and could even sport graphic markings to help identify triage wards, organizations, or families from air or land.

Michael DiTullo of Massachusetts suggests a "super obvious, but maybe so obvious it could work" approach: a giant umbrella with a center shaft that doubles as a fireplace. Side skirts could be fastened to the lip of the roof to create the equivalent of tent walls.

The structure might need to be tied down like a tent for stability in winds, DiTullo notes, but could ship easily in planes, trucks, or trains.

Other ideas submitted so far include a foldable, pop-out shelter that forms 10 or more contiguous waterproof compartments, and an inflatable inner tube of sorts that could provide floating refuge during floods. From inside, the inhabitants could lift a support rod, which would uncoil a tent to function as a roof, with the tube itself serving as a back support cushion. … Read more

The electronic issues dogging the Toyota Prius signal that cars are increasingly susceptible to software bugs. Cars, however, are not PCs on wheels and have a different set of problems than that crash-prone computer on your desktop, according to an expert at Edmunds.com.

Anyone who has ever been in a Prius knows immediately that it's different, with its large LCD display on the dashboard, the computer-controlled buttons that switch the car into different fuel-efficiency modes, and the all-digital dashboard.

If the Prius is any indication of the future of cars, then cars with more computer-related glitches is part … Read more

An engineering professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia is developing an acoustic resonant sensor smaller than a human hair to test bodily fluids for a variety of diseases, including breast and prostate cancers.

The real-time sensor uses micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (M/NEMS) to detect diseases in bodily fluids, and can be integrated with small circuits instead of bulky data-reading and analyzing equipment.

Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, won a $400,000, five-year National Science Foundation Career Award in January of 2009 to continue his sensor research.

"Many disease-related substances in liquids are … Read more

We're not sure if this portends a robot Mickey Mouse and Snow White, but Korea plans to build what is believed to be the world's first robot theme park, the Korea Herald reports.

The robot magic kingdom will be part of a giant residential and industrial complex called Robot Land in Incheon, one of South Korea's largest cities and a major transportation hub.

According to the Robot Land Web site, the theme park will feature all manner of robot entertainment, including exhibitions of robot characters from films and cartoons; reconstructions of robot-oriented movie sets like "Minority … Read more

HOUSTON--The Endeavour astronauts cranked open aluminum shutters protecting the windows in the space station's new observation deck early Wednesday, giving the crew inside an "absolutely incredible" view of the Earth 220 miles below.

During the shuttle mission's third and final spacewalk, Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick removed insulation blankets from the cupola's seven windows late Tuesday and unbolted launch locks holding the aluminum shutters in place.

Astronauts Terry Virts and Kay Hire, standing by inside the cupola, then were cleared to crank open the shutters one at a time to test the deployment mechanisms, starting … Read more

Score one for the Airborne Laser.

In a milestone for the ambitious directed-energy project, now dramatically downsized, the Pentagon's Airborne Laser prototype weapons system destroyed a ballistic missile that was in flight. The shootdown took place February 11 off the central coast of California.

"The Airborne Laser Testbed team has made history with this experiment," said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, in a statement released Friday. Boeing is the prime contractor for the Defense Department project.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency was equally enthusiastic about the results. "The … Read more