Cutting Edge

James May, co-host of U.K. car show "Top Gear," has a new gig for entertaining engineers and toy lovers alike.

The show, "James May's Toy Stories," engages the public in extreme building with favorite childhood toys and films the communal construction in progress.

While the show won't air until spring on BBC Two, photos and videos of the projects are already showing up online.

May's show includes the construction of the first house made almost entirely out of Legos. It's located on the Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey, England.

The … Read more

Best known for its Roomba vacuums, iRobot also counts the U.S. Army as a top customer. And the latest Army deal is the company's single biggest.

iRobot said Tuesday it has received an order from the U.S. Army for $35.3 million for robots equipped to help soldiers safely evaluate dangerous conditions.

The order, made by the U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Center in Warren, Mich., calls for 486 iRobot PackBot 510 with FasTac Kit robots by March 31, 2010. This single order is part of an overall larger contract worth $286 million, of which $125 million … Read more

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Shuttle commander Frederick "C.J." Sturckow, forced by a leaky steering jet to use Discovery's big maneuvering thrusters instead of preferred fine-control vernier engines, deftly guided the spaceplane to a flawless docking with the International Space Station Sunday night to cap a two-day rendezvous.

Approaching from directly in front of the laboratory complex as both spacecraft sailed 220 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean at 5 miles per second, the shuttle's payload bay docking port engaged its counterpart on the front end of the station's Harmony module at 7:54 p.m. … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Running four days late, the shuttle Discovery roared to life and shot into space overnight Friday, lighting up the night sky with a rush of fire as it set off on a 13-day mission to deliver 7.5 tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

With commander Frederick "Rick" Sturckow and pilot Kevin Ford monitoring the computer-controlled ascent, Discovery's twin solid-fuel boosters ignited at 11:59 p.m. EDT, kick-starting the crew's eight-and-a-half-minute ride to orbit with a rush of 5,000-degree flame.

Taking off at roughly the moment … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Running four days late, the shuttle Discovery was refueled for launch late Friday for a 13-day mission to deliver more than 7.5 tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

With forecasters predicting a 60 percent chance of good weather, Discovery was scheduled for liftoff at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

An 8-inch liquid hydrogen valve blamed for back-to-back launch delays earlier this week worked normally during fueling Friday and engineers did not have to exercise a waiver that would have permitted additional troubleshooting.

Discovery's crew--commander Frederick Sturckow, pilot Kevin Ford, flight … Read more

It always happens when you try to do some good, doesn't it?

You try to help an old lady cross the road, and she looks at you harshly and says, "So I look old to you?" You tell that special someone that you love her, and she tells you that she's actually enjoying the company of your best friend.

Such is the painful, ironic circumstance at the United Kingdom's Met Office. ("Met" is short for "meteorological.")

You see, according to the Daily Mail, the agency's large weather brains decided to … Read more

IBM scientists have imaged the chemical structure of an individual molecule, increasing the possibility for creating electronic building blocks on the atomic and molecular scale.

Scientists In Zurich, Switzerland, have, for the first time, imaged the "anatomy," or chemical structure, of an individual molecule with "unprecedented" resolution, using noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM), IBM said Thursday. Resolving individual atoms within a molecule has been a long-standing goal of surface microscopy, according to the computer company, which has a research and development program dating back to 1945.

This research will be essential for building computing elements at the atomic scale that are vastly smaller, faster and more energy-efficient than today's processors and memory devices, IBM said.

The research is reported in the August 28 issue of Science magazine.

Though in recent years progress has been made in research of nanostructures on the atomic scale with AFM, imaging the chemical structure of an entire molecule has never been achieved with atomic resolution, according to IBM.

The atomic force microscopy was done in an ultrahigh vacuum and at very low temperatures (5 Kelvin equals minus 268 degrees Centigrade or minus 451 Fahrenheit) to image the chemical structure of individual pentacene molecules. Pentacene has a crystal structure that gives it properties as an organic semiconductor.

Scientists were able "to look through the electron cloud and see the atomic backbone of an individual molecule for the first time." This is roughly analogous to X-rays that pass through soft tissue to enable clear images of bones, IBM said.

The Science magazine article follows another piece published two months ago in the June 12 issue of the magazine covering the "determination of atomic charge states." The results discussed in both of these articles will "open new possibilities for investigating how charge propagates through molecules or molecular networks," IBM said.

Understanding the charge distribution may lead to building computing elements… Read more

Boeing announced on Thursday that the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner is now expected by the end of the year, with first delivery anticipated for the fourth quarter of 2010.

The Dreamliner has been grounded by a series of delays since its rollout in 2007. Boeing said the latest schedule change is due to its need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the plane. The company also plans to add several weeks to its schedule to reduce risks in the flight test and the aircraft's certification.

"This new schedule provides us the time needed … Read more

The British Army is currently considering a new vehicle that features an interior "survivability" capsule strung from the ceiling and "tunable" armor, both designed to cushion soldiers against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other blasts.

In addition to the cushy interior, the Ranger sports the now-popular boat-shaped hull, armored belly plates, floating floor, and energy-absorbing suspended seats, providing soldiers with an unprecedented level of protection, according to the producer Universal Engineering.

Hoping to land a sale, Universal is pitching the Ranger as a solution to other problems, which it identifies as redundancy and over-specialization.

"Currently, … Read more