academics

Guilt-free plastic for composting in your yard

A new sugar-based polymer could be used to make common food containers compostable at home right alongside your potato peels and egg shells.

A team of engineers and scientists at the Imperial College London led by Charlotte Williams in partnership with BioCeramic Therapeutics have created a degradable material from sugars derived from the breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass.

Williams noted in the group's announcement that while they're not the first to come up with a "biorenewable plastic," many of those have previously been made from sugar beet- or corn-based biomass.

It's a fairly accurate estimate.

In … Read more

Robo-octopus wanted by EU

While they're fascinating to watch and sometimes even delicious to eat, how many times a day do you really think about the octopus or what an amazing piece of natural machinery it is?

Cecilia Laschi, professor of industrial bioengineering at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, is so impressed by the octopus she's leading an extensive team of roboticists and scientists to build the first soft-bodied robot replicate of one. Which may not seem that exciting, until you learn just how unique the muscle tissue and dexterity of the octopus is.

As New Scientist cleverly pointed out, if the "Octopus" project is successful a robot someday might be able to accomplish the task seen in this video by Dr. James B. Wood, an assistant research scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences who maintains a Web site on cephalopods.

If you think it through, the octopus is a very dexterous creature that if translated into a robot could provide endless capability for exploring hard to reach places in the ocean. While we've seen other aquatic robots reaching for the depths of the ocean or mimicking creatures like fish and snakes, a completely soft-bodied underwater robot would be groundbreaking.… Read more

MIT students turn famed Harvard statue into 'Halo' chief

It goes without saying that in addition to a stellar reputation for academic innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is renowned for its geeky pranks. The best-known of these was perhaps the time when students decorated the campus' Great Dome to look like Star Wars robot R2D2 in celebration of the legendary film series' first prequel in 1999.

But Star Wars prequels are so last decade. These days, it's all about the much-hyped Xbox 360 title Halo 3. And why prank your own campus when you can pull a fast one on those snotty Crimsons next door?

Consequently, MIT pranksters … Read more