Emerging Tech

Day by day, the hacks are getting more interesting.

German robotics company Festo offers a postfuturist menagerie: autonomous kites, silver air-jellyfish and flying robo-penguins.

NASA's latest nanosatellites seek answers to questions about the place of life in the universe�at a very small scale.

University of Newcastle researchers may have come up with a biotechnology answer to the roadway printer I posted about yesterday: bacteria modified to colonize cracks in concrete and fix ruined buildings and crumbling roadways.

3-D printing is going viral. With 3-D fabrication technology at for the desktop, for LEGOs, and for nanoscale materials, it was only a matter of time before the paradigm found its way into space�and corporate science fiction. But this promising technology still has to prove itself in terrestrial infrastructure first.

Coffee isn't only a stimulant, but also a social glue and fuel for creative lives. A proposed mobile app would allow caffeinated bloggers, writers, artists, and designers to share their coffeehouse-generated work in real-time.

Kinect hacks are emerging at a rapid pace; it�s hard to recall a mass-market gadget so quickly adapted to new uses. As Bruce Sterling points out, �Microsoft accidentally invented a primo piece of art-installation hardware.� It's this kind of DIY innovation that keeps tech feral.

Scientists at Tokyo Tech have tapped into the neurons of a male silk moth, connecting its tiny brain to a little wheeled robot. When the moth�s sense organs are exposed to female pheremones, the robot performs the silk moth�s mating dance.

The SRZero goes from 0 to 60 in fewer than seven seconds. But this power doesn�t come from stepping on the gas�the race-ready automobile runs on electricity. And in a coup for green technology, tomorrow the car will reach Ushuaia, Argentina and the end of a 16,000-mile journey from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.

Talking about the new Facebook mail system at today�s live event, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook director of engineering Andrew �Boz� Bosworth keep using words like �simple, seamless, and informal.� But does the new system promote a dumbed-down version of sociability?