Puzzles

A new study out of Northwestern University has found the old advice of solving a problem by "sleeping on it" is not only true, but can be improved by using sound cues to manipulate our brain while we sleep.

Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik's famous puzzle cube has been around for 44 years now, but never like this. The GoCube is a Bluetooth-connected Rubik's Cube, dripping with sensors, that teaches you how to navigate its 43 quintillion permutations and lets you battle other cubers online.

A video posted on YouTube appears to show the world record time for a robot to solve a Rubik's Cube being reduced to fine primary-colored particles. If made official, the time of 0.38 seconds, not much more than the blink of an eye, would resoundingly beat the current record of 0.64 seconds.

So you like a challenge, but a run-of-the-mill 9 x 9 x 9 Rubik's Cube just doesn't melt your brain anymore... How about tackling a colossal 33 x 33 x 33 twisty cube, like this 3D-printed creation from Grégoire Pfennig of Greg's Puzzles?

​Back in 2014, a team of mechanical engineering students came up with an idea: why not build a giant Rubik's Cube that can be solved by hand? Although they've since graduated, their "kinetic sculpture" recently received its finishing touches from a second team that took over.

There's something fascinating about the mechanical puzzles faced by action heroes and explorers in novels and movies. To let average Joes experience a similar challenge, a startup has created Codex Silenda, a wooden puzzle book that requires each page to be solved before the next is unlocked.

The Rubik's Cube-solving robot we looked at last month has set a new world record for solving a Rubik's Cube in the machine category of the Guinness World Records. But their crown may be short-lived, with another robotic contender appearing to have beaten their time (unofficially).

​A software developer from Kansas, US, has developed a robot that can seemingly solve a Rubik's Cube in nigh on one second. Jay Flatland and his friend Paul Rose use a setup that includes a Linux-powered PC, an Arduino, webcams and stepper motors. They are targeting a world record.​

A specially designed robot known as Cubestormer 3 has been used to break the world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube. The robot, which broke the previous record by more than two seconds, is powered by an octa-core Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

The Tinker Tablet is a wooden toy that teaches kids about technology.

German puzzle maker Ravensburger has created four new jigsaw puzzles which can be brought to life using an app for the iPhone or iPad 2.

The Revomaze is a cylindrical puzzler that has been individually milled from a solid block of metal and features an internal labyrinth that must be navigated to remove the metal core and solve the puzzle.