Sphere

This 125-kg (276-lb) robotic ball looks – and acts – like it could've broken free from the Batpod. It's a self-balancing sphere that can chase down criminals at up to 35 km/h (22 mph) on land or water, and strike with a range of non-lethal weapons.

The team behind the Sphere, the Las Vegas building that boasts bragging rights as the world's largest spherical building and hosts the world's largest LED display on its exterior, has revealed plans to create a second version in the Middle East.

Although the drinking of hydrogen-gas-infused water can help treat rheumatoid arthritis, the effects are limited. Scientists have developed what could be a better alternative, though, in the form of tiny injectable gas-emitting "micromotors."

A team of researchers from the Universities of British Columbia and Saskatchewan has built a nifty-looking crystal ball display that can produce 3D images for up to two simultaneous users, clearing the path for head-in-a-ball style teleconferencing and new kinds of 3D multiplayer gaming.

Burning Man isn't lacking in interesting art and architecture, but the next annual desert gathering may feature a large inflatable mirrored globe among all the other unusual structures. Named the Orb, the art piece is being produced by BIG's Bjarke Ingels, along with collaborator Jakob Lange.​

​​Astronomers have detected the first-ever exoplanet holding a wide stable orbit in a chaotic triple star system.

The ESO has turned its SPHERE instrument towards an unusual double star with the expectation of finding an orbiting brown dwarf. The observations didn’t quite go according to plan, with the instrument – which is the latest addition to the VLT – coming up short.

Although viewing a 3D digital model of an item allows you get a sense of the “real” object, it certainly doesn’t help if you’re looking at that 3D model on a flat screen. That’s why Spheree was created. It’s a spherical display that users can walk around, viewing a model from various angles.

As evidenced by its Wall of Sound and Wall of Sound 2, Stockholm-based Studio Total (ST) doesn't exactly do things by halves. The agency has now essentially taken its huge speaker creations and crammed them into a Cocoon 1 to create the AudioOrb, a speaker you can actually get inside.

The Robotics and Cybernetics Research Group at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is developing Rosphere, a spherical robot that rolls like a ball and may one day be rolling up for work in fields to monitor and tend crops.

Micasa Labs' Cocoon 1 is a transparent sphere that provides some personal space in which to relax, store items, or even cook.

The Bubble collection is a range of portable transparent domed huts, created by French designer Pierre Stephane Dumas.