Ordinarily, prosthetic legs have ankle joints that are passive, moving only in response to pressure exerted by the user. As a result, walking up stairs or over uneven ground can be difficult. A new "smart" prosthetic ankle, however, adjusts its foot angle according to what the user is doing.
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Although wind turbines may seem like the epitome of "green" energy, scientists from Vanderbilt University are working on making them even greener. They're looking at a resin that could save energy when turbine blades are being created, and that might make those blades more recyclable.
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Next time you’re untangling your earbuds, remember that knots may have played a crucial part in kickstarting our universe, and without them we wouldn’t live in 3D. That’s the strange story pitched by physicists in a new paper, to help plug a few plot holes in the origin story of the universe.
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With the rise of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” we need new treatments to keep us from returning to a dark age of medicine. Now, researchers from Vanderbilt University have found a new class of antibiotic hiding in plain sight: human breast milk.
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A pair of independent studies from two teams used CRISPR technology to genetically alter ants to remove their ability to "smell," which resulted in their inability to interact with normal ants and produced changes in their brains.
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Karl Zelik says that he's "sick of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne being the only ones with performance-boosting supersuits." That's why he teamed up with Erik Lamers to create a mechanized undergarment. While it doesn't allow the wearer to fly, it could keep them from putting their back out.
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In the future, we might overcome anxiety about a dying phone battery by doing a few star jumps. Researchers are developing an ultra-thin device that can generate electricity from motions as subtle as sitting down, opening up possibilities of clothes that charge phones or light up like an LCD screen.
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The machine used to spin up cotton candy may also be the answer to a new generation of self-destructing electronics. A new form of electrical circuitry made of a spinable polymer must be kept above a temperature of 32° C (89.6° F) or it dissolves in water.
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Many wild elephants already wear GPS-equipped collars, which let wildlife officials track their whereabouts. An upgrade to those collars, however, could soon allow those officials to instantly know when poachers are shooting at the elephants.
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Next time your smartphone freezes, the culprit might actually be the cosmic rays that are constantly raining down on us from outer space. A new study has examined how modern consumer electronics are becoming more vulnerable to cosmic interference, and suggests ways to build better chips.
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