Let's be honest, start to mention machines and computer programs that start to think, learn or evolve, and most people scoff. One or two at the back might start gently shaking, words like 'Skynet', 'Cyberdyne' or even 'Agent Smith' beginning to flutter uncontrollably through their paranoid minds. However, the developers…...
Amsterdam’s Robot 3D Printed Bridge
The beautiful, iconic and historic city of Amsterdam, in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has seen war, strife and prosperity throughout the years, and more than 1200 bridges built over its 65 miles of canals, linking around 90 islands together to create the current metropolis. However, the bridges, some of…...
Porsche Opens New US HQ
The Porsche brand has been synonymous with sports cars since the 356 was first put into production in 1948 and now, nearly 70 years later, the very mention of the brand quickly evokes images of speed and excitement. It was natural, then, that when Porsche Cars North America came to build…...
Newer, Greener Concrete
As the world at large continues its search for more sustainable materials and methods, with a lower impact on the environment, that will still allow us to continue with our daily lives, researchers from the Civil Engineering Department of Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, Malaysia, have come up with…...
Rocking the House
When earthquakes hit vulnerable population centres like Southern California, Istanbul in Turkey, or Kathmandu in Nepal, buildings suffer. It's a fact of life. Buildings are built to withstand vertical pressure from gravity, so when earthquakes apply massive horizontal or lateral loads on them, they can't cope. But what of the…...
First Look at Facebook’s New Building
In order to maybe distance himself from the ingrained image of the nerd/hacker hangout of a dank garage or over-stuffed dorm room, Facebook founder, chairman and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has had his new office space, that now overlooks San Francisco Bay, somewhat enlarged. Yet still designed with his…...
3D Printed Carbon-fibre Outperforms Balsa Wood
Across Europe and North America, turbines cover certain parts of the landscape and use ever more advanced technology to convert the abundant gales and breezes into electricity. These CAD-engineered and millimetre-precise fan blades of tremendous size are the latest thing in renewable energy, yet at their core they don't seem…...
Are Airships the Answer to Overloaded Air Travel?
While most people are maybe not looking back 85 years to the first days of Zeppelins, Dirigibles and Airships with much fondness, researchers from the University of Lincoln have just finished a three year study that may show lighter-than-air craft as the future of sustainable air transport. Lincoln University's School…...
Google Cardboard, Accessible Virtual Reality
It may put the user in mind of one of those old photo-viewers, with the white interchangeable circle-cards that let you click through pictures of Zebras, Giraffes and Hippopotami, or worse looking through a pair of empty, glued-together toilet-tissue roles, but combining your smartphone with the Google Cardboard 'system' is…...
New Skyscraper Design Doesn’t Put Others in the Shade
A new worry in the City of London is that the need for the 250 skyscrapers, that are expected to be appearing over the next few years, will eclipse an even larger issue, literally. The planned high rise buildings will deliver much sought after work and living space in the…...