A team of scientists has created a tiny robot that can melt itself and then resolidify on command in order to pass through tight spaces.

Remember Terminator 2’s terrifying antagonist, the advanced T-1000 shapeshifting android? It was made out of this liquid metal that allowed it to melt and then resolidify and cause all kinds of havoc. Well, guess what? Scientists claim to have created a real-life version of the T-1000, a small robot that can melt and resolidify itself on command, enabling it to easily escape from confined spaces. There’s even a video of it performing this neat trick, and while it may not be as impressive as the T-1000 Terminator, it’s definitely an impressive, if somewhat scary, look into the future.

Read More »

In an attempt to explore the relationships people have with their modern accessories like smartphones and smartwatches, researchers recently created a smartwatch powered by a living organism.

Devices like smartphones, smartwatches, and laptops have become a part of our daily routine, and scientific experiments have shown that many people feel that they can’t function properly without them. Yet as a result of consumerism culture, most of us have no problem discarding our gadgets as soon as we can afford to buy new, more advanced ones, even if we don’t really need them. But what if there was a way to feel more attached to these gadgets, would that make us think twice before replacing them? Inspired by the Tamagochi, a Japanese toy that became an international phenomenon during the 1990s, scientists at Chicago University created a unique type of smartwatch that only functioned if the living organism inside of it was kept alive.

The Tamagochi was an egg-shaped device that allowed users to take care of a digital pet by feeding, training and disciplining it. If not given enough attention, the pet would die, and players would have to start over. It was immensely popular in the 1990s and early 2000s and is still available today. This toy was the original inspiration for a unique smartwatch where the digital pet was replaced by a living organism – a slime mold.

Read More »

Diana Caldarescu is a talented technical designer and fashion illustrator who specializes in chandelier-shaped earrings that actually light up.

Having miniature chandeliers hanging from your earlobes may sound kitsch, but if that’s the style you’re going for, you may as well go big with the amazing light-up chandelier earrings of Diana Caldarescu. The young New York-based artist creates these metal wonders out of brass, sterling silver, 14-karat gold, and glass crystals and adds a bit of magic in the form of LED-tipped candles that actually turn on thanks to power provided by a small battery pack hidden behind the wearer’s ear.

Read More »

The Taliban-led Government of Afghanistan recently unveiled the country’s first-ever indigenously built supercar, named Mada 9.

On the list of things you were expecting from the Taliban, unveiling a supercar prototype probably ranked pretty low, but here we are. Reportedly developed by a team of at least 30 engineers from a company called ENTOP and Kabul’s Afghanistan Technical Vocational Institute (ATVI) over a period of 5 years, the Mada 9 definitely has the looks of a supercar, but is currently powered by a modified 2000 Toyota Corolla engine. It is apparently capable of moving at “higher speeds”, but the end goal is to fit it with a more powerful electrical engine.

Read More »

Latvian artist Marite Desaine specializes in beautiful ballpoint pen drawings that can easily be mistaken for elaborate paintings.

In the right hands, the humble ballpoint pen can be an amazing art tool, and we have featured some pretty amazing ballpoint drawings in the past, but nothing quite like the artworks of Marite Desaine. The Latvian artist first took the internet by storm with her awe-inspiring drawings back in 2014, soon after graduating from art school, when a number of prestigious art websites and blogs picked up her work. And for good reason, her style was unique, and the artworks – mostly landscapes – looked more like colorful paintings than drawings.

Read More »

AI is everywhere these days, and the humble baby stroller industry is no exception. Canadian stroller maker Glüxkind is set to release the world’s most advanced AI-powered baby stroller.

Originally unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Glüxkind Ella is a technological wonder compared to most other baby strollers. Calling it a stroller sounds a bit unfair, considering that it’s more of a high-tech many that can independently rock your baby to sleep, assist the user on uphill and downhill slopes, and constantly monitor surroundings via an array of sensors and cameras, among many other impressive functions. It may look like a regular stroller at first sight, but Ella is actually a small battery-powered vehicle powered by artificial intelligence.

Read More »

An Indian man has been making news headlines for honoring his late wife’s wish to build a life-size statue of her so they can still be together.

Tapas Sandilya, a retired government employee from India’s West Bengal, lost his wife of 39 years in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Indrani was taken to the hospital while he was forced into isolation, so he couldn’t be by her side when she passed away. Determined to at least fulfill one of his wife’s final wishes, Tapas started looking for an artist that could create a lifelike silicone statue of Indrani, and spent 6 months and around $3,000 on the unusual project.

Read More »

Lifte is a Japanese clothing brand that specializes in hospital patient gowns that are not only comfortable to wear but also look stylish.

Fashion is probably the last thing on most people’s minds when they need to spend time in a hospital, but Japanese clothing brand Lifte claims that dressing well is one important way to relieve stress as a hospital patient. You may not have your health, but that’s no reason not to dress nice. Lifte actually specializes in stylish, high-quality hospital gowns that not only look good on the wearer but are also considerably more comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

Read More »

A French homeless man who built his own intricate castle out of recycled foam after losing his apartment has been notified by authorities to tear it down because it poses a danger.

David, a 53-year-old former animator from Toulouse, France, has been homeless for over a year, after reportedly losing his apartment to squatting. With nowhere else to go, he had no choice but to sleep in a tent on the outskirts of Tournefeuille, a town on the banks of the Touch River. One day, an old woman stopped in front of his tent and said “that’s not very clean,” so he decided to upgrade his temporary abode to something more visually appealing. Using his experience as an animator, he steadily built himself a fairytale castle out of recycled and painted blocks of foam found in dumpsters. Before long, his home became a popular attraction for both children and adults.

Read More »

It’s hard to believe that a humble stamp could be considered exorbitantly expensive, but at $8.5 million, this 1856 postage stamp is considered the world’s most expensive object by weight.

The world is full of valuable objects, from jewelry to rare artworks, but when it comes to value per gram, nothing even comes close to ‘The British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta’, a one-of-a-kind postage stamp that weighs just 40 milligrams but is valued at around $8.5 million. To put that into perspective, the average 0.2-carat diamond (which also weighs 40 milligrams) costs about $700, while the same amount of LSD costs around $5,000. There just isn’t an object that can compare to this ultra-rare stamp in terms of value per weight.

Read More »

Swedish couple Tomas and Hannah Mazetti are trying to raise $15,000,000 so they can buy the rights to Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ holiday song so they can destroy it.

It’s one of the most popular and widely recognized musical compositions in history. Every year, as the winter holidays start rolling in, you can hear it playing on the radio, on TV, and in stores at least a few times a day. No, it’s not Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas,” but Wham’s catchy winter anthem, ‘Last Christmas’. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the middle of nowhere for the past three and a half decades, you know the song, and you know just how popular it gets around the winter holidays. It’s so ubiquitous that some people just can’t take it anymore and are trying to have it destroyed.

Read More »

Elito ‘Amangpintor’ Circa is a Filipino artist who rose to fame for using his own blood to create canvas paintings that have attracted both praise and criticism over the years.

Born in a poor family that couldn’t afford to buy improper art supplies, Elito Circa experimented with a variety of unusual mediums as a child, including plums and tomatoes, but it was when he accidentally scraped his hand that he discovered the art medium that would mark his artistic career – his own blood. He quickly realized that the blood not only made his paintings more durable, as it was harder to erase from the canvas, but that it also made his artworks his own in a way that he had never imagined before.

Read More »

The world’s biggest electric vehicle is a giant dump truck that relies almost exclusively on energy produced by its own breaking system, requiring only minimal recharging.

Called the ‘eDumper’, the world’s largest electric vehicle is actually a converted Komatsu 605-7 HD dump truck the diesel engine of which was replaced with an electric motor and a giant battery. It was a joint venture between Swiss company E-Mining, Empa, the University of Bern and NTB Interstaatlicke Hochschule fur Technik Buchs. Creating the largest and most powerful electric vehicle in the world took approximately 18 months and was unveiled in 2018 when it performed its “maiden voyage” at a quarry of Vigier Ciment in the Swiss Canton of Berne.

Read More »

Helmut Strebl is an Austrian bodybuilder and fitness model who is widely regarded as the most shredded man in the world because of his incredibly well-defined muscles.

If you’re unfamiliar with fitness and bodybuilding, the name Helmut Strebl probably doesn’t ring a bell, but among fitness enthusiasts, he is famous as “the most shredded man in the world”. It’s an unofficial title, but looking at photos of his amazing human specimen, it’s hard to imagine anyone successfully challenging him for it. The guy is a walking anatomy model, with muscles so well-defined that you can practically see every fiber contracting under his skin.

Read More »

A team of graduate students at China’s Wuhan University recently unveiled an innovative “invisibility cloak” that circumvents AI-powered security cameras.

China is one of the world’s most heavenly surveilled countries, with AI-powered cameras being used for everything from monitoring employees’ toilet habits to students’ attention in classrooms. But as advanced as these surveillance systems may be, they are not perfect. A group of Chinese graduate students recently showcased an intriguing invention that they claim is essentially an invisibility cloak against surveillance cameras powered by artificial intelligence.

Read More »