Instead of trying to remember which button to press on a remote control, users could simply ask the table-top robot to turn on the television or other appliances using its own infrared signal, Toshiba said.

The 21-centimetre (8.4-inch) tall ApriPoco robot -- which is in the development stage -- is equipped with sensors that can detect infrared rays from remote controls.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.ph...&show_article=1

At 5,250ft, the £5billion project, masterminded by two British engineering consultancies, will be twice as high as its nearest rivals, skyscrapers under construction in Dubai and Kuwait, and almost seven times as high as the Canary Wharf tower in London's Docklands.

It is being planned for a new city near the Red Sea port of Jeddah. Behind the scheme is 51-year-old Prince al-Walid bin Talal, who bought the Savoy for £1.25billion in 2005.

The plan gives the Middle East a clear lead over Asian countries and the U.S., who have vied in the past to construct the world's tallest buildings.

None of the other skyscrapers under construction, including New York's Freedom Tower on the World Trade Centre site, will exceed 2,296ft.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_page_id=1811

A California aerospace company plans to enter the space tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth.

The Lynx, about the size of a small private plane, is expected to begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace, which planned to release details of the design at a news conference Wednesday.

The company also said that, pending the outcome of negotiations, the Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded it a research contract to develop and test features of the Lynx. No details were released.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080326/D8VL3GQ01.html

Imagine re-growing a severed fingertip, or creating an organ in the lab that can be transplanted into a patient without risk of rejection. It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. It's the burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are learning to harness the body's own power to regenerate itself, with astonishing results. Correspondent Wyatt Andrews brings you to the scientific frontier.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008...in3960219.shtml

Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/scienc...h.ap/index.html

The author of SF classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous With Rama left behind a mighty legacy of technology both real and fantastical


http://www.popsci.com/scitech/artic...-clarke-dead-90

A small, remote-controlled aircraft that changes shape to mimic the aerodynamic profile of a swift has taken to the skies over the Netherlands.

The aircraft, called RoboSwift, swings its wings backwards to become sleeker and travel faster at high speeds.

Researchers at Wageningen University and the Technical University of Delft, both in the Netherlands, created Roboswift after working out how swifts alter the shape of their wings to fly more efficiently.

The swift extends its wings to produce more lift at lower speeds, and adopts a more compact, swept back shape to travel faster at higher speeds. By sweeping back just one wing the birds perform fast turns.

http://technology.newscientist.com/...n-the-wing.html

Quote:
"How big and disgustingly opulent does a yacht have to be to be considered a private island? This big and disgusting. Gizmag has a piece today on Wally's luxury yachts and their 325 foot flagship. While Paul Allen's Octopus is bigger at 410 feet, the Wally Gigayacht can be oufitted, with pools, tennis courts, mini soccer fields, or the garden you see above. And of course, room for 40 crew, 24 guests, a helipad, and two 45-foot speedboats that deploy out the back, powered by the blood of the poor."

http://gizmodo.com/370024/gigayacht...floating-island

The textured skin of a hadrosaur is visible as it emerges from it's sandstone tomb, at the North Dakota Heritage Center Museum in Bismarck, N.D., Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. The 65 million year old duckbilled dinosaur mummy was found in Southwest North Dakota in 2004. It is one of only four dinosaurs ever found with fossilized skin.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1285719~W...d_Dinosaur.html

University of Washington engineers have created a contact lens with circuitry embedded in the small piece of plastic. KING 5's Roberta Romero reports.

VIDEO
[url]http://www.king5.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=227504[/url

Nobody knows how life on Earth began, but the primordial soup likely got a lot of its ingredients from space.

Scientists have discovered concentrations of amino acids in two meteorites that are more than ten times higher than levels previously measured in other similar meteorites.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080...gluvSHMS66s0NUE

Mr. Dextre stands taller than a house, has two seven-jointed arms and can fly around the Earth in about 90 minutes. But he is not a superhero, nor is "he" a person.

"Mr. Dextre," as NASA's latest space shuttle Endeavour crew has coined it, is actually a Canadian space-age robot bound for the International Space Station (ISS) early Tuesday morning along with Japan's first orbital room. Led by commander Dominic Gorie, the seven-astronaut STS-123 crew will start assembly of the giant robot in space later this week.


"Dextre is probably the most sophisticated robot to go on orbit," said Pierre Jean, acting program manager for the Canadian space station program, during a press conference here at Kennedy Space Center.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080...TsRCSRC_8Ws0NUE

A robotic spacecraft circling Mars has snapped the first image of a series of active avalanches near the planet's north pole, scientists said Monday.

The image, taken last month, reveals at least four avalanches of fine ice and dust breaking off from a steep cliff and settling on the slope below. The cascade kicked up massive debris clouds, with some measuring more than 590 feet across.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/...e.ap/index.html

thought the Leap Day festivities were over, but many a reader pointed out to me that this is also (as decreed by E. Nelson Bridwell, years ago) officially, Superman’s birthday!! And it just so happens that Superman was introduced in 1938, so this would be his 70th Birthday!!
http://goodcomics.comicbookresource...thday-superman/

Fungi could eat dangerous radiation to survive, an unexpected finding that could one day help feed astronauts in space — at least those willing to eat a crawling fungus.

The research began with the discovery of black fungus growing on the walls of the damaged, highly radioactive Chernobyl nuclear reactor and collected by robots.

The fungus was rich with melanin, the same pigment that gives human skin its color, protecting the skin from solar and ultraviolet radiation. Melanin is found in many, if not most, fungal species.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276196,00.html