Videos

Video: Formula E—racing goes electric

By Lisa McDonald / June 12, 2019

Now in its fifth season, the electric race car competition Formula E continues to gain fans and sponsors—as well as a brand-new car. Take a look at the increasingly popular competition that could one day give Formula 1 a run for its money.

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Video: First five-seater air taxi takes flight

By Lisa McDonald / June 5, 2019

If flying cars are to be sustainably integrated into society, they need to hold multiple passengers. Air taxi startup Lilium GmbH recently conducted a first test flight with its five-seater jet.

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Video: Knit yourself a robot

By Lisa McDonald / May 29, 2019

To engage non-engineers in the creation of robots, researchers at Cornell University created Blossom, an expressive and inexpensive robot platform that can be made from a kit and creatively outfitted with handcrafted materials.

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Video: Building a smash-proof guitar

By Lisa McDonald / May 22, 2019

Rock stars are known for smashing guitars—but what happens when they encounter an unbreakable one? Engineering group Sandvik partnered with Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen to test the limits of a smash-proof guitar.

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Video: The physics of exploding concrete

By Lisa McDonald / May 15, 2019

What causes explosive spalling of concrete? Researchers from Empa, the University of Grenoble, and the Institut Laue-Langevin performed neutron tomography on exploding concrete cubes to find out.

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Video: Create nacre in the lab—and maybe on the moon!

By Lisa McDonald / May 8, 2019

An international team of researchers developed a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for creating nacre, which could be used in a wide range of applications, from biomedical implants to moon habitats.

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Video: Build and race a concrete canoe

By Lisa McDonald / April 24, 2019

Since 1988, the American Society of Civil Engineers has held an annual concrete canoe competition for student members. Take a look at the design process ASCE students undertake to create their canoes.

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Robot uses capacitive sensors in soft hands to separate recyclable materials

By April Gocha / April 23, 2019

Researchers at MIT developed a robot that can effectively separate mixed recyclable materials, using two flexible silicone “hands” to feel the difference between paper, metal, and plastic.

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Video: How to image a black hole’s “shadow”

By Lisa McDonald / April 17, 2019

The first image of a black hole was publicly released on April 10. How did a team of over 200 researchers pull off such a feat?

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Video: Transparent wood is not only see-through—it can store and release heat too!

By Lisa McDonald / April 10, 2019

By adding polyethylene glycol to delignified wood, researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology created transparent wood that can store and release heat. They estimate this wood could be available for interior design purposes in as little as five years.

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