TechBlog

How often have you thought to yourself “I wish I had an ice cube maker?” I’m going to guess that most of you won’t have ever had that thought. It’s understandable, since practically everyone owns a freezer, which makes ice cubes. However, if you need a lot of ice in a short while, you’ll be disappointed. This is why the Ice Cube Maker Machine was created.

This simple device can freeze up a dozen cubes of ice in just 10 minutes. When you’re serving a lot of guests at a large gathering, a steady supply of ice is always needed. It accomplishes this feat by utilizing a highly efficient compressor which can freeze at much faster rates than a regular freezer. You’ll also be happy to note that it is a low-noise machine, so your guests won’t be bothered by any loud humming noises.

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Courtesy Atsushi Asano, Cornell University

While not quite on the nanoscale, an average human sperm on average is about 0.055 mm long, sperm have provided inspiration for how to power nano-sized devices. Energy to power the sperm tail (flagellum) comes from the mitochondria, the power stations of the cell, while the rear section of the tail or ‘principal piece’ gets it’s energy from glycolysis, the direct breakdown of glucose to produce energy. It’s this process that has inspired researchers at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility to try and mimic this process to provide a power source for nanodevices.

In sperm, the 10 enzymes required for glycolysis are attached to scaffolding proteins in the sperm tail, holding them in place in a unique conformation. Scientists engineered and tethered 3 of the 10 proteins to a gold surface covered in nickel ions, whilst retaining the enzymes activity. Researchers are now looking to extend the project to include all 10 protens necessary to complete a nano ‘power supply’.

Contact Lenses With Circuits, Lights A Possible Platform For Superhuman Vision

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes — visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

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