The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from October 2008

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from October 2008

This month in Odyssey.(Science Scoops)
October 1, 2008... HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE "kissing robot" created by the Japanese company Sega Toys? That's right, for $175 you can buy a 15-inch humanoid robot that puckers up and delivers a kiss when a human comes close. During a demonstration in Tokyo last...

The real iron man.(Science Scoops)(exeskeleton)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A wealthy businessman invents a suit of power armor and becomes a superhero. This comic book story just came out in May 2008 as the movie Iron Man. Now, science is catching up to fiction. A robotic suit called XOS,...

This product tested by robots!(Science Scoops)(Kalypsys robot)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Were any animals harmed in the making of your toilet cleaner? Unfortunately, the answer probably is "yes." That's because the most common way to determine the safety of chemical solutions is to test them on creatures...

Lasers vs. lightning.(Science Scoops)
October 1, 2008... Do you wish you could look at the sky and command lightning?. Scientists sure do. This flashy force of nature is tough to tame; just ask Benjamin Franklin, who probably didn't fly a kite in a thunderstorm, but did invent the first lightning...

Cocky cockroaches.(Science Scoops)(insbots)
October 1, 2008... In movies and TV shows like Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and even Transformers, robots disguise themselves as people or everyday objects in order to blend in. Now, a group of scientists at the Free University of Brussels have created...

Help! Robo-buddies through the ages.(Science Scoops)
October 1, 2008... THE ACCEPTED DEFINITION OF A ROBOT IS: A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control. To be a robot, a machine must sense and react to some feature in its environment (for example, light or heat) to accomplish a specific...

Say hello to helper robots.(Cover story)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last spring, Honda's ASIMO robot conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Toyota has a Violin-playing Robot, and Tokhuro University scientists in Japan have designed a Partner Ballroom Dance Robot. These 'bots...

Crawls, creeps, swims, or flies: robots go wild!
October 1, 2008... Wouldn't it be great if a robot could fly like a bird, crawl up a wall like a spider, or swim like a fish? Scientists and engineers have long sought to mimic the efficiency of plants and animals. For example, Velcro's inventor, George de...

Robo-speak!
October 1, 2008... Robots come in all shapes and sizes, and fascinate people all over the world. Some seem human, while others look like creatures from another planet. Some are built for intelligence, others for strength or speed. Wouldn't it be great if robots...

Your very own robot!(IT'S A CONTEST!)
October 1, 2008... Mark Cutkosky, creator of StickyBot, has some advice for ODYSSEY readers. "Robotics is still a fairly new field, so there are many discoveries waiting to be made by creative young minds. Go watch some animals and get inspired, like...

Robo-buddies on the final frontier: an interview with robotics researcher Rachel Kirby.(People to Discover)(Interview)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lieutenant Commander Data has two jobs on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation. His main job is chief operations officer aboard the starship Enterprise-D. His second, and much harder job, is to get along with people....

Get me my glasses, please.(People to Discover)
October 1, 2008... The nurse's fiery red lipstick makes her stand out as she attends to her many patients. She reminds John to take his medicine and helps Lucy with the painful task of opening a jar with her arthritic hands. Sensing where she is needed next and...

Bears of Syria Planum.(Short story)
October 1, 2008... A dying soldier once told THEO that Mars was the color of butterscotch pudding, a favorite dessert from his childhood on Earth. Mars, though, he said in his last breath, was no more a treat than the robot was a teddy bear. THEO975 extract...

Robots to the rescue.
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On August 6, 2006, 16 coal miners working 1,500 feet underground in the Crandall Canyon mine in Emery County, Utah, felt the earth shift and buckle beneath them. Coal shafts below and around them heaved and walls...

Space station jam.(Brain Strain)
October 1, 2008... You've been circling above Earth in the International Space Station for months. It's 2020, and one day during a space walk you discover a painted, metallic object stuck to a crucial module. Using your space suit's robotic arm designed for...

Welcome to the Robo-Builders lab: construct three helping robots that really work.(Activity to Discover)
October 1, 2008... They can boost your grades at school, help you get dressed in the morning--even fetch you a snack when you get hungry! They're helping robots, and now you can build them yourself. But don't worry; you don't need to have a fancy robotics lab to...

Raise your hand! Robots go to school.(Providing Education by Bringing Learning Environments to Students)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you were sick and had to miss months of school, what would you miss most? For Michael Fenn, age 11, it was being with his friends in class and hanging out and having a snack together. Michael couldn't attend class...

Smoke detectors: in this annual contest, robotic technology is catching fire ...(Kids Can ... Do Amazing Science)(Home Fire Firefighting Robot Contest)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] There's a fire burning somewhere in the house. A firefighter is racing from room to room to discover the fire's source before it can spread. Found! Suddenly, a powerful blast from the firefighter's equipment...

Star chart.
October 1, 2008... This monthly All-Sky Chart depicts the sky (minus the Moon) as it appears at 7:00 p.m. (your local daylight-saving time) on Oct. 15. Useful all month (except for planet positions), the chart is also accurate for 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 1 and 5:00...

The farthest thing you can see with the naked eye.(Stargazing with Jack Horkheimer)(Cartoon)
October 1, 2008... GREETINGS, GREETINGS, FELLOW STARGAZERS! HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED ABOUT THIS...? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WELL, DON'T BE FOOLED, BECAUSE EVEN WITH THE NAKED EYE YOU CAN SEE 10 MILES AWAY, AND EVEN FARTHER! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Teen power!(YOU'VE GOT MAIL!)
October 1, 2008... In the March 2008 "Poop! What a Waste!" issue, we showcased the Cave of Crystals in northern Mexico, where immense crystals grow. When we asked whether the cave should continue to be drained to let visitors in to see the crystals, or if the...

Splish, splash!(Ask Dr. Cy Borg)(Column)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Dr. B, My name is Christopher, and I did a science experiment on "The Effect of the Height of a Water Balloon on the Size of Its Splash." I found that as the height of the water balloon increased, the size...

Boomerang! Rats, snakes, and spiders.(Animal Angles)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] These critters are usually right at the top of the Least Loved List. In fact, some people actually have disorders called herpetophobia (abnormal fear of snakes and other reptiles) or arachnopbobia (abnormal fear of...

By a whisker.(Animal Angles)(rat whiskers)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although the Norwegian rat, Rattus norvegicus, is often used to describe all things despicable, their whiskers are pretty clever. According to Chris Schroeder, a researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering...