Two Scorched Planets Foreshadow Earth’s Fate
Two new planets, roughly 0.76 and 0.87 times Earth’s radius, discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, are the smallest planets ever found orbiting an active star other than our sun. However, these planets are severely burnt, and scientists believe these worlds weren’t always so small, probably starting out as gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn. These planets were most likely reduced in size after their parent star swelled into a red giant, which is what scientists believe will happen to our sun – but not for another 5 billion years or so. NatGeo
Self-Healing Electronics
A team of scientists from the University of Illinois have created a circuit capable of self-healing. When cracked, the circuit releases liquid metal to restore conductivity. Applications for this range from use in space travel, where previously it has been extremely difficult or impossible to replace broken electronics, to the creation of greener gadgets with longer lifespans. BBC
New Material Inspired by Insect Cuticles
From spider webs to insect shells, mother nature knows her building materials. Now, researchers at Harvard have hacked into her ingenuity, creating a new material inspired by insect cuticle that is made up of layers of chitin and fibroin, a protein also found in spider webs. Its called “shrilk” – a combination of shrimp, whose shells are a good source of chitin, and silk. Shrilk’s strength is similar to aluminum alloy, with half its weight, and its flexibility can be manipulated by adjusting the water content, just like insects. Its creators believe it can serve a variety of proposes, from a green alternative to plastic to use in surgical suture. ScientificAmerican
Tallest Humanoid Robot
Hajime Sakamoto, the president of the Hajime Research Institute, is already the creator of one of the tallest humanoid robots in the world, standing at 7 feet (you can see it in action in the video below). Now, he is working on building a 13 foot tall version, that will even contain a built-in cockpit. His plans don’t stop there, he is already planning to build a 26 foot tall robot, and wants to build a 59 foot robot modeled after Gundam, in time for the anime’s 40th anniversary. PlasticPals
Top image: Artist’s conception of Kepler-20e, one of the two Earth-sized planets discovered this week orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. Courtesy of NASA.