Researchers at Harvard and MIT using what is called programmable matter have demonstrated how a single thin sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections could transform itself into a boat- or plane-shape, all without the help of people.

They envision creating smart cups that could adjust based upon the amount of liquid needed or maybe a Swiss army knife that could change from a wrench to a tripod - obviously readers here envision giant robots that could smite our foes.

Despite some of the more outrageous claims to the contrary, SecondLife, while an abstract 3-D world, is not actually a teaching platform.   It had its moment and devolved rather quickly into another marketing tool for companies but conceptually it provides a good foundation for one.

To become one, a tool muct include things a training program with a sequence of activities for students to acquire knowledge as well as a methodology to evaluate previously defined learning results. 

With an increasing trend toward what marketing groups call 'natural' food, some companies have reduced preservatives.  A common preservative, acetic acid, is used to stop bacterial growth in dressings, sauces, cheese and pickles, but new research shows that a reduced amount of acetic acid may be worse than none at all – it increases the amount of toxin from the harmful bacteria in the food.

Using two of the world’s largest telescopes, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on La Palma in the Canary Islands, an international team of astronomers have found evidence of a collision between galaxies driving intense activity in a highly luminous quasar, SDSS J0123+00. 

Several types of galaxies, known as active galaxies, emit enormous amounts of energy from their central region or nucleus, with the most luminous objects known as quasars. Many scientists argue that quasars contain a central black hole, with a mass of at least several million Suns.

Retinitis pigmentosa are a diverse group of hereditary diseases that lead to incurable blindness and affect two million people worldwide. Though the causes are diverse, the manifestation of the disease is similar: highly sensitive rod photoreceptors, which allow us to see at dusk, die first  and the cones that operate during daylight and are responsible for high-resolution color vision follow. 

Theories of physics rest on fundamental assumptions and those assumptions are based on how the real world works, and often produce amazingly precise predictions. 

The most comprehensive theory of elementary particles to-date, Quantum Field Theory, explains nature's electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear forces (though not gravity).