Continuing in its tradition of offering up exactly what we want, Boston.com's Big Picture blog has a ton of fantastic shots from the fencing action this week in Beijing, with the duelers' silvery lamé space suits and crazy blinking helmets on full display. I want one to wear, whether I'm making toast (flying crumb protection) or sequencing dance beats in a giant pyramid (extra rock action). But wh

Furukawa, a Tokyo-based tech company, has developed a thermoelectric conversion material that's said to be able to boost the fuel efficiency of cars by 2% by converting about 7% of exhaust heat into electricity. Unlike conventional thermoelectric conversion materials, which warm up as a whole when one side is exposed to heat, this new material generates energy via the difference in temperature bet

I know people like the Philips Senseo coffee pod system-I'm a snob and refuse to try it-so just for you folks, Philips is releasing a new version of the Senseo that can make froofy milk drinks, too. Called the Senseo Latte Select, it appears to be identical to the old Senseo but now features a new milk compartment that can whip up cappuccino, latte macchiato, or cafe latte on request-plus that mil

If I was trapped in a pile of earthquake rubble, I'd do just about anything to get the hell out as soon as possible. But if this cilia-covered rescue snakebot squirmed it's way up my leg, I think the chances of heart failure might need to be factored in. It's called the Active Scope Camera, and it was conceived by researchers at Japan's Tohoku University, all of whom are clearly fans of War of the

If you've ever wanted to take a street tour of the center of the Apple universe, now's your chance. The Google Street View car has finished making its rounds at Infinite Loop, so you can zoom around like you belong there from your computer chair. There aren't any pictures of Steve Jobs passed out drunk in front of 1 Infinite Loop, Woz rolling by on a Segway or mysterious suitcases being lugged aro

This is not an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile head or an old World War II V-2 bomb or an alien monolith, but a set of table and chairs that will transform any terrace into a chill-out lounge, sans the Margarita and Manhattan cocktails. Here is how it unfolds: Did I say chill-out lounge and cocktails? At last, it's Friday. So here's my favorite song to drink, relax, and daydream about the futur

So, you have a army-sized stockpile of weapons in your basement for protection against the coming apocalypse. That's good, being prepared is key. But what happens when you are overrun with zombies in the aftermath? They may be slow, but they can still get you in a swarm. That means you need an more efficient way to reload-and the FAST (Fast And Smooth Transition) system can help you do just that.

The Air Force's Office of Scientific Research has funded a study that's found a novel waterproofing technique that could prevent ice formation and corrosion from damaging parts of an aircraft, like optical sensors. The transparent coating has a nanoporous surface that is superhydrophobic, which makes water droplets form and roll or bounce-off the aircraft's skin rather than collecting, which is ho

Hubble, without a doubt the most spectacular digital camera in the solar system, has completed its 100,000th orbit. To celebrate, scientists pointed the telescope to NGC 2074, a spectacular star birthplace 170,000 light-years away, right next to the Tarantula nebula, where Ming of Mongo is probably building a weapon of mass destruction. Like always, the image-taken with the Wide Field Planetary Ca