Cutting Edge

A common criticism of 3D printing is this: how much more plastic junk do we need in this world?

Filabot, a Kickstarted device that turns household and printed plastic into printable filament, might have the answer.

The brainchild of Tyler McNaney, a 20-year-old sophomore mechanical engineering student at Vermont Technical College, the Filabot takes common plastic, including plastic from 3D printed objects, and grinds, melts, and re-extrudes it back into printable feedstock.

McNaney developed the Filabot with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised just over $32,000 when it ended in January of last year. He then … Read more

You and I are really, really small. And we're even smaller than we thought we were last month, at least when compared with the size of the largest known item in the universe.

Last week, a team of astronomers based in the U.K. discovered the largest object in all of our observable existence: a celestial structure made up of 73 quasars that is up to 4 billion light years long.

How big is that exactly? Well, it would take tens of thousands of our own Milky Ways -- the big, galactic one, not the one that comes in … Read more

Meet the "apparatus for treating obesity by extracting food." That's what Dean Kamen's stomach pump is called in a recently granted U.S. patent, and it looks a lot less fun than Kamen's most famous invention, the Segway.

The good part is you can eat anything you like. The bad part is you have to get a tube put into your stomach and then suck the food out with a gadget called the AspireAssist.

Kamen and a team of physicians developed the pump as an obesity treatment that's reversible and, as they describe it, "minimally invasive." … Read more

Without the aid of a timer, how likely are you to brush your teeth for the recommended two minutes?

Not very, according to the folks behind a new smart toothbrush, the Beam Brush. They say the average person spends only 46 seconds brushing their teeth, but that a simple timer makes them 50 percent more likely to reach the two-minute mark.

So their Bluetooth-enabled brush, which debuted a year ago at CES, got FDA approval in June, and became available as of last week for $49.99, includes not only a sensor to track frequency and duration of brushing but also a timer that can play the user's music of choice for two minutes.… Read more

The White House has rejected a proposal to build a Death Star, saying that in addition to its prohibitive construction costs, the current administration does not advocate destroying other planets.

Today's lighthearted official statement came in response to a petition posted in November to the White House's We The People platform that called for the administration to begin construction of a moon-size military battlestation armed with a planet-destroying superlaser by 2016. The petition, which attracted well more than the minimum 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the White House, suggested that such a project could give … Read more

Mirror, mirror on the wall, will drinking affect my looks at all?

The very week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a survey on drinking patterns among U.S. females (notably that 1 in 5 high school girls and 1 in 8 women report binge drinking), the Scottish government launched its Drop a Glass Size campaign, complete with app, in an attempt to get people to drink a little less every day.

The free Drinking Mirror app, for iPhone and Android devices, has users take or upload existing photos of themselves and watch their faces age over the course of 10 years based on their current rates of alcohol consumption.

The developers fully admit that they are playing the vanity card -- and targeting women in particular.… Read more

The Federal Aviation Administration today said it is opening a comprehensive review of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner following recent incidents that have raised questions about the innovative aircraft.

Earlier this week, for instance, firefighters had to put out a small blaze on a Japan Airlines 787 on the ground at Boston's Logan International Airport. The cause of the fire, which occurred with no passengers on the plane at the time, was traced back to a battery pack in an auxiliary power unit.

"This review will cover the critical systems of the aircraft, including design, manufacturing and assembly," … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The QWERTY keyboard you're using has a basic layout that dates from the 1870s Sholes and Glidden typewriter. Why the heck are you still using it?

If you're always typing on the go, on-screen and compact QWERTY keyboards can be a real pain when writing a critical e-mail, text, or tweet. Florida-based In10did thinks it has an ideal solution with this compact, touch-type micro keyboard with wireless Bluetooth connectivity.

DecaTxt has a completely different key setup than a QWERTY keyboard, and it takes some time to get your head around it. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We've seen more than a few innovative, stylish keyboards at CES this year, but few can claim to be pieces of furniture.

Meet uChair, the keyboard that lets you type in true comfort. It's basically a recliner with a split keyboard embedded in the armrests.

You sit back, adjust the headrest, pull up a screen, laptop, or tablet attached to an articulated bracket, and get to work. Or fall asleep, depending on how comfy you find it. … Read more