Author: Diane Shipley

Staff Writer Diane is especially interested in high-tech medical advances, weird and interesting uses of science, new gadgets, and the intersection of tech and lifestyle. When not working, she reads the internet, listens to podcasts, watches American TV, and thinks about leaving the house.

The first 4-colour 3D printer could be coming to market

Interest in 3D printing (whether for organs, chocolate or, potentially more violently, guns) has boomed in the last few years, but the designs available can be a little lacking when it comes to colour choice. That’s why one London-based entrepreneur wants to make 3D printing more vibrant. Felix Chan is raising money on Kickstarter to…

Smartphones will make statues talk

Usually, if you talk to statues, you’ll be met with a, er, stony silence. But from tomorrow, certain statues in London and Manchester will talk back. And you won’t even need to take hallucinogens first. Public performance company Sing London has teamed up with specialist museum-guide developer Antenna Lab to give voice to 35 iconic…

A new implant makes it easier to sleep

A small new implantable device is providing an alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). This condition causes people to stop breathing for short periods during the night, and as well as causing daytime sleepiness, has been linked to heart disease and lower life expectancy. The Inspire has a sensor to track breathing and a…

Bacteria could treat cancer

A form of bacteria that causes infections could provide a new treatment option for cancer. As Gizmodo reports, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, once Clostridium novyi has been modified to remove a gene that can be toxic, it can be injected into a tumour. There, it makes…

Harvard’s created a miniature robot army (but don’t panic)

Computer scientists at Harvard University have assembled an army of robots that can act independently and work together. But we probably don’t need to worry about them invading us (yet) because each one is only around the size of a coin. There are 1024 of them, they’re powered by two small, vibrating motors apiece, and…

Could coffee shop chatter charge our phones?

First it was dew, then sweat, now there’s a new potential way to charge our gadgets that thankfully keeps both user and device dry: sound. A team made up of scientists from Queen Mary University of London and researchers from Nokia has put together a prototype that can charge phones by converting ambient noise into…

The Premier League wants fans to stop posting videos

Football fans and broadcasters alike are excited for the new season to start tomorrow, but the Premier League is in a grump about the potential money-losing effects of smartphone video. As they told the BBC, they’ve developed software to track online uploads of gifs and Vines that show goals or other momentous moments (red cards,…

Be fake to seem real on social media, says study

You can barely move on the internet for people emphasising the importance of authenticity. But it turns out that, in order to be perceived as keeping it real online, you have to be a huge fake. Yep, we're all there because we want people to talk to and to like us, but apparently we get…

Could future wearables be driven by blinks and blood?

If you don’t fancy powering your gadgets by sweating, how about by blinking? Or, er, bleeding? Naomi Kizhner is an industrial designer, and for her final project at Hadassah Academic College in Israel, she focused on the potential of wearable technology and the ways it could combine with our bodily functions. It’s designed to get…