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ICYMI: Science Spiderman would love and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344199{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344199, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344199{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344199").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A team of researchers from Boston University have figured out how to 3D print metals in a free-form style while Oxford University discovered that spider silk strands can recoil themselves when compressed to create stretchable circuit boards. A company called Otto is working on kits to retrofit 16-wheelers into self-driving autonomous rigs. And a menstrual startup wants women to attach a clip at the waist with extra long-stringed tampons clipped into the device. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Researchers develop 'liquid wire' that acts like spider silk
The properties of spider silk that make it so intriguing are also what makes it so difficult to recreate in a lab, but a team of researchers now believes they have cracked one puzzle about spider silk: how does it remain taut when even when stretched?
Inhabitat's Week in Green: lenses that magnify wind, spider silk bacteria, and the largest solar sports facility
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat showcased the best and brightest new developments from the world of clean tech. Stanford opened up new horizons for renewable energy as they unveiled a solar technology that can harvest electricity from both heat and light -- a significant improvement over photovoltaics, whose efficiency wilts in the sun. We also looked at Pocono Raceway, the recently-crowned world's largest solar-powered sports facility, and an innovative new type of "Wind Lens" turbine that could increase energy generation by a magnitude of three times. We also saw green tech take to the skies as Boeing unveiled a super-efficient airplane that could cut fuel consumption by 70% and scientists floated a plan to create gigantic orbiting balloons that could solve our space junk problem. It was a big week for alternative autos as well -- Paris announced that it will be launching its Autolib electric car sharing program next year, and a poo-powered VW Bug burned... rubber on the streets of Bristol. In other news, we showcased an ultra-efficient Danish home that produces more energy than it needs. Future-forward biotech couture was a hot topic as well as scientists found a way to produce spider silk from metabolically engineered bacteria. And we couldn't help but want to share these adorable and amazingly detailed little LEGO CubeDudes created by PIXAR animator Angus MacLane.
Researchers tout progress in spinning artificial spider silk
We've seen plenty of attempts to mimic spiders in robot-form, but that's not the only bit of inspiration arising from our eight-legged friends, with a number of other researchers also doing their best to artificially replicate the way a spider spins silk. Now, according to the BBC, it seems that a team from the Technical University of Munich has made some significant progress on that front, which could one day lead to a new means of manufacturing strong but lightweight materials. Specifically, the team created a "device" consisting of three channels etched into a piece of glass, which allows for different combinations protein and salts to be mixed together and extruded as a fiber. They are quick to point out, however, that the resulting fiber is not of "particularly high quality," and that while it's a step forward, the whole idea is still "a very big puzzle and there are many pieces missing."
