Articles
Before he was director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, Rory Cooper was customizing his own wheelchairs for racing.
His racer was lighter than traditional chairs, optimized for racing on the road, but many of its modifications have since become commonplace in wheelchairs designed for everyday use. Cooper's chair demonstrated the importance of performance and functionality, ensuring that the user's quality of life is improved by restoring or augmenting…
In Future of Food, a new Freethink original series, Michael O'Shea goes around the world to introduce us to the pioneers who are working hard to ensure that we can feed our future world.
If you think staring at rows of numbers and graphs seems humdrum, these musicians agree. They are on a mission to expose new scientific information through sound, by turning flat datasets into musical scores --- creating the soundtrack for science:
Listen to Mark Ballora’s sonification of singularity with flutes and electronics:
Jenni Evans first met Mark Ballora at a Penn State social gathering. Both were professors at the university, but…
Severe spinal cord injuries resulting in total paralysis are usually considered permanent, with no hope of recovery. And yet, in a handful of patients spanning multiple levels of severity, movement is being regained.
Gangs are a major cause of violence and organized crime. Here’s why countries should think twice before trying to smash…
Gangs are a major cause of violence and organized crime. Here’s why countries should think twice before trying to smash them.
What can lift 500 pounds in each hand, walk for miles and miles with a heavy load, or leap over obstacles in a single bound?
Humans - with the help of wearable robotics.
Alan Asbeck anticipates in less than a decade, everyone will have seen somebody donned in a robot suit.
“I've wished I had one when moving from house to house or when shoveling snow,” he said.
Asbeck is…
Growing Home’s organic urban farms use agriculture as a vehicle for providing job training for people with employment barriers, whether…
Growing Home’s organic urban farms use agriculture as a vehicle for providing job training for people with employment barriers, whether due to prior convictions, medical concerns, poverty, homelessness, or any other issues which make gainful employment difficult.
Deepfakes have ignited fierce media criticism and call into question the public’s ability to discern fact from fiction. But the…
Deepfakes have ignited fierce media criticism and call into question the public’s ability to discern fact from fiction. But the technology behind Deepfakes, called GANs, has enormous potential to drive innovation beyond fake social media videos. Read more to find out some of the amazing things being done with this technology.
His daughter couldn’t go on school field trips with her classmates, so Craig Chaytor designed a virtual reality adventure just…
His daughter couldn’t go on school field trips with her classmates, so Craig Chaytor designed a virtual reality adventure just for her.