A self-healing material that instantly repairs damage from objects such as micrometeoroids could be used to build spacecraft. Researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, funded by the European Space Agency, have created a composite material that contains glass fibres, some filled with liquid resin and some with a hardener. If the glass breaks, the liquids leak out and mix, filling any cracks.
A robotic hand that translates speech into sign language has been developed at the Fukuoka Prefecture Education Centre in Sasagurimachi, Japan. The aluminium hand is 80 centimetres tall and has 18 joints. An in-built speech-recognition chip recognises…
