Self-Propelled Ice Move By Itself
Photo credit: Alex Parrish for Virginia Tech
A disk of ice sits on a metal plate, melting. Nothing happens. Water pools beneath, forms a thin puddle. Then, without warning, the ice stirs. It slides sideways, accelerates, and then shoots across the surface like a puck on an air hockey table. This is not a magic trick, just a discovery made by a Virginia Tech team lead by Associate Professor Jonathan Boreyko and Ph.D. student Jack Tapocik. They found a way to make ice move on its own, no external push required.

Toyota Spherical Mobility Device TE-SPINNER
A group of engineers gathered around a prototype in a quiet corner of Toyota’s headquarters that looked like a toy gone wild. More specifically, a transparent ball with a tiny cart inside, wobbling on makeshift tracks. This was the first look at the TE-SPINNER, a spherical mobility device that would, in just one year, grow from a duct-tape-laden concept into a 2-meter wide, human-carrying wonder.