Newton’s Cradles have long been staples on office desks, their five steel balls transferring motion in a satisfying chain of collisions. Most versions eventually lose their rhythm as energy dissipates through air resistance, sound, heat, and slight changes in the shape of the balls during impact. A recent project changes the outcome by adding a small, precisely timed push that replaces those losses. The result looks like the classic toy yet keeps swinging for hours on battery power alone.
Photo credit: Raphael Zufferey / John Freidah
Engineers at MIT have built a compact machine that flaps its wings to travel through air and water with equal capability. The device tips the scales at 250 grams and reaches flight speeds near 6 meters per second while managing almost 1 meter per second when submerged. It also exits the water by angling its body and pushing straight into the air without any paddling or extra propulsion.
Photo credit: VFX Blog
Dean from Corridor Crew wanted to bring back a clever piece of 1990s visual effects history. The original tool let stop-motion animators work directly with early computer graphics on Jurassic Park. Hardware proved stubborn to rebuild from scratch. The path forward turned into something simpler, cheaper, and more useful for today’s creators.
A plastic frame now holds an entire iPhone 6 Plus together in plain view. Every internal piece sits where it belongs, yet nothing blocks the line of sight from one side of the device to the other. The screen itself no longer acts as a solid barrier. Light and glances pass through it, revealing the battery, logic board, and other components depending on what appears on the display.
