Bandai and Ginza Tanaka have teamed up to create a Mobile Suit Gundam made from pure platinum. Called Gundam Fix Platinum, the 12.5-cm (5-in.) tall, 1.4-kg (3-lb.) work features 89 separate parts and a head adorned with a 0.15 carat diamond. Hajime Katoki, a mechanical designer and illustrator noted for his work in a range […]
In a public demonstration held in Tokyo on March 28, a human-sized android showed off its weightlifting skills by successfully picking up a 30-kilogram (66-pound) package from a desk and lifting a 66-kilogram (145-pound) humanoid doll out of bed.
University of Tokyo professor Yasuo Kuniyoshi and his team of engineers developed the 155-centimeter (61-inch) […]
Paper money is not just for spending — it is also great for origami.
The Asahi website has posted a story about “Turban Noguchi,” a popular origami made using a 1000-yen bill. The bill features a portrait of Hideyo Noguchi, the noted physician and bacteriologist who, among other things, discovered the agent of syphilis in 1911. […]
Fuji Sabo Works, an organization established by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) to fight erosion on Mt. Fuji, has released video of a powerful slush avalanche that occurred on Fuji’s western side at 8:09 AM on March 25.
Slush avalanches happen when cold, dry snow suddenly becomes saturated with water. About 90 […]
On March 22, a group of Japanese scientists released details of an ambitious proposal calling for the large-scale production of bioethanol made from cultivated seaweed.
Researchers from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and several other private-sector firms envision a 10,000 square kilometer (3,860 square mile) seaweed farm at […]
A team of researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) claim to have developed the world’s first electromechanical prosthetic hand with a grip strong enough to crush an empty beverage can.
This bionic hand weighs a little more than 300 grams and has a grip strength of around 15 kg (33 lbs), which is about […]
Mospeng-kun is a tissue-dispensing robot created by InterRobot Inc., a robot development and rental company based in western Japan.
When the friendly Mospeng-kun detects a person nearby, it utters a high-pitched onegai shimasu and offers up a pack of tissues. When the tissues are taken from the robot’s hand, it thanks the customer with an […]
The NTT Group has unveiled technology that analyzes the interest level of TV viewers and web surfers by monitoring their eye movement, pupil size and blinking.
Improving on conventional eye-tracking systems that provide an understanding of where viewers cast their gaze, this new computer-operated system features cameras that monitor and analyze unconscious physiological reactions to […]
Researchers from Hokkaido University have created artificial blood vessels using collagen derived from the skin of salmon. The researchers, who replaced the aortas of rats with the artificial blood vessels, claim to be the first to create and successfully test artificial blood vessels made using collagen derived from marine animals.
The researchers decided to use […]
Most octopi squirt thick clouds of black ink to confuse predators. This video from a Japanese TV quiz show, however, shows a type of Tremoctopus, or blanket octopus (murasakidako in Japanese), employing a different technique. The video explains that when threatened, the octopus unfurls a giant sheet of webbing that trails behind like a cape. […]
