Bionic eye gives blind man sight

A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye. Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London's Moorfield's eye hospital. He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks, using the bionic eye, known as Argus II. Read more…

Festo's Robotic Penguins Fly and Swim

Hannover, Germany -- As two giant electric-powered penguins glided gracefully by overhead, Marcus Fischer explained to me that the design group he heads up at Festo often takes its cue from nature when developing new technologies. No kidding. An animatronic super-arachnid. A robotic jellyfish. And now this year's penguins. Two that fly and two that swim underwater (unless I missed some other acrobatics) reinforced once again that a visit to Festo's booth at the Hannover Fair never fails to entertain. Read more…

MIT droids tend tomato plants

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) — These gardeners would have green thumbs — if they had thumbs. A class of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants. The small, $3,000 robots, which move through the garden on a base similar to a Roomba vacuum, are networked to the plants. Read more…

Birds Can Dance, Video and Q&A with Harvard's Adena Schachner

Birds, and particularly parrots, have rhythm and can dance in time to musical beats just as we humans can, according to a pair of new studies in the latest Current Biology. More information is at Discovery News. An emerging star in the bird dance world is Snowball, a sulphur-crested cockatoo. He can get down to any song with a strong, prominent beat. Read more…