A Two-Wheeled Tortoise

A 90-year-old tortoise named Mrs T has been outfitted with a set of wheels after losing her two front legs in a rat attack while hibernating. Mrs T has adopted her new form of transportation surprisingly well, quickly learning how to steer with her back feet and moving at a pace almost twice as fast as before. But Jalopnik has even more grand ideas for …

A Movement-Matching Virtual Reality Robot

The virtual reality experience continues to expand, now with the Dexterous Observational Roving Automation (DORA) telepresence robot. DORA pairs VR headsets with a movement-matching, mobile robot, allowing users to explore nearby areas without ever having to get up—think of it as a spare body you can control. Though it might seem like the ultimate tool for laziness, possible uses are very encouraging: for example, emergency …

What Makes Shower-Crying So Good

From a Ray Bradbury poem to a GIF-worthy reel of Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development, the appeal of crying in the shower has been well documented. But what is it about shower-crying that makes it so comforting? After studying over 5,000 crying episodes between men and women, University of Pittsburgh psychologist Lauren Byslma confirmed that people prefer to cry alone, making the privacy of the …