Building Robots Like Termites

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

In nature, termites build complex structures with amazingly little mental and physiological capabilities. This is what inspired Dr Justin Werfel of Harvard University to create unsupervised, autonomous robots capable of building structures. With lofty longterm goals, and some more manageable applications in sight, the worker-bots display a fascinating ability to carry out tasks.

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

1. Sochi, Frame by Frame. Whether it’s figure skating or downhill skiing, at times it’s difficult to tell just what’s going on on a physical level. To help demonstrate the intricate body movements of each athlete, The New York Times pulled together a stellar array of stitched together images shot at extremely high frame rates. In addition to witnessing the amazing feats in greater detail, …

Noisli

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

With the large number of open tabs we all operate with, stressing out at work is more of a matter of when than if. To help keep you centered, Noisli is a background noise and color generator designed for working and relaxing. It also has Text Editor for distraction-free writing, to pair with a handful of extremely convincing sounds—rain, thunder, wind and even coffee shop.