Artificial Tongue Detects Counterfeit Whisky

Designed to taste the subtle differences between whiskies—and ultimately detect counterfeit products—the University of Glasgow’s “artificial tongue” uses sub-microscopic slices of aluminum and gold as tastebuds. A checkerboard of these “buds” absorb light differently when in contact with different whiskies. They can identify individual liquids with 99% accuracy. As Slash Gear reports, this technology can also be used “in food safety testing, quality control, security, …

AlterEgo Listens to the Voices in Your Head

24-year-old inventor Arnav Kapur’s wearable device AlterEgo, which we previewed during this year’s Ted Fellows announcement, aims to assist people with communication problems by reading the voices in their head. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the technology does so through “a system of sensors that detects the minuscule neuromuscular signals sent by the brain to the vocal cords and muscles of the throat and tongue.” These …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Packaging made from soap, a seesaw at the border, the women who invented popular music and more

Bright Pink Seesaw Unites People at US-Mexico Border A set of neon pink seesaws along the US-Mexico border (in Sunland Park and Ciudad Juárez, respectively) have been installed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—who work together as Rael San Fratello. The installation—called “Teetertotter Wall”—is playful and powerfully defiant. Rael calls it the “literal fulcrum for the US-Mexico relations” where it’s blindingly clear that “the …