Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Robo-ants, Boston's official Riot Grrrl Day, modern art's favorite color and more in our weekly look around the web

1. Robo-Ants are Future Factory Workers Palm-sized robotic ants may one day take over industrial factories, but instead of being pests, these android insects will help out on the assembly line. German robotics company Festo came up with the idea for BionicANTs after being inspired by the way real-life colonies work together to accomplish tasks deemed too daunting for just one ant. The robo-ants will …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Night vision eyedrops, Earth's endangered soil and the science behind comfort food all in this week's picks

1. IKEA’s Shelters for Refugees IKEA is providing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with 10,000 flat-pack Better Shelters as part of an ongoing collaboration through its Housing for All Foundation. After initially being tested by 40 refugee families, the Better Shelters were upgraded with a solar panel, lamp, windows, ventilation and a locking door—earning them praise as a “milestone in democratic design.” They …

Night Vision Eyedrops

Night vision eyedrops are now a real thing thanks to Science for the Masses, an independent biomedical research lab in California. After speculating that Chlorin e6—a chemical that naturally forms in algae and other green plants—could possibly improve vision in the dark, one of the team’s researchers offered up his own eyes to test it out. The drops almost instantaneously impacted his eyesight, allowing him …