Preserving the Scents of Everyday Life

Researchers at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage are working double-time to identify and catalog scents that exist all around us—from the smell of an old book, to a pub at a particular time of night, and worn-in leather. Many of these are disappearing right under our noses. For example, as we collectively move deeper into a digital age, books are being read on phones …

Airbus’ “Flying Whale” Beluga XL Aircraft Enters Service

With a bulbous nose, the Airbus Beluga XL aircraft delightfully resembles the underwater mammal it was named for. Referred to as the “flying whale,” the plane’s whimsical design was selected through a poll of roughly 20,000 Airbus staff members (it garnered 40% of the vote). One of the biggest planes to the take to the sky, this super-transporter cargo vessel will fly aircraft components between …

World’s First Living Robots Assembled from Frog Stem Cells

“These are entirely new lifeforms. They have never before existed on Earth,” Michael Levin, the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, tells The Guardian. “They are living, programmable organisms.” Levin and other researchers in the US have created the first-ever living machines: robots composed of biological tissue, assembled from African clawed frog (xenopus laevis) stem cells and designed on …