To fly is a wonderful thing and humanity has always gazed skyward with an envious eye at birds that soar effortlessly through the heavens. Greek mythology identified Icarus as an early casualty, more recently Otto Lilienthal made fantastic hang glider designs in the late nineteenth century and where would we be without the contribution by the Wright brothers? Over the years there have been many attempts to make a vehicle that you can drive on land and also in the air. Now the wait is over…

Researchers at Queen's University's school of Mathematics and Physics in Belfast together with Stanford University, the University of California, California State University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan have succeeded in developing new, dynamic hybrid materials that not only conduct electricity at unprecedented speeds, but are light and durable and can be easily produced in large conventional semiconductor plants...

At the end of last year the feud that has for so long split Arduino asunder seemed to have been resolved. Massimo Banzi announced at the World Maker Faire New York that a single united IDE is being created in a nonprofit foundation. He went on to say “The Arduino Foundation will allow us to champion the core values of the Arduino Community within the open source ecosystem and make our commitment to open source stronger than ever.” It also has a manifesto (in PDF) outlining many beautiful ideas and goals for the foundation. There are also some troubling undercurrents...

Parking spaces in buildings are as small as possible to avoid wasting precious real estate. Furthermore, such parking spaces are often surrounded by concrete pillars or delimited by walls, making it difficult to move a car into such a tiny reserved space without scratching its precious metallic paint. Add to this that cars only get bigger and you will understand the need for an electronic parking aid. Here is a simple solution based on cheap ultrasonic transceiver modules.

Researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Connecticut, led by professors Richard Kaner and James Rusling, have developed a “biological supercapacitor” which utilizes ions naturally present in human body fluids. This supercapacitor is harmless to the living organism and can form the basis for pacemakers and other implantable devices that are able to work for a long time, possibly as long as the user’s lifetime...

It’s that time again – Elektor's July & August 2017 edition is now available for purchase! This issue is packed full of things to keep you entertained. You can get your printed copy posted direct to your door for free, with no shipping costs at all.

Researchers at the RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia) have developed a paint which is able to absorb water vapor in the atmosphere and split it to form hydrogen. The hydrogen is generated directly from solar energy, which is not only a clean source of energy but also easily storable...

Designed by Clemens Valens at Elektor.LABS, the AVR Playground – a playful reference to the Arduino forum known as the Arduino Playground – is a hybrid of an Arduino Uno and a traditional micro-controller development board. It is intended for ‘doing Arduino’ without bad connections and loose wires (although it doesn’t disallow it). It provides an easy way to start learning the microcontroller without having to solder or add other components. 

Computers writing their own software: according to Martin Vechev, Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zürich, that’s definitely not science fiction. Vechev is one of the founders of a field of research in which computer scientists aim to largely automate the programming process...

Not even three years after its noisy introduction at the 2014 Maker Faire in Rome, the Intel Edison module has been discontinued. The introduction of the Edison was accompanied by the launch of the Galileo 2, intended to replace the already failed Galileo 1. Apparently the second version didn’t do any better. The Joule module hasn’t even celebrated its first birthday and is binned already. Users who rely on one or more of these products can place last time orders (LTOs) until September 16, 2017.