Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland recently unveiled a flexible spinal implant called the electronic dura (or e-Dura) that they say may greatly improve spinal injury rehabilitation. In a paper published earlier this month in the journal Science, the EPFL team said because of its flexibility, the next-generation implant lasts longer (up to two months) and causes much less damage than traditional implants.

These latest results continue a line of research into regenerative medicine by EPFL scientists led by Dr. Grégoire Courtine and Dr. Stéphanie P. Lacour. In 2012, this same group published stunning results showing rats with paralyzing spinal cord injuries were able to regain the ability to walk, run, and even climb.

Yesterday, SpaceX released an animated video of its new Falcon Heavy rocket that, if all goes according to plan, will eventually be able to launch a manned spacecraft into space and then touch back down on a landing pad.

The idea is to create reusable rockets that can safely return to Earth and land intact. But SpaceX is still in the testing phase of the new landing maneuver. On Jan. 10, SpaceX semi-successfully landed a Falcon 9 rocket on a platform in the ocean after the rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft full of cargo to the International Space Station.

We’ve seen a number of smart tables from Ideum before, but the Duet brings something a little new, integrating both Windows 8 and Android computers into a single unit. The company has designed it to be easy to switch between the two operating systems, and the hardware itself is a rugged, multitouch affair.

The Duet is available in 42- and 46-inch variants, both of which sport 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. There’s no 4K option like we saw on the refreshed 55-inch Platform and Pro models last year, but the panel is chemically strengthened, features an anti-glare coating and can detect up to 60 simultaneous touch points when using Windows, and up to 12 when running Android.

OnSight will use holographic computing to overlay visual information and data into the user's field of view (Image: NASA)

Years before the first astronauts set foot on Mars, scientists will already be there – virtually. Thanks to a collaboration between NASA and Microsoft aimed at advancing human-robot interactions, the space agency's OnSight software will allow researchers to explore a virtual Martian landscape created from data sent back by the Curiosity rover.

The project that’s brought LaChappelle into prominence involves a chance meeting he had with a little girl using a prosthetic limb that cost upwards of $80,000, and that got the young engineer and designer thinking. So he built her a prosthetic arm. For a fraction of that sum. For just $400, in fact.

While projects like RoboHand are driving down the cost of needed prosthetic devices, LaChappelle’s arm is an extremely sophisticated take on solving the problem. Over the course of three years and working with online resources and collaborators alongside 3D designer Chris Chappelle, the project ultimately took 2nd place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He and Chappelle launched a successful Kickstarter project for what they called the “Anthromod” robotic arm.

If 1984’s cautionary tale, The Terminator, is anything to go by, humanity should be wary of any more advances in robotics or artificial intelligence. Elon Muskrecently pledged $10 million to keep artificial intelligence from running amok, and physicist Stephen Hawking told the BBC in December: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Musk and Hawking are backed by other scientists, professors, and security analysts who are worried about the rise of artificial intelligence that doesn’t do what humans ask. Even so, scientists continue to research more human-like robots, with more human-like intelligence and thought processes.

Here are a few examples from just this month:

Free-roaming robots

University of Rochester 's Professor Chunlei Guo has developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic, illustrated in this image of a water droplet bouncing off a treated sample. Credit: Photo by J. Adam Fenster/University of Rochester

Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.

Super-hydrophobic materials are desirable for a number of applications such as rust prevention, anti-icing, or even in sanitation uses. However, as Rochester's Chunlei Guo explains, most current hydrophobic materials rely on chemical coatings.

In a paper published today in Journal of Applied Physics, Guo and his colleague at the University's Institute of Optics, Anatoliy Vorobyev, describe a powerful and precise laser-patterning technique that creates an intricate pattern of micro- and nanoscale structures to give the metals their new properties. This work builds on earlier research by the team in which they used a similar laser-patterning technique that turned metals black. Guo states that using this technique they can create multifunctional surfaces that are not only super-hydrophobic but also highly-absorbent optically.

For more than a century, children have been building trains, cars and cranes with Meccano. Now the model construction set has been given a technological makeover for the smartphone generation.

This year, kids are going to be able to build their own robots out of the re-usable strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears.

Meccano will unveil its build-it-yourself robotic kit, the Meccanoid G15 KS, at the Toy Show in London's Kensington Olympia today.