The HI-MEMS program is aimed to develop technology that provides more control over insect locomotion, just as saddles and horseshoes are needed for horse locomotion control.
Developing tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis.

HI-MEMS - Programs - Microsystems Technology Office

"We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always," said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. "This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'"

It doesn't take a robot to do this. The same function could be accomplished by cameras mounted in the car's dashboard, but Inoue said there's a conscious choice behind the robot.

ITworld.com - Nissan adds a robot helper to its concept car

Scientists at North Carolina's PULSTAR nuclear reactor facility fired a positron bean five times stronger than any other ever created earlier this month, breaking a record previously held by a team in Germany. The antimatter device -- which apparently looks like a Star Trek warp reactor -- was developed as part of a two year project by NC State, the University of Michigan, and Oak Ridge National Labs. Now that the device is working, the team is looking for practical applications for the tech, including building an "antimatter telescope," which would allow even closer observations of atomic interactions. Or they could use it to blow up the universe. You know, whatever.

Researchers fire most powerful antimatter beam ever - Engadget

If you're stuck in traffic when Mother Nature calls, Japan's Kaneko Sangyo Co has developed the loo for you.

Only the Japanese would make this.

Something I bet the jetsons had though.

Car toilet to end crises in traffic jams - Breaking News - World - Breaking News

Monster US arms'n'aerospace outfit Boeing is pleased as punch this week to announce that it has "successfully demonstrated" its new Humvee-mounted raygun, the Laser Avenger - intended to prove "that directed energy weapons are relevant to today's battlefield, and ready to be fielded".

Boeing trumpets 'relevant battlefield laser' raygun | The Register

There's still no Wax Museum...

RE: Why I'm going to Phreaknic

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Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.

Sex and marriage with robots? It could happen - Innovation - MSNBC.com

YABO is friendly robot for lonely unmarried persons.

Coroflot - portfolio for Kim Yong seong

Of the many fascinating theoretical applications of DARPA's "cyborg insect" research, the most creative could be using sex-starved moths to follow bank robbers. A new article in EE Times goes into detail on HI-MEMS, and quotes a science fiction writer whose book inspired the DARPA program:

"Moths are extraordinarily sensitive to sex attractants, so instead of giving bank robbers money treated with dye, they could use sex attractants instead," said [science fiction writer Thomas] Easton. "Then, a moth-based HI-MEMS could find the robber by following the scent.

DARPA's Sex Slave Insects on Danger Room