SCIENCE

Image via Gizmodo.

As impressive as Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot ATLAS moves, it's still not completely free to explore wherever it wants. Thick trunk lines keep it tethered to machinery and pumps that provide power, hyrdraulic fluids, and of course communications and data. But researchers at MIT are now working to free ATLAS of its leash-like umbilical cord sometime in the next six months. Read full article in Gizmodo. E.T.P. 5'

Photo: A mite on an eyelash via The Creator's Project.

There is no better way of describe what you are about to see than the way the Creator's Project did: Timelapses Of Microscopic Nature, In All Its Stunning (And Disgusting) Glory. Yes, disgusting. Louie Schwartzberg at TED 2014 in Vancouver unveiled "a National Geographic-sponsored voyage into glimpses of Earth that the naked eye could never see: microscopic mites on our eyelashes, the tongues of snails, and even the skin of sharks. The hyper-defined images are miraculous, but admittedly a little terrifying—especially the snapshot of nano organisms that crawl on already-microscopic parasites." Read full article and have a look at the video in The Creator's Project website. E.T.P. 9'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo: Mary Barra via The New Yorker.

"Until 2002, women made up fewer than one per cent of chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. This year, that figure rose to four per cent—still dismayingly low, but a significant increase in just over a decade." Vauhini Vara and Joshua Rothman were curious, after Mary Barra’s appointment as first female C.E.O. of General Motors, about how female business leaders have talked about their experiences in the pages of The New Yorker, and here is what they found. E.T.P. 7'

Photo via WSJ Online.

Why everybody will totally read this column. "Neetzan Zimmerman doesn't like to be called a machine. That word implies something cold and inhuman about how he works, and Mr. Zimmerman believes that what makes him so good at his job is precisely the opposite sensibility: Unlike a computer, he understands the emotions that might compel a human being to click on something online." If you want to find out how this Gawker editor picks the content that goes viral you should totally read this article in The Wall Street Journal. E.T.P. 5'

Still from DARPA's You Tube.

And finally, as seen in Fast Company, Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, the MIT spin-off research company behind some of the world's most advanced robots and androids, for an undisclosed amount. What do you think Google have in store for 2014? Have a look at some of Boston Dynamics's previous projects in this article by Fast Company. E.T.P. 7'