| Robots fueled by brains
Tlachtli's base was buffered with pink, plastic water noodles attached with brown surgical tape, and its arm was reinforced with plywood, scavenged from the George Washington High School drama department. Even with this unconventional construction, Tlachtli - built by students from George Washington High School and the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning, both in Denver - battled its way to 13th place out of 48 teams at Saturday's competition. "We've been one of the underdogs," said Emily Sigman, 18, a George Washington senior. "When you start with no expectations, you can say, 'Look at us; we're still building our robot, but we're going forward,"' she said. The regional championship of the FIRST Robotics Competition, at the University of Denver's Magness Arena, was the last stop before the national competition in Atlanta on April 12.
OUTLOOK - UK smaller company results for
2006 indicated that revenues NMTG;SGE;INVU;HVN;CPW;GBR,USA,INL,SOF,SVS,RET,STK,ERN/OUTLOOK - UK smaller company results for 2 weeks to April 27 ( for the year were likely to be around 3.5 mln stg, closely in line with current market expectations and some two and a half times greater than the 1.3 mln reported for 2005. Looking forward, however, the timing of converting opportunities to revenue remains difficult to forecast. The board's best estimates suggest that forecasts of sales for 2007, while substantially above that achieved in 2006, are materially less than current market forecasts. However, expectations are that the level of marketing and product support costs going forward will be lower, thereby reducing the impact of the lower revenue on pre-tax operating figures.
Robot 'leech' could treat hearts
A ROBOT 'leech' has been developed that can crawl across the surface of an ailing heart delivering treatment. A prototype of the device, called HeartLander, has been tested on pigs. The machine fitted pacemaker leads and injected dye into the animals' hearts. The inch-long robot has two sucker-like feet allowing it to crawl like a leech across a heart at up to 18cm a minute. Inserted below the ribcage by keyhole surgery, it attaches to the organ by means of a vacuum line to the suckers. It moves by shifting its two body segments backwards and forwards. Vessels Scientists hope it will avoid the need for open-heart surgery, which usually requires the heart to be stopped. It could be specially useful where surgeons are not able to reach the heart through blood vessels because of diseased tissue.
Astronaut Sally Ride to speak at KC science festival
Astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, will be in Kansas City on Saturday to speak at a science festival for girls and their families. The 11 a.m.-4:15 p.m. event at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Registration closes at 4 p.m. Friday. For more information,call (800) 561-5161 or go to www.SallyRideFestivals.com Ride spoke to The Kansas City Star on Thursday from her office in San Diego. Q.Are you seeing an increased interest in the sciences among young girls, or young people in general? A. We're definitely seeing an increased interest in the sciences, particularly among girls. And an interesting side note is that for a few decades now it's been true that in the 4th grade there are as many girls as boys that like science but in the 5th or 6th grades we, meaning we the country, start losing both boys and girls from science.
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