Boffins at Bristol University in the UK have come up with a special skin for spaceships that can heal itself if it gets torn, in a similar way to how human skin works. I cam across the following explanation in the New scientist:

The researchers came up with a similar idea for protecting spacecraft. They fabricated a composite laminate material containing hundreds of hollow glass filaments 60 microns (thousandths of a millimetre) wide, each with an inner chamber of 30 microns in diameter. Half of the filaments are filled with an epoxy polymer or resin and the other half filled with a chemical agent that reacts with the polymer to form a very strong and hard substance.

The glass filaments are designed to crack easily when the overall composite material is damaged, which causes both chemicals to leak out and rapidly plug the resulting crack or hole. “We’ve demonstrated we can restore strength by doing this,” Bond says, “and that it can stand the space environment.”

It seems a pretty cool idea to me, until somebody invents a proper force field self repairing battle cruisers may be the answer :).

[Found via New Scientist and babblogue]

This has got to be the ultimate thoughtful gift for Valentines Day, personalised silver love hearts and if not you still have 2 weeks left to think of a good excuse.

The personalised love heart is the same shape of a normal love heart (which I’m guessing are international or this post won’t make a lot of sense) but instead of being made from candy it’s made out of solid silver (so don’t go giving one to that special blind person in your life unless you fancy a trip to the dentist).

When ordering the love heart you need to specify the message to be engraved, like “I Love Gadgets” or something. As the heart is so small you don’t need write a love song, just a few special words. This must be the perfect romantic gift to all partners with a name of less than 7 characters :).

Available for £39.95, exclusively from Firebox.

This is another one of those strange Japanese inventions/contraptions. If you’re forever getting moaned at for leaving the toilet seat up (blokes) or down (woman, not that us blokes ever complain) the this Automatic opening-and-closing toilet bowl lid may just help you out.

The auto bog lid (the offical title was too long) detects via a sensor when a would be depositor approaches and opens accordingly. When the operator has done the business and leaves, the lid automatically closes (as if by magic).
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It did not take long before Bluetooth technology started creeping into communication devices, such as mobile phones and Handheld PDAs. Built on the wireless platform, Bluetooth has several enhancement and it is not long before Plantronics, professional headphone makers, takes advantange of the technology and come up with the one and only Plantronics Pulsar.

The Plantronics Pulsar™ 590 Series Bluetooth® Stereo Headsets deliver the ultimate in wireless freedom! Allowing users to Seamlessly switch between their Bluetooth phone and your favorite music or movie, they will never miss a call. According to the data sheet, Pulsar 590A provides up to 12 hours of talk time and 10 hours of listen time, without recharging. In addition, users can also enjoy wireless stereo listening on laptops, PCs, TVs, DVD as well as MP3 players.

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Seems we have 2 totally different cardboard home builds to report on today which is strange as normally we don’t have any. The latest thing to make is a 1:48 scale model of the Apollo V rocket, which may not be as functional as the cardboard box speaker but it looks a load cooler.

This model is the sort of weekend family project, which will likely mean Dad taking over when the kids get bored. As well as the model looking cool, the other great thing about it is that it is totally free. You can download full instructions and templates in PDF format (though you’ll have to supply card and glue). The web site it’s on is pretty ropey and hard to read (Arrrg Comic Sans font) but the PDF’s look very professional and easy to follow.

[ Saturn V Rocket. version 2.0 found via Boing Boing

I’m not too sure what the point of these is but they still look pretty cool, speakers that come in a box that you then take out of the box and make into a box. We thought it sounded strange too.

The cardboard box speakers are exactly that speakers in a cardboard box, whether such expensive casing enhances acoustic quality is unknown but some how I don’t think superior sound quality is the point of these.

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Our sister site Game Addicts has been selected to be Cool Site of the Day. CG did really well when we were featured and we hope that Game Addicts has the same success. If you can spare a few seconds, pop over to Cool Site of the Day and give us a vote, all 10s are greatly appreciated :).

Thanks in advance, and if you’re into games you might want to join our latest forums, dedicated to talking about games.

I’ve never seen the point in adding internal lighting to your PC but if you’re that way inclined you can now do it really easily with the LED Flash Power Y Cable.

The LED Flash Power Y Cable acts as a two way adapter for the standard power connectors found inside your PC but all 3 ends also incorporate bright blue or red lights, making your PC internals glow. Probably not suited to the typical beige PC but if you have a flash case and want to make the most of that glass window then why not.

Available from Think Geek for 7 bucks.