FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE WEEK - 19

ROBOTIC STRING HAND

This robotic hand is actually operated with extremely strong polymer strings, attached to actuators. Given how much our own muscles are like strings, it's surprising that we haven't seen anything quite like this before. Read more here.

Markus Breig

THE QUIETEST ROOM ON EARTH

This room, the "anechoic chamber" at Orfield Laboratories, is 99.99 percent sound absorbent, and holds the Guinness World Record for quietest room on the planet. Apparently it's so quiet it drives you insane--the only sounds you hear emanate from your own body, fluids gurgling and heart pumping and joints cracking--and nobody has ever been able to stand it for more than 45 minutes. Read more here.

Steve Orfield

TECHNOSENSUAL

Technosensual is an exhibit at quartier21, in Vienna--a chance for designers to show off high-tech fashions, equipped with LED lights, smoke machines, transforming fabrics, and more. Read more here.

quartier21

SPEEDY NANOPRINTING

Why is Vienna so cool all of a sudden? Here's another from the Big V (that is not a nickname): a new world record for the fastest 3-D printed nano-objects has been set by the Vienna University of Technology. Researchers there printed a 0.285mm model of a Formula 1 racing car in just over four minutes. Read more here.

Vienna University of Technology

CONCEPT BIKE

Frog, a company that designed not only the original Frog FZ Rana, which was so influential it's currently shown in the SFMOMA, but also the cases for Macintosh computers in the early '80s, has a new motorcycle concept. We'll admit to not understanding quite how it would, like, work--not sure what the benefit is to the big hole in the middle of the body, nor are we sure where the actual power to turn the wheels comes from. But it sure looks pretty! Read more at FastCoDesign.

Frog