Yes, really.  iRobot’s ChemBot is a whitish-gray ball sprouting some wires, and it inflates and deflates in a jerky, random-looking fashion.

Or if you’re looking for a more technical description, Leslie Katz wrote, “[A] flexible silicone skin encapsulates a series of pockets containing a mix of air and loosely packed particles.  When air is removed from the compartments, the skin attempts to equalize the pressure differential by constricting the particles, which shift slightly to fill the void left by the evacuated air.”

Anyway, this process is what allows the ChemBot to move, and the organizations that are backing it hope that it will eventually be able to perform duties during reconnaissance and search-and-rescue missions.  Its ability to change size and shape might allow it to squeeze through very small spaces at the same time.

Still, as cool as the tech is, the ChemBot’s a little disturbing to watch.

It’s no secret that there’s a thin band of space in which satellites and spacecraft can establish a geosynchronous orbit.  It’s here that most stuff is sent - and then stays long after it breaks down or falls apart.

Fortunately, Michael Day reported, “[S]enior figures at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) told the Observer they have been given the go-ahead to tackle a crisis that will come to a head in the next five to 10 years as more orbiting objects run out of fuel.”

He then continued, “Their robots will dock with failing satellites to carry out repairs or push them into ‘graveyard orbits’, freeing vital space in geostationary orbit.”

Now, it might be wise not to hold your breath, considering that Germany has yet to play much of a role in space exploration.  Still, even if the idea has to be picked up by the Russians, the Japanese, or perhaps good old NASA, it looks like we might soon have a way to perform a space cleanup.

Let’s use a mission to Mars as a starting point.  Have you heard about how, with current tech, it would take astronauts around six months to get there?  Experts are concerned that any crew would go bonkers, and getting them back to Earth seems to represent an even bigger problem.  Such a journey might actually become a one-way trip.

However, Lewis Page wrote, “Chang Diaz believes that VASIMR ships could reach Mars in just 39 days.”  Franklin Chang Diaz is a former astronaut and physicist who now runs a company called Ad Astra Rocket.  VASIMR is short for “Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket,” which is a little something he’s developing.

Also, with regards to a prototype, Page wrote, “Last week the experimental VX-200 test rig - which is partly British made - reached its full rated 200 kilowatt power,” and “[p]lans call for the VF-200-1 to be tested in space aboard the ISS in 2013.”

Although we still wouldn’t mind seeing someone stumble across the secret to faster-than-light travel, this would represent a huge step forward.

Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, apparently introduced a plan resembling an existing French law that limits portable audio devices to 100 dB or less.  James Sherwood reports that it’s received the blessing of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

The proposal’s certainly interesting; there’s all sorts of evidence that overuse of iPods and the like can cause hearing loss, and it would be awful if an accidental twist of the volume knob could deafen a person for life.

Still, the proposal does tend towards the “nanny state” end of things, and bystanders probably won’t benefit much from any regulation unless it applies to non-personal music players (think car-rattling stereo systems and the like).

Also, if something as unthreatening as the MP3 player gets regulated, this might spell very bad news for more exotic pieces of technology.  (No lightsaber bread slicer for you!)

As always, we’ll see what happens.

The Barracuda XT is being advertised as “the world’s fastest, largest-capacity mainstream desktop hard drive.”  It’ll spin at 7200 RPM, and has 2 TB of storage capacity accessible via a 6 Gb/second interface.  Nice, eh?

Even more interestingly, this product is supposed to be shipping now (so it’s not like Seagate is building hype for a product that won’t be so exotic when it’s released in a year), and the price tag shouldn’t read any more than “$300.”

Seagate has a reputation for making good products.  Your humble author, who’s tightfisted and researches purchases to death, even uses one of its portable hard drives to back up some important data and move videos from the computer to the TV.

If you’re in the market for a new hard drive or even a new PC, then, the Barracuda XT probably deserves to be on your shopping list.

According to a press release, this will result in “significantly improved data rates and ranges for wireless local area networks (WLANs).”  Also, “This new amendment to the IEEE 802.11 base standard is designed to help the data communications industry address the escalating demands placed on enterprise, home and public WLANs with the rise of higher-bandwidth file transfers and next-generation multimedia applications.”

So aside from addressing some common user complaints, 802.11n promises to allow corporations to develop some nifty new stuff.  Internet-connected devices should become a lot more common.

Then here’s what pinny-pinchers might consider the extra cool part: a whole lot of existing Wi-Fi gear will get along fine with the 802.11n standard.  An upgrade should be able to make most of the rest of it compatible, too.

It looks like we’ve just gotten a step closer to an era in which people will always be connected to the Internet.

A concept electric wheelchair designated “Universal Vehicle Rodem” was unveiled by the Veda International Robot R&D Center last week.  From the front, it’s a tiny bit reminiscent of the machine that encased Captain Christopher Pike (”Star Trek” fans know what I’m talking about).

The back of the machine is open, however, and so it acts as the opposite of traditional wheelchairs in a couple of ways.  Getting on and off is different (and supposedly much easier), for example.  A person’s weight is also distributed across their chest and legs, too, instead of their back.

As for some of the technical details, a Tech-On article reports, “The two main wheels of the Rodem are independently driven by a control valve type lead battery.  The wheelchair can run for about four hours per charge.  The traveling speed can be selected by operating a joystick from 6km/h (high speed mode), 3.5km/h (medium speed mode) and 1.0km/h (low speed mode) for forward movement and 3km/h for backward movement.”

Hopefully, by the time the Rodem (or anything like it) makes it to market, the battery performance will be even better.

Rachel Williams reports, “The eXtended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP), which went on sale in the US last month, attaches itself to its target with a series of barbed electrodes and delivers a 20-second, 500 volt shock.”  Its range is 100 feet.

It’s not hard to see this weapon/ammo combo as being just a few steps away from the phasers of Star Trek; think of the XREP as representing a 12-guage shotgun’s “stun” setting, while individuals could just swap in a different cartridge and go to “kill.”

Then here’s the really interesting part: the XREP “is being considered for use by UK police forces, the Home Office has confirmed.”  Which might result in this technology becoming very visible and getting a fair amount of use.

Still, we have yet to hear any info about reliability and cost, and Amnesty International absolutely hates the tech, so don’t expect to see YouTube clips of British hoodlums getting electrocuted anytime soon.

Scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology found that “[a]rtificial DNA nanostructures, or ‘DNA origami’ may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips,” according to Reuters.

So we’re talking about faster and smaller computer components, which is what the whole industry is always trying to produce, at a much lower price.  IBM’s liable to pursue the tech at full speed (and a lot of other companies may, too, since they tend to sort of group together).

Fortunately for people fearing a Replicator takeover, full speed still isn’t going to bring things to fruition in the near future.

The Reuters article continued, “[T]he new processes are at least 10 years out. . . .  [W]hile the DNA origami could allow chipmakers to build frameworks that are far smaller than possible with conventional tools, the technique still needs years of experimentation and testing.”

Ben Kuchera reviewed the EyeClops Night Vision 2.0 goggles, which are made by JAKKS Pacific and cost about $60.

They are apparently a bit large, require a lot of batteries, and pick up infrared light from remote controls and other random devices (including other sets of the goggles), but otherwise, he had no complaints.

Kuchera wrote, “They fit around your neck, and they’re brought to your face only when you need to see something in the dark.  Both eyes also now have a screen in front of them, with a dial to adjust interpupillary distance, so you get a nice, clear, large image of what’s going on in front of you.”

Neat, right?  And given the low price, even your humble author, who’s an admitted and incurable cheapskate, finds it tempting to place an order.  You can’t go wrong with such affordable tech.