Lego

More and more, we're hearing about scaffolding-like materials that are used to help heal bone injuries. A new one is claimed to be particularly versatile, as it's inspired by Lego building blocks.

MacGyver is alive and well and living in Austin Texas, where researchers have come up with a simple and affordable chemical weapons detector, made out of an iPhone, a UV lamp, a standard 96-well test plate and … a bunch of Lego bricks. ​

The IKO Creative Prosthetic System is aimed at unleashing the creative expression of those with missing limbs, and to do so the developers have enlisted every child's favorite building blocks.

Engineers have designed an experiment that uses Lego blocks and a few other electronic bits and pieces that would allow any keen tinkerer to build a device that not only determines Planck's Constant but may also help quantify the international standard unit of mass.

MIT researchers have invented a new digital material whose block like design allows the assembly of huge structures like towers, spacecraft and airplanes by snapping blocks together. Parts can be assembled instead of engineered by small robots crawling over the structure adding pieces of material.

A LEGO Minsdstorm robot in Darmstadt, Germany was controlled from a laptop aboard the International Space Station.