geekosystem

If you're not great at doing math in your head, you're in pretty good company around these parts. In general, too -- an estimated 20% of otherwise healthy adults regularly struggle to do basic arithmetic without showing their work. Don't give up hope, though! A new treatment being studied at Oxford University could make you better at doing math in your head for up to six months at a time -- and all you have to do is put on what looks like a steampunk gimp mask and let someone deliver electrical shocks to your brain!

Think humans are special because we can show one another how to do things? Think again. According to a study published this week in the journal Science, humpback whales not only developed new ways to hunt different prey -- they also shared that information with other whales, teaching one another new hunting techniques.

Sometimes animals don't need you and your fancy pills. They can get their own meds, thank you very much. It's a phenomenon called zoopharmacognosy, and it's a known thing. A chimp might eat a vomit-inducing plant to purge his system of parasites, or a parrot might eat clay to help with digestion. But the practice of animal self-medication may be far more widespread than we ever knew, says a new study at the University of Michigan.

As 3D printing becomes more popular, accessible, and advanced, researchers and hobbyists alike are using the technology to produce more and more sophisticated items. Crossbows. Animal skeletons. Pretty much anything that fits in an 8-by-8-by-8 inch box. Some of the medical grade work being done on 3D printing, though, makes all of that awesome stuff look like child's play. In the latest example of that sort of work: Scientists at the University of Oxford have created a 3D printer capable of building synthetic shapes that imitate living tissue.

If you were to gather up all the recent robots inspired by designs found in nature, you would have a pretty awesome robot petting zoo. The newest addition to it might be this bot designed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, which takes its cues from desert lizards who can move without trouble over loose, tricky terrain like sand dunes. The team behind the bot hopes its means of locomotion could one day help a new generation of of rover robots get around alien planets quickly and easily. Keep reading to get a look at the new design in action.