The data showed the average forces of a soccer-ball header were similar to those exerted on the head by punches from amateur boxers, according to Daniel Plant, a researcher in Imperial's department of mechanical engineering, who presented the data Friday at a helmet-safety science conference at the university.

WSJ: Soccer 'Header' Impact Likened to Hard Punch

The son of a Berkeley civil engineering professor, Pister first built tiny self-propelled robots, such as a mechanical fly that could take wing and transmit data.

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For data-hungry enterprises, tapping into Mechanical Turk is a huge money-saver.

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By combining data from the two steps an equation linking mechanical power (dependent on mass) to electrical power (calculated by multiplying voltage by current) can be derived.

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To be fair, these are complicated mechanical devices, forced to process physical objects, not just data.

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Push up those glasses and refresh the lead in your mechanical pencils, Renault has a new accessory to transport your nerdrobe to the data center.

ENGADGET: Renault's plug-in Kangoo be bop Z.E. features 'printed circuit' motifs, cute as a 390-point breadboard