Necessity is the mother of invention.

For blind California resident Steve Mahan, he absolutely needed to get a taco. But how to get there? He could walk, call a cab or get picked up from a friend.

He relied on a trusty friend from Mountain View named Google.

And so Steve headed to the Bell, driven by one of Google’s new self-driving cars. Science and technology had finally advanced it’s most challenging rubric, getting a blind man to a chalupa as fast and easy as possible.

According to the Google’s own Google+ page, since Mahan doesn’t have a driver’s license he had to get special permission from local law enforcement to sit in the front seat. A police official even sat in on the ride. But we’re pretty sure it was just so he could get one of the new Dorito shell hard tacos.

[Google's Google+]

Robot Ostrich. Yes.

[Improbable Research]

If you thought that we’d never create a feedback loop with yeast that could help us control it’s organic nature using a computer, you are dead wrong.

This work, performed by scientists at the Automatic Control Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, is exceptional because of its simplicity: The computer turns the yeast on by flashing a red light, and it turns the yeast off by flashing a deeper red light. Connected to the yeast is a “reporter” molecule that fluoresces when the protein is produced. The computer can see this fluorescence and alter the light it emits, thus creating a full feedback loop.

This is the first step toward manipulating organic material by way of cell signaling which could lead to us making anything from fuel to pills from a vat ooze. Which is awesome.

[Extreme Tech]

Surgery robot Da Vinci shows off exactly how precise it is by peeling a grape. Like a show off.

[Da Vinci Surgery]

Enough said.

[Geekologie]

Robots deserve to legally drive in Nevada. Google is fighting for their rights. Will the Silver State agree? Or perpetrate yet another act of human bigotry upon our silicon brothers?

The search giant is currently lobbying Nevada to make self-driving cars street legal on public roads. This would also allow drivers behind the wheels of these vehicles to text message their friends while rolling along the highway legally.

[New York Times via Kurzweil AI]

We really need to stop teaching robots how to fight us. Side note: it has a “berserk” mode.

[Geekologie]

The amazing music video for Alex Metric & Steve Angelo’s new tune Open Your Eyes finds us visiting a man who looks not unlike a young Rocky Balboa working over bums in the Philly underground boxing scene. However, instead of Apollo Creed looking for a new opponent, we find a fearsome boxing mech who has a habit of murdering his sparring partners while his sadistic creator laughs maniacally at the bloodshed.

Our rocky character is played by the hilarious Peter Serafinowicz from Shaun Of The Dead as well as the insanely funny UK TV sensations Look Around You and Spaced.

The song is ‘salright but the video is must see. SPOILER ALERT: not unlike the end of the Rocky, this story finds Balboa’s opponent wishing for no rematch, however, in this version our villain takes decisive action to reach his goal.

Thanks to Minion5051 for the tip via Twitter.

[YouTube]