mad engineering

This Machine Turns Poop Into Drinkable Water

Water to wine? Yawn. The Janicki Omniprocessor turns human waste in sewer sludge into drinking water and electricity, in about five minutes. Here’s how it works. “The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle,” writes Bill Gates, who visited the facility in November to try the water for himself (the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 9

Watch A Pair Of Tank-Mounted Fighter Jet Engines Extinguish An Oil Fire

Pretty much what it says on the tin, folks. “The Big Wind” is a colossal, roving fire-extinguisher of Hungarian design that combines one part T-34 Soviet tank with two parts MiG-21 turbine engine. Bring it all together, add a trio of operators, and you’ve got a Mad-Maxian chimera that can gush water at a rate…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 28

Spider-Man Gloves Are Real, And They ACTUALLY WORK

Researchers led by Stanford engineer Elliot Hawkes have created a pair of gecko-inspired gloves that enable users up to 200 pounds to scale smooth, vertical panes of glass. As one biomechanical engineer put it: “This is a really big deal.” Top image via Elliot Hawkes The secret to Hawkes’ team’s gloves is their efficiency. It…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 21

World’s Fastest Train Hits 500km/h, And People Aboard Look Pretty Chill

The world’s fastest train – a maglev vehicle operated by the Central Japan Railway Company capable of speeds in excess of 500km/h (~311mph) – is currently undergoing eight days of public testing. Short runs began Saturday, with 100 passengers making the 42.8 km trip from Uenehora to Fuefuki in about five minutes. Check out a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 19

How To Fold The World’s Farthest-Flying Paper Airplane

The all-time distance record for paper airplane flight* was set in February, 2012. The paper craft was designed by John Collins (a.k.a. “The Paper Airplane Guy”), and soared a whopping 226 feet, 10 inches. Here, Collins walks us through how to fold his world-record-holding plane, which he’s named “Suzanne.” The design for Suzanne is one…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 19

Here’s The Easiest Way To Move Furniture Into A 12th Floor Apartment

In South Korea, moving companies rely on what looks like a pretty ingenious technique for moving furniture into high-rise apartments. YouTuber Travel With Jerry shot this video while visiting his sister’s apartment in Korea. To be fair (much as we’d all love to believe that Seoul is the cyberpunk city of the future), South Koreans…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 19

You’ll Need A Flexible Key To Open “The Weirdest Lock On Earth”

It’s been said there’s no such thing as an unpickable lock. That may be true – but this innovative lock assembly just bested one of the Internet’s most famous lock-pickers, who calls it “the weirdest lock on Earth.” The pin/tumbler mechanism found in simple cylinder locks is notoriously easy to beat. Armed with patience and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 18

The Quickest Way To Pick Cherries Is With a Giant Vibrator

Want to know the easy way to harvest cherries? It’s simple – just shake the tree. Alright, so technically there’s a little more to it than that. The hydraulic shaker in this video has actually been calibrated to jostle these cherry trees at a specific vibrational frequency. Jiggle in just the right way, and you’ll…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 27

These Homemade Tanks Are Tough Enough To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse

Need an armored vehicle to roll through the hordes of undead but can’t get access to a military tank? Take some inspiration from these homemade tanks, with the guns and plating you’ll need at the end of the world. A Megatron tank replica, built by a Chinese designer in 2011 (via zcool) The Sham II,…

io9 Vincze Miklós Jul 15

This Machine Folds Paper Planes, Then Flies Them Into The Recycling Bin

Humans have been rendered obsolete, at least where the paper airplane is concerned. This machine will fold a plane and launch it, sending it straight into the recycling bin. A team of folks at Neopost, a company that manufactures postage meters and other mailroom equipment, made this industrial airplane folder. Under the right conditions, you…

io9 Lauren Davis Apr 15

A structural engineer performs a stress analysis of a strapless gown

Charles Seim is a bridge engineer who worked on dozens of bridges over the course of his career. But one of his early works was a contemplation of forces in a rather different structure: the strapless evening gown. Neatorama and Improbable Research have republished Seim’s 1956 essay “A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown,”…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 3

Engineering students design a shoe that harnesses energy from walking

Could your shoes someday help power your devices? A team of Rice University engineering students think so, thanks to a prototype sneaker that captures pedestrian power. As their engineering capstone project, Rice University seniors Carlos Armada, Julian Castro, David Morilla, and Tyler Wiest created PediPower shoes. Houston-based company Cameron, which sponsored the team, challenged the…

io9 Lauren Davis May 25

This unnecessarily complicated pancake-making device would do Wallace and Gromit proud

The Happy Egg Company took their cues for their Pancake-omatic from the cracking contraptions of Wallace and Gromit. It took engineers 200 hours to construct and 100 hours to test this pancake making device, which starts when the enthroned hen lays an egg. It’s pretty to look at, but the real question is: are the…

io9 Lauren Davis Feb 10

Engineers light a menorah with a Rube Goldberg Machine, a robotic arm, and a little nitroglycerin

The first night of Hanukkah is less than a week away, and the engineers of Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, are getting ready with their unnecessarily complicated menorah lighting system, in which a Rube Goldberg device triggers a robotic arm, and nitroglycerin provides the fire. [via Neatorama]

io9 Lauren Davis Dec 2

Tacocopter could be the unmanned future of food delivery

Is this the death knell of the delivery guy? A group of aspiring to start delivering tacos via unmanned drone straight to your feet. Unfortunately, the FAA isn’t so keen on the idea. Star Simpson (whom some of you may remember as the MIT student who accidentally triggered a bomb scare at Logan Airport in…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 25

Rube Goldberg machine is the world’s most complicated page-turning device

For those days when you can’t be bothered to turn the newspaper page with your hands, but can be bothered to build a complicated contraption, artist Joseph Herscher has devised the ultimate page-turning Rube Goldberg machine, powered by pool balls, a chubby hamster, and fire. [via Laughing Squid]

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 14

Say hello to the world’s first full-scale electric helicopter

It just so happens that hovering in mid-air is a pretty energy-intensive process. It’s this fact that helps explain why helicopters — notorious for being energy-hogging little buggers — have yet to make an appearance in the recent wave of electric vehicles. But now, by replacing the most energy-intensive components with ultralight alternatives, aerospace engineer…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Sep 6

Man builds a functional airship you can fit in your garage

Where you and I might walk our dogs around the block, retired engineer Jack Clemens walks his own working airship, a perfect model of a naval airship that was destroyed in 1935. After requesting the plans for the US Macon, a helium airship that fell to bad weather in 1935, Clemens spent two-and-a-half years and…

io9 Lauren Davis Jun 15

Blast-Proof Glass Brings Us One Step Closer to Transparisteel

A construction material that’s stronger than steel but perfectly transparent is a classic sci-fi invention, and a research team at the University of Missouri is bringing it a little closer to reality with their blast-resistant glass. We already have blast-resistant glass, but it has a serious design flaw – it has to be made extremely…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Dec 29

Floating wind turbines could be our energy solution in the clouds

Wind is a clean, renewable energy source, but there isn’t nearly enough of it down here on the ground. But high in the sky, there are furious jet streams of powerful wind just waiting to be harvested by floating turbines. NASA engineer Mark Moore has been working on the idea of airborne wind turbines for…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 19

mad engineering

This Machine Turns Poop Into Drinkable Water

Watch A Pair Of Tank-Mounted Fighter Jet Engines Extinguish An Oil Fire

Spider-Man Gloves Are Real, And They ACTUALLY WORK

World’s Fastest Train Hits 500km/h, And People Aboard Look Pretty Chill

How To Fold The World’s Farthest-Flying Paper Airplane

Here’s The Easiest Way To Move Furniture Into A 12th Floor Apartment

You’ll Need A Flexible Key To Open “The Weirdest Lock On Earth”

The Quickest Way To Pick Cherries Is With a Giant Vibrator

These Homemade Tanks Are Tough Enough To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse

This Machine Folds Paper Planes, Then Flies Them Into The Recycling Bin

A structural engineer performs a stress analysis of a strapless gown

Engineering students design a shoe that harnesses energy from walking

This unnecessarily complicated pancake-making device would do Wallace and Gromit proud

Engineers light a menorah with a Rube Goldberg Machine, a robotic arm, and a little nitroglycerin

Tacocopter could be the unmanned future of food delivery

Rube Goldberg machine is the world’s most complicated page-turning device

Say hello to the world’s first full-scale electric helicopter

Man builds a functional airship you can fit in your garage

Blast-Proof Glass Brings Us One Step Closer to Transparisteel

Floating wind turbines could be our energy solution in the clouds

OpenAI Says Elon Musk Is ‘Injecting Chaos’ with Recent Legal Maneuver

Google Displayed Polymarket Bets as News ‘In Error,’ Google Says

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

Let us help find what you are looking for...