Russia's Floating Nuclear Power Plants Will Power Remote Areas

From cruise ships to oil tankers to houseboats, there's always a way to design a boat to fit our needs. Now, Russia has another iteration to add to the list: a nuclear power plant.

That's right. The next nuclear power plant from Russia will float.

The ships, which are expected to be fully functional by 2016, are really more like barges that can be towed to and from different destinations. The first ship in the fleet will be called Akademik Lomonosov, weighing in at 21,500 tons with a crew of 69 people.

Each plant contains two naval propulsion reactors and provides up to 70 megawatts of electricity — enough to power a city of 200,000 people. The video above takes you through some of the details.

The plants were initially designed for remote locations like offshore oil platforms and port cities. But more than 15 countries expressed interest in the floating power plants including Japan, where the Fukushima disaster occurred in 2012.

The plant manufacturer, mechanical engineering company OKBM Afrikantov, claims that the mobile floating station would ride out the disaster better than land-based plants.

This isn't the first time Russia has experimented with floating nuclear power. The country has a 50-year track record of nuclear operations in ships and submarines in extreme Arctic conditions. The floating plant can also be modified as a desalination plant capable of producing 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water each day for remote locations.

Under normal operation, the plant does not release any hazardous material into the surrounding water.

How do you feel about a floating nuclear power plant? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of OKBM

A New Way to Heal Broken Bones: 3D-Printed Casts

Breaking a bone is unpleasant all around — and having to wear a smelly, clunky plaster cast is like getting kicked when you're down. At least, that's how Jake Evill felt after breaking his hand. He told Wired that his plaster cast felt "archaic."

Evill, a recent graduate of Victoria University in New Zealand, wants to update the process of healing of broken limbs with something a little more modern: 3D printing.

Evill created the Cortex cast, a breathable, lightweight, recyclable and washable exoskeleton that mimics the body's trabecular, the small honeycomb-like structure that makes up your inner bone structure.

The cast lets in plenty of air, which prevents that stuffy, itchy feeling.

The Cortex cast employs a similar fitting system as other casts, with X-rays to determine bone fractures. Evill's prototype used a hacked Kinect for Xbox for the 3D scanning, but a more sophisticated and precise scanning process is in the works.

Check out the video above to see how the Cortex cast fits to broken bones.

mages courtesy of Jake Evill

This Bluetooth Keyboard Puts the Office in Your Pocket

The more wireless our world gets, the more connected we seem to become. One Kickstarterproduct, which has made a lot of noise not even one week into its campaign, is exploiting this paradox, putting you "one fold away from work."

The portable keyboard called myType is spearheaded by keyboard evangelist and MIT graduate Brunn W. Roysden. It fits nicely in your pocket and works wirelessly via Bluetooth with the iPhone, second and third iPad iterations, iPad Mini, iPod touch, Android (with HID support) and Windows 8 tablet. The keys interlock when it's closed so the keyboard folds up conveniently.

myType also strives to give users optimal functionality, with the looks and feel of a desktop keyboard. It's just more than one foot long when unfolded, and includes a micro USB port for charging. Its battery life last roughly eight hours, and the keyboard is splash resistant (for the most part) with a maximum wireless range of up to 33 feet.

Interested backers can snag one for $59 in black, white, blue, green or pink. At time of writing, myType's campaign had more than doubled its $10,000 first-stretch goal, with 30 days left to go.

Watch the videos above to learn more about myType, and let us know in the comments if you'd consider backing the project.

Image courtesy of Kickstarter, myType