Studying complex systems like ecosystems can get messy, especially when trying to predict how they interact with other big unknowns like climate change.

A week ago, scientists from Oregon Health and Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center announced that they had successfully used human skin cells to clone embryonic stem cells. In the few days since the researchers’ work came online, though, the research has been found to contain a few key errors.

In pioneering new research at Columbia University, scientists have grown high-quality crystals of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the world’s thinnest semiconductor, and studied how these crystals stitch together at the atomic scale to form continuous sheets. Through beautiful images of strikingly symmetric stars and triangles hundreds of microns across, they have uncovered key insights into the optical and electronic properties of this new material, which can be either conducting or insulating to form the basic “on-off switch” for all digital electronics.

The United States Air Force has a serious need for speed. On May first their X-51A Waverider zoomed to an amazing Mach 5.1 – more than five times the speed of sound. While there was no pilot behind the stick of the hypersonic jet, the knowledge gained in developing and flying the X-51A paves the way for the hypersonics of the future.

Technical Illusions’ Cast AR glasses, shown for the first time at Maker Faire —a festival that highlights invention, creativity and resourcefulness — in the Bay Area this past weekend, aims to bring gaming into the real world using augmented reality.

Think your network is fast? Getting a gigabyte-sized movie over your local wireless network to your hard drive in a few seconds is old hat. Now there’s a network that can push a 2-hour, high-definition movie to a computer a mile away in less time than it takes to read a single word.

At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, a new record has been set: 40GB per second over a distance of about .6 of a mile. That’s like sending 10 high-def feature films.

Stanford physicists have created a new method of producing coherent matter beams. The new laser system would use a hundredth the power of conventional lasers and could one day be used in many places from consumer goods to quantum computers.

The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole.

The most inaccurate component of a rifle is the human behind the trigger, but starting Wednesday hunters can turn to drone-inspired vision for a little help. Provided they have $22,000 on hand for a new rifle, that is.

“The ubiquity and power of the computer blur the distinction between public and private information. Our revolution will not be in gathering data — don’t look for TV cameras in your bedroom — but in analyzing information that is already willingly shared.”

Are these the words of a 21st century media critic warning us about the tremendous quantity of information that the average person shares online?

Nope. It’s from a 1985 article for the Whole Earth Review by Larry Hunter, who was writing about the future of privacy. And it’s unlikely Mr. Hunter could have any more accurately predicted the Age of Facebook — or its most pervasive fears.

No matter how capable you make a robot, its effectiveness is limited by how well you can control it. And until we’ve got this whole general autonomy thing nailed down (better not hold your breath), that means a lot of teleoperation. JPL has been working on a new gesture-based human interface called BioSleeve, which uses a [insert collective noun for sensors here] of EMG sensors, IMUs, and magnetometers to decode hand and arm gestures and map them to an intuitive robot control system.

Belatchew Architects presents the concept STRAWSCRAPER, the first project to come out of the fledgling business Belatchew Labs. STRAWSCRAPER is an extension of the south tower on Södermalm in Stockholm with a new energy-producing shell covered with hairs that can extract wind energy.

Because moths need to use every little bit of light available in order to see in the dark, their eyes are highly non-reflective. This quality has been copied in a film that can be applied to solar cells, which helps keep sunlight from being reflecting off of them before it can be utilized. Now, a new moth eye-inspired film may further help solar cells become more efficient.

How was your day? Fine? Stressful? Boring? It might soon be a bit easier to flesh out your answer, or find out how someone else’s day really went.

All you need is a smartphone, a sensor and a high-tech “mirror”.