Dean Kamen

The external-combustion engine predates its internal-combustion counterpart by nearly a century. Internal combustion won out for modern automobiles by way of its more robust production of horsepower and torque. But Segway inventor Dean Kamen is working up several new uses for the venerable Stirling external-combustion engine. The latest is a electric generator that can use almost anything that burns as fuel. It's the centerpiece of a new hybrid-electric scooter that may never need recharging.

Will future brain imaging allow scientists to read your mind? What does "nothing" really mean, and what is time? Does free will exist? Has intelligence evolved in parallel amongst many species, or is it unique to humans? These are just a few of the topics that will be tackled over the next four days at the second annual World Science Festival. The festival brings together an impressive list of participants: E.O. Wilson, Oliver Sacks, Alan Alda, Glenn Close, Yo-Yo Ma, and Dean Kamen, to name a few. The crème de la crème of the scientific community (including a number of Nobel Laureates), performing and visual artists, innovators in business, and policy-makers will engage in a public discussion about science and encourage scientific discovery and education.

The foot-controlled "Luke" prosthetic arm may not win any lightsaber fights, but it could soon lend a helping hand to wounded warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A three-year study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is slated to provide engineering feedback before widespread distribution to veterans, according to an announcement last week.

I’ve just stepped onto the factory floor at Segway world headquarters in Bedford, New Hampshire, when two engineers sporting matching jeans (tapered), shirts (plaid) and hairlines (receding) glide by and shoot me matching expressions (grins). “Doesn’t anyone walk around here?” I ask, as the distinctive, almost melodic hum of the Human Transporter (HT) trails off. Segway development engineer David Robinson responds with a different expression, this one more quizzical than the one on his colleagues’ faces. “Would you?” he asks.