Engineers at Rice University have accomplished a feat that should bring happiness to all smart-phone users: "full-duplex" technology, a breakthrough that could instantly double the capacity and speed of existing wireless networks without the need for additional cell towers.

Much like people, modern wireless devices are not able to both "talk" and "listen" at the same time, meaning they must send and receive data on different frequencies. With full-duplex, however, information can be transmitted simultaneously in two directions.

Researchers at Britain's University of Exeter have developed a 3-D printer that Willy Wonka would die for. Instead of using metals or plastics as its "ink," Exeter's uses chocolate.

Sometimes called additive manufacturing, 3-D printing technologies work off a three-dimensional CAD design of a product, then construct the item by laying down one very thin layer of material at a time.  

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