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US Olympic rowers will be wearing Sunderland’s innovative seamless sports apparel at the Rio games this summer. (credit: Philadelphia University)

Today’s technology can do some pretty amazing things. It recently let us get up close and personal with Jupiter and even create low-fat chocolate. But, so far, it’s struggling with a new challenge—allowing athletes to safely play amid raw sewage.

Textile engineers at Philadelphia University announced last week that they’ve developed seamless, light-weight, antimicrobial suits for the US Olympic rowing team. In August, the team will wear the suits as they compete in the summer games in Rio de Janeiro, which is surrounded by water brimming with raw sewage, pollution, drug-resistant bacteria, virus loads up to 1.7 million times the level considered hazardous in the US, and a recent oil slick.

In a Berlin Hospital, Heil had infections scraped out of his skin without anaesthetic. (credit: Erik Heil)

To protect athletes, the new suits contain two layers: one that wicks water away from the skin and another that contains a chemical-based antimicrobial finish. The design is aimed at preventing illnesses, such as the severe drug-resistant, flesh-eating infections German sailor Erik Heil suffered on his legs and hip after racing in a test event in Rio last year.

Aston Martin

The AM-RB 001 shares a lead designer with the Red Bull Racing F1 car in the background—Adrian Newey.

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Seemingly, there comes a time in every great Formula 1 car designer's life when he (and sadly they are almost always a he) gets a little bored of the straightjacket of rules that bound creativity. Inevitably, thoughts soon turn to applying some of that race-bred knowledge to "the ultimate road car," sometimes to extremely good effect. Gordon Murray and the McLaren F1 is the best known example, although Ferrari's F50 deserves a mention too. Its V12 is based on an actual Formula 1 engine, and that engine is fully stressed (i.e. rigidly mounted to the carbon fiber tub, with the suspension attached to it). Now Adrian Newey and Red Bull Racing—along with Aston Martin—want to join this club with the AM-RB 001.

Now, Aston Martin is a company that is no stranger to the hypercar, having built the One-77 and more recently the Vulcan. But that car is not street legal. Its racing experience comes from competing against versions of the company's production cars at Le Mans and elsewhere. The AM-RB 001 on the other hand was born in more rarefied air, which is where Newey and Red Bull enter the picture.

Newey is probably the most successful engineer working in Formula 1 right now. His designs have won 10 World Drivers Championships and 10 World Constructors' Championships since 1991 (first at Williams, then McLaren, and with Red Bull Racing since 2006). But Formula 1 recently got a bit boring for Newey. Fears that he would leave (possibly for the challenge of working at Ferrari) earned him a pair of golden handcuffs from the team, with an expanded portfolio (Red Bull Advanced Technologies) giving him some creative freedom outside the sport.

This bluetooth SNES controller replica isn't an official Nintendo product, but the company says it might consider doing something similar...

For years now, some gamers have complained the touchscreen's lack of physical buttons and control sticks has made it less than ideal for many types of traditional games. In that time, countless accessory makers have tried to solve this problem with a variety of physical smartphone controllers that have filled a small niche in the mobile gaming marketplace at best.

Now, Nintendo is raising the possibility of creating its own, physical controller for smartphones. In response to a question about the feasibility of making "action games" for smartphones during a recent investor's meeting Q&A session, Nintendo General Manager of Entertainment Planning and Development Shinya Takahashi noted that "physical controllers for smart device applications are available in the market and it is possible that we may also develop something new by ourselves [emphasis added]."

In practically the same breath, though, Takahashi suggested that Nintendo could "look at whether action games are really not impossible (without a physical controller for smart device applications) to create and how we can make it happen to create such a game." In other words, trying to making an action game that works on a touchscreen might be easier than trying to force an external controller on smartphone gamers.

Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game that lets you capture virtual Pokémon in real world locations, has launched on Android and iOS. For now, it's only available in Japan, Australia, or New Zealand, but a worldwide release is expected within the next few days.

If you're an Android user, you can download Pokémon Go wherever you are in the world thanks to the APK being uploaded to APK Mirror. As long as you've allowed your phone to accept side-loaded apps (to do so, head to the security settings on your device and enable "unknown sources" or similar), you're good to go.

Developed by Ingress creator Niantic Labs—which was previously part of Google—Pokémon Go is a free-to-play game where players are tasked with capturing Pokémon hidden out in the real world. It uses a device's GPS and camera to display Pokémon on a map, and players must then explore their local area to capture different breeds.