Researchers in China say that they've successfully managed to test an engine that runs on electricity, requires no propellant and produces no exhaust. It's called the EmDrive, and it's able to convert microwave energy directly into thrust inside a sealed chamber. Oh, it's totally silent and highly efficient, too. If it seems too good to be true, well, you're not the only one who feels that way. But the researchers have a prototype that apparently works, and they've just published a paper detailing it.

If you ask the organizers of Las Vegas' Mini Maker Faire, "Why?," they will simply tell you, "Because it's cool."

The event is part of a larger, nationwide maker movement. Makers are anyone who believes the do-it-yourself route is the way to go -- homemade shoes that light up while dancing, a machine that makes pinatas, anything they can imagine.

The people at the SYN Shop, a downtown maker hive at 117 N. Fourth St., slated to open next month, are attempting to unite their laser cutter- wielding community Feb. 2 at the Historic Fifth Street School for the Mini Maker Faire.

"It's really one large show and tell," said Pawel Szymczykowski, an organizer of the event. "People bring their projects and share how it's made."

Quantum Jumping is based on the idea that multiple universes exist. These universes are similar to the world you know in many ways. The difference is that in these universes different versions of you also exist who made different decisions at critical points in your life.

The LED produces 69 picowatts of light using 30 picowatts of power, giving it an efficiency of 230 percent. That means it operates above "unity efficiency" -- putting it into a category normally occupied by perpetual motion machines.

However, while MIT's diode puts out more than twice as much energy in photons as it's fed in electrons, it doesn't violate the conservation of energy because it appears to draw in heat energy from its surroundings instead. When it gets more than 100 percent electrically-efficient, it begins to cool down, stealing energy from its environment to convert into more photons.

Ferrofluid is an extraordinary material with unique ferromagnetic properties. Although dozens of applications for it have been found - from hard drives to loudspeakers - its most impressive is arguably as an interactive display.

Ferrofluid displays capture the best qualities of ferrofluid, both as a liquid and as a ferromagnetic substance. By applying magnetic fields of different strengths, different shapes and formations begin to appear in this otherworldly black liquid. By suspending it in a clear liquid, even more interactive qualities are exposed.