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While the two accidents don’t do much to help the image of offshore drilling, they appear to have little in common. The BP disaster took place on a drilling rig that was on the very cutting edge of oil exploration. The rig had previously drilled to the furthest depth ever attained: 35,000 feet

Road Trip 2010: In a quest to uncover secrets of the deep, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute have developed cutting edge hardware–a series of underwater vehicles–and software to tackle the issues.

Android-based tablet boasts cutting edge display technology that works in bright environments and uses 90 percent less power than conventional panels.

Despite a few big space discoveries being made, cutting edge breakthroughs were concentrated on solving earthbound problems this year.

A chip engineer’s simple dream–to build a robot that can bring him a cold one–turns into a years-long home-brewed robotics project.