Usually, scaling up a mountainside or a building wall means straining your arms and back. But not for long, perhaps. The toaster-sized Atlas Powered Rope Ascender shoots climbers up a wall, Spidey-like, at a story per second. The machine was originally as part of a soldier gear contest put on by the Army at its Institute for
Soldier Nanotechnologies, Popular Science explains. The service has since ordered some units, and the founders are looking for civilian apps now, too.
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