Cool Tech 5

A quick scan of what's popping up on the radar:

Annoyance robot: When drug dealers congregate down the street from his Midtown bar, Atlanta businessman Rufus Terrill sends out his 4-foot-tall, 300-pound, armored robot to bug them. The bot, constructed from scooter parts and a barbecue smoker, packs a camcorder, a spotlight, a loud-speaker and other cool features. 'They throw bottles and cans at it,' Terrill says. 'That's when I shoot the water cannon.'

Sneaky snake Bot: Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University came up with a snakelike robot that climbs poles, inside pipes, walls, etc. Potential uses include cleaning fiber optics, fixing plumbing and, of course, spying on people.

Battery breakthrough? MIT's Lab for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems has been making advances in superefficient ultra-capacitors. Carbon nanotube technology could represent an eco-friendly alternative to standard batteries.

Tiny and strong: Japanese scientists have created the world's smallest carbon nanotube, clocking the structure in at 0.4 nm diameter. Diameter of a cold virus? 20 nm.

Drive your cooler: From the How-Did-We-Live-Without-It Department comes the Cruzin Cooler, a motorized beverage cooler you can ride to and from your event. Electric models have a 10-mile range and the gas version is good for 30. Wanna race?