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ESA's bug-eyed "fly-eye" telescope watch for Earth-threatening asteroids
The Flyeye telescope is designed to detect asteroids that pose a potential hazard to Earth (Image: ESA/P.Carril) One aggravating property of the housefly is that swatting one is harder than it looks....
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'Boris' the robot can load up dishwasher
A robot unveiled today at the British Science Festival will be loading dishwashers next year, its developers claim. "Boris" is one of the first robots in the world capable of intelligently manipulating...
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Germanene: European Scientists Synthesize New Cousin of Graphene
STM image reveals honeycomb structure of germanene. Image credit: M E Dávila et al. Germanene does not exist in nature and is made up of a single layer of germanium atoms. It is expected to exhibit...
View ArticleEthical trap: robot paralysed by choice of who to save
CAN we teach a robot to be good? Fascinated by the idea, roboticist Alan Winfield of Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK built an ethical trap for a robot – and was stunned by the machine's response....
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Forget Mars. Here’s Where We Should Build Our First Off-World Colonies
The collective space vision of all the world’s countries at the moment seems to be Mars, Mars, Mars. The U.S. has two operational rovers on the planet; a NASA probe called MAVEN and an Indian Mars...
View ArticleAnt-Sized Radios to Connect the World
A new radio-chip device could offer a cost effective solution to the capital-intensive hurdles preventing the proliferation of the Internet of Things. Engineers at Stanford University have developed...
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DARPA awards contract to continue development of soft exoskeleton
A US$2,9 million contract will allow the Wyss institute to continue development of a soft exoskeleton DARPA has awarded a first-phase US$2.9 million follow-on contract to the Wyss Institute for...
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Scientists twist radio beams to send data: Transmissions reach speeds of 32...
Graphic showing the intensity of the radio beams after twisting. Credit: Courtesy of Alan Willner / USC Viterbi [Click to enlarge image] Building on previous research that twisted light to send data...
View ArticleSpaceship Earth Grants competition offers chance of a trip into space
Spaceship Earth Grants (SEG), a US public-benefit organization and an affiliate of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, has launched a contest that aims to give away one space flight for every 50,000...
View ArticleRethinking The Turing Test
How Can I Help You? In the 2013 film, Elysium, critical jobs have been outsourced to intractible, inadequate machines, like this automated customer service rep. Image Courtesy of Elysium: The Art of...
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NASA’s In-space 3D Printer Launches Tomorrow – The Ultimate Goal of 3D...
NASA’s Niki Werkheiser’s prediction for 3D Printing in space within 10 Years: “On Mars building everything from hand tools to radiation shielding habitats – and maybe even the engines you need to...
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"Solid" light reveals new insights about quantum mechanics
Researchers at Princeton University have devised a method for giving light the properties of liquids and solids, with huge potential ramifications in the study of quantum mechanics and other areas of...
View ArticleQuantum internet could keep us safe from spying eyes
When former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden uncovered the extent of government spying, that underlined the need for more secure communications, says Don Hayford of Battelle, a...
View ArticleThe Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Where Is This Comet's Tail?
Here's a refresher from middle school science class: An asteroid is a huge rock tumbling through the solar system, and that's pretty much all it looks like--a big rock. Meanwhile, a comet is a ball of...
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Project Hieroglyph: Fighting society's dystopian future
Pop culture has painted a darkly dystopian vision of the future. But a new book hopes to harness the power of science fiction to plot out a more optimistic path for the real world. Just glancing at...
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GelSight sensor lets robots "see" through their hands
Three years ago, we first heard about GelSight – an experimental new system for imaging microscopic objects. At the time, its suggested applications were in fields such as aerospace, forensics,...
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Graphene 3D Lab Inc. Partners With Stony Brook Univ. on Graphene 3D Printer...
Research into 3D printing with graphene, the one atom thick sheets of carbon atoms oriented in a honeycomb lattice structure, seems to be moving full steam ahead. If researchers figure out a reliable...
View ArticleDying brain cells cue new brain cells to grow in songbird
Brain cells that multiply to help birds sing their best during breeding season are known to die back naturally later in the year. For the first time researchers have described the series of events that...
View ArticlePrivate flights may make space station more expensive
Living in space doesn't come cheap. A report from NASA's internal auditor, inspector general Paul Martin, says the space agency has underestimated the cost of keeping the International Space Station...
View ArticleRobots That Learn Through Repetition, Not Programming
Eugene Izhikevich thinks you shouldn’t have to write code in order to teach robots new tricks. “It should be more like training a dog,” he says. “Instead of programming, you show it consistent...
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