Back in 1977, geek heroes Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan headed up the team that created the golden record — gold-plated copper disc that serves as a sort of time capsule for Earth, in the event that some alien species finds and explores the Voyager probe as it wanders out past Pluto’s orbit and into […]
Early in the 21st century, DARPA entered the UBYKA project with a singular goal: arm insects with programmable micro-mechanical systems and micro-weapons platforms, then send them out to covertly and effectively infiltrate the strongholds of warring nations. These UBYKA cyborg animals were superior in strength and agility, enhanced with the latest technologies, and as War Terminators, they were good. […]
Event cloaks are the sort of thing movies and far-future, ten-tome science fiction tales are made of. That is unless you’re Moti Fridman or part of his group of sharp-minded companions at Cornell, in which case you have designed and built a cloak that hides events in time. The concept of event cloaking works like this: […]
A newly published study has been interpreted by some as a sign that search engines are damaging people’s memory skills. In fact, it seems more of an indication that the brain makes a smart use of its resources. The study carried out by researchers at Columbia, Wisconsin and Harvard Universities, and published in Science, involved […]
The Beer-o-bot is a mini fridge that shoots beers from an air cannon and is controlled via a web based iPhone interface. Check it out: I don’t know about you guys, but even though this project is awesome in itself, this guy seems to have poor taste when it comes to drinking good beer. Features: […]
There are so many interesting bits of space stuff floating about the Innerwebz this week! Planets and moons and asteroids (with moons?!), oh my. Here’s brief rundown of each with links to in-depth articles if you’re of the space geek set. Our Eighth Planet is so Grown-Up! Tomorrow, June 12, we celebrate Neptune’s first birthday. […]
Terrafugia, the company that developed the transition flying car, has finally received regulatory clearance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration allowing it to take the road when it hits the market next year. Thanks to the new exemptions, the vehicle can now use a polycarbonate windshield instead of those laminated safety glasses used on […]
If your busy schedule just doesn’t leave room for grocery shopping, then you just may want to move to South Korea. European grocery chain Tesco has recently launched a virtual grocery store… right in the subway. While waiting to commute, customers can now purchase food items with their smartphones on the virtual shelves installed right […]
Maximilian Wendt and Markus Wellmann have developed a pretty cool Tetris-like game that uses Microsoft’s Kinect motion detection system to create and move pieces of various shapes around. Check it out: [Vimeo]
This dental training robot was developed by several universities, a robot manufacturer, and Orient Industry, a company that makes uh, a certain type of very specialized doll. Called Showa Hanako 2, it is used to help dental students train on realistic-looking patients. [Via [H]]