Neptune’s moons twirl around each other in an unprecedented dance
Far out on the edge of the solar system, chilly Neptune takes 165 years to orbit around the sun. In orbit around Neptune are 14 moons, and new research reveals more about the movements of the planet's innermost moons, Naiad and Thalassa, which have a highly unusual and unprecedented orbit.
NASA will contribute spectroscopy instrument to a planet-hunting mission
The hunt for distant planets or exoplanets will be getting a new tool in the next decade, with the launch of the European Space Agency's ARIEL in 2028. Now, NASA has announced it will be contributing an instrument called CASE to the project for a deeper examination of distant worlds.
This mind-blowing 8K holographic display makes 3D look awesome again
Bored of flat TVs? Looking Glass Factory has created the world’s first 8K holographic display: an astonishing 33.2 million pixel beast capable of throwing out images that literally seem to pop out of the screen. For its creators, its the latest step in a dream dating back 30 years.
3D-printing system can spit out custom-fitted bionic hands in under 10 hours
There have been some pretty darn impressive 3D-printed powered prostheses. But getting them to the people who need them as quickly as possible is still something of a hurdle. Thanks to engineers at the U.K.’s University of Warwick, however, those days may be coming to an end.
Exclusive: AT&T will prove the potential of 5G at DreamHack’s CS:GO tournament
AT&T will be at the DreamHack Open to show what a 5G network can do by streaming footage of the CS:GO tournament live. Three 5G-enabled smartphones will be on hand to capture unique perspectives, and their footage will be spliced into the official Twitch livestream.
Google Search can now teach you how to pronounce tricky words
A new Google Search feature shows you how to pronounce difficult or unusual words. It’ll even offer feedback if you practice the pronunciation by speaking it into the microphone. It also offers the phonetic spelling of the word and an animation that shows you how to move your mouth when saying it.
Compostable cutlery could help solve the world’s waste plastic crisis
In the United States alone, some 40 billion plastic utensils are reportedly thrown away each year after only a single use. That’s a pretty darn shocking statistic -- and it’s one that the makers of a new line of quickly compostable cutlery are working hard to help solve.
Ford’s 3D knitting tech ensures your seats won’t burst at the seams
3D knitting lets Ford make seats from one giant piece of fabric, instead of stitching together up to 40 individual bits. This technique saves time, reduces waste, and allows for more customization. It's not quite ready for prime time yet, but the Blue Oval calls 3D knitting the future of car upholstery.
Meet OffWorld, the startup that wants to mine the moon with a swarm of robots
Will the future of space exploration involve swarms of smart robots aiding human pioneers by mining for resources, or even autonomously preparing new locations on other planets for human habitation? California-based startup OffWorld certainly thinks so. Here's what it is working on.
Hayabusa2 spacecraft begins long journey home laden with asteroid samples
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is on its way home following a successful 17-month rendezvous with the Ryugu asteroid some 200 million miles from Earth. And there’s a good reason for it coming back as it’s carrying with it the first-ever rock samples collected from the subsurface of an asteroid.
SpaceX conducted a key Crew Dragon engine test — and it didn’t blow up!
The last time SpaceX tested the launch abort system on its Crew Dragon capsule, there was an almighty explosion. This time around, it appeared to go much better. Wednesday’s apparent success takes SpaceX another step closer to a manned test of the Crew Dragon, which could soon be taking astronauts to the ISS.
DJI has built an app that lets anyone track nearby drones
DJI plans to release an app that lets anyone track and identify quadcopters and similar machines that are flying nearby. It would also show the drone’s altitude, speed, travel direction, and pilot location. DJI said the aim is to offer an easy way to monitor drones “for enhanced safety, security, and peace of mind.”
Injectable electrodes may help treat everything from chronic pain to depression
A new drug-free treatment for health conditions ranging from chronic pain to epileptic seizures or depression could be on the horizon -- and it involves an innovative (and somewhat cyborg-like) approach involving injectable electrodes. Here's how the breakthrough treatment works.
New cardiology A.I. knows if you’ll die soon. Doctors can’t explain how it works
A new cardiology artificial intelligence is able to accurately predict your chances of dying in the next year just by looking at heart test results, despite the fact that the results may look totally fine to trained doctors. Here's how it works — as far as we can tell.
Google will offer checking accounts as latest tech company to enter finance
Google is the latest tech company to enter the financial world by offering checking accounts starting next year. Google’s financial project, dubbed as Cache, would have accounts run by Citigroup. The financial institutions would be the main focus on Cache, rather than Google creating a separate financial brand.
Robot overlords? More like co-verlords. The future is human-robot collaboration
Forget stealing our jobs; the next frontier of robotics is going to help humans by allowing them to carry out a whole host of tasks remotely -- whether it's maintenance or even surgery. Here's why it could prove to be such a major game changer for a whole lot of people.
Twinkle, twinkle, little satellite: SpaceX’s Starlink project worries astronomers
The sight of SpaceX's Starlink satellites trailing across the sky may be spectacular to some, but astronomers fear that plans to deploy tens of thousands of them could seriously hinder their work. SpaceX is one of several outfits aiming to beam broadband internet services to underserved communities around the world.
Lyft to return its electric bikes to San Francisco after battery fires
Lyft is about to return its electric bikes to San Francisco after two battery fires in July 2019 forced it to take them off the street. The company said it plans to deploy 4,000 new e-bikes over the next six months in the Bay Area, adding hundreds each week starting in mid-December.
Amazon’s latest venture lets teachers buy and sell educational resources
Amazon's latest venture gives K-12 educators across the U.S. the chance to buy and sell digital educational resources to others in the profession. Similar to Teachers Pay Teachers, the platform aims to ease the pressure on time-pressed teachers while offering others a way to make a few extra bucks on the side.
Humans could get rid of space junk by turning it into hotels and storage depots
Space junk is a major problem. While there have been numerous ideas put forward for cleaning up the massive amounts of space trash, a new concept may be the most ambitious (and, frankly, kind of bonkers-sounding) yet: Upcycle it into orbiting space depots and hotels. Yes, really.
DJI Mavic Mini review: A weekend with DJI’s affordable drone
DJI's Mavic Mini is the lightest and cheapest addition to the Mavic line -- but it's light weight and low price don't come without some compromises. It's also missing a few notable features that made previous iterations of the Mavic line so great
This radar system could finally put an end to children dying in hot cars
A new A.I.-powered device can reportedly detect unattended kids and animals left alone in vehicles with 100% accuracy. The experimental technology uses a combination of radar and cutting-edge machine learning to make its potentially life-saving predictions. Here's how it works.
Gazelle Ultimate T10 review: The best commuter ebike
Gazelle's Ultimate T10 is a practical commuting bike, yet it ups the ante with excellent design that races ahead of its boring competitors. Read our Gazelle Ultimate T10 electric bike review to decide if this is the commuter ebike for you.
What Blade Runner got right (and wrong) about 2019
1982's Blade Runner is rightly considered a masterpiece among science fiction movies. But how accurate were its predictions about the future? With November 2019 being the far-flung month and year in which the movie is set, here’s what the movie got right and, in one case, very wrong.
Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sale destroys global online shopping record … again
Ecommerce titan Alibaba raked in a record $38.4 billion during its annual Singles’ Day online shopping extravaganza on Monday, beating last year’s figure by $7 billion. The Chinese company said delivery orders also hit a new high, increasing from 812 million in 2018 to 1.3 billion.
Adidas’ two robot-powered shoe factories run into trouble, face closure
Just a few years after opening its high-tech shoe-making Speedfactories in the U.S. and Germany, Adidas says it’s closing both sites and moving some of the technology to Asia. The Speedfactories were designed to quicken the production of its sports shoes, while at the same time speeding up distribution.
Can NASA’s experimental electric airplane, the Maxwell X-57, save the planet?
Cars aren't the only type of transportation which are going electric in the name of the environment. NASA has been working on an experimental electric plane, the Maxwell X-57, which the agency received last month. NASA showed off an early version of the plane on Friday, in addition to a new simulator.
Your Alexa speaker can be hacked with malicious audio tracks. And lasers.
Smart speakers are awesome. But they're also subject to some pretty terrifying vulnerabilities, as two recent proof-of-concept demonstrations show. Whether it's adversarial sound attacks or laser hacks, here are two ways researchers have found to exploit smart speaker weaknesses.
Watch MIT’s Mini Cheetahs limber up for the robot apocalypse
The MIT Biomimetics Robotics recently took a number of its talented Mini Cheetah robots for some fun in the park. Take a moment to enjoy the incredible sight of the nine remote-controlled quadrupeds frolicking in the fall leaves, playing soccer, and even performing backflips.
Alibaba Singles’ Day sales hit $1 billion in the first minute
The Singles' Day online shopping festival is underway, with ecommerce giant Alibaba aiming to break its 24-hour sales record of $31 billion achieved last year. The shopping festival started in China and encourages those without a significant other to spend on themselves, but of course, everyone is encouraged to shop.
Watch Live: SpaceX launches another 60 Starlink satellites on the Falcon 9
SpaceX is continuing its ambitious mission to bring internet to the world through its Starlink program. SpaceX hopes to launch the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink satelites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 9:56 a.m. ET on Monday, November 11. Here's how to watch the launch live.
Scientists look to the skies to estimate how fast the universe is expanding
The Hubble Constant is one of the most important concepts in astronomy. It describes how fast the universe is expanding, which has implications for the age and future development of the universe. Now, a new paper describes a novel technique using gamma rays to estimate the constant.
Panoramic image of the southern sky shows our galaxy and others beyond
A satellite has captured a stunning image of the vast sea of stars in the southern sky. The data was collected by NASA's planet-hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, in its first year of operations. It shows not only the Milky Way but also the Orion Nebula and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Curiosity captures eerie images of lonely Martian landscape
The Curiosity rover is continuing its lonely exploration of Mars, and it has captured a series of beautiful but haunting views of the deserted Martian landscape. The images were snapped this week and show the desolate outlook across the Gale Crater.