Methane mystery: Curiosity detects highest-ever levels of methane on Mars
The strange puzzle of methane on Mars continues. Curiosity has detected the highest yet levels of methane at 21 parts per billion units by volume using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) spectrometer. This suggests that transient plumes of methane appear in addition to seasonal changes in levels of gas.
The Pentagon can now identify you by your heartbeat — from 200 yards away
As if facial recognition and digital fingerprinting weren't scary enough, the Pentagon has reportedly developed a method for identifying and tracking people through their heartbeat. Heartbeats are as unique and distinctive as fingerprints, but are distinct in that they can be read from a distance.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are in position and ready to begin testing
SpaceX's ambitious project to create a global satellite broadband internet network continues, with the first batch of satellites now mostly in place and ready to start testing. The batch of 60 satellites were launched into space last month, and now 57 of these are working as intended, SpaceX announced.
Grub’s up? Lab-grown insect meat could be the future of food production
Would you switch to eating a lab-grown insect flesh diet for the good of our planet? As far as future foodstuffs are concerned, it’s not out of the question. At least, that's what a team of researchers from Tufts University believe. And they're far from alone in their conclusions.
Digital Trends Live: Jony Ive leaves Apple, Galaxy Note 10+ images, and more
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, we discuss the biggest trending stories in tech, including Jony Ive leaving Apple, preparing for Amazon Prime Day, new images of the Galaxy Note 10+, Apple Music surpasses 60 million subs, NASA drone heading to one of Saturn’s moons, and more.
Harvard’s tiny, insect-inspired RoboBee X-Wing can fly using solar power
Harvard University’s Wyss Institute's new RoboBee X-Wing is an impressive solar-powered winged flying robot that stands just 6.5 centimeters high, weighs only 259 milligrams, and can fly completely untethered. Check out it this minuscule flying milestone in aerial action.
NASA’s eight-rotor Dragonfly drone is heading to Saturn’s largest moon
NASA is sending a drone to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in an ambitious mission that could unlock the mystery of how life began on Earth. Launching in 2026, the dual-quadcopter will reach Titan eight years later, whereupon it’ll spend several years gathering data from locations of interest.
This artificial muscle is powered just like the real thing, no battery required
Researchers from Germany’s Linköping University have developed an artificial muscle that's powered by glucose and oxygen, just like real biological muscles in the human body. That means, significantly, that no batteries are required for it to function. Here's how it could be used.
Crawler robots and imaging drones will monitor wind turbine blades for damage
By spotting signs of damage early, wind turbine blades can be kept in service for longer. To assist with this task, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed special blade-crawling robots and flying inspection drones. Here's how they could be used to help.
Ossia scores FCC certification to transmit wireless power over distance
The news that Ossia has won FCC certification for its Cota transmitter and receiver, which is capable of delivering power wirelessly over distance, is a real boost for the industry. There are some major limitations here, but this is still an important step. We spoke to CEO Mario Obeidat to find out more.
New A.I. and voice synthesis makes Gatebox your cutest, cleverest digital pal
The concept of living at home with a friendly, intelligent digital character is almost a reality, due to a partnership between Line, the popular messaging app, and Gatebox, a cult Japanese artificial intelligence company. Line's Clova A.I. will live alongside Gatebox's character, and now we can see how it will work.
Flying taxis: Kitty Hawk and Boeing team up on urban mobility
The day when we can hop into a compact, electric, autonomous flying machine to zip across town edged a little closer this week when Boeing announced a new partnership with Kitty Hawk, a California-based startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page that's been working on such an aircraft.
A Netflix data scientist taught an A.I. to recognize smooching scenes in movies
A senior data scientist at Netflix has taught an A.I. to recognize kissing scenes in movies. Amir Ziai developed the tool as part of his work to obtain an A.I. graduate certificate from Stanford University. Here's why it turns out to be a surprisingly difficult task to automate.
Marsy McMarsface? NASA gives students the chance to name its next Mars rover
Could there be a bigger brag than the fact that you named the next Mars rover? That’s exactly what NASA is promising K-12 students in the U.S. by launching a new contest that will allow some lucky kid to be the one to name one of humanity’s greatest technological achievements to date.
Swish! Toyota’s basketball bot earns a Guinness record with 2,020 perfect throws
After years of trial and error, a humanoid robot built by Toyota (yes, the car company!) set a Guinness World Record for its impressive basketball shooting abilities. The robot, known as CUE3, earner its record by sinking 2,020 free throws in a row, without ever missing a shot.
Self-assembling microrobots can be programmed to form a tiny steerable car
Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have developed a new type of self-assembling mobile micromachine that can be programmed to assemble into different formations -- ranging from a tiny car to a miniature rocket. Here's what's next for the project.
SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy but loses core booster in crash landing
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy blazed through the Florida sky early Tuesday local time as the world’s largest operational rocket embarked on its third and most challenging mission to date. The two side rockets landed back at Cape Canaveral after liftoff, but the core booster missed the drone ship and crashed into the sea.
How to watch SpaceX’s most difficult Falcon Heavy launch ever
SpaceX will launch a Falcon Heavy rocket Monday evening in its most challenging launch yet. The launch was delayed until Monday June 24 at 11:30 p.m. PT, but is dependent on weather conditions. You can watch NASA's livestream of the launch with coverage starting at 11 p.m. PT.
Apple’s new Seattle campus may mean big things for Siri, artificial intelligence
Apple plans to hire 2,000 more employees for a new Seattle campus, the company announced Monday, with a significant number of those jobs focused on the Siri voice assistant and artificial intelligence. The new campus marks a major expansion right in Amazon and Microsoft's backyard.
Digital Trends Live: A dual-screen Surface, Amazon’s surveillance drones, more
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, we take a look at the top trending tech stories of the day, including Microsoft’s reported dual-screen Surface, Amazon’s surveillance drones, Bitcoin makes a comeback, a flying taxi test over Oregon, pizza-making robots, another SpaceX rocket launch, and more.
U.S. Navy is working on making its fleet invisible to computerized surveillance
The United States Navy’s ever-innovative Office of Naval Research is working on a way to turn the nation's military fleet invisible. Well, to cutting-edge image-recognition systems, at least. Here's what it has planned -- and how far along it is with these high-tech plans.
Uranus’ rings shine brightly but hold a puzzle for astronomers
New images reveal the rings around Uranus, almost invisible to most telescopes, shining brightly as they reflect light in the visible and near-infrared range. But there's a strange puzzle about them -- why they don't contain any small dust-sized particles.
Dark matter galaxy crashed into the Milky Way, causing the ripples in its disk
New research suggests hundreds of millions of years ago, the Milky Way collided with Antlia 2, a nearby dwarf galaxy. This collision caused ripples in the disk of gas around the Milky Way which we still observe today. Antlia 2 is about one third the size of the Milky Way and is dominated by dark matter.
Tiny galaxy has huge black hole at its center, gives clues to galactic evolution
A Hubble image shows a tiny galaxy, ESO 495-21, located 30 million light-years away, which could hold the clue to unraveling a longstanding question about the evolution of galaxies. Despite its small size, it hosts a feature found in much larger galaxies -- a supermassive black hole.
The U.K.’s biggest (and only) asteroid mining company has designs on our skies
The Asteroid Mining Corporation, the U.K.'s only company dedicated to the dream of mining resources from asteroids in space, plans to launch a prospecting satellite in 2021. Is its founder going to be among the first people to strike gold in space, or is it a doomed venture?
Want to work in the stars? Here are six future space jobs you could hold
Ever dreamed of leaving Earth to find employment amongst the stars? Want to know what some of these far-flung space roles might entail? Here are six future jobs that might sound like science fiction now, but almost certainly won’t a decade or two from now.
You can help search for aliens with an open access release of SETI data
The Breakthrough Initiatives, a program founded in 2015 to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), recently submitted two papers covering the analysis of the first three years of radio telescope data. And all of the data collected is being made publicly available in an open data archive.
Ready to roll: Mars 2020 rover fitted with wheels ahead of mission next year
The Mars 2020 rover is getting ready for its trip to the red planet next year. The latest step in readying the rover is installing its wheels and suspension system, which engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have been doing this month.
SpaceX is on a hiring spree for its Starlink global internet project
After a string of delays, SpaceX's Starlink project was finally launched last month with the ambitious aim of creating a "global broadband" system. Now an analysis of data from SpaceX's job listings shows the company is on a hiring tear, advertising for more and more positions for the project.
Bill Nye the Science Guy talks “solar sailing” and the new space race
Launching June 24, The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 will be a milestone in spaceflight, the first craft to raise its orbit around the planet using just the power of sunlight. We grilled Bill Nye on just how it works, and what it means for the future of spaceflight.
Digital Trends Live: Walmart brings out A.I., Google cancels the Slate, and more
On episode 157 of Digital Trends Live, hosts Greg Nibler and Juan Garcia broke down the biggest news stories from the world of tech. On today's episode: Google cancels the Pixel Slate, Walmart is using artificial intelligence to track shoplifting, and A.I. could change the gig economy.
Hormone boosts could help astronauts from losing muscle on long space journeys
Space travel isn't exactly easy on the human body. New research highlights how reduced gravity conditions during space flight missions can cause extreme muscle loss. But while that sounds pretty bad, researchers may have found a solution in the form of special hormone treatments.
Blue Origin test fires the engine that could help it land on the moon
Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin has carried out a test firing of its BE-7 engine, the propulsion system which it hopes will help humankind land on the moon for the first time since 1972. Check out a video showing the impressive test firing, which took place this week.
Walmart using A.I.-powered cameras to spot dodgy shoppers at self-checkouts
Walmart is using computer vision technology at some of its stores in an effort to spot sneaky behavior at its self-checkout counters. The A.I.-powered cameras automatically identify any dodgy activity before alerting staff, who can then intervene to confirm the situation.