The next clash of Silicon Valley titans will take place in space
By launching their own attempts to bring internet access to every last person on Earth, tech giants from Amazon to Facebook have a major new mission. It's also one that will put them into competition with one another -- only this time in space. Here is what you need to know.
Blue the robot could help fold clothes or unload your dishes for under $5,000
Ever dreamed of having your very own dedicated helper robot? Roboticists from UC Berkeley have created a new commercial robot called Blue, which could one day help unpack your dishwasher or fold your clothes. Best of all, it's not going to be quite as expensive as you might expect.
Minutes before landing, Israeli moon mission suffers catastrophic failure
The tiny Israeli spacecraft Beresheet has already made history as the first privately funded craft to enter orbit around the moon. Now, it will face its biggest and most historic challenge to date: Today, April 11, the craft is scheduled to land on the surface of the moon.
Even a true rock god can’t smash this unbreakable 3D-printed metal guitar
Rock stars love to smash guitars. Geeky engineers love to build things using the latest high-tech materials and tools. What happens when both parties meet? Probably something like the unbreakable 3D-printed metal guitar recently developed by global engineering firm Sandvik.
MIT’s bot sifts through trash to do your recycling for you
Engineers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a new recycling robot that’s capable of automating the process of sifting through tons of trash to distinguish between paper, plastic and metal items. Here's how it works.
Animals, algorithms, and obstacle courses: Welcome to the A.I. Olympics
Scheduled to take place this June, the Animal-A.I. Olympics will test whether the world's top artificial intelligence algorithms can complete intelligence tests designed for animals. Here's why that matters -- and why this could be the ultimate challenge for today's A.I.
I had a one-night stand with a sleep robot
Would you sleep with a robot, if it promised to cure insomnia, and leave you better rested? That’s the idea behind the Somnox sleep robot, and we’ve slept with it.
Mission success! SpaceX delivers satellite, lands all 3 Falcon Heavy boosters
The Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket in current operation, will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, today in what will be its first commercial mission. This will be Falcon Heavy’s second flight after a maiden flight in early 2018.
Seeing the unseeable: Astronomers capture historic first image of a black hole
For the first time ever, an international collaboration of astronomers has captured an image of a black hole. Unveiled at a National Science Foundation event on April 10, the image represents a historic achievement in imaging of one of the most extreme and hard-to-observe phenomena in our universe.
Robot invasion: Walmart to deploy thousands of automated assistants
Walmart has been testing robot technology at its stores for some time, but now the company is now planning a major rollout of thousands of automated assistants capable of performing a range of routine tasks. The idea is that they'll free up time for human workers so they can spend more time with customers.
U.K. launches $2.5M contest for tech to counter threats from rogue drones
The U.K. government has launched a $2.5M contest to encourage the development of technology designed to counter threats posed by rogue drones at places such as airports, as well as on the battlefield. The contest comes several months after drone sightings at one of the U.K.’s biggest airports caused massive disruption.
Google’s Wing drones are now delivering mochas and meds in Australia
Google's Wing drone is now part of a full-fledged delivery service in North Canberra, Australia. Customers can order items such as fresh food, drinks, and medicines from local businesses using a smartphone app, with the delivery dropped off by the drone in a matter of minutes.
Bosch plans to harness the power of Blockchain for its next refrigerator
Here's a gimmick: a refrigerator powered by blockchain. German electronics company Bosch is teaming up with Austrian energy firm Wien Energie to create a refrigerator that runs on blockchain. The appliance will give users more control over where their power comes from and how much their fridge consumes.
A.I. could monitor farms from above to make sure they’re not illegally polluting
The idea of an artificial intelligence that watches from the skies, seeking out wrongdoing, sounds a bit sci-fi dystopia. Actually, it describes a new A.I. being developed to help detect farms that are illegally polluting waterways. Perhaps not quite so dystopian after all, then!
Facebook is using A.I. to create the world’s most detailed population maps
Using deep learning A.I., census data, and high-res satellite images, Facebook has created the most accurate population density maps ever. Initially covering the majority of the African continent, the company claims it will eventually map nearly the Earth's entire population.
Are we living in a simulation? This MIT scientist says it’s more likely than not
The simulation hypothesis, which was famously probed in the 1999 film The Matrix, is the subject of a new book by Rizwan Virk, a computer scientist and video game developer who leads Play Labs at MIT. In his book, Virk endeavors to unpack the heady arguments that call our physical world into question.
Chinese doctors use 5G to perform surgery from hundreds of miles away
The surgeon behind your future life-saving surgery might not have to be in the same room as you. Heck, thanks to the burgeoning 5G revolution, they might not have to be in the same state as you. That's what surgeons have been busy proving in China using the latest in 4K streaming.
IBM helped NASA FDL fix a satellite’s instrument using cutting-edge A.I.
How do you fix a satellite that’s floating 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface? That’s a question that NASA had to answer when it ran into problems with one of its crucial satellites. Fortunately, it was able to call in help from IBM and others to solve the issue using A.I.
Self-driving spacecraft could protect Earth from asteroid impacts
In case Earth is ever threatened by an asteroid, we should have a new protector to look out for us --Hera, a self-driving spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency. ESA engineers are working on a way to let the craft maneuver itself in space, similar to an autonomous car.
Epic star 100 times the mass of our Sun spotted in stellar nursery
A distant stellar nursery may hold clues to the formation of massive stars. The giant celestial cloud, located 17,000 light-years away, is composed mostly of hydrogen and is being investigated by the flying observatory SOFIA, which can image distant objects by flying above water vapor in the atmosphere.
3-plus-hour supply trip from Earth to International Space Station breaks record
A resupply mission to the International Space Station has made record time, traveling from Earth to the station in just three hours and 21 minutes. The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Progress MS-11 cargo spaceship was launched from the Russian space Agency Roscocmos' Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Things are heating up as Parker Solar Probe makes second flyby of the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA project to collect data from the searing heat of the Sun's corona. It made a successful approach of the Sun last year, and now NASA has announced that the probe has made a second close approach to the Sun, and is entering the outbound phase of its second solar orbit.
Astronomers investigate the mystery of plasma rain on the sun
The movement of plasma on the surface of the Sun behaves like the water cycle here on Earth, with plasma being heated until it escapes from the surface and heads into the corona, before cooling and falling as coronal rain. But now new research has raised questions about how this process works.
I tested my cat’s DNA, but the results only led to more mysteries
Why would you get your cat’s DNA tested? Some of it is superficial, like coat type and length, but the ones worth paying for will give you health information as well. Unfortunately, Basepaws just doesn’t have any health data at the moment.
Curiosity images show two solar eclipses as seen from the surface of Mars
The Curiosity rover has captured a remarkable set of images showing two solar eclipses as seen from Mars. Using the solar filters on its Mastcam it was able to directly observe the Sun and to capture images of solar eclipses caused by two of Mars's moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing in front of the Sun.
Methane on Mars confirmed — but there’s probably no life there
A clue into disappearing methane on Mars has been revealed. Data collected from orbit by the ESA’s Mars Express mission has been examined to look for correlations with data collected from the surface by the Curiosity rover. A reanalysis of the satellite data shows methane was present at just one location.
Death of a planet: Astronomers discover grisly scene of planetary destruction
Astronomers have discovered all that is left of a planet circling the dark remains of a dead star. They were looking at a white dwarf and were surprised to see a fragment orbiting it. They believe the fragment is all that remains of a larger planet which was decimated by the death of its star.
Tiny Israeli spacecraft Beresheet enters orbit around the moon
An amazing achievement for a tiny spacecraft from Israel: the Beresheet lander has entered orbit around the moon, making Israel just the seventh nation to do so.The lander has been traveling in increasingly large circles around Earth for the past six weeks since its launch in February.
Don’t freak out! Older GPS devices could suffer Y2K-style bug tonight
Remember the Y2K bug? When we worried that our computers would stop working at the turn of the millennium due to two digit dates turning from 99 to 00. That turned out to be just fine, and didn't cause a major problem at all. But experts are warning that a similar bug could affect GPS devices today.
Gore’s Innovation Center is a powerful ally for Silicon Valley start ups
The Gore Innovation Center, located in Santa Clara, California, was created in 2017 to give the company an opportunity to work more closely with Silicon Valley start ups, bringing Gore's vast catalog of materials and technologies to wearables not just in the outdoor space, but in health, medicine, smart fabrics, and more.
As oceans rise, one company is building cities that can swim
Floating cities may remind some people of science fiction scenarios like the 1995 post-apocalyptic movie Waterworld, but a new enterprise introduced to the United Nations envisions a high-tech, scalable floating city that could use extreme recycling, energy efficiency and communal design.
No, it’s not a Michael Bay movie, but a spacecraft just bombed an asteroid
Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 this week successfully bombed a crater in the asteroid 162173 Ryugu as it hurtled through space, approximately 186 million miles from Earth. It will later return to the site to collect samples, which will eventually be brought back to Earth.
Amazon wants to launch 3,236 satellites so it can rain down internet from space
Amazon plans to launch a constellation of 3,236 satellites into low-Earth orbit to provide internet access around the planet. The satellites should be able to rain down connectivity on 95 percent of the world's population. Because you can always have more Prime subscribers!
Sleep-tracking wristbands are so 2013. Smart pajamas are the way of the future
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed smart sleep-tracking pajamas, capable of monitoring all the details of your shut-eye. Here's how they work -- and why they may actually be able to improve both the quality and quantity of your sleep.