SpaceX just nailed its most challenging Falcon 9 rocket landing to date
If you've been following the SpaceX launch calendar, you know this week marks the first launch from Cape Canaveral in two months. The weather forecast for Thursday looks fine, with an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions. We have the details on where you can watch the launch live.
This ridiculous new flamethrower makes Elon Musk’s look like a cigarette lighter
Move over Elon Musk! The XL18 Flamethrower is a flame-shooting beast on steroids. It can fire off bursts of flame more than 110 feet in length and eats around half a gallon of fuel per second. The best (and possibly scariest) part? You can order it over the internet today.
Baristas beware, Bbox cafe uses robots to brew your morning coffee
Want your morning coffee and pastry prepared by robot? Bbox, a new coffee shop in downtown Berkeley, California, lets customers place their order by app and then uses cutting-edge robots to take care of the rest. Here's how it works -- and what it means for the future of cafes as we know them.
Hilarious new Kickstarter aims to fix Scorcese’s last scene in The Departed
An avid fan of The Departed and apparent hater of rat-as-symbolism imagery has launched a Kickstarter campaign to digitally erase the rodent from the end of Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-winning movie. Here's how he plans to go about it doing it -- and exactly how much that will cost.
This new all-in-one flashlight is a power bank, lighter, and screwdriver
The Pyyros modular flashlight can perform numerous field tasks, from hammering to starting fires. If you back it on Kickstarter now, you can score some savings on this innovative flashlight and multi-tool, but act fast: This early-bird pricing is only available for a short time.
NASA celebrates Earth’s incredible natural beauty with free photo book
NASA has published a new book featuring stunning imagery captured by its satellites. A hardback version is available for $53, but it can be downloaded to ebook readers for free, and enjoyed online. NASA hopes the book will "inspire everyone to explore, understand, and appreciate the planet we call home."
Immune cell discovery takes us one step closer to a universal flu vaccine
The effects of the flu virus can range from debilitating to deadly. A group of international researchers have made a discovery which could take us one step closer to the universal, one-shot flu vaccine that people around the world have been dreaming of. Here's what they discovered.
DeepSqueak is a machine learning A.I. that reveals what rats are chatting about
Just as Aquaman can talk to fish, so too can researchers at the University of Washington chat with rats. Or, at least, they can better understand what rats are squeaking about thanks to a deep learning artificial intelligence system with the ingenious name DeepSqueak. Here's how it works.
Bees can do arithmetic, setting the scientific community abuzz
A new study has found something remarkable: Bees can do basic arithmetic. Researchers showed that bees could use colors as representations for numbers and then use those colors for addition and subtraction. These findings have implications for the development of AI in the future.
FDA warns about the dangers of anti-aging blood transfusions
It turns out that injecting old people with blood from healthy youngsters may not be the answer to health rejuvenation after all. That’s according to the FDA, which says that these claims are not only most likely junk science, but that they also pose some major health risks.
Israel will launch world’s first privately funded moon mission tomorrow
This week will see the world's first privately funded lunar mission launch. Israel's first mission to the moon will be launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, February 21. Israel aims to join the United States, Russia, and China in successfully landing a craft on the moon.
Loto Legend Vaporizer review
Induction heating is the future of cannabis vaporizers. Loto Labs wowed us with what probably is the best concentrate vaporizer on the market today, and if you’re okay with parting with $500 of your hard-earned money it should be your next dab rig. It heats up fast, produces massive clouds, and gets the job done.
SeaBubbles’ new electric hydrofoil boat is the aquatic equivalent of a Tesla
What do you get if you combine Tesla-style electric vehicles, flying cars and a cool sleek water-going vessel? Probably something a bit like SeaBubbles, the French 'flying' boat startup which offers a distinctly 21st-century electric take on the classic hydrofoil. Check it out.
No faking! Doctors can now objectively measure how much pain you’re in
Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered the blood biomarkers that can objectively reveal just how much pain a patient is in. The results could not only take the subjectivity out of diagnosis, but may help battle the opioid prescription crisis as well.
Hong Kong’s vision for a smart prison is a full-blown Orwellian nightmare
Hong Kong wants to bring its prisons into the twenty-first century by introducing new wearable, location-tracking wristbands, and a robot arm whose job is to comb through poop looking for contraband. Here's how the next-gen correctional facilities plan to use their new tech.
Japanese spacecraft will collect a sample from asteroid Ryugu by shooting at it
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 will soon be touching down on the asteroid Ryugu, where it will collect a sample from the surface by shooting a bullet into the soil. The sample will be returned to Earth in 2020, where it can be analyzed to learn about the formation of asteroids.
Barbie’s Corvette ain’t got nothing on Sphero’s fully programmable robot car
Sphero is known for devices like the Sphero Bolt and BB-8 Star Wars toy, but now the company is back with another addition to its lineup -- the Sphero RVR. The RVR is a fully programmable robot car that can be expanding with different features and has a range of built in sensors.
‘Guerrilla rainstorm’ warning system aims to prevent soakings, or worse
In Japan, a "guerrilla rainstorm" refers to a sudden and highly localized downpour, some of which can cause havoc in a matter of minutes. They're difficult to forecast, though researchers in Tokyo claim to have built an accurate early-warning system, giving people ample to time to get out of harm's way.
The Great White Shark’s genome has been decoded, and it could help us end cancer
In a significant step for marine and genetic science, researchers have decoded the genome of the great white shark. The genetic code revealed a wealth of insight into what makes these creatures so successful from an evolutionary standpoint.
No strings attached: This levitating lamp uses science to defy gravity
Created by Italian design studio idea3D, the Levia lamp is a cool industrial-looking lamp which boasts a levitating bulb. Looking for a table light that will dazzle visitors? You've come to the right place. Here's how you can get your hands on a Levia lamp as soon as possible.
NASA’s space observatory will map the sky with unprecedented detail
NASA is preparing to launch a cutting-edge space observatory to create the most detailed map ever produced of the sky. Doing so will involve surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies -- some of which are so far away that their light takes 10 billion years to reach Earth.
Here’s how Facebook taught its Portal A.I. to think like a Hollywood filmmaker
When Facebook introduced its line of Portal screen-enhanced smart speakers, it wanted to find a way to make video chat as intimate as sitting down for a conversation with an old friend. Here's how its engineers tried to pull off the feat using some smart A.I. and a bit of human creativity.
Chandra X-ray telescope uncovers evidence of the universe’s missing matter
Where is all of the matter in the universe? Around a third of the regular matter in the universe is missing. Astronomers believed the missing matter could have formed into huge strands of hot gas, and now NASA's Chandra telescope has uncovered evidence of this gas in the vicinity of a quasar.
Statistician raises red flag about reliability of machine learning techniques
Machine learning is everywhere in science and technology. But how reliable are machine learning techniques really? A statistician says that the answer is not very reliable, arguing that questions of accuracy and reproducibility of machine learning have not been fully addressed.
How can digital art created on obsolete platforms be preserved?
As lines between art and technology continue to blur, digital art experiences become more common. But how should digital artworks be preserved? The Guggenheim Museum and New York University are working together to preserve digital artworks like Shu Lea Cheang’s Brandon and Mark Napier’s net.flag.
Probes exploring Earth’s hazardous radiation belts enter final phase of life
A pair of small robotic spacecraft called the Van Allen probes have been exploring the radiation belts around Earth. Now the probes are moving into the final phase of their exploration, coming closer to Earth to gather more data and to burn up safely in the atmosphere with creating space debris.
NASA to launch SPHEREx mission to investigate the origins of our universe
NASA is launching an ambitious mission to map the entire sky in order to understand the origins of the universe. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will launch in 2023 and is planned to last for two years.
White spots on Ceres are evidence of ancient ice volcanoes erupting
Scientists are pouring over data collected by NASA's Dawn mission to learn about the dwarf planet Ceres and the bright white spots observed at the bottom of impact craters. They believe that these spots are evidence of ice volcanoes which erupted millions of years ago, pushing salt water to the surface.
InSight’s heat probe will dig 16 feet beneath the surface of Mars
Having placed its seismometer onto the Martian surface and covered it with a heat shield, NASA's InSight mission has deployed its second instrument. New images from the lander have confirmed that InSight succeeded in setting the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrument onto the surface.
Ant-inspired walking robot navigates without GPS by using polarized light
What do you get if you cross Boston Dynamics and Ant-Man? You get Antbot, a robot from the French National Center for Scientific Research which uses ant-like navigation to move around without the aid of GPS. Antbot uses an optical compass that detects polarized light to determine its heading.
Descending at an angle could be key to landing heavier craft on Mars
One of the challenges of landing on Mars is getting a lander onto the surface safely: The heavier the craft, the more difficult a safe landing is to achieve. Scientists propose using retropropulsion engines and angling the craft to create a pressure differential to land heavier crafts in the future.
A river of stars one billion years old flows across the southern sky
Astronomers have identified a river of stars flowing across our galaxy and covering most of the southern sky. The 4000 estimated stars that comprise the stream were born together and have been moving together for the last one billion years -- a rarity as most star clusters are quickly dispersed.
The best vape pens for weed
Vaping concentrates has become significantly more popular, especially among those that use cannabis for medicinal purposes. But don’t use just any vape pen: We found these five devices to be our favorites in 2019.
Global Good wants to rid the world of deadly diseases with lasers and A.I.
Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures both invest money in Global Good, a program that brings together scientists from various backgrounds to tackle problems in the developing world, especially disease eradication. They try to find high-tech solutions target pneumonia, polio, and malaria.