[embedded content] The creepy crawly in the video above is a robot called the Longitudinally Extensible Continuum-robot inspired by Hirudinea (LEeCH) which can elongate and bend its body to climb walls, just like a leech. The robot is made from a shower hose with two suction cups attached and is part of a growing trend […]
Emerging Tech
InSight’s solar panels get a spring cleaning from Martian winds
A selfie snapped by NASA’s InSight lander. You can see a layer of brown dust that has settled on the spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech Winds on Mars might have caused the ultimate demise of the Opportunity rover, but they could also help extend the life of the InSight mission. The same winds that blow dust onto spacecrafts’ […]
In China, a deep brain stimulation implant is being used to treat addiction
Deep brain stimulation is a procedure in which a pacemaker-like “neurostimulator” is used to zap specific regions of the brain. While it’s not yet fully understood, early research indicates that it could be useful for treating a range of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and depression. Now researchers in China have taken the next step […]
Like a lens for audio, these metamaterial bricks bend, focus, and amplify sound
University of Sussex Using a torch, you can easily single out an individual in a room. Likewise, a floodlight will let you illuminate a whole crowd of people. But can the same thing be done with sound? Not quite so easily — perhaps until now, that is. In the U.K., researchers at the universities of […]
Jeff Bezos unveils Blue Moon lander in grand plan to return to lunar surface
[embedded content] Earth’s nearest neighbor has been getting a whole lot of attention lately, and now Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos has joined the club with the grand unveiling on Thursday afternoon of the Blue Moon lunar lander. At a Washington Convention Center event less than a mile from a White House whose occupants also […]
Digital Trends Live: Uber goes public, iPhone XR design leak, and robot butlers
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, host Greg Nibler is joined by Nicole Raney, managing editor of The Manual, to talk trending tech news, including Uber going public, the theft of $ 40 million in Bitcoin, iPhone XR design leaks, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin update, robot butlers, and more. Later in the show, Nibler […]
Chicago’s trash-eating river robot is a glimpse into the future of crowdsourcing
Urban Rivers Pay a visit to the Chicago River this summer, and you’ll find that it has an intriguing new addition to the local wildlife. Amongst the myriad birds, fish, and occasional beaver or otter, keen-eyed visitors may spot a small robot, resembling a raft not much larger than a child’s kickboard, meandering lazily up […]
Sustainability guidelines could help solve the growing problem of trash in space
Not content with trashing our own planet, it seems that humanity has caused a growing problem with space debris as well. As we rely increasingly on satellites for everything from weather forecasting to navigation, humans have fired more and more of them into orbit — which is now filled with discarded satellites, upper stages of […]
Software upgrade could let smartwatches know exactly what our hands are doing
[embedded content] Smartwatches are increasingly becoming their own thing, rather than simply accessories which rely on and mirror the functionality of other devices. However, there are some scenarios in which it would be useful for our smartwatches to work more closely with the objects around us — whether that’s knowing what we’re doing on our […]
Forget ice! This off-grid cooler uses the sun’s rays to chill your food
[embedded content] A few years ago, the Coolest Cooler burst onto Kickstarter and quickly raked in more than $ 13 million to bring it to market. While lengthy delays turned into a controversial project, a new type of cooler just landed on a crowdfunding platform with its own goal of reinventing the humble food and […]
After a delayed launch, SpaceX Dragon capsule arrives at the space station
Two days after lifting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a SpaceX cargo capsule has reached the International Space Station (ISS) to drop off supplies along with a slew of science experiments. The crewless Dragon capsule docked with the ISS on Monday with a consignment that tipped the scales at 5,500 pounds. […]
First private Japanese rocket, MOMO-3, successfully launched this week
[embedded content] Troubled spaceflight company Interstellar Technologies had a success this week, when it was finally able to launch its MOMO-3 rocket into space. The Japanese company attempted its first launch in July 2017, but one minute after launch, communications with the rocket were lost and the emergency engine shutdown was triggered, causing the rocket […]
Hubble captures an archetypal spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo
The stunning NGC 2903 galaxy, located in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The image was captured by Hubble as part of a survey of 145 nearby disk galaxies. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Ho et al. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an ideal example of the archetypal spiral galaxy. The NGC 2903 galaxy is […]
DroneBullet is a kamikaze drone missile that knocks enemy UAVs out of the sky
AerialX Imagine the scenario. A quadcopter drone, rigged to carry a bomb, is headed for the White House, a major airport, or a packed school full of children. There’s no time to track down and arrest the person who either programmed its path or is directly piloting it. The most important thing to do is […]
See the sun rise and set on another planet in these InSight images
NASA’s InSight lander used its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft’s robotic arm to image this sunrise on Mars on April 24, 2019, the 145th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. This was taken around 5:30 a.m. Mars local time. NASA/JPL-Caltech A pair of images taken by the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) aboard […]