Heath Brandon/Creative Commons While we fully acknowledge that the act of pushing a button to indicate your presence at a signalized crosswalk isn’t exactly a chore worthy of complaint, researchers at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision in Graz, Austria, have nevertheless created a new system that brings such crosswalks firmly into the 21st […]
Emerging Tech
Will GPS ever become obsolete? Meet the ant-inspired tech that could replace it
Getty Images Since prehistoric times, humans have navigated Earth by way of the sky. Like clockwork, the sun traces a predictable path from east to west every day. After sunset, stars emerge. Though complicated to decipher, constellations are recognizable in their patterns and offer an intricate map of the inverted world, which a trained navigator […]
NASA pushes ahead with Moon 2024 mission despite funding uncertainties
An illustration of the the power and propulsion element of the Lunar Gateway. NASA The ambitious, even perhaps overly ambitious, plan for NASA to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 is underway, with new developments coming this week. NASA announced that it aims not just to send a man back to the moon, […]
China’s new maglev train can reach an astonishing 372 mph
VCG/VCG via Getty Images China has unveiled a prototype maglev train capable of speeds of up to 372 mph (600 mph). The train has been built by the state-run China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) and following extensive testing will go into commercial production in 2021. Maglev — short for magnetic levitation — use permanent […]
Mars 2020 spacecraft survives 8 days in a freezing cold vacuum chamber
Engineers prepare the Mars 2020 spacecraft for a thermal vacuum (TVAC) test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.The image was taken on May 9, 2019. NASA/JPL-Caltech The spacecraft which will carry Curiosity’s little brother, the Mars 2020 rover, has been put through its paces in a further round […]
Three rare exocomets spotted in orbit around a nearby star
This artist’s impression shows exocomets orbiting Beta Pictoris. L. Calçada / ESO Scientists have spotted three exocomets, or comets outside of our Solar System, in orbit around a bright young star called Beta Pictoris in the constellation of Pictor. They used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) to capture detailed data about the amount of […]
Scientists discover unexpected underwater volcano off the coast of Africa
An active volcano discovered 3.5km (2 miles) below the sea surface CNRS/IPGP/IFREMER/BRGM Geologists first noticed something unusual in the Indian Ocean in November last year, when they detected a massive seismic event originating from a spot near to the French island of Mayotte. Now further research has revealed that the source of the seismic activity […]
This plane-pulling robo-dog makes Boston Dynamics’ Spot look scrawny
[embedded content] Between Boston Dynamics’ assorted robo-canines and the Swiss robot dog carrying out oil rig inspections, four-legged robots are making some impressive strides these days. But, at least as far as pure strength is concerned, none can measure up to the hydraulic quadruped robot HyQReal, created by researchers at Italy’s Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia […]
What would it take to build a Matrix-level simulation of reality?
The Matrix Released almost exactly 20 years ago, The Matrix has gone on to become a cultural phenomenon well beyond the science fiction genre. While it was generally considered science fiction at the time, it helped popularize the Simulation Hypothesis: the idea that we’re all living inside a computer simulation. Rizwan Virk is Executive Director […]
SpaceX joins internet-from-space race with launch of 60 Starlink satellites
[embedded content] SpaceX had a great night on Thursday, successfully deploying its first batch of 60 internet satellites designed to beam cheap broadband across the planet. Two previous launch attempts had been scuppered by bad weather, but this time around improved conditions allowed the SpaceX team to get on with the job. Carrying its heaviest […]
Whose name should we etch on the Mars 2020 rover? NASA wants a vote
As much talk as there is about Mars colonization, it’s still going to be a good few years before humans land on the Red Planet. But that doesn’t mean that your name can’t be among the first to make its way to the Martian landscape — and it won’t even require you to train as […]
Airbus shows off the futuristic interior of its autonomous flying taxi
Previous Next Airbus Airbus Airbus The idea of jumping into a self-piloting flying taxi for a trip downtown sounded like the stuff of fantasy only a few years ago, but with so many companies now developing such a vehicle, it’s hard not to believe it’ll soon be a thing. And no, we’re not talking about […]
Scientists use an X-ray laser to create the loudest possible underwater sound
Researchers may have produced the loudest sound possible to make under water. The 270 decibel sound, created by blasting tiny jets of water with an X-ray laser, had a greater intensity than that of a rocket launch. It was carried out by a team from Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator […]
Elon Musk thinks Starlink satellite internet could be online before 2021
SpaceX stumbled at the first hurdle with its recent attempt to launch 60 satellites into space — which wound up being pushed back a day due to bad weather, and then called off yet again. It was an unfortunately inauspicious start for Elon Musk’s Starlink project, which aims to rain down internet from the heavens, […]
Digital Trends Live: Google’s new Glass, Impossible Sausage, and more
On Tuesday’s episode of Digital Trends Live, host Greg Nibler is joined by Renee Abousamra to discuss the top trending tech stories of the day, including Google’s new version of Glass, the Impossible Sausage at Little Caesar’s, the United States Post Office testing self-driving trucks, Stanford’s new robot dog, and more. Later in the show, […]