Technology
Technological applications and advances in computers, agriculture, industry and transportation
Climate Skepticism Could Wipe Out Whole Towns in Australia
Stubborn climate skeptic hold-outs now face more than just the rest of the world's scorn: Their towns might not be on the map in a few years.
July 12, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Return of the King Salmon
In the ocean waters just off California's Central Coast, the fish are swarming this summer like they haven't in years
July 12, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Blame Your Chicken Dinner for That Persistant Urinary Tract Infection
E. coli, the most common cause of urinary tract infections, has been growing resistant to antibiotics, and chickens may be to blame.
July 12, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Climate Change Will Mean the World Eats Rice
The future under climate change indicates that rice will soon become an even more abundant staple, thanks to a boost in carbon dioxide that make crops like rice thrive
July 11, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Fifty Years Ago, Lyndon Johnson Answered the First Satellite Phone Call
Telstar 1, which launched into orbit 50 years ago today, was the world's first commercial satellite, and a testament to international, and government-industry, cooperation.
July 10, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Daughters of Wealth, Sisters in Revolt
The Gore-Booth sisters, Constance and Eva, forsook their places amid Ireland's Protestant gentry to fight for the rights of the disenfranchised and the poor
July 10, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
1954 Flying Car for Sale
A bargain for just $1.25 million. But, you'll need both aviation and auto insurance
July 09, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Flower Children on the North Shore of Kauai
In the late 1960s, a gorgeous stretch of beach in Ha’ena State Park was the site of a hippy haven called Taylor Camp.
July 09, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
How Our Food System Could Be Radically Better in 2032
Fast forward 20 years. How will we get our food? What delicacies will stock our fridges and appear on restaurant menus? Will our diets be significantly different, or will we have simply found new things to stuff in yet-undiscovered pockets of our pizzas? Andrew Purvis of Green Futures Magazine ponders the question, with an optimistic slant: [...]
July 07, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Quantum Computing Now At Least Vaguely Plausible
Researchers exploited the behavior of impurities in manufactured diamonds to store information for what would in quantum computing be considered a long time—up to two seconds.
July 06, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Beautiful New Earth-From-Space Footage from NASA
Take a couple minutes between the barbecue and fireworks to put things into the larger context by appreciating “that we are all riding through the universe together on this spaceship we call Earth, that we are all interconnected, that we are all in this together, that we are all family.” The Atlantic points us to this beautiful [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
1931′s Remote-Controlled Farm of the Future
The farmer of tomorrow wears a suit to work and sits at a desk that looks oddly familiar to those of us here in the year 2012.
July 02, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
London Had All-Electric Taxis in 1897
In 1897, a small fleet of electric taxis trundled along the streets of London alongside the horse-drawn carriages of the day. London's Science Museum recently obtained one of these relics, known as a Bersey taxi, for use in a display about climate change.
July 02, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Extreme Geese Reveal High-Altitude Secrets in Wind Tunnel
Next time you’re cruising on a short flight in Mongolia or Tajikistan, take a peep out the window and see if you can spot any bar-headed geese sharing the air space. The birds soar up to 20,000 feet on their migration routes between Central and South Asia where they have to scale pesky obstacles like [...]
July 02, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Virtual Pigeon Attracts, Baffles Randy Males
Pigeons get a bad rap, but they’re clever little guys. They can distinguish between a Picasso and a Monet, and the visual cues they use to identify objects are almost the same as the ones used by humans. As a result, researchers delight at putting pigeons into awkward and peculiar situations in the name of [...]
July 02, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Man or Computer? Can You Tell the Difference?
Could you be fooled by a computer pretending to be human? Probably
July 2012 |
By Brian Christian
Where Do All Those Facebook Photos Go?
On the outer boundaries of the Arctic Circle lies a massive construction project funded by Facebook: the future home of thousands of server farms
July 2012 |
By Mark Strauss
How Spray-On Everything Could Radically Transform Manufacturing
Soon, the days of building things from bigger blocks of things—forging, sculpting, whittling, carving, cutting, etching—may well be be gone. The push toward building from the bottom, of laying down exactly what you need rather than cutting away that which you don't, is underway in force.
June 29, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Body Heat From Your Seat Can Juice Your Laptop
Swedish designer Eddi Tornberg’s desk pulls power from a number of different sources — a plant, a piezoelectric pad that responds to the pressure of fidgeting, and from the body heat of the person sitting in the chair. Tornberg’s idea was to connect sustainable design and energy with day-to-day life, he says: The energy is [...]
June 29, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
Finally, Male Birth Control Even Dudes Will Use
Here's a male contraceptive from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute that a) works pretty well and b) shouldn't be too burdensome for dudes.
June 27, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
