ISS astronauts are fixing a particle physics detector in space
ISS astronauts are fixing a particle physics detector in space
Astronauts on the International Space Station are attempting to fix the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, an instrument investigating the nature of dark matter that wasn't designed to be serviced. But the AMS proved so valuable that the ISS crew are taking on the challenge of fixing its cooling system.
Hubble observes mammoth gamma-ray burst with highest-ever energy levels
Hubble observes mammoth gamma-ray burst with highest-ever energy levels
The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the highest-energy ever gamma-ray burst, called GRB 190114C. Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe according to the European Space Agency, and this particular burst was even brighter and longer-lasting than most.
Pore over the geography of Saturn’s moon Titan with first global geologic map
Pore over the geography of Saturn’s moon Titan with first global geologic map
A NASA team has created the first global map of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, showing the different geological features on the distant body. The map was created using data from the Cassini spacecraft which continues to provide insights despite being burned up in Saturn's atmosphere two years ago.
European Space Agency wants to put astronauts into hibernation for space travel
European Space Agency wants to put astronauts into hibernation for space travel
The European Space Agency has assembled a team to study hibernation with the aim of using it in manned space missions. The team considered a theoretical mission that would send six people to Mars and back within five years, and found that the use of hibernation could reduce spacecraft mass by one-third.
Meteorologists not swayed by telecom companies’ plans for 5G regulations
Meteorologists not swayed by telecom companies’ plans for 5G regulations
Experts and officials have warned that interference from 5G wireless radios could seriously compromise the ability to forecast weather, including the prediction of extreme weather events like hurricanes. The forecasts of NOAA could be reduced in accuracy by up to 30%.
NASA’s underwater rover will hunt for life on distant ocean worlds
NASA’s underwater rover will hunt for life on distant ocean worlds
NASA has developed BRUIE, the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, which could eventually search for extraterrestrial life on distant ocean worlds such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. It can dive deep beneath sea ice to explore ocean depths which are normally hidden from view.
Lawmakers to Amazon: Cashless stores don’t check out
Lawmakers to Amazon: Cashless stores don’t check out
Amazon Go was an experiment in cashierless convenience. The stores are small with tons of cameras. Shoppers don't need to check out, but they did need a credit card, Amazon account, and smartphone. Now it's taking the technology to supermarkets as cash-free backlash grows.
Watch this foldable drone get fired out of a cannon before flying away
Watch this foldable drone get fired out of a cannon before flying away
Getting a drone off the ground is usually the most challenging part of a flight. Not so with SQUID, a quadcopter that you launch by firing it out of a cannon. A team of engineers in California is developing the design, with its unusual launch system giving it potential in a range of scenarios.
Bot or not? This browser extension will identify text written by A.I.
Bot or not? This browser extension will identify text written by A.I.
Figuring out whether the things you read on the internet are true can be challenging. Thanks to a new web plugin, determining whether they were written by a human or an artificial intelligence is now a whole lot easier. Here's what makes GPTrue or False tick -- and why it matters.
Eyesight Technologies’ in-car A.I. can tell when drivers smoke or use phones
Eyesight Technologies’ in-car A.I. can tell when drivers smoke or use phones
Computer vision startup Eyesight Technologies has developed new in-car monitoring technology for spotting when drivers are using cell phones or smoking while behind the wheel. These major potential causes of car accidents stop drivers from focusing fully on the road in front of them.
Forget about buying business supplies, Amazon’s happy to restock for you
Forget about buying business supplies, Amazon’s happy to restock for you
Amazon wants you to be able to restock office supplies more efficiently with its new Dash Smart Shelf. The shelf is a Wi-Fi-enabled smart scale that has weight-sensing technology to track inventory. The shelf tracks the stock for a product, and once it senses that item is running low, it re-orders it for you.
Meet the robotic pioneers that will help humanity colonize Mars
Meet the robotic pioneers that will help humanity colonize Mars
The race to populate Mars is on. But before humans can visit the red planet, we need to send out robot scouts to see the lay of the land. The next generation of Martian robotics will use sophisticated AI, novel propulsion methods, and flexible smallsats to meet the challenges of colonizing a new world.
Watch SpaceX’s Starship prototype blow its top during a ground test
Watch SpaceX’s Starship prototype blow its top during a ground test
SpaceX's Starship blew its top during a pressure test in Texas on Sunday. A nearby camera captured the dramatic incident, which wrecked Starship's upper section. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was quick to respond, confirming the team would continue with work on a more advanced version rather than rebuild the damaged one.
Scientists want to send a $2 billion flagship-class mission to Venus
Scientists want to send a $2 billion flagship-class mission to Venus
Scientists are hoping to convince NASA to send a flagship mission to Venus in order to learn more about the planet’s past and if how habitable it could have been. The flagship mission is most expensive class of a NASA project, and scientists want to go deeper into the research of habitability on Venus.
Clever topology means this 3D-printed polymer is tough enough to stop a bullet
Clever topology means this 3D-printed polymer is tough enough to stop a bullet
You’ve probably heard of 3D-printed guns, but how about 3D-printed material capable of stopping bullets in their tracks? That’s what researchers from Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering may have developed with a new polymer that proves almost as hard as diamonds.
Amazon looks to expand its cashier-free Go tech to supermarkets, pop-up stores
Amazon looks to expand its cashier-free Go tech to supermarkets, pop-up stores
Supermarket cashiers would be a thing of the past at Amazon Go’s new supermarkets and popup stores slated to open next year. Amazon is reportedly expanding from its Go convenience stores to enter the supermarket realm and is looking to license out its technology to expand to even more retailers.
Flexible, wireless skin interface could restore amputees’ sense of touch
Flexible, wireless skin interface could restore amputees’ sense of touch
A flexible, wireless skin interface could allow people to virtually hold hands across the globe, to experience full-body VR immersion, or even restore a sense of touch to those who have lost a limb. Digital Trends spoke with professor and lead researcher John Rogers of Northwestern University about the new technology.
Surgeons put near-death humans into suspended animation for the first time
Surgeons put near-death humans into suspended animation for the first time
Suspended animation has been a science-fiction dream featured in everything from Alien to Futurama. Now, it’s reportedly been achieved for real by medics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Here's what the process involves -- and why it could be a major game-changer.
SpaceX’s Starlink project poses an existential threat to astronomy
SpaceX’s Starlink project poses an existential threat to astronomy
There could very well soon be more satellites visible in the night sky than stars. That's a major problem for astronomy, one leading astrophysicist told Digital Trends. Here's why it's a big problem -- and what he thinks the United Nations should consider doing about it.
Kickstarter’s new budget tool could save projects from collapse
Kickstarter’s new budget tool could save projects from collapse
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has launched a new tool called Project Budget that aims to provide valuable assistance to creators in the important early stages of their work. It’s hoped that a clearer plan as to how funds will be spent will also encourage more people to back projects on the site.
Watch this disembodied set of robotic ostrich legs juggle a ball on its ‘head’
Watch this disembodied set of robotic ostrich legs juggle a ball on its ‘head’
Want to see a robot carrying out an impressive juggling display? Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley have trained a bipedal robot to execute just such a trick. And while it sounds frivolous, it could actually turn out to be pretty darn important. Here's why.
Clean-energy startup backed by Bill Gates hopes to replace fossil fuels
Clean-energy startup backed by Bill Gates hopes to replace fossil fuels
A startup backed by Bill Gates has found a way to combine artificial intelligence and solar energy to create extreme heat, essentially replacing the need for fossil fuels. Heliogen used A.I.-powered mirrors that can generate extreme heat -- more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit -- for the first time commercially.
How glow-in-the-dark vampire bats are helping scientists solve a $50M problem
How glow-in-the-dark vampire bats are helping scientists solve a $50M problem
To test out the possible effectiveness of a future rabies vaccine, researchers from the University of Michigan and Scotland’s University of Glasgow recently traveled to Peru to make vampire bats glow in the dark. Why? It turns out that there's a very good and sensible reason.
New York sues Juul for allegedly ‘glamorizing vaping’ and targeting teens
New York sues Juul for allegedly ‘glamorizing vaping’ and targeting teens
Adding on to the extensive list of lawsuits, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a new lawsuit against Juul. The lawsuit alleges that Juul illegally sold its vaping products to underage smokers, and that the company’s advertising campaign does not mention that its products contain nicotine.
NASA discovers water vapor — and maybe more — on Jupiter’s moon Europa
NASA discovers water vapor — and maybe more — on Jupiter’s moon Europa
NASA has confirmed that one of Jupiter’s 79 moons, Europa, has water vapor above its surface, and possibly even a liquid water ocean, providing more evidence that the moon has the ingredients necessary for life. Scientists say that above the surface of Europa, there are plume-like configurations of water vapor.
MIT is teaching self-driving cars how to psychoanalyze humans on the road
MIT is teaching self-driving cars how to psychoanalyze humans on the road
MIT CSAIL researchers have developed an algorithm for self-driving cars that aims to predict human drivers' personalities, determining whether they're selfless or selfish. In the process, they hope that it will help autonomous vehicles to more safely drive among them. Here's how it works.
NASA invites SpaceX and Blue Origin to help with moon missions
NASA invites SpaceX and Blue Origin to help with moon missions
NASA has given SpaceX and Blue Origin the green light to bid for contracts linked to its Artemis program, which is seeking to establish a sustainable presence on the moon with an eye on eventual missions to Mars. The two companies are among 14 vying to help take essential payloads to the moon starting in 2021.
Hypervelocity star booted out of our galaxy by supermassive black hole
Hypervelocity star booted out of our galaxy by supermassive black hole
Astronomers have detected a hypervelocity star called S5-HVS1 traveling at a tremendous speed of 2.3 million mph (1,017 km/s), making it the third-fastest star ever recorded. It is traveling fast enough that it will leave the Milky Way and shoot off into the massive space between galaxies.
Hubble captures a peculiar galaxy pulled out of shape by a nearby satellite
Hubble captures a peculiar galaxy pulled out of shape by a nearby satellite
A new Hubble image shows NGC 772, an unusual elongated galaxy with a spiral arm that has been stretched and extended. The distortion is caused by the movements of a nearby satellite galaxy, which is a term for a smaller galaxy which is gravitationally bound to a larger galaxy and which orbits around it.
Curiosity rover discovers a puzzling oxygen mystery on Mars
Curiosity rover discovers a puzzling oxygen mystery on Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover continues to make discoveries that challenge our understanding of the Martian environment. The latest strange puzzle taxing scientists is the variation of oxygen levels on Mars, as detected Curiosity's portable chemistry lab, Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).
Planet-hunting satellite spots rare hot Neptune on border of Neptune desert
Planet-hunting satellite spots rare hot Neptune on border of Neptune desert
Astronomers have used data from NASA's planet-hunting satellite to make an unusual discovery: A planet the size of Neptune which is orbiting extremely close to its star. Planet TOI-132b has an orbital period of just 2.11 days and its surface temperature is estimated to be 2,032 degrees Fahrenheit.
Most distant object ever explored is renamed following Nazi controversy
Most distant object ever explored is renamed following Nazi controversy
NASA scientists from the New Horizons mission have re-named the farthest object ever explored. The object was previously nicknamed Ultima Thule, a medieval term meaning a location beyond the borders of the known world. But the word Thule has historically been used by Nazi supporters.
You can now feed Sony’s Aibo robot dog with virtual food
You can now feed Sony’s Aibo robot dog with virtual food
Sony rolled out a version 2.5 software update for Aibo, adding the ability to program the robot dog with custom tasks and feed it with virtual food. A web-based API offers access to the Aibo Developer Program for seasoned developers and Aibo Visual Programming for novice programmers.