After years of setbacks, the James Webb Space Telescope will finally launch next month. NASA has given the green light to begin fueling the observatory for launch, after engineering teams found no sign of damage from an incident last week. | Continue reading
In 1945, a new invention that had helped to win the Second World War went on sale in the United States and Britain. First seen as an expensive novelty, it soon went on to become not only a part of our everyday lives, but one that revolutionized how we communicate. This was the Bi … | Continue reading
A future-focused ship designed as the world's first all-electric, autonomous cargo vessel has debuted in Norway, where it is intended to replace 40,000 diesel-powered truck journeys every year. The Yara Birkeland made a short, crewed trip to the capital of Oslo as part of its unv … | Continue reading
Physicists have detected “ghost particles” in the Large Hadron Collider for the first time. An experiment called FASER picked up telltale signals of neutrinos being produced in particle collisions, which can help scientists better understand key physics. | Continue reading
Much of the millions of metric tons of plastic waste that washes into the sea each year is broken down into tiny fragments by the forces of the ocean, and researchers are beginning to piece together what this means for organisms that consume them. Scientists in Korea have turned … | Continue reading
As we age, our eyesight naturally declines but a new study has found exposing our retinas to short bursts of deep red light can help deteriorating vision. The research shows just three minutes of exposure to 670-nanometer (long wavelength) deep red light in the morning can improv … | Continue reading
Zeva is deadly serious about bringing this tail-sitting eVTOL flying saucer to market as a one-person air taxi, and if you can get over the idea of soaring above the city head-first, face-down and Superman-style, it's got some interesting advantages. | Continue reading
Could an existing piano player adapt to playing the instrument with an extra, robotic thumb? A new study suggests that the answer is yes, and interestingly enough, even people who are new to the piano are equally adept at using the added appendage. | Continue reading
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Intel's 4004 processor, the first commercially available microprocessor built on a single chip. Originally designed for a Japanese desk calculator, it helped spark the personal computer revolution. | Continue reading
British/Ghanian architect Sir David Adjaye's firm has revealed plans for a very ambitious new skyscraper for New York City. Named Affirmation Tower, it's slated to become one of the Western Hemisphere's tallest buildings and will feature a striking cantilevering design that looks … | Continue reading
The largest XPrize competition ever conducted has given out its first prize money, with 23 student teams receiving cash injections to further their carbon removal technologies. Among the winners are a mix of forward-thinking projects that take aim at the problem of mounting carbo … | Continue reading
The UK's Reaction Engines has announced a joint venture to create compact, lightweight ammonia reactors it says can be used to decarbonize difficult sectors like shipping and off-grid energy generation – and surprisingly, also aviation. | Continue reading
For over a decade, Israeli atmospheric water generator (AWG) company Watergen has been one of the players working to refine and grow air-to-water technology that can efficiently pull water vapor out of the air and collect it as fresh, filtered drinking water. Its previous work ha … | Continue reading
Drug resistance is an increasing problem in bacterial infections, but a new study may have uncovered a way to reinvigorate old antibiotics. Scientists have wrapped gold nanoparticles in molecules that seek out bacteria and disrupt their cell membranes, allowing existing drugs to … | Continue reading
For more than half a century we've been sending vehicles and humans into space with the help of rockets, but what if there was another way? Startup SpinLaunch has been exploring such possibilities through the development of what it calls the world's first kinetic space launch sys … | Continue reading
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are poised to become a major health threat in the coming decades, but now it turns out that new antibiotics might have been inside us all along. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used a “search” algorithm to find dozens of potential antim … | Continue reading
A groundbreaking new imaging technique, utilizing X-rays generated by a cutting-edge particle accelerator, is offering 3D images of whole organs in unprecedented detail. Demonstrating the technology researchers imaged the lung of a deceased COVID-19 patient, revealing novel insig … | Continue reading
Compressor efficiency might not sound like the most exciting topic in the world, but consider this: the hotter the world gets – and the wealthier its developing countries become – the more air conditioners will come online. According to the IEA, fans and air con already represent … | Continue reading
Australian company AMSL Aero is preparing to start flight tests on what it claims will be the world's most efficient eVTOL design, and one of the most affordable. This box-wing beauty, the Vertiia, will travel up to 1,000 km (620 miles) on a tank of hydrogen, carrying five people … | Continue reading
It's fair to say that Icon is dominating the 3D-printed construction space at the moment – both here on Earth and even potentially on Mars. Following its completion of four homes in Austin, Texas, the firm has now teamed up with homebuilder Lennar to create a remarkably ambitious … | Continue reading
Physicists in Germany have produced the coldest temperature ever recorded – a chilly 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. The strange experiment involved dropping a quantum gas, and switching a magnetic field on and off to bring its atoms to an almost complete standsti … | Continue reading
U-Boat Worx has released an electric sports submarine with the speed and zippy handling to run alongside large marine life. The bubble-cabin Super Sub, originally a custom commission, is nearly three times as fast as the average luxury submersible. | Continue reading
Last month, students from the Solar Team at TU Eindhoven announced plans to roll from the Netherlands to southern Spain in a solar-powered campervan. After a shaky start, the Stella Vita arrived in Tarifa on Friday afternoon. | Continue reading
Lockheed Martin, Nanoracks, and Voyager Space have entered into a partnership to launch a permanently crewed commercial space station by 2027. Called Starlab, the semi-inflatable platform will be available to the US government and private industry. | Continue reading
A systematic review of more than 20 studies has quantified the role genes play in how effectively our bodies respond to different kinds of exercise. The study found genes influence outcomes more prominently in muscle training exercises and propose in the future it could be possib … | Continue reading
California company Radiant has secured funding to develop a compact, portable, "low-cost" one-megawatt nuclear micro-reactor that fits in a shipping container, powers about 1,000 homes and uses a helium coolant instead of water. | Continue reading
Rolls-Royce North America has been tapped to supply the replacement jet engines for the venerable Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress nuclear heavy bomber. Beating out GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney, the company will provide its F-130 turbofan engine to power the giant aircraft for … | Continue reading
Recreating the process of photosynthesis, whereby plants naturally convert sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into chemical energy to power their existence, is a key objective in renewable energy research, and a new study out of the Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (N … | Continue reading
The head-up display for motorcyclists: it's the great white whale of the technology world. Over the years, we've seen at least a dozen different attempts to put information into the eyeline of the motorcycle rider, saving us from the horrible dangers of looking down at a speedome … | Continue reading
Scientists continue to explore the connection between fasting and the consequences for human health, both good and bad, and part of this research includes diets that merely mimic its effects. A new study has shown how short spurts of these so-called fasting-mimicking diets can br … | Continue reading
We tend to think of digital storage as being fairly permanent, but the reality is the data you've stored on that hard drive, flash drive or CD-ROM likely won't survive more than 20 to 40 years. With that in mind, Harvard researchers have created what they say is much longer-term … | Continue reading
Back in August, the Ocean Cleanup Project returned to the waters of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with a redesigned trash-collecting system that was its largest yet. This upsized approach appears to be paying some dividends, with System 002's final phase of testing hailed a suc … | Continue reading
Access to clean water is a major unmet need in many parts of the world. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new hydrogel tablet that could help, with a prototype able to disinfect a liter of river water in one hour. | Continue reading
Japan's Tetra Aviation plans to start delivering single-seat electric VTOL lift and cruise aircraft to customers by the end of 2022, and it has now released video footage of its Mk-5 aircraft making test flights in California. | Continue reading
How fast does an EV charger have to be to completely eliminate range anxiety – and can our power grids cope with ultra-chargers drawing 0.9 megawatts at full blast? It seems we're going to find out. Hong Kong company Desten is hitting the road to demo a remarkable EV battery and … | Continue reading
Electronic waste (or e-waste) is not only a major pollutant in landfill, but huge amounts of useful resources are being thrown away. Engineers at Rice University have now shown that precious metals and rare earth minerals can be recovered by flash-heating ground-up electronics wi … | Continue reading
New Australian research is systematically investigating the anticonvulsant effects of a number of rare compounds in cannabis. A new study is reporting cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), informally known as the “mother of all cannabinoids,” may be more effective at reducing seizures than … | Continue reading
Citroën has introduced an interesting mobility concept that brings together several forward-looking transport technologies into one versatile vehicle. The Citroën Skate is a self-driving electric vehicle platform that can be fitted with different types of pods depending on the jo … | Continue reading
Having flexed its muscles in predicting kidney injury, toppling Go champions and solving 50-year-old science problems, artificial intelligence company DeepMind is now dipping its toes in weather forecasting. The company's latest tool is designed to predict oncoming precipitation … | Continue reading
Everybody knows sleep is important, but there's still a lot we don't understand about what it actually does to the brain – and how its benefits could be boosted. To investigate, the US Army has awarded researchers at Rice University and other institutions a grant to develop a por … | Continue reading
A colossal US$22-billion infrastructure project will send Australian sunshine more than 3,100 miles (5,000 km) to Singapore, via high-voltage undersea cables. Opening in 2027, it'll be the largest solar farm and battery storage facility in history. | Continue reading
An Australian/German company is developing powerful quantum accelerators the size of graphics cards. They work at room temperature, undercutting and outperforming today's huge, cryo-cooled quantum supercomputers, and soon they'll be small enough for mobile devices. | Continue reading
It was eight years ago that we first heard about the Ungoverned powerboard, which could be described as a gas-powered, caterpillar-tracked, all-terrain skateboard/snowboard. Well, it's now being offered in a lighter, faster, electric form, called the Vendetta. | Continue reading
There are many parts of the world which lack infrastructure, but that get a lot of sunlight ... which makes buildings uncomfortably hot. A new system could help, as it uses a combination of sunlight and salt water – but no electricity – to produce a cooling effect. | Continue reading
Rolls-Royce's high-speed, all-electric Spirit of Innovation aircraft has flown for the first time. On September 15, 2021 at 2:56 pm BST, the speedster prop plane took off from the UK Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down site outside Amesbury, Wiltshire, England for a 15-minute fli … | Continue reading
Last year, physicists reported that an experimental dark matter detector picked up a strange signal that could hint at new physics, with several suspects highlighted. Now, Cambridge scientists have proposed an answer that wasn’t considered at the time – the experiment may have pi … | Continue reading
A new genetics company called Colossal has grand plans to revive the woolly mammoth and reintroduce the species to the Arctic tundra. And it isn’t meant to be just a tourist-trap Jurassic Park either – the aim is to restore a long-lost ecosystem which could, according to the comp … | Continue reading
We've been reporting on Michelin's airless tire technology for more than 16 years now. Indeed, the first time we wrote about the "Tweel" back in 2005, it quickly became the most popular story ever for what was then called gizmag.com. | Continue reading