A computer-generated image of the Energy Observer in frigid waters. (Credit: Kadeg Boucher/Energy Observer)
For over two decades, 45-year-old, French documentary maker Jerome Delafosse has been diving into oceans the world over to film marine life, ad he’s thrilled about his next expedition—above water. This spring, he will serve as chief explorer aboard the Energy Observer, a boat powered by the sun, wind and hydrogen. In a first-of-its-kind endeavor, Delafosse and ...read more
(Credit: Hyunwoo Yuk/MIT Soft Active Materials Lab)
Caught by an invisible hand, these fish don’t know what hit them.
The transparent appendage isn’t the latest fad in fishing technology; however, it’s a demonstration of the power of soft robots made from hydrogels—a squishy blend of polymers and water. Researchers from MIT devised a way to 3D-print custom structures from the material and bring them to life with the help of a simple water pump.
The real struggle wa ...read more
(Credit: Cafe X)
A robo-rista is now optimizing customers’ coffee in the United States.
Café X, a robotic, coffee-brewing kiosk has just opened its windows on 4th Street in downtown San Francisco.
The “barista bots,” which are actually robotic-arms designed by Mitsubishi, are the first of their kind in the United States, joined only by their sisters-in-arms serving hot brew in kiosks in Hong Kong. They may not be chatty, but they definitely know how to make your f ...read more
ResearchGate-gate isn’t quite as catchy as other scandals, but it is something we might be hearing more about in the future.
A recent article published by Sarah Bond at Forbes encouraged researchers to remove all of their articles from the for-profit company, Academia.edu. This has led to a wave of account deletions at the site, and also at ResearchGate, two sites dueling with each other to become the “Facebook for academics.”
The issue Bond raises is this: Why should companie ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
How does one get stuck studying frog tongues? Our study into the sticky, slimy world of frogs all began with a humorous video of a real African bullfrog lunging at fake insects in a mobile game. This frog was clearly an expert at gaming; the speed and accuracy of its tongue could rival the thumbs of texting teenagers.
[embedded content]Further YouTube research yielded amazing videos of frogs eating mice, tarantulas and even other frogs.
The versatile frog tongue can grab ...read more
A hobbyist drone operated by Islamic State drops a bomb on an Iraqi military Abrams tank. Credit: Middle East Media Research Institute
Islamic State’s weaponization of consumer drones that anyone can buy off the shelf or on Amazon has reached new heights during the battle for Mosul that has been raging since October 2016. A recent propaganda video released by Islamic State showed off the militant group’s increased confidence in using small quadcopter drones to hover ...read more
The universe bristles with structure on all scales. But really, it is all just punctuated nothingness. (Image courtesy of Cryhavoc)
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about nothing. Not just because focusing on nothing is a helpful, meditative antidote to obsessing over the recent barrage of anxiety-inducing news, but also because nothing is the most common thing in nature. After all, the overwhelming majority of the universe is not stars and planets; it is empty space. But empty space is ...read more
The interior view of a Tesla Model S sedan that has an Autopilot system representative of advanced driver assist technologies. Credit: Tesla
When a 2015 Tesla Model S collided with a tractor trailer at highway intersection west of Williston, Florida, the resulting crash killed the Tesla driver. An investigation of the May 7, 2016 incident by federal investigators found that the Tesla car’s Autopilot driver-assist system was not at fault and showed that the driver had at least s ...read more
By Adam Reyer, Project Director for Global Fishing Watch
Hundreds of millions of people depend on the ocean for their livelihoods, and almost 3 billion rely on it as a protein source. But countless threats — overfishing, destructive fishing practices, bycatch, dishonest catch reporting, habitat destruction — threaten our oceans and the people who depend on them. It’s an economic problem, too: illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a universal problem that accounts ...read more
