DARPA Developing a Robotic Pilot for Their Flying Car
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
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Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
The Life Aquatic & Robotic: New AUV Prepares to Prowl the High Seas
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Last month, a new kind of aquatic robot took a test cruise through the waters of Monterey Bay off California. The Tethys autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), could be just the thing to circumvent some of the problems that have been holding back marine research bots: The two types of AUVs that researchers have relied on in the past both had their drawbacks. Propeller-driven vehicles could travel at a relatively quick pace an ...read more
European man of many faces: Cain vs. Abel
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
When it comes to the synthesis of genetics and history we live an age of no definitive answers. L. L. Cavalli-Sforza’s Great Human Diasporas would come in for a major rewrite at this point. One of the areas which has been roiled the most within the past ten years has been the origin and propagation of the agricultural lifestyle across the European continent between 10,000-6,000 years before the present (starting in Europe’s southeast fringe a few thousand years after the origination ...read more
"Story of Stuff" Crusade Takes on E-Waste and Planned Obsolescence
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
The Story of Electronics has made its debut today (teaser above), following the form of the original Story of Stuff video in 2007. The Story of Stuff, written and narrated by Annie Leonard, created waves of discussion about the environment and consumption in classrooms, homes, and workplaces around the country. She [created the movie], she said, after tiring of traveling often to present her views at philanthropic and environmental conferences. She attributes the response to the video’s si ...read more
Studying Neanderthal Brain Development, One (Indirect) CT Scan at a Time
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
When you were born, your brain was more elongated than it is now; it rounded out into its more globular shape as you grew up and crammed it full of knowledge. Neanderthals, it appears, were born with brains in that same elongated shape. But in their case it never changed: Adult Neanderthals’ brains didn’t move to the more rounded shape like ours, according to a study now out in Current Biology. Scientists have long known that Neanderthals had brains that were about as big as our own, ...read more