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  • Today, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield passed command of the International Space Station to cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Hadfield's command has been so much fun, because he not only plays guitar and tweets prolifically; he... More >
  • Today at the 2013 Google I/O conference in California, Google announced that the company would begin selling the Samsung Galaxy S4, the newest in the most successful Android phone line on the planet, themselves. When you... More >
  • Changing swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks is an ancient metaphor for turning away from violence and toward peaceful labor. Mike Izbicki, a former Navy midshipman who in 2011 was discharged from service as a... More >
  • The K-MAX optionally-manned helicopter is a powerful battlefield work horse. Over the past 16 months, two (yes, just two) K-MAX drones delivered 1.45 million kg of cargo to Marines in Afghanistan. This is simultaneously more like the... More >
  • For those who have severe chronic pain, the advantage of OxyContin over other prescription painkillers is that it lasts for 12 hours. For those who like to get high on opioids, the great thing about OxyContin... More >
  • How To Puke In Space

    Today, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield passed command of the International Space Station to cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Hadfield's command has been so much fun, because he not only plays... More >
  • Android Phones Need Self-Destruct Buttons

    Today at the 2013 Google I/O conference in California, Google announced that the company would begin selling the Samsung Galaxy S4, the newest in the most successful Android phone line on the planet,... More >
  • How To Turn An AK-47 Into A Soup Ladle

    Changing swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks is an ancient metaphor for turning away from violence and toward peaceful labor. Mike Izbicki, a former Navy midshipman who in 2011 was... More >
  • Autonomous Helicopters: The New Truckies?

    The K-MAX optionally-manned helicopter is a powerful battlefield work horse. Over the past 16 months, two (yes, just two) K-MAX drones delivered 1.45 million kg of cargo to Marines in Afghanistan.... More >
  • How To Make A Painkiller Addiction-Proof?

    For those who have severe chronic pain, the advantage of OxyContin over other prescription painkillers is that it lasts for 12 hours. For those who like to get high on opioids, the great thing about... More >
Kelsey D. Atherton
at 05:30 AM May 18 2013
IMAGE BY Paramount
Technology // 

Star Trek is hardly beginner-friendly. Five television series, 12 movies, and a nerd following that defines nerd followings present a serious obstacle to the casual moviegoer. J.J. Abram's 2009 reboot of the series was an attempt to make Star Trek more accessible, but it's the second movie of the reboot, Into Darkness, where he succeeded. Here's why (spoiler alert for much of what follows):

Clay Dillow
at 05:02 AM May 18 2013
IMAGE BY Imperial College London
Science // 

Academy Awards continue to elude Johnny Depp, but as of today no one can say he hasn't been immortalized. A 505-million-year-old Cambrian fossil of a creature with scissor-like claws has been named Kooteninchela deppi in honor of Depp's role as Edward Scissorhands in the movie of the same name.

Clay Dillow
at 03:56 AM May 18 2013
Technology // 

Boston Dynamics' Cheetah robot may be the fastest, but MIT's version of the DARPA-backed quadruped robot is proving to be the most efficient. In a newly released video, MIT's Biomimetic Robotics Lab shows off it's new and improved Cheetah, which can move along at a respectable 13.7 miles per hour and carry its own power source. Outside of the lab on the open savannah, that's a critical capability.

Francie Diep
at 03:28 AM May 18 2013
IMAGE BY University of Arizona
Science // 

Earth-bound scientists are on track to get their hands on asteroid soil, straight from the source, in 2023. An asteroid-sampling mission, planned for launch in 2016, is moving into development, NASA and the University of Arizona announced yesterday.

Clay Dillow
at 03:01 AM May 18 2013
IMAGE BY Frank Kovalchek via Wikimedia
Science // 

A team of high school students have co-authored a scientific journal paper with their University of Arizona grad student instructor that could have a serious impact on the reliability of climate models. Their work details the impact of shrinkage on dried, fossilized leaves - shrinkage that is often unaccounted for in climate models. By better accounting for this change in leaf size, the students found that researchers could significantly improve the accuracy of their climate models.

Shaunacy Ferro
at 12:01 AM May 18 2013
IMAGE BY Ramiz Daniel, Jacob R. Rubens, Rahul Sarpeshkar, Timothy K. Lu via MIT
Science // 

A group of engineers from MIT have created analog calculators out of living cells, according to a paper published online in Nature yesterday. By tweaking the genes of bacterial cells, the researchers were able to create circuits that can perform calculations - including division, multiplication, logarithms and square roots - in a much more efficient way than many existing biocomputers.

Editor's Picks
BY Dan Nosowitz POSTED 14.05.2013 | 0 COMMENTS
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Popsci Live
17/05/13 AT 05:45 PM
"Who is the deevo who writes comments about Android but obviously hasn't thought them through? Rooting and installing a custom recover and then a custom ROM is a massive undertaking for the average person, and Cyanogenmod etc, good as they are, are NOT stock Android. They are unstable, even the RC builds. And the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 are most DEFINITELY consumer products, offered by mainstream carriers at mainstream prices. And while every custom OS is indeed Android at its heart, very very few of them are running Jelly Bean 4.2 (except the brand new releases like the GS4.)"
- Cobton
Popsci Live
17/05/13 AT 03:57 PM
"Oh hell yes! It's a great cover... let alone the fact it's filmed in space :)"
- Cam
Popsci Live
17/05/13 AT 09:22 AM
"I'd go in 1/2 a heartbeat. :)"
- Steve
Popsci Live