29.10.10

After 14 Years of Drilling, the World's Longest Tunnel Breaks Through the Swiss Alps Today

The Gotthard Base Tunnel, two parallel tubes of over 35 miles each through the Swiss Alps, is a ridiculously ambitious undertaking, one that has taken 14 years so far and still has a few left to go before it'll be operational. But the Swiss have achieved a major milestone
Read more...


Ancient, Massive Galaxy Cluster Harbors 800 Trillion Suns

Now that scientists are done making a map of the cosmic microwave background, they can use that detailed map to find hidden treasures from the ancient universe. Using
Read more...


AI Tweets "Little Beetles Is An Arthropod," and Other Facts About The World, As It Learns Them

For the last 10 months, Carnegie Mellon University's Never-Ending Language Learning System, or NELL, has been continuously searching the web for text patterns and grouping them into different semantic categories, a system that closely
Read more...


Nano-Miniaturization Technique Developed for Rocketry Leads to Better Dentistry

Say Nano The Scint-X dental camera's X-ray unit inserted into the patient's mouth is thinner than today's
Read more...


Giant Undersea Network Will Bring Offshore Wind Power to US East Coast, With Google Investment

Last night, Google announced that it has agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion, 350-mile power transmission backbone that would provide infrastructure for future offshore wind
Read more...


World's First Robot Census Prompts Existential Robot Questions

At Carnegie Mellon University, one robotics student estimates that there are more robots than students in the department, but in a shameful display of mammalian arrogance, the precise number and type of said robots is unknown. That realization led the student, Heather
Read more...


First New Meat-Eating Mammal in 24 Years -- Surprise, It's Already Endangered

Meet the Durrell's vontsira (Salanoia durrelli). It ain't pretty, but this small, mongoose-like critter-pronounced "voontseera"-has the distinction of being the first carnivorous mammal discovered in 24 years. The last was the related Grandidier's vontsira, which,
Read more...


In New Attempt to Build a Practical Military Laser Weapon, Lockheed Inverts a Prism

Lasers can be powerful weapons - they can take down an aircraft at long ranges and in unstable conditions,
Read more...


Planned Portuguese Eco-City Is Controlled By A Central Computer Brain

A new eco-city planned in Portugal takes a cue from biology, using a centralized computer "brain" to control functions like water use, waste processing and energy consumption. It's the biggest attempt at
Read more...


ISS Could Serve As Base Camp For Future Moon Missions

The world's leading space agencies are reportedly discussing the use of the International Space Station as a launch pad for a manned trip around the moon. The goal would be to test whether
Read more...


Bio-bug, UK's first sewage-powered car, takes to the streets

Think your car runs like crap? A sewage utility in Bristol, UK, has converted a Volkswagen Beetle to run on human waste. The Bio-Bug
Read more...


Acoustic Fingerprinting Software Turns Any Cell Phone into a Touch-Sensitive Device

Cambridge, UK, firm Input Dynamics is trying to take the bite out of iPhone envy with a new software fix that turns any "dumbphone" into a touchscreen device.
Read more...


You built what?! A real Iron Man suit

Anthony Le, 25, has been a fan of Iron Man since he was a kid, but when he heard that the comic-book superhero was hitting the big screen in 2008, he was inspired to build his own Iron Man suit. That version was more of a costume, but his new one, finished just in time for
Read more...


Singapore's SkyPark infinity pool lets you swim to the edge of the world

You've got to admire an architect who can take an ordinary hotel pool and turn it into a genuinely terrifying attraction. The newly built Sands SkyPark in Singapore offers guests a place to cool off on the 55th floor, nearly 200
Read more...


New this week: Win a Zeppelin, plus meet our new blogger

Meet Tesla Patent Pending. PopSci.com.au has unleashed a new opinion writer over at our blog. He's outspoken, he's informed, and he can usually be found hiding in dark rooms with a pile of new gadgets around him. Boys and girls, please
Read more...


How It Works: The Most Advanced Gas-Powered R/C Car

The Most Advanced R/C Car LOSI 1/10 TEN-T TRUGGY RTR Top speed: 72km/h Size: 34.3 x 45 cm. Price: US$500 Get it: losi.com This 18-inch off-roader
Read more...


Quantum time machine lets you travel to the past without fear of grandfather paradox

Looking to build a time machine but nervous about the classic grandfather paradox, aka the Marty McFly conundrum, aka the idea that you might unwittingly do something that causes you to never exist in the first place? An MIT professor and a few of his quantum quoting
Read more...


Proof-of-concept carshark software hacks car computers, shutting down brakes, engines, and more

Using homemade software and a standard computer port, a team of scientists has figured out exactly how easy it is to hack into a modern car -- scary news for motorists already wary of faulty brake and accelerator systems. The research team wrote code that allows
Read more...


Technology + lifestyle efficiencies = all work and no play

At one point or another in our lives, most of us would have had the hypothetical conversation surround which era of time we’d like to visit or have been born in. For some, living at the time of knights and fair maidens has chivalrous appeal. For others, living at a time when technology was
Read more...


Planned Portuguese Eco-City Is Controlled By A Central Computer Brain

A new eco-city planned in Portugal takes a cue from biology, using a centralized computer "brain" to control functions like water use, waste processing and energy consumption. It's the biggest attempt at
Read more...


Kids are getting smarter, faster

Not so long ago I received an email whose intent was to garner some sort of appreciation for my parent’s generation. It contained a list of various activities that we ‘kids these days’ don’t have an appreciation for: having to post letters by way of snail mail, playing outside due to
Read more...


Why Australia doesn’t deserve a cyber-guardian key holder

If you haven’t already, you should have a read of this story on the PopSci front page. It tells the fantastical, yet true, tale of how there are seven global
Read more...


The world needs retail service conscription

I recently returned from a rather short-term trip to the US of A and was greeted by this poor flight attendant and his meltdown that has become a rather public affair. Having read the various stories surrounding this incident and even watching the video re-enactment on the
Read more...


Opinion: Should You Buy An iPad?

Apple's iPad was finally launched yesterday to eager Australian crowds yesterday, with numerous media reports of enormous crowds being piled up outside
Read more...


Video: An incredibly accurate (working!) hoverboard replica would make future-Marty proud

The closer we get to the year 2015, the louder people lament that our world hardly resembles the one depicted in Back to the Future II. Although it will be awhile before any of us coast around in a flying Delorean, we've piped down our complaints, as a young
Read more...


The Shocking Truth: How To Make High-Voltage Sparks

I've always thought it would be funny to build scale-size exploding grain silos for a model train
Read more...


Iran's Boat-Plane-Thing Would Strike Fear Into Other Flying Military Boats if Any Existed

Iran's Sacred Week of Defense (celebrating its eight-year resistance to the Iraqi invation of the 1980s) is never without a healthy dose of pomp and ceremony, but this week Iran's defense ministry took the usual military parade to the waterfront. Yesterday Iran unveiled
Read more...


WIN more driving skills here!

For your chance to win a defensive driving course, email us at [email protected] with the subject line 'The Buzz July Comp' and in 25 words or less tell us about which car you think deserves the title of Australia’s Best Value For Money Car
Read more...


Robots are scheduled to defeat humanity by 2050 (in football)

It wasn’t so long ago that I wrote my passionate plea to sports fans asking them all to buy into my belief that human referees, umpires and other such adjudicators should
Read more...


Stereoscopic 3-D TV – you’re doing it wrong

We’re over halfway through the year and many retail outlets are a-buzz with the launch of 3-D TV. Samsung was first to market, and with other major television manufacturers set to release their own 3-D TV sets before the year is out, Australia is watching to see which form of active-technology
Read more...