Vatican Praises Genetically Modified Crops, While U.S. Judge Orders Their Destruction
It's been a strange few days in the world of genetically modified food. For the first time, a judge has ordered the
Read more...
05.01.11
The Air Force's Top Secret Space Plane, in Orbit for Seven Months, is Coming Home
All good top secret robotic space plane test missions must come to an end, and so it goes for the Air Force's X-37B, otherwise known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1). After seven months of thrilling amateur satellite watchers with its shifting orbital flight patterns
Read more...
Kinect Hack Makes You Invisible, No Metamaterials Required
You didn't think the enthusiasm for hacking the Kinect to make it do variously useful and silly things was going to end after two weeks, did you? It's just going to
Read more...
Radar Shoes Could Help Locate Users Where Satellite Signals Won't Go
The rise of readily available GPS-enabled devices was supposed to make losing one's way a relic of a bygone era. But while GPS has undoubtedly changed the way we get around, it's still imperfect - anywhere the satellite signal can't reach might as well not be on the digital
Read more...
In Flyby of Saturn's Moon Rhea, Cassini Probe Gets First Whiff of Non-Earthly Oxygen
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has taken a breath of oxygen while passing over the icy surface of Saturn's second-largest moon, marking the first time a spacecraft has directly sampled oxygen
Read more...
Breeding Silicon and Solar Power in the Middle of the Desert
The forbidding sands of the Sahara might seem an unusual place for farming. But if you're farming silicon to make solar panels, the conditions in the Sahara are more or less optimal. At least, that's the thinking behind the Sahara Solar Breeder Project. The plan, a joint
Read more...
Genetic Algorithms Design and Manufacture Robots Without Human Intervention
In sci-fi lore, one of the great qualifying events leading up to the eventual war with and enslavement by our machines is the moment when robots begin replicating - that is, they begin manufacturing themselves without help from humans. If that's the case, then the latest
Read more...
Solar Impulse HB-SIA
A clean-aviation milestone
Zero-emission flight leapt forward in July, when Swiss pilot André Borschberg flew the solar- and battery-powered Solar Impulse HB-SIA for 26 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds, reaching a height of 28,500 feet before gliding back down
Read more...
Long-Awaited Barefoot Running Study Finds Sneakers Are Harmful
Shoes change the human foot strike and may lead to more running injuries...
All
Read more...
Tunnel vision. Is the Mercedes Gullwing stunt real?
German car maker Mercedes-Benz has online car enthusiasts in a blather about whether or not a video of the new SLS Gullwing sports car looping the inside of a tunnel is real or fake. The climax of the three minute video (the tunnel stunt) by Mercedes-Benz is widely tipped to be the work of
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...
Infographic: Which Asteroids Are Swinging Closest to Earth?
Perhaps the most unsettling thing about a planet-killing asteroid is that we might never see it coming. But this infographic by Mechanicsville, Md.-based designer Zachary Vabolis helpfully visualizes which candidate
Read more...
ALTB FAIL: Airborne Laser Weapon Fails Second Test Firing in a Row
The Missile Defense Agency's airborne laser weapon is supposed to save us all from imminent nuclear demise, but after yesterday's botched test firing - the second failure
Read more...
Quantum Hackers Use Lasers to Crack Commercial Quantum Encryption Without Leaving a Trace
Quantum cryptography is one of the most secure known means of transmitting data, due to the fact that even if a third party does intercept a quantum signal, that interference changes the encryption key, making the tampering apparent to parties at both ends. But a handful
Read more...
PopSci Installs Windows 7 RC 1
Our computer doesn?t blow up. Is this really a Microsoft product?
That?s right, Popular Science
Read more...
iPhone 4: the wait is over
For those out there that simply cannot wait to get their hands on the latest version of Apple’s iPhone and have been champing at the bit to get any indication of when it will be released, the good news is the end is nigh. According to a recent Apple press release published in full at
Read more...
Warning signals: Mobile phones, radiation and the human brain
Per Segerbäck lives in a modest cottage in a nature reserve some 120km northeast of Stockholm. Wolves, moose and brown bears roam freely past his front door. He keeps limited human company, because human technology makes him physically ill. How ill? On a walk last summer, he ran into one of
Read more...
Qatar unveils awesome solar stadium designs for 2022 World Cup
As soccer fans prepare for next month's World Cup, 11 nations around the world are already vying for the one that starts 12 years from now. Qatar's plans, unveiled Friday, won't bring 3D images of soccer action to your doorstep, but the stadiums will probably be worth visiting
Read more...
The Future Is Clear Now
While Toyota and Volkswagen – the world’s two biggest car makers – are locked in a battle for global sales leadership over the next decade, driven by a new generation of hybrid and electric cars, Japanese maker Honda is working on technology that may well leapfrog them both. Most big
Read more...
'Imaginary' hardware interface lets users wield their own fantasy peripherals to control a real device
Imagine a gesture-based mobile device with no screen, no keyboard, and no other peripheral inputs or outputs, a mobile device that's not really a device at all. Can you see it in your mind's eye? If so, you're probably picturing something akin to a new
Read more...
It’s the size that counts: bigger is better
With every new technological advancement intended to make our lives somehow easier it’s always fun to mark such occasions by taking a look back at the humble roots of a particular line of technology. Take the mobile phone for instance: what used to be a rather cumbersome brick that was definitely
Read more...
Kinect: good with kids, bad with couches
Microsoft's Kinect, the controller-free, gesture-based gaming platform that finally saw an official unveiling at E3 this week continues to surprise us, but not always necessarily in good ways. For instance, we think it's awesome that the non-peripheral peripheral can
Read more...
Liquid mirror breakthrough could make state-of-the-art optics cheap
A $136 million Earth-based telescope using brand new adaptive optics just trumped Hubble's deep space image clarity three-fold, but such high tech optics aren't just reserved for high-dollar observatories. A breakthrough in deformable liquid mirror technology
Read more...
Satellite creates first global gravity map of Earth
Using only two months of data, the GOCE gravity-tracking satellite has built the first-ever full map of Earth's gravitational field.
The map, called a geoid, reflects the bumps and valleys of Earth's gravitational effects. The map shows what the Earth would look
Read more...
Moving pictures are worth more than a thousand words
We live, work and play in a world that seems to be perpetually stuck in fast-forward. Our cars are fast, our food is faster and any task that can’t be simplified to a few minutes is rated in terms of its validity of even performing in the first place. If someone is ever to invent the ability
Read more...
Not being you is the new you
We live in an age that seems to be perpetually torn between choosing from a smörgåsbord of choice as it relates to traditional values and contemporary approaches to life. This veritable selection of seemingly opposing ideologies makes presenting oneself in varying social situations difficult
Read more...
WIN a Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS!
For your chance to WIN one of three Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS devices (valued at $599 each), email us at [email protected] with the subject line ‘The Buzz August Comp’ and in 25 words or less: What was your first family car
Read more...
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Vertigo Airlines
I’m not afraid of heights but I sure do respect them. To some, being afraid of heights and vertigo are interchangeable descriptions, but for someone who suffers from vertigo when looking down from a height, I can tell you it has very little to do with some deep-seeded fear resulting from
Read more...
Popular Science has been a leading source of science, technology and gadget news since 1872. With up-to-the minute latest space news, insightful commentary on the new innovations and concept cars ...if it's new or future technology you'll find it at popsci.com.au.
WW Media - Popular Science © 2010
Cameras - Home Entertainment - Mobile Phones
