Global Positioning Systems work famously here on the home planet because we control all of the moving parts; put some satellites in the sky, equip a device with the proper hardware to communicate with them, and you can locate yourself just about anywhere. But how would
Read more...
The new round of experiments aim to find out what matter looked like at the dawn of time
Smashing protons at high energies is fun and all, but researchers at the Large Hadron Collider are taking a vacation from their day-to-day proton smashing, and taking a trip back
Read more...
Anyone following the news out of America's Af/Pak engagement knows that drones are being used increasingly - some say alarmingly so - to ferret out and eliminate militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But if drones can track militants hiding in the Pakistani
Read more...
Help us, Obi-Wan
Videochat is cool enough, but it's got nothing on R2D2's 3D holographic projector (think Princess Leia repeating "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi; you're my only hope"). Now, a team at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences is brining holographic
Read more...
Experts warn that rare-earth rarity could touch off trade wars
In the midst of what's been shaping up as an undeclared rare earths standoff between China and some of it's biggest customers in Japan and the West, Vietnamese and Japanese leaders have decided to collaborate
Read more...
How the 21st-century military may make one of our wildest and longest-held dreams come true
"This new millennium sucks! It's exactly the same as the old millennium! You know why? No flying cars!" - Lewis Black
Of all the far-out visions for the future
Read more...
As the pieces of the James Webb Space Telescope - the next-gen replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope - come together, there's plenty of excitement in the astronomy
Read more...
Back in July, two all-electric, driverless vans set out from Italy bound for China, an 8,000-mile trek through two continents, several countries,
Read more...
Earlier this week China unveiled the world's fastest bullet train, and today it boasts the world's fastest supercomputer.
Read more...
The old adage says "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." So in an energy economy where electricity is costly in both an economic and environmental sense, it makes sense to try to reduce your energy suck across the board in any way possible. With that in mind,
Read more...
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...
The Stuxnet worm has generated plenty of commentary from computer industry experts and security pundits, but yesterday the U.S. government's senior cybersecurity expert at the Department of Homeland Security weighed
Read more...
Have you ever lazily wished you could just use a tractor beam to grab that out-of-reach object? Apparently, you can.
Using only light, Australian researchers say they are able to move
Read more...
What would any recent sci-fi film or TV show be without some kind of 3D, most probably holographic, display? The problem with science-fiction of old was the lack of real-world computer technology the film/TV show creators had available to them in order to create believable futuristic technology.
Read more...
After a weekend using the iPad, I've realised I'm not interested in hedging my reaction to it with careful considerations of its lack of a USB port or webcam. It's not every day, or every year or maybe even every decade that we're able to see a piece of technology that takes a familiar human
Read more...
Ambitious researchers think they might be able to map the human brain in just five years, navigating the complex networks between neurons
Read more...
Not the Airbus A380! That distinction went to the now defunct McDonnell Douglas company
It?s
Read more...
US Army Special Forces soldiers will deploy with the XM-25 weapon this summer, so that they can shower enemies hidden inside buildings with lethal smart rounds. Veterans of the Afghanistan conflict who tried the weapon predicted it would be a "game changing" gun capable
Read more...
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...
In a potential breakthrough in the prevention of AIDS, researchers are reporting today that a vaginal gel containing an existing AIDS drug can cut in half a woman's chances of getting HIV from an infected partner.
The women involved in the study used it only
Read more...
Viruses generally get a bad rap, but they can also be very helpful little machines. For instance, bacteriophages have been engineered to clear up infections that seemed otherwise untreatable, and genetic material from viruses has been used to ease
Read more...
General Motors touted the automatic driving mode of its two-wheel electric car when it unveiled the vehicle last month in Shanghai, China. Now there's a video that
Read more...
A laser-obsessed entrepreneur whose mosquito-zapping project demoed at the TED 2010 conference has bigger plans for energy beams. Tom Nugent envisions using lasers to deliver energy over long distances -- whether that means juicing up an aerial drone's batteries or beaming solar space power
Read more...
What if we could use our pollution as fuel? That notion seems intractable within the current energy paradigm, in which so many of our pollutants are byproducts of our fuels. But it's precisely that idea that inspired Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza to create "Nomadic
Read more...
NASA's Orion crew capsule, which was part of the cancelled Constellation program, has been revived as an escape pod for the International Space Station. A smaller version of the capsule could launch on an Atlas or Delta rocket and eliminate the need to buy a multimillion-dollar Russian Soyuz
Read more...
A more powerful magnetic material may have emerged to topple previous record-holder iron cobalt, until now the most magnetic material on Earth. The new iron and nitrogen compound might also force physicists to revise their understanding of magnetism, according to the Minnesota
Read more...
If you've been anywhere near a television or Web enabled device in the last week (and you must have been), you know that a volcanic eruption in Iceland has grounded airline flights across Europe and even halted a few flights into the northeastern-most
Read more...
DARPA's ardent desire to realise every sci-fi concept ever dreamed of continues with a biologically-inspired computer project which aims for feline brain functionality. But this time it's pinning its hopes on memristor devices which can simulate the behaviour of biological synapses in the brain.
Memristors
Read more...
It's a question many experienced gamers have probably asked: Why do video game software publishers continue to print instruction manuals for their games? It's not as though games aren't already furnished with comprehensive training modes and option menus that can't be summarily skipped by players
Read more...
After lots of talk and testing, Japanese researchers are ready to go space sailing. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced its intention to launch its first "space
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
