Traumatic brain injuries affect as many as 20 percent of warfighters returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the Pentagon's whiz kids at DARPA have turned to optogenetic brain implants that use light pulses to control brain cells, and hopefully reroute brain activity, Wired's
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Algal blooms that feed on nutrient-rich manure and fertiliser runoff can deplete oxygen in the water when they die, creating inhospitable dead zones -- but the same green scum might also serve as a preventive solution upstream. A microbiologist with the U.S. Agricultural
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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
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Robots run amok have occasionally maimed or killed industrial workers, giving German researchers cause to wonder about a future where humans host robots in every home. In their study, the BBC reports,
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SimCity players have struggled to keep their virtual towns alive against fires, tornadoes, and even UFOs, but can they handle strained water supplies and rising energy costs in CityOne? IBM's so-called "serious game" challenges urban planners to navigate
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Tiny organisms such as algae offer great promise for a clean energy future by creating biofuels or even hydrogen, if only scientists can figure out how to use them in a cost-efficient way. A startup named Joule Unlimited has hit upon a possible solution, with a genetically tailored organism
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Brain scans may become accepted evidence in a civil trial for the first time, if a Brooklyn lawyer in the US gets his way, Wired reports.The case could set a legal precedent for allowing brain scans as
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Future vaccination against measles, tuberculosis or even cervical cancer might be as simple as huffing from a plastic sack. Scientists have refined a powdered inhalable vaccine that is slated to undergo human clinical trials for preventing measles later this year in India.The inhalable vaccine
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Staying alive on the organ transplant waiting list could get a bit easier with organs that last longer outside the body. That's the hope of Harvard startup Hibergenica, which looks to commercialise a liquid solution that preserves the metabolism of hearts and livers for
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Weather control freaks may get their next rainmaking tool in the form of an infrared laser. Scientists have successfully created small clouds by firing a laser both inside a lab and under the autumn skies of Berlin, Germany, New
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Everyone is talking about the A380 today. Find out why here
I live in the upper North Shore
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Also: The Sky is Blue, Water is Wet?
An overseas study into the differences between the
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A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the BeetleCam, a remote-controlled roving camera that lets photographers take pictures of wild animals up close. While clawed critters present one sort of obstacle to a great photo, the perfect shot is often blocked by something
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Just refrain from trying to touch the screen
NASA launched one of its boldest space missions in 2009 to repair and save the aging Hubble Space Telescope. Now everyone can get a glimpse of astronaut derring-do in a preview trailer for the upcoming Hubble 3D IMAX film
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Need to disarm an IED? Make sure you've got your Super Soaker handy. Sorry, make that your "Fluid Blade Disablement Tool."
The Stingray, the military's newest bomb-fighting tech, is a small water gun developed
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In the days leading up to the industry-stopping Photokina event, the major players have lifted the lid on all-new and exciting camera bodies that are sure to command the attention of conference attendees when it finally kicks off.
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As particle physicists gather this week for a conference in Paris, they're reporting progress toward finding the elusive Higgs boson, with two groups suggesting a Higgs discovery may not be far off.
Physicists from Fermilab in Illinois announced they combined the results of two experiments
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A young German guy has a detailed Instructable online this week that explains how you can exercise your inner narcissist and make a 3D paper clone of yourself.
It's worth checking out
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Good dog parents might think they're doing their part by using biodegradable baggies to pick up after their pooches. But after Fido's feces go in the trash can and to a landfill, they release methane gas, a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect. A dog
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Meanwhile a motorcycle enthusiast with a passion for the unusual has smashed one of the world's weirdest speed records. Colin Furze of Britain has claimed the new top speed record for a personal mobility scooter, usually driven by the elderly. The rules are
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I was recently reinformed that the word ‘science’ is derived from the Latin word ‘scientia’ which translates simply to ‘knowledge’. This is a rather apt name for science as it is, at its core, concerned with the gathering of knowledge. We can attribute this gathering of knowledge
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When we’re knee-high to a grasshopper, our dream jobs are often more impractical than we understand at the time. Doubtlessly, many of us can relate to playing the “When I grow up I wanna be…” game, with common responses often along the lines of “Hollywood movie star”, “Prime Minister”,
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It was only last week that I was looking for suggestions for science-fiction technologies that could help to advance science actual. But upon reading
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Regardless of whether you’re a football (read: soccer) fan, you’ll doubtlessly have some awareness that the World Cup is scheduled to kick off this year. And even though the thought of the 2014 World Cup is far from most minds, it hasn’t stopped news cropping up about a World Cup that
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You’ve got to hand it to Apple and their cunning marketeers; put simply, they’ve got the formula right. Once upon a time the humble Mac used to be a niche computer when compared to the dominance of the PC, but now it’s difficult to walk into a university or office without seeing a plethora
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For years now I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I find it hard to resist the urge to walk through the so-called ‘kids’ section of your average K-Mart, Target or Big W to check out the toys. Toys have always been of interest to me and even though I’m no longer an adolescent,
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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
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You know you’re destined to spread your opinions on a larger scale than your average Joe when you find yourself capable of coming up with a darker/weirder/funnier real-life story when partaking in story swapping. I’m sure that most people can relate to having that one friend who seems to
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Dr Peer Bork, a bioinformatician from
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Welcome to the new popsci.com.au – bigger and better than ever! Apologies for any issues you may have encountered during the last few days while we have been testing the site. Hopefully we have now resolved all the glitches and you will enjoy our new look and many great new features. Make
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