Coating objects with a layer so black it makes them look like flat holes in reality is potentially important for developing stealth weapons. But we all know the coolest implementation would be an iPhone that would look like a black splotch on the table.
We are now a step closer to this reality, as British scientists have developed a new material called Vantablack. More →
Robots and artificial intelligence have caused humans quite a bit of uneasiness, with even Tesla CEO Elon Musk saying there could be some scary outcomes for A.I., if it’s not used properly. Now, it looks like that nightmare may become a reality. More →
Honeybees are very important to humans, sustaining Earth’s dominant species with help of their unique ability to pollinate plants. However, humans are not equally helpful to bees, as bees are dying at unprecedented rates thanks to a colony collapse disorder (CCD) that’s apparently so dangerous, even the White House wants it fixed. While some scientists are trying to figure out how to prevent bees from dying, others are thinking about how to replace them with tiny robots that will be able to take their jobs one day, Business Insider reports. More →
Rooftop solar panels are becoming such a powerful factor in the energy market that they now can push the price of electricity to negative territory in the sunniest regions of the world. This is possible because powering down fossil fuel energy generators during peak solar power periods would be more expensive than paying customers to use the electricity. More →
A research team at the University of Alberta may have made a breakthrough that ultimately leads to dramatic improvements in the batteries that power everything from laptops and smartphones to medical devices and tools. According to lead researcher Xinwei Cui, the lithium-ion battery technology his team is currently developing charges faster, lasts longer and outputs more power than current lithium-ion batteries. More →
Given how many times North Korea has threatened to nuke us, you may think that its vision of a perfect future involves a decapitated Statue of Liberty standing in front of a pile of smoldering ruins. However, The Independent reports that some North Korean architects were recently asked to come up with sketches for the cities of tomorrow and they’re actually very cool and interesting concepts of what what the future might (but probably won’t) have in store for us. More →
These days we tend to think of physicists as people who are seeking answers to the biggest questions about how the universe works, but it turns out they can solve some of the most vexing first-world problems too. ABC News reports that U.K. physicist Robert Matthews of Aston University in Birmingham has come up with an insanely simple way to make sure that your earbuds don’t get tangled: Just clip them together at key spots. More →
Facebook has a ready-made excuse for people who are upset that it conducted a massive psychological experiment on some 600,000 users — they all consented to it as part of Facebook’s user agreement, which says that the company may use their data for unspecified “research.” However, Forbes did a little digging and found that Facebook didn’t add “research” as an acceptable use for user data until months after it conducted its infamous experiment. More →
Surprise! Facebook’s gotten in hot water for doing something creepy. Over the weekend it was revealed that Facebook secretly conducted a massive psychological experiment on some 600,000 of its users by trying to see if it could manipulate their mood by showing them mostly either happy posts or sad posts on their feeds. More →
It’s always smart to expect the unexpected with Google, but a new report from Seth Weintraub at 9to5Google is the most unexpected Google I/O rumor we’ve ever heard. One of Weintraub’s sources, who apparently tipped him off to Google’s Glass skydiving stunt two years ago, says that there’s a chance that Google will take the wraps off of “some cutting-edge micro bots that can detect things like certain kinds of cancer” at I/O this year, although the source cautions that these nanobots are at least two years away from being ready to launch onto the market. More →
You may not have heard of them before, but I can tell you that Aerogels are cool. They are ultra-porous materials that are whipped up from silica gel or even aluminum oxide and may weigh just 15% more than air. Because they consist of so many microscopic air pockets, they are incredibly effective insulators. More →
Elon Musk doesn’t invest in many companies, but when he does, you should probably pay attention, especially when that company is an artificial intelligence company. In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC, Musk said that pretty much the only companies he invests in are SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity, and an artificial intelligence company called Vicarious. Why invest in artificial intelligence? More →
