The RoBoHon website describes the smartphone as “a phone you have never seen before. A phone in human shape. A phone that you feel like talking to. A phone that also wants to know you.” The device has all the features that you expect from a smartphone in 2015, including email, a front-facing camera for selfies, and Siri-like assistant software that can store and find information. But it’ … Read More → "The cute, dancing robot smartphone of the near future"

What if you could walk in a store, jog on a treadmill, and walk out with a pair of shoes that are custom manufactured for your feet and gait? That’s exactly what Adidas wants to do with its Futurecraft 3D project. And unlike most of the trash produced by 3D printing, the shoes look pretty awesome.

Read More → "Adidas wants to 3D-print running shoes that perfectly fit your feet"

Before the study, approximately half of the participants were instructed to email friends, family, or co-workers, and ask them to send in examples of different times they’d seen the participant at their best. When the participants arrived to begin the experiment, researchers gave them the letters their loved ones had written. Meanwhile, the other half were given no special encouragement…

Researchers found that those who received the letters performed significantly better on the tests … Read More → "New study finds a little encouragement from friends and family goes a long way"

NASA may believe that it’ll be the first to land on Mars, but don’t tell that to Las Vegas betting houses. Popular Mechanics has asked Docsports’ Raphael Esparza to set odds for the first organization to reach Mars, and he believes that SpaceX stands a much better chance of reaching the Red Planet (5 to 1) than anyone else, including NASA (80 to 1). To put it bluntly, SpaceX has the money … Read More → "Las Vegas bets that SpaceX will make it to Mars before NASA"

Space fans, rejoice: today, just about every image captured by Apollo astronauts on lunar missions is now on the Project Apollo Archive Flickr account. There are some 8,400 photographs in all at a resolution of 1800 dpi, and they’re sorted by the roll of film they were on.

The Project Apollo Archive is also on Facebook. They’ll be showcasing new renderings of some of the best imagery, and other rare images … Read More → "Over 8,400 NASA Apollo moon mission photos just landed online, in high-resolution"

Virtual reality isn’t just helping scientists understand and treat fellow humans — it’s helping them make sense of their four-legged friends, too. Researchers have built a virtual maze that convinces mice they’re running through hallways when they’re really running on a ball. The invention makes it possible to keep the rodent’s head still and study how its brain works while it’s navigating. That’s important when you can usually collect only limited data … Read More → "Virtual reality for mice teaches scientists about navigation"

7. LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY

This Arctic town, with a population of some 2000 people, is the world’s northernmost settlement, and is mostly a mining town. In 1950, realizing that bodies in the local cemetery were not decomposing, the town stopped allowing new burials. The bodies hidden under the permafrost are so intact that they have actually allowed scientists to study the Spanish flu … Read More → "7 places where dying is not allowed"

Scientists Barna Páll-Gergely and Takahiro Asami from Shinshu University, Matsumoto, Japan, András Hunyadi from Budapest, Hungary, Adrienne Jochum from the University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland havediscovered seven new species of land snails, including one so small that it fits inside the eye of a sewing needle. These microsnails were gathered through soil samples from the Guangxi … Read More → "Scientists discover a microsnail so small that it fits inside the eye of a sewing needle"

This past Monday, NASA announced that they’ve found definitive evidence of liquid water on Mars. The Curiosity rover is currently about 30 miles away from a location where NASA suspects water may flow. While obtaining a physical sample would revolutionize science, it’s forbidden by international law. 

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prevents every nation on Earth from sending a … Read More → "Why the Curiosity rover is forbidden from collecting water on Mars"

A new Disney Research project can make coloring books more exciting for those of us with limited art skills. The team has built an interactive Android and iOS coloring book app using the Unity game engine that can take a colored drawing and turn it into an augmented reality object on screen — and, yes, as you can see above, it retains the original artwork’s texture. In fact, the app can generate parts of the object in … Read More → "Disney Research app turns colored drawings into 3D characters"