Scientists have announced the discovery of 15 partial skeletons belonging to what is thought to be a previously unknown species of ancient human. The remains were recovered from the Rising Star cave in South Africa by a team female scientist-climbers specially selected to fit through a narrow, vertical shaft (just 8 inches wide at points) and reach the chamber of fossils below.

More than 1,500 fragments of bones were … Read More → "New species of ancient human discovered in South African cave"

The TSA is learning a basic lesson of physical security in the age of 3-D printing: If you have sensitive keys—say, a set of master keys that can open locks you’ve asked millions of Americans to use—don’t post pictures of them on the Internet.

A group of lock-picking and security enthusiasts drove that lesson home Wednesday by publishing a set of CAD files to … Read More → "Lockpickers 3-D print TSA master luggage keys from leaked photos"

Stockholmståg has found a way to use that data to also predict the ripple effect a single delay has on its entire system. An accident somewhere along its route means a train will be delayed before it rolls into the next station. But that also affects the train behind it, and the train behind it, and so forth. Eventually a single incident can throw off the scheduling of an entire commuter system, even if … Read More → "A new algorithm can predict subway delays two hours before they happen"

Anyone who’s had to take on job responsibilities from someone who left the company months ago will appreciate this robotic system designed with the International Space Station (ISS) in mind. With the design challenge of retaining important experiential information between rotating crews of astronauts, French researchers used the popular Nao robot to form an “autobiographical memory” of human interactions and pass on the know-how to new crew members.
via Read More → "“Autobiographical memory” lets robots act as knowledge go-betweens for ISS crews"

The Kawah Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, is home to the Blue Fire Crater, a destination famous for its luminous blue lava flows.

But that’s not lava. It’s flame. The phenomenon is caused by molten sulfur and flaming sulfuric gases, which are released by fumaroles near the base of the volcano’s crater. Photographer Reuben Wu recently made the almost three-hour trek— … Read More → "See the Indonesian volcano with neon blue sulfur flows"

We’ve previously heard about wound dressings that kill bacteria, but now researchers at Britain’s Swinburne University of Technology are taking a different approach. They’re creating a dressing material that attracts bacteria out from within the wound, so that the material and the microbes can then just be pulled off and discarded.

Led by PhD candidate Martina Abrigo, the Swinburne team started by electrospinning polystyrene fibers that were up to 100 times thinner than … Read More → "Nanomesh dressings may draw bacteria from chronic wounds"

You’d think that self-driving cars would be most vulnerable to remote hacks, but the biggest danger may come from someone nearby with a handful of cheap electronics. Security researcher Jonathan Petit has determined that you can fool LIDAR (the laser ranging common on autonomous vehicles) by sending “echoes” of fake cars and other objects through laser pulses. All you need is … Read More → "Self-driving cars can be fooled by fake signals"

Before the Internet of Things arrived bike lights had just one job to do, but now it seems that multi-tasking is mandatory. The Fast bike light is looking to meet this brief by incorporating accident alerts and anti-theft functionality, along with some nifty optical effects.

The Fast looks pretty much like your standard bike tail light, but it’s equipped with 8 RGB LEDs, Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity and ambient light and motion sensors. … Read More → "Bike tail light sends alerts in case of theft or crash"

A British man, YouTuber “gasturbine101,” has posted a video of the first test flight for his “Swarm Manned Aerial Vehicle Multirotor Super Drone,” a “pentacontakaitetracopter” (aka a multirotor with 54 blades). The flight for this over-the-top flying vehicle lasted for about ten minutes and it looks like most of the time he was only about 4′ to 6′ off the ground. At one point he guns it to maybe 20′(?), but is only there … Read More → "Man builds crazed 54-rotor flying vehicle"

As demonstrated by the bumpy landing of ESA’s Philae lander on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, exploring comets, asteroids, and small moons can be difficult due to their low gravity. Not only can landing on one be like trying to alight on a trampoline, but roving around their surfaces is next to impossible because the negligible gravity offers practically no traction. To overcome this, a team of engineers is developing Hedgehog, a completely symmetrical … Read More → "Spiky Hedgehog robots to hop around asteroids and comets"