Get ready, we’re going to Europa! NASA’s plan to send a spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s moon just passed a major hurdle. The mission, planned for the 2020s, now has NASA’s official stamp of approval and was given the green light to move from concept phase to development phase.

Formerly known as Europa Clipper, the mission will temporarily be referred to as the Europa … Read More → "NASA lays out its plans for a Europa orbiter"

The excess water in the atrium isn’t an accident, but the result of intentional design. It’s a preschool, so it could be only great fun to have puddles for water play right next to the classrooms.

Here is Dia-ichi Yochien, a new school in Kumamoto City, Japan. Architect Taku Hibino says that the open area can serve several purposes, including as a softball field during the summer and an ice skating rink during … Read More → "New preschool is designed to accumulate puddles whenever it rains"

Developed by Timothy Sun and Changxi Zheng at Columbia University, the software first requires you to have a 3D CG model of whatever object or shape you want to convert to a Rubik’s-like puzzle. The software allows the user to specify where and how the 3D model will be sliced up, which will end up defining how the parts in the final puzzle rotate against each other. The software will then automatically adjust the position of those suggested slices to … Read More → "This new software turns any object into a Rubik’s Cube puzzle"

The study, by assistant professor Jessica Gall Myrick, surveyed almost 7,000 people about their viewing of cat videos and how it affects their moods. It was published in the latest issue of Computers in Human Behavior.

Participants in Myrick’s study reported:

They were more energetic and felt more positive after watching cat-related online media than before.
They had fewer negative emotions, such as anxiety, annoyance and sadness, after watching cat-related online media than … Read More → "Watching cat videos increases energy, positive emotions"

The new 3D printing technique can actually create patterns as small as 0.001-millimeters in size. For comparison, a red blood cell measures in at 0.006 to 0.008-millimeters, so it’s actually capable of creating shapes too small for the naked human eye to see.

An obvious application of the new technology would be to further refine the 3D printing process to the point where … Read More → "A new high-res 3D printer can print objects smaller than blood cells"

Ruby was a brightly colored lamb with transparent skin. She carried jellyfish DNA and belonged to “Green Sheep,” a research project in France studying the effects of implants on humans. She was then maliciously sold to a slaughterhouse along with non-GMO sheep by disgruntled employees of the project. She has since been sold as food to unsuspecting diners.

“It was then sold by the slaughterhouse … Read More → "Experimental fluorescent lamb with jellyfish DNA unintentionally eaten"

Scientists keep saying they’ll put tiny robots into our bodies to cure disease, perhaps not realizing we may not be down with that. But the field is progressing rapidly, and researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) have now found an artful way to propel such ‘bots. They created a “nanoswimmer” the width of a silk fiber, made of several links of polymer … Read More → "Swimming nanobots target cancer cells inside your body"

Samsung wants to put more TVs on the road. Trying to pass a semi-truck on a two-way, one-lane road can easily lead to a deadly head-on collision, since it’s almost impossible to see around a semi without inching out into the opposite lane. Samsung’s Safety Truck would make drivers safer by allowing them to see past tall trucks through a television attached to the back of the semi. 

Read More → "A giant TV on the back of semi trucks could make passing safer"

Researchers at Indiana University have developed an automated system for checking claims made online. And while it’s not the first such system, it’s definitely a sign that automated fact-checking might soon become mainstream.

The new study published today, Computational Fact Checking From Knowledge Networks, used an algorithm that was able to determine the accuracy of simple facts. And it performed just as well as humans.
via < … Read More → "Robot fact-checkers are coming soon"

Since the 1200s, the University of Cambridge in the UK has been one of the greatest centers for learning and scholarly research in the world. So it’s no surprise that the revered institution is now hiring a professor of Lego.

The Lego Foundation donated £1.5 million ($2.3 million USD) to the university to build a center dedicated to research in “play in education, development, and learning.” The open professorial position will lead the institute.
via < … Read More → "University of Cambridge is hiring a Professor of Lego"