While countries such as Japan have sophisticated earthquake warning systems, the fact is that many less-developed countries do not. In order to offer those nations some form of protection, a consortium of US research institutes has devised the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System, in which regular peoples’ smartphones could detect earthquakes and send warnings.

Led by scientists at the US Geological Survey, the researchers determined that “the GPS receivers in a smartphone can detect the permanent ground movement ( … Read More → "Crowdsourced smartphones may warn of earthquakes"

Octopuses are known to be very intelligent creatures, but one octopus in New Zealand is outclassing all of her peers by taking photographs of her aquarium visitors. World, meet Rambo, the very first trained octopus photographer, or octographer, as we now say.

Rambo’s newfound skills are the result of a partnership between Sony and the Sea Life Aquarium in Auckland. A Sony TX30 compact camera is attached … Read More → "This octopus is taking pictures of its visitors"

Back in 1988 [Ben Reardon] walked through the Japanese pavilion at the World Expo held in Brisbane, Australia. He saw a robot playing a classical guitar, and was in awe. Later in his life, he decided to learn guitar, and always thought back to that robot. After going to SIGGRAPH 2014 and being inspired by all the creative makers out there, he realized the technology was here — to build his own Robot Guitar.

He started small though — with … Read More → "Robotic player guitar rocks out on its own"

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has built a new needle-like robot that can descend through ice-fields to explore the sea floor beneath —and this footage from Antarctica is the first footage it’s returned.

The robot, known as, Icefin was sent through a 12-inch … Read More → "A new robot provided these unprecedented views beneath Antarctica"

A new Google patent, spotted by Quartz, details a new system that would keep track of your progress on whatever shows, books, and movies you wish and block posts posts it thinks might contain spoilers. It doesn’t completely obliterate the post but instead blurs the content with a pop-up warning. 

< … Read More → "Google patented a warning system to make social media spoiler-free"

Radio nerds of the 1940s predicted that “robot jockeys” would soon be the wave of the future. They weren’t wrong, but it did take a little longer than they expected.

These photos were taken at the Al Marmoom Camel Racetrack in Dubai last week. The robots are remote-controlled and have tiny whips. Adorable, Skynet-ready whips. 
via Read More → "Robot jockeys are a real thing, just as people of the 1940s predicted"

… Read More → "This is Edward Snowden’s advice to John Oliver for an unhackable password"

How many times do you need to snooze your alarm clock before you actually climb out of bed in the morning? Enough to be late for work every day, right? So while there are lots of crazy alarm clock designs out there that make it harder to snooze, the Chipper—which uses a sensor strip to only silence your alarm once you’re physically out … Read More → "Mattress sensor only silences your alarm clock when you get out of bed"

A stunning new cultivar of carnivorous plant is named for none other than H.R. Giger. ThisNepenthes (commonly known as the pitcher plant) was registered by photographer and horticulturist Matthew M. Kaelin, whose submission read in part, 

“I named this plant Nepenthes ‘H.R. Giger’ in October 2014 in memory of the recently passed Surrealist Artist from Switzerland who is perhaps best-known for creating the … Read More → "New carnivorous plant named for H.R. Giger"

… Read More → "Ride along with a wingsuit pilot as he demonstrates insane precision flight skills"