The key is the existence of lunar lava tubes, which are large, hollow tunnels thought to have formed during long-ago volcanic eruptions. And a new theoretical study from a team at Purdue University is not only saying that they exist, but they’re large enough to hold entire cities. Like those on Earth, lunar lava tubes are thought to form when lava flows to the surface, … Read More → "Huge tubes under the moon’s surface could hold entire cities"

About this time every year, alarmingly close to April 1, German automation company Festo announces its newest animal-inspired robots. Last year it was a kangaroo (we had to double check that it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke), and before that, a seagull, dragonfly, and floating air jellies, among other cool things. For 2015, Festo is introducing two new insectoid robots: cooperative ants and swarming butterflies.

< … Read More → "Festo’s fantastical insectoid robots include bionic ants and butterflies"

Engineers have experimented with using sonic waves to douse flames for years—but it took a pair of students to turn the concept into an affordable, hand-held device.

Viet Tran and Seth Robertson, who are both students at George Mason University, spent $600 of their own … Read More → "This speaker blows out fires instantly with bass"

By cladding a living cell with graphene quantum dots, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) claim to have created a nanoscale biomicrorobot (or cytobot) that responds electrically to changes in its environment. This work promises to lay the foundations for future generations of bio-derived nanobots, biomicrorobotic-mechanisms, and micromechanical actuation for a wide range of applications.

The UIC team has dubbed its creation NERD (short for Nano-Electro-Robotic Device). The … Read More → "Robobug: Scientists clad bacterium with graphene to make a working cytobot"

There was no tape draped across a finish line, but NASA is celebrating a win. The agency’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity completed its first Red Planet marathon Tuesday — 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers) – with a finish time of roughly 11 years and two months.

“This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world,” said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA’s Jet … Read More → "NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover finishes marathon, clocks in at just over 11 years"

The makers of the augmented reality app Pivot want to create a time portal—on your phone.

The app aims to bring glimpses of history to your smartphone screen, using images tied to wherever you happen to be. Users receive notifications when they’re near a “pivot” point; raising the phone brings up an image of that place as it appeared from … Read More → "Clever app reveals a snapshot of your location—in the past"

When it rains in Seattle, the local artists make the best of the lousy weather and turn it into cool street art. Artist Peregrine Church—with the help of Xack Fischer and Forest Tresside—uses stencils and waterproof spray to create secret artwork on sidewalks; all it takes is some rain for the images to appear. 

As Tanvi Misra wrote in CityLab, Church wanted to … Read More → "Art that only appears when it rains"

Back in 2014 we first posted about the charming cross stitch embroideries of dangerous microbes and viruses created by artist Alicia Watkins. In the intervening months Watkins has created quite a few more quaint pathogens, including malaria protozoa and anthrax bacterium.
via Laughing Squid

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A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hypothesizes that when Jupiter rocked up to our then-infant solar system, it obliterated the incumbent planes, and gave us a lot of apparent quirks of our solar system. Konstantin Batygin and Gregory Laughlin’s study highlights some curious parts to our galactic home that aren’t typically found in other solar systems – particular the lack of planets between Mercury and the Sun … Read More → "Study says early version of our solar system was ruined by Jupiter"

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected yet another ingredient for life on Mars: nitrogen that would have been usable by living organisms. Nitrogen is required for all life on Earth, but it has to be in a certain “fixed” state before it’s accessible to many forms of life, like plants. That’s the way researchers found it in samples collected on Mars. The finding … Read More → "Curiosity rover finds new signs that Mars could have supported life"