Stepping into the void is Terrafugia, which bills itself as a “the flying car company.” It has announced an upcoming model called the “Transition,” which sports foldable wings that let the vehicle go from car to plane in about 20 seconds with the flip of a switch. Talk about a convertible.

To be frank, the upcoming Terrafugia Transition is not quite the flying Jetsons-esque car of your dreams.  The Terrafugia Transition … Read More → "Flying cars are coming, but they aren’t quite the ones we’ve dreamed about"

Ford has announced a new “pre-collision assist” system that takes advantage of data from radar and cameras to actively detect pedestrians and automatically apply the brakes to avoid or at least reduce the severity of accidents.

A windshield-mounted camera and radar located near the bumper scan the roadway and provide warnings to the driver if a collision risk is detected, and if the driver fails to respond promptly enough, the system can automatically brake, applying full … Read More → "Future Fords will brake for pedestrians automatically"

After decades of repeated reinvention, the silicon transistor is starting to show its age, and the industry is hunting for alternatives. One option involves a new way of manipulating the properties of a material that the computer industry already uses. If it works, it would lead to computer processors that are not only more energy-efficient but also capable of both computation and memory storage at once.

With some … Read More → "Materials trick might help move computers beyond silicon"

Scientists have uncovered what they believe is the oldest human DNA sample ever found, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery of how humans spread out over the planet. Phys.org reports that DNA came from a Homo Sapiens femur bone that was found accidentally on the bank of a west Siberian River in 2008; it is believed to have belonged to a man who died about 45,000 years ago. The DNA found … Read More → "Scientists have uncovered the oldest human DNA sample ever found"

Our reliance on air conditioning, however magical an innovation, has become a serious environmental burden. Which is why researchers in Barcelona designed a material they say can naturally cool rooms by about 5 degrees Celsius, using a moisture-absorbing polymer that “sweats” much like our own body…

At the core of the idea are hydrogels, magic little boba-like polymers that can expand up to 400 percent when absorbing any moisture … Read More → "Hydroceramic walls could cool buildings by sweating like human skin"

Flu is most dangerous to the most vulnerable—small children, the elderly, the immuno-compromised—and every responsible adult should get a flu shot to help keep the germ from spreading. Typically, this involves a trip to the doctor or a local drug store. But on Thursday, in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C., there was another option that didn’t even involve leaving the house: Uber.

At midday in these … Read More → "Uber delivers flu shots: How on-demand tech can do good"

For Chocolate Week, Caroline McCall, a wardrobe designer for Downton Abbey, made this Art Deco-inspired dress. It took 3 months and 132 pounds of chocolate, a few of which presumably did not make it into the actual dress but were judiciously expended in the creative process.
via Neatorama

Read More → "This dress Is made of chocolate"

But Campbell wants to change this. He’s the co-founder and CEO of MotionSavvy, an Alameda, California-based startup that’s developing a case for tablet computers that can serve as a virtual interpreter for the deaf. Known as UNI, the case uses gesture recognition technology developed by Leap Motion to translate sign language into audible speech. It then merges this with voice recognition technology to convert spoken word … Read More → "New tablet case recognizes sign language and translates it into text"

via xkcd