To get up to top speed, bullet trains have to pull a huge amount of electrical current from the grid. typically through unsightly overhead power lines. But this newly debuted train prototype from South Korea sucks up electricity invisibly from the tracks below.

Developed through a collaboration of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology … Read More → "South Korea’s magnet-powered bullet train has taken its first ride"

New Mexico “eco-artist” Basia Irland creates and distributes “ice books,” ice sculptures made of frozen river water with seeds embedded inside, which are placed into bodies of water throughout the world, distributing the material as the ice melts away.

Receding/Reseeding emphasizes the necessity of communal effort and scientific knowledge to deal with the complex issues of climate disruption and watershed restoration by releasing seed-laden … Read More → "‘Ice Books’, book-shaped ice sculptures with embedded seeds that disperse into rivers"

Here’s a larger size, and a zoomable 3.2 gigapixel version, which you really have to see to appreciate the whole thing.

About the project:

For Earth Day this year, NASA invited people around the world to step outside to take … Read More → "NASA releases ‘Global Selfie’"

What if restoration didn’t require retouching a single element of the artist’s original paint strokes and carvings? MIT’s Media Lab, in partnership with Swiss researchers and the Harvard Art Museums, found a perfect art restoration situation that could benefit from a no-touch solution: the university’s long-hidden murals made by modern art legend Mark Rothko.

In a report from NPR affiliate WBUR, museum and MIT … Read More → "Famously damaged Rothko murals restored with light projection"

As California law is currently written, you probably would be responsible. But that’s changing. Madrigal points to Senate Bill 1298, which requires California to “adopt regulations governing the testing and use of autonomous vehicles on public roadways no later than January 1, 2015.”

But if you ask Google, the ticket should go to them.

From The Atlantic:

“What we’ve been saying to the folks in the DMV, even … Read More → "If your self-driving car gets a ticket, should Google play?"

This is a great example of using a thermoelectric generator for a project. [Joohansson] made both a functional, and aesthetically beautiful fan using components from a computer.

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs for high temperatures, and cheaper TECs for lower temperatures) are also called peltier elements, which look like small square pieces of ceramic with two wires sticking out of them. If you supply power to it, one side will become hot, and the … Read More → "Candle powered fan keeps you cool using a thermoelectric generator"

Since the first Mariner probes reached the Red Planet in the 1960s, it’s become clear just how very alien Mars is and how hard it is to find parallel examples of possible Martian life on Earth. However, it’s not impossible. Rebecca Mickol, a doctoral student in space and planetary sciences at the University of Arkansas, has discovered that two species of methane-producing bacteria can live in the harsh conditions on … Read More → "Research suggests Earth microbes could survive on Mars"

Google’s ad ambitious may reach further than you think. In a newly revealed letter to the SEC, the company said it could someday be serving ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities,” as part of a larger point about breaking out mobile ad revenue. As the definition of “mobile” expands, the company … Read More → "Google wants to serve ads on ‘refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats’"

On Tuesday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) officially approved rules to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads. The rules will take effect September 16, 2014…

According to the adopted regulatory text that the California DMV posted on Tuesday, a manufacturer which wants to test autonomous vehicles has to apply for a testing permit, … Read More → "California approves test of self-driving cars on public roads"

One of the quirks of sea turtles, along with many other reptiles, is that temperature determines the sex of their offspring. At around 84.2 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) the ratio of males to females is fairly even, but as temperature rises, more and more hatchlings end up as females. Researchers from Swansea University in Wales calculated how that will change … Read More → "Global warming could make male sea turtles disappear"