Having just completed the tortuous 48-hour journey from the South Pole to the US west coast, John Priscu is suffering from more than his fair share of jet lag. But his tiredness can’t mask the excitement in his voice. After weeks of intense field work in Antarctica, he and his team have become the first to find life in a lake trapped under the frozen continent’s ice sheet.

“Lake Whillans … Read More → "Lake-drilling team discovers life under the ice in Antarctica"

Bicycle commuting is one of those things that sounds like a universally great idea up until you actually try it. Nothing will start the day off on the wrong foot like showing up 20 minutes late (you may not be in as good of shape as you thought), dripping in sweat and pothole water. But, hey, at least you get to brag about being green. The Henty Wingman aims to make the practice of bicycle commuting as … Read More → "Wingman bag keeps bike commuters’ work clothes neat and wrinkle-free"

Over the weekend, NASA’s Curiosity rover successfully drilled into the surface of Mars and collected its first sample from the interior of a rock. With this incredible interactive panorama, you can stand right beside the rover and see both its amazing environment and the fruits of its labor (go into full screen for best results).
via Read More → "Stand on Mars next to the Curiosity Rover with this incredible panorama"

Panasonic has developed a new way to drastically increase the color and light sensitivity of digital cameras including those used in smartphones.

The Osaka-based electronics manufacturer said Monday its method replaces the color filter arrays widely used in such devices to capture individual colors, using tiny prism-like color splitters instead. The company said the new method can double the color sensitivity of image sensors, leading to far brighter images under the same lighting conditions or similar image quality at half the light.
via IT World</ … Read More → "Panasonic doubles color sensitivity of digital camera sensors"

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and the world’s top manufacturer of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems), and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) Faculty of Science have announced that a sophisticated bird-tracking system developed by the university is using advanced MEMS sensing technology from ST.

Weighing as little as a 20 euro cent coin or a US quarter and smaller than a car key so as not to impede the birds’ flight, the tracking systems are sophisticated data loggers that can be attached to the back of … Read More → "STMicroelectronics and University of Amsterdam Faculty of Science cooperate to soar with birds"

At the heart of computing are tiny crystals that transmit and store digital information’s ones and zeroes. Today these are hard and brittle materials. But cheap, flexible, nontoxic organic molecules may play a role in the future of hardware.

A team led by the University of Washington in Seattle and the Southeast University in China discovered a molecule that shows promise as an organic alternative to … Read More → "Organic ferroelectric molecule shows promise for memory chips, sensors"

No handlebars, no steering wheel, no need for any of that! Control your SBU with natural leaning motions (similar to the Segway) and experience a new way to travel. Lean forward to go, lean back to slow down/stop.

More info here at Focus Designs 

There might have been a time when I would have been surprised to hear that someone was using 3D printers to make a car. But, well, this is 2013.

The car in this case is the Urbee, a tiny three-wheeled economy car with an electric motor, internal combustion engine, and 3D-printed frame. Designed by the Manitoba-based Kor EcoLogic , the Urbee was manufactured using a Stratasys Fortus printer, which is able to cut … Read More → "Here come the 3D printed cars, courtesy of Canada"

Teamwork is a new concept in the field of robotics, but the idea of creating hundreds of cheap disposable robots that work together to complete a greater task has a lot of promise. So far swarm bots—as they’ve come to be known—have successfully tackled problems on land and in the air. But now DARPA wants them teaming up on oceans, lakes, and rivers too.
via Gizmodo

Read More → "Floating swarm bots form emergency bridges, runways, and islands"

We know astronauts have a some down time while living and working on the International Space Station. Whether it’s building Lego models or playing digeridoo on the house vacuum cleaner, they have hobbies. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s hobby just happens to be writing tunes with Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies. The duo recorded the song together while Hadfield soared above Earth looking out from … Read More → "Astronaut, singer perform first space/Earth duet"