Even though the IQ tests are the most basic ones, the news that an artificial brain can tackle them might give some people pause. Does this signal the rise of the machines? The neuroscientists working on the large-scale model simulation of the brain say this version is still pretty simple compared to the real deal, but it is valuable in helping us see and understand how our brains developed over time.</ … Read More → "World’s most complex artificial brain ever passes IQ tests"

The idea of transformers is cool even when they just turn from one thing to another, so how much cooler would they be if they could form into anything? That’s the goal MIT aims to achieve with their tiny reconfigurable chain links that could be the Swiss Army knife of robotics.
via Gizmodo

< … Read More → "MIT’s reconfigurable robots are tiny transformers that will turn into anything"

Nothing is any good if other people like it. We’ve just proven it mathematically.
via Diesel Sweeties

Get yours here

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve heard the rumor that existence as we know it will come to an end in less than three weeks. So says those who ascribe to the “Mayans predicted the end of the world” theory, which states that a cataclysmic event will happen on December 21. NASA disagrees, however, and has been vocal … Read More → "NASA says the world won’t end in December"

On school-day mornings, I walk my grade-school-age son 400 meters down the hill to the bus stop. Last winter, I fantasized about sitting at my computer while a camera-equipped drone followed him overhead.?

So this year, I set out to build one. For the basic airframe, I selected a quadcopter design for its maneuverability and ability to hover. Construction was straightforward: You can buy a quadcopter kit with all the pieces or, as I … Read More → "Father builds child-tracking quadcopter to accompany his kid to the bus stop"

Atari’s celebrating 40 years of arcade classic Pong today by releasing … another version of Pong. Pong World is being dubbed “the first-ever official new Pong game on iOS” (despite our search of the App Store dictating the contrary), but more importantly, it’s totally free and it’s already available on the iOS App Store(see … Read More → "Atari celebrates 40 years of Pong with new, free iOS Pong game, custom portable Xbox 360"

Researchers based at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed the world’s first thought-controlled, fully implantable robotic arm, which uses an amputee’s own nerves and remaining muscles to afford a much more intuitive level of control than previously possible. Initial operations on patients are scheduled to take place during the Northern Hemisphere’s upcoming winter.

Prosthetic limbs which are controlled … Read More → "Mind-controlled permanently-attached prosthetic arm could revolutionize prosthetics"

Seen here looking suspiciously like a hair under a microscope, scientists have managed to capture an image of DNA’s double helix structure for the first time, officially ending the era of me being able to claim DNA is actually shaped like little rainbows. Truly a sad day.
via Geekologie

These are some shots of a shark breaching the water to catch a seal snapped off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa by photographer Dana Allen.
via Geekologie

Click here to see the rest& … Read More → "Amazing photographs of a breaching, seal-eating shark"

For the first time, scientists have confirmed that the planet Mercury holds at least 100 billion tons of water ice as well as organic material in permanently shadowed craters at its north pole.

The findings come from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which has been in orbit around the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet since 2011. Researchers have suspected that ice could exist in such craters since 1992, when Earth-based radar … Read More → "Mercury has water!"