A group of Russian scientists have been trapped for two weeks by polar bears at an Arctic island weather station. The scientists face a month-long wait for a rescue.

Five scientists based at a weather station on Troynoy Island in the Kara sea north of Siberia were surrounded by the group of 10 adults and cubs about two weeks ago, Russian news agency TASS reported … Read More → "Polar bears hold Russian scientists hostage on tiny Arctic island"

Planting trees in remote forest locations is a slow, laborious process that still relies on humans with shovels to do all the work. DroneSeed, a company based in the Pacific Northwest, wants to drastically modernize that process by employing squadrons of drones to plant seeds, spray for invasive species, and monitor the tree growth process.
via New Atlas

</ … Read More → "Tree-planting drones to speed up reforestation efforts"

Monkeys can now type at a rate of 12 words per minute on a computer using only their minds, according to new research from Stanford University. The scientists hope that this technology might one day help severely paralyzed patients communicate — and they’re currently recruiting patients for a clinical trial to test it out. 

Read More → "Monkeys ‘typed’ Shakespeare with their minds, scientists say"

Every month, we see the same headlines: the hottest May, June, July on record. Altogether, 2016 is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded. Those who argue against man-made climate change say that the earth has gone through temperature changes before. But it was never like this. Randall Munroe charted the earth’s temperature changes over the last 22,000 years. The change is gradual for … Read More → "Earth’s temperature timeline"

Archaeologist Cédric Gobeil discusses how he used modern imaging technology to find dozens of animals tattooed on the mummy of an Egyptian woman, probably a priestess of Hathor. She also had a hieroglyphic neck tattoo that is pretty creepy-looking 3,300 years later.
via Boing Boing

Japan is leading the way once again in making childhood dreams a reality with a human-piloted, walking robot.

The Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute has built a 4-metre (13-foot) high, 300-kilogram (660-pound) prototype that’s guided from inside its chest cavity. The Hajime 43, shown off this summer on YouTube, can walk though currently at a lumbering pace. The feat itself looks rather promising as the company seeks to up the robot’s size.
via < … Read More → "Crawl into a 13-foot robot’s chest and control it from inside"

No matter how illegible your personal handwriting scrawl may be, a computer at University College London’s Visual Computing lab can probably read it. What’s more, it could mimic it. My Text in Your Handwriting, an algorithm created by university researchers, can recreate idiosyncratic handwriting patterns with a quick analysis, Smithsonian magazine reports.
via Read More → "A computer can replicate individual handwriting with impressive accuracy"

This is a composite comparing the size of everyone’s favorite ex-planet Pluto to the size of Australia. As you can see, Pluto is pretty small. Or Australia is pretty big.
via Geekologie

Continue … Read More → "The size of Pluto compared to Australia"

Dogs really can understand what we’re saying to them, according to a new study that seems to confirm the dearest wish of many a dog-lover. And yes, that does mean if you say a mean thing to a dog in a friendly tone, the dog knows.

Researchers led by Attila Andics at Hungary’s Eö … Read More → "You can’t trick your dog by being mean in a happy voice (they can tell)"

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at the Library of Congress houses the largest braille music collection on earth. The institution’s inventory of over 30,000 musical transcriptions cover a variety of genres, all written in the raised dot system invented by Louis Braille. It’s the only collection in the NLS that hasn’t been fully digitized, and now there’s a massive … Read More → "The Library of Congress is digitizing its Braille music collection"