A new battery technology may pave the way for cheap, long-lived power storage that can quickly pump electricity into the grid to compensate for fluctuating renewables like wind and solar.

Developed by Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University in California, the battery’s key advantage is its electrodes, which can run for a thousand charge cycles without degrading. Battery electrodes typically degrade over time as ions in a battery … Read More → "Amazing new grid-scale battery has electrodes that don’t degrade"

Using a whopping nine-gigapixel image from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has created a catalogue of more than 84 million stars in the central parts of the Milky Way.

This gigantic dataset contains more than ten times more stars than previous studies and is a major step forward for the understanding of our home galaxy. The image gives viewers an incredible, zoomable view of the central part of our galaxy. It is so large that, if printed with the resolution of a typical book, it would be 9 … Read More → "84 million stars and counting"

To test the safety of a bridge, engineers rely on some pretty low-tech methods. One common way of doing it is to drag a chain across the bridge and listen in for the hollow-sounding spots. But, weirdly, an even-lower-tech method might speed things along: Have the rain do the work for you.

In the same way that structural deficiencies can be detected with something solid, two engineers from Brigham Young University–Brian Mazzeo and Spencer Guthrie–are listening in for the tell-tale acoustics by splashing bridges with water.
via Read More → "How the sound of rain helps engineers diagnose unsafe bridges"

Google and several automakers are creating a future in which we’ll cede control and let the robot drive. It’s a brave new autonomous world, with Google having logged over 300,000 miles in its fleet of autonomous hybrids, and Audi, BMW and General Motors all racing to bringing the technology to market. But with great changes comes greater regulation, and … Read More → "Feds try to stay ahead of the rise of the robo-car"

Outdoor clothing and gear retailer REI has created a tongue-in-cheek zombie survival infographic which provides a list of the essential tools you will need to “keep from becoming a snack for ravenous hordes of flesh-eating ghouls.” It also provides step-by-step illustrations that demonstrate “critical zombie survival skills” (for example, learn to neutralize a zombie with a cast-iron skillet) and a list of recommended zombie research materials (films/books/etc.).
via Laughing Squid</ … Read More → "REI’s essential tools & skills for surviving a zombie outbreak"

In the corner of Building 4, a massive complex at Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, the ghostly skeleton of a pickup truck endures a constant torment. The truck has no wheels, no bed, no seats, and no steering column—it’s just a vacant shell and a set of pedals. Inside, a pneumatic piston is positioned to press on the gas pedal over and over again, night and day. It’s a test of the whole accelerator assembly, but engineers are focused on one simple part—the hinge that connects the gas pedal to the … Read More → "Why things fail: from tires to helicopter blades, everything breaks eventually"

Want to know what your brain is up to? Soon, it may be as simple as slipping on a wireless headband, then accessing an app. That’s the idea behind Muse, a wearable device developed by Toronto-based tech company InteraXon. Essentially a lightweight portable EEG (electroencephalography) machine, it lets users monitor their neural activity in real time via their mobile device.

First of all, why would anyone want to keep tabs on … Read More → "Muse lets users monitor their brain waves on mobile devices"

Los Angeles-based photographer Michael Muller’s fascination with sharks started when he was a kid surfing Northern California waves amongst the plentiful great white’s. Since then he has photographed sharks around the world in places such as the Galapagos Islands, South Africa, Fiji and Guadalupe Island.

We asked the advertising and editorial photographer some questions about his hobby photographing one of the most feared animals on the planet.< … Read More → "Fearless photographer Michael Muller discusses swimming with sharks"

Here’s a cute way to gimmick a keyboard out of a grid of beercans, using Raspberry Pis and Arduinos.
via Boing Boing 

… Read More → "Keyboard made from beer-cans"

Another fun “What If” from xkcd:

A Jersey cow presents in the neighborhood of nearly two square meters of usable space to the sun if it stands right. (Cows would have to be trained to stand optimally, but we might not have too far to go; research suggests they already align themselves north-south.

< … Read More → "If cows could photosynthesize, how much less food would they need?"