Each of the four individual telescopes in the ESA’s Very Large Telescope are, by themselves, very capable. But by working together, they’re supposed to be able to link up to effectively form one single massive telescope, and for the first time, this has actually worked.

The European Southern Observatory has, in the past, linked the two farthest apart telescopes in the VLT array together to form a virtual telescope with a … Read More → "With their powers combined, four VLT telescopes form 130m mirror"

Steve Appleton — the chairman and CEO of memory and semiconductor manufacturer Micron — died on Friday after a small plane crash in Boise, Idaho, near the company’s headquarters. He was 51.
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If we have learned anything from this week’s IPO announcement, it’s that it’s good to bet on Facebook.

Since the company announced its decision to go public on Wednesday, Facebook employees and early investors must be bouncing off the walls over staggering reported earnings. (Mark Zuckerberg’s reported pull? $28.4 billion with a B.) But our favorite member of the Facebook IPO instant millionaire … Read More → "David Choe, Graffiti Artist, Set To Make $200 Million In Facebook IPO"

Plenty of geeks are already obsessed with self-tracking, from monitoring sleep rhythms to graphing caffeine intake versus productivity. Now, the Department of Defense’s far-out research agency is after the ultimate kind of Quantified Self: Soldiers with implanted body sensors that keep intimate tabs on their health, around the clock.

In a new call for research, Darpa is asking for proposals to devise prototype implantable biosensors. Once inserted under a soldier’s skin, Darpa wants the sensors to provide real-time, accurate measurements of “DoD-relevant biomarkers” … Read More → "Darpa implants could track your stress level 24/7"

NASA’s doing a good job of keeping the International Space Station well-stocked with robots just in case there’s a surprise alien invasion. Robonaut 2 is up there, along with a pack/fleet/swarm/assemblage of SPHERES robots. NASA’s Ames Research Center, Johnson Space Center, and MIT have put together a little vid to keep us all up to date with their on-orbit robot happenings and how they plan to give Robonaut his own personal spaceship rear-attachment.
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What if generating solar energy at home required little more than mixing some grass clippings with inexpensive chemicals? That’s exactly what MIT researcher Andreas Mershin has found to be the case. The scientist says creating a solar cell could be as easy as mixing any green organic material (grass clippings, agricultural waste) with a bag of custom chemicals and painting the mixture on a roof. Once the efficiency of Mershin’s system … Read More → "MIT researchers find a way to make solar panels from grass clippings"

Super Bowl weekend is upon us, and this year, the big game is going to be streamed live online for the very first time. Who wants to see the game between the Giants and the Patriots on a tiny laptop screen, you might ask? Cord cutters and other folks without cable or even a TV set for one, but the live stream also comes with some extra perks that the TV broadcast won’t offer: Viewers will be able to select from different camera angles, pause the game and other fun stuff.
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The Infinity Puzzle sounds like one of those wooden gadgets that you can play with for a few minutes before wanting to hurl it across the room in frustration, but the infinity puzzle of this book’s title actually refers to a mathematical quandary that stumped particle physicists for the first half of this century. The story of how physics moved beyond this roadblock has now … Read More → "Book review: The Infinity Puzzle"

These Dexim Visible Green illuminated charging cables that use electroluminescent (EL) technology to display the current flow from the power socket to your device. They function like any other charging cable, but they do it with such pizzazz that you (and by “you,” I mean “me”) can’t help but feel energized watching them. Suddenly, charging a smartphone feels like going to a rave.
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