NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the most complete digital topographic map of Earth on Monday, produced with detailed measurements from NASA’s Terra spacecraft.

The map, known as a global digital elevation model, was created from images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, instrument aboard Terra. So-called stereo-pair images are produced by merging two slightly offset two-dimensional images to create the three-dimensional effect of depth. The first version of the map was released by NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) … Read More → "Most complete digital topographic map of Earth released"

On Thursday night at the Santa Clara Convention Center in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, more than 1400 people attended the Tech Awards, a gala that celebrated not companies or products, but rather people and organizations that are using technology to make the world a better place. In their eleventh year, the awards are a program of San Jose, California’s Tech Museum and are presented by semiconductor manufacturing equipment giant Applied Materials in association with Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society. via Read More → "Meet the winners of this year’s Tech Humanitarian Awards"

From Jolie O’Dell at Venture Beat:

Herscher is a tech CEO (FirstRain is her company); she and I first came into contact on Twitter when I was bemoaning the state of female entrepreneurship. I thought lady founders were wasting their talents on dating- and fashion-related startups, while Herscher contended that more women founders was better than the alternative, regardless of the startup’s vertical.

While Penny and I agree to disagree on the kinds of startups women (and men, too) should be focusing their attention on, she brings a fresh perspective … Read More → "Why women should pick science & math degrees over liberal arts"

Europe’s first satellite-navigation spacecraft have been sent into orbit.

The two Galileo satellites were launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from its new base in French Guiana at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT; 11:30 BST).

The European Commission (EC) is investing billions of euros in its own version of the American GPS system.

It expects Galileo to bring significant returns to EU nations in the form of new businesses that can exploit precise space-borne timing and location data. via Read More → "Europe’s first Galileo satellites lift off"

Preliminary findings from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have uncovered experimental evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. Data from the CMS experiment is showing significant excesses of particles known as leptons being created in triplets, a result that could be interpreted as evidence for a theory called supersymmetry.

The findings, presented during a talk Oct. 19 at a conference dedicated to LHC searches for new physics, have piqued the interest … Read More → "Hints of new physics crop up at Large Hadron Collider"

Launching satellites (or anything else) into space is really, really expensive. We’re talking upwards of $10,000 per pound to geosynchronous orbit. DARPA is looking to make the deployment of new satellites much, much cheaper, by simply recycling the satellites that are up there already using an unmanned platform that can harvest them for parts. via Dvice

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… Read More → "DARPA spacecraft could rip up dead satellites, make new ones"

There’s nothing better than taking off on a bike with your favorite music in tow – and now a group of dutch designers have teamed up to create an amazing record-playing bicycle! Dubbed Feats Per Minute (a pun on ‘fiets’ – the dutch word for bicycle), the bike is outfitted with a set of wheel-mounted turntables that play music as you pedal. via Read More → "Amazing record-playing bicycle blasts music as you pedal"

Really, why stop at umpires? I’ll bet a good X-prize or DARPA-style challenge could give us robot batters that could beat their human counterparts.

The rest of the team is left as an exercise for the engineering student. Please have your initial designs ready for class Monday morning.

Eclipse Aerospace says it will restart production of one of the most controversial general aviation airplanes in history. The six-seat jet that was originally designed to form the backbone of an air taxi fleet whisking passengers around the country. With new owners, the new Eclipse 550 is expected to be flying again sometime in 2013 after the company was purchased for pennies on the dollar.

A decade ago the Eclipse 500 was still a year away from its first flight, but … Read More → "Once fabled Eclipse Jet to fly again"

Andy Rubin asks: Should smartphones be assistants or tools?

We’re right in the midst of a possible rift in the way smart devices function and act, ladies and gentlemen, and though the functionality has been there for some time, it is Apple that’s brought the idea that the smartphone should be your assistant rather than just your tool for communicating to the forefront. I’d like to concentrate today on a statement made by Andy Rubin (SVP of Google) this week at AllThingsD’s AsiaD conference, he here asking ( … Read More → "Should smartphones be assistants or tools?"