Drone racing sure has gathered speed in a short space of time. For evidence of that, look no further than a new cashed up competition out of Dubai, a place that doesn’t really do things by halves. Set to take place this coming weekend, the World Drone Prix will play host to pilots from all around the globe battling for US$1 million in cash prizes.
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The struggle is real, and really painful for a number of reasons. Start with the soles of your tender feet, which are bristling with as many as 200,000 sensory receptors apiece. This is generally a good thing; your body needs tactile information about where your feet are taking you, and if it’s safe to continue. Pain is a way of signaling that your feet are in danger. The problem is that, well, pain hurts. </ … Read More → "The science behind why it hurts so much to step on a LEGO"

Sure, roller coasters are fun and all. Visually, though, looking around at the sky and the track and the back of other passengers’ heads and the massive amusement park parking lot can be a bit dull. Samsung and Six Flags Entertainment are teaming up to try to fix this apparent problem, equipping roller coasters at nine North American parks with Gear VR headsets that will sync … Read More → "Virtual reality roller coasters coming to Six Flags theme parks"

For years, there have been claims that the elusive British street artist known as Banksy is really a man named Robin Gunningham—but there was never enough evidence to prove it. Now, the BBC reports that scientists at the Queen Mary University of London have published a study that uses a geographical profiling to suggest that Gunningham and Banksy could be … Read More → "Scientists claim to have confirmed Banksy’s identity with geoprofiling"

After a year of weightless suspension in a tin can, astronaut Scott Kelly is now a full two inches taller than his twin brother Mark and has unlimited gloating rights, NASA’s Jeff Williams told CNN this week.

Apparently, this was expected: freed from the bounds of gravity, a person’s spine tends to elongate in weightlessness. Sadly, Kelly … Read More → "Scott Kelly gained two inches during his year in space"

A team of scientists at Duke University have developed a wheelchair that is controlled exclusively by the thoughts of its user — in this case, one of two lab monkeys — and have published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. The prototype system relies on an implanted Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), rather than the … Read More → "Researchers train monkeys to mind-control a wheelchair"

The new project, called Sonnet Signatures, is an extension of Rougeux’ Between The Words posters, which visualized the punctuation in classic literature. “I wanted to find an interesting way to quantify the poetry that could apply to any written text—not just Shakespeare’s sonnets,” Rougeux says. “The sonnets just happened to be a perfect set of bite-sized data that seemed appealing on their … Read More → "These squiggly signatures are actually Shakespeare’s sonnets"

The MOOV chair is still a prototype at this point, but a working one. Under the seat’s cushion are 288 piezoelectric crystals that produce a charge when compressed or squeezed. So the act of just sitting down creates a surge of power, but you’ll need to remain restless and constantly moving to produce enough power to charge a phone. Forget a standing desk, … Read More → "The more you fidget in this chair, the more gadgets it can charge"

Wintergatan is Martin Molin’s musical alterego, who runs 2,000 steel ball-bearings through its many channels and troughs to strike out a musical composition, turning handles, throwing switches and making other adjustments as needed to play his composition, which is rather catchy.
via Boing Boing

Using gossamer-like layers of flexible polymers, researchers at MIT have created the thinnest and lightest solar cells ever made. Just one-fiftieth the thickness of a human hair, and capable of producing up to 6 watts of power per gram, these cells are so thin and light that they can be supported on the surface of a soap bubble without breaking it. With such impressive credentials, the prototype cells have the potential to add solar power … Read More → "Thinnest, lightest, solar cells ever created outperform their bulky glass brethren"