George Dvorsky

The Curiosity Rover Has Now Ventured Beyond NASA’s ‘Safety Zone’

Curiosity is now officially coloring outside the lines. The rover recently drove out of the area NASA had initially demarcated as safe terrain for its 2012 landing in Gale Crater. The landing ellipse established by NASA measured approximately four miles wide and 12 miles long (7 x 20 km). THe HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars…

The Remarkable Predictions And Inventions Of Winston Churchill

Though primarily known as a statesman, Winston Churchill was also a very capable futurist and inventor. From the rise of Nazi Germany and the Iron Curtain to the advent of tanks, the atom bomb and synthetic biology, here are some of Churchill’s most incredible predictions and inventions. Top image: A colorized image of Winston Churchill’s…

Horrifyingly Powerful Mudslide In Japan Tears Down Trees In An Instant

Typhoon Neoguri slammed through Japan yesterday bringing widespread flooding. A closed circuit camera captured this jaw-dropping footage of a debris flow that levelled trees as if they were matchsticks. The storm has left several people dead and a ton of damage in its wake. More than 500 houses in several prefectures were flooded due to…

Buzz Aldrin Says Mars Is Not A Place For Tourists

The Second Man on the Moon was on Reddit yesterday doing an AMA. When asked what advice he’d like to give to Space X’s Elon Musk, Aldrin’s response was decidedly unsympathetic. Aldrin’s appearance on Reddit yesterday was part of a social media campaign to promote the 45th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. There’s…

A startup has developed a contraceptive chip for women that can be turned on and off using a remote control device. The implant, which dispenses 30 micrograms of levonorgestrel each day, is designed to last for 16 years. Pre-clinical testing starts next year in the U.S., with the goal of having it on the market…

Europe’s $1.6 Billion Human Brain Project Is On The Verge Of Collapse

The highly ambitious Human Brain Project — an effort to simulate the human brain in a supercomputer — is drawing fire from neuroscientists who say the initiative is unfeasible, unfocused, and unaccountable. Europe’s Human Brain Project was launched early last year — an effort to develop better tools to study how the brain works. As…

The Same Insecticide That’s Killing Bees Is Also Killing Birds

A class of pesticides linked to colony collapse disorder in bee colonies has now been linked to a dramatic decline in insectivorous bird populations. Disturbingly, this could also mean that other animals along the food chain are at risk as well. Earlier this year, scientists presented some of the most compelling evidence yet that neonicotinoids,…

People Think Their Dogs Are A Lot Smarter Than They Really Are

We love to brag about the intelligence of our canine companions. But a recent survey suggests that many of us are grossly overestimating the cognitive capacities of our dogs — and that our emotional attachment to them has a lot to do with it. Realizing that few studies have examined people’s perceptions of specific cognitive…

A Supernova You Can Hold In The Palm Of Your Hand

Last century, a massive binary system went supernova, ejecting at least 10 times the mass of our Sun into space. NASA scientists have now created the first hi-res model of the expanding cloud produced by this iconic outburst. During the eruption, which occurred between 1838 and 1845 (at least from our perspective in the Hubble…

Smallpox Virus Samples Found In Unprotected Government Fridge

While preparing for move to a new location, researchers at the US National Institutes of Health discovered a cardboard box inside a storage room refrigerator. To their horror, the vials inside were labeled “variola” — the name of the virus that causes smallpox. The virus that was supposed to have been eradicated in 1980 doesn’t…

The British Military Is Designing a Real Life ‘Transformer’ Plane

BAE has unveiled its designs for a number of wildly futuristic aircraft, including 3D printed drones, self-healing aircraft, and a transformer plane — a long-range aircraft capable of dividing into smaller ones upon arrival at its destination. This isn’t the crazy ramblings of pie-in-the-sky conceptual designers. BAE Systems is the company who, under other names,…

Here’s How to Get Rid of Traffic Jams

Traffic congestion steals our time, reduces our quality of life, and hurts us economically. But what can we possibly do about it? Here’s how technology and some common sense could put an end to traffic congestion. A 2010 RAND study noted that traffic congestion comes from an imbalance in the supply of and demand for…

Creepy Simulation Shows How Ancient Arachnids Actually Walked

After modeling the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a 410 million-year-old arachnid, researchers from the University of Manchester in the UK used an open-source computer graphics program to bring the extinct predator back to virtual life. It’s called trigonotarbid and, in addition to being an early relative of spiders, it was one of the first predators…

NASA has received new confirmation that the Voyager 1 spacecraft is in interstellar space. The probe recently experienced a “tsunami shock wave” from the Sun, which caused the plasma surrounding the craft to “sing.” Voyager 1 may be beyond the heliosphere, but it hasn’t yet left the solar system, which lies beyond the distant Oort…

Dubai To Build The World’s First Climate-Controlled City

The United Arab Emirates has announced its plan to build a “pedestrian city” — a gargantuan mall that will take up over 48 million square feet. Remarkably, the facility will feature a temperature-controlled domed retail street network that will extend for 4.3 miles (7 km). Called the “Mall of the World,” the Dubai-based facility will…

These Dazzling Astronomy Photographs Are Among The Year’s Best

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has released its final set of images for this year’s Astronomy’s Photographer of the Year contest. Ranging from star trails and dust clouds to auroras and meteor streaks, this year’s best photos are guaranteed to instill a sense of wonder. Top image: Justin Ng. A bright meteor streaks across the…

Behold The Largest Bird To Have Ever Flown

Introducing Pelagornis sandersi, an extinct giant bird that lived some 25 to 28 million years ago. With an estimated 24-foot (6.4 meters) wingspan, the enormous albatross-like creature is now considered the largest bird to have ever taken to the skies. The giant seabird, which was twice the size of the Royal Albatross (the largest flying…

Unseen Photos From The Battle Of The Bulge Found In Foxhole [Updated]

In December of 1944, the Nazis launched a massive assault against Allied forces on the Western Front. Among the 89,000 US casualties was a solider who left his camera behind in the foxhole where he was taking refuge. Now, 70 years later, the camera — and the photos in it — have been recovered. Update…

Our distant hominid ancestors were far more human-like than we thought. A revision of the human origins timeline shows that many traits, like long limbs, a large brain, and the ability to craft tools, did not arise at the same time. Surprisingly, some traits appeared as long as 3 to 4 million years ago.

Researchers Translate the Meaning of Over 60 Gestures Used by Chimps

In the first systematic study of a non-human primate language, scientists from St. Andrew’s University have deciphered the meaning of 66 wild chimpanzee sign language gestures. Ranging from flirting requests to grooming instructions, the gestures may reveal how language evolves. Top image: Catherine Hobaiter The study, which now appears in Current Biology, shows that wild…