Jamie Condliffe

This Is How You Can Learn to Control a Submarine Engine On Land

Learning to control a submarine is not straightforward. But these days, the Navy doesn’t need to build as many large-scale physical simulators—because much of it can be achieved on-screen. In this image, two sailors explore the engine rooms of a submarine using the Navy’s touch-screen training simulator. They can use the software to explore how…

HTC’s One A9 Will Only Cost $400 Until November 7th—Then It’ll Jump to $500

When HTC unveiled its iPhone-like One A9 last week, one of its most attractive features was its cost. But while the $400 price tag may seem tempting, in reality that deal is only available until November 7th—after that date, the price will jump up by $100. HTC had seemed to suggest that the sleek phone…

You Can Now Buy Drone Insurance From AIG

Nervous pilot? You might be able to command your UAV with a little more peace of mind now that AIG is willing to sell you drone insurance. The insurance company has launched a series of policies that will cover you for all kind of accidents. Perhaps most importantly, it’ll provide third party liability in case…

Video Explainer: The Math Inside the Shape of DNA

Everyone knows what the iconic right-handed helix of DNA looks like, with its inter-linking string of molecules forming a pleasing, gentle twist. But there’s more to the shape than meets the eye, and this video explains some of the mathematical secrets lurking within DNA. Professor Mariel Vazquez from UC Davis describes the math behind the…

Popcorntime.io Has Been Shut Down

Bad news for illegal streamers: one of the most popular versions of Popcorn Time has been shut down, likely for good. Over the weekend, the Popcorntime.io website — the internet shop front for the most popular of a series of Torrent-streaming apps — has been shut down, reports Torrent Freak, after a torturous week for…

A Huge Earthquake Has Just Hit Northern Afghanistan

A major earthquake has hit northern Afghanistan this morning. It was also felt in Pakistan and northern India. According to the US Geological survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 and was centered in a mountainous region 158 miles north-east of the Afghan capital of Kabul at a depth of 133 miles. It occurred…

Scientists Have Produced the Blackest Material Ever

A team of scientists has created what they claim is the blackest material ever produced by human hands, which absorbs virtually all of the light that hits its surface. The new material, developed by researchers from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulla University of Science and Technology, is built up using carbon nanotubes to help absorb the…

This Miniature Medical Device Measures Five of Your Blood’s Vital Signs

This tiny 3D-printed device doesn’t look all that, but it manages to keep track of five different substances floating around in your blood and sling the results to a nearby tablet using Bluetooth. Created by researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the device keeps an eye on the metabolites glucose, lactate…

How Facial Recognition Uses Super-Simple Patterns to Understand Your Expression

Facial recognition systems use all kinds of clever software to work out who you are and even how you’re feeling. But in this video explainer, Dr Michel Valstar explains how a simple piece on analysis known as a Local Binary Pattern can help detect your expression. This kind of facial recognition is all about edges:…

Pandora Has to Stump Up $90M For Its Use of Pre-1972 Songs

Earlier this year, the Record Industry Association of America began to pursue Pandora on behalf of record labels to seek royalties for the use of tracks recorded before 1972. Now, it’s reached a settlement that will see Pandora stump up $90 million for using the songs. Federal copyright law covering music actually only applies to…

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Is Giving $200M of His Twitter Stock to Staff

Twitter’s new CEO Jack Dorsey has enough cash to go round. So much so, in fact, that he’s announced that he’s giving one-third of his stock holdings in the social media company to his employees. In a tweet, Dorsey announced that he’ll be giving back one-third of his approximately 22 million shares of stock to…

Good news for multi-taskers: Chrome for iOS now supports Apple’s split-screen feature.

Airbnb Really Screwed Up With Ads About Paying Taxes

This week, Airbnb rolled out a series of ads around San Francisco to raise awareness of the $12m or so it raises for the city through hotel taxes. Sadly, the effect was passive-aggressive — and it’s now at the receiving end of biting criticism. The ads in question have been posted on bus shelters and…

Apple Plans to Offset the Energy Used to Make Every iPhone With Renewables

Apple’s been pushing its shift to renewable electricity for a little while, but its latest plan is pretty ambitious: it’s working with Foxconn to ensure it generates as much clean energy as it takes to put the iPhone together. In an announcement made this morning, Apple explains that it’s working with partners in China to…

Material Made from Industrial Waste and Orange Peel Sucks Mercury Out of Water

Mercury in water can damage food and water supplies and in the worst cases even kill. Now, a team of Australian researchers has stumbled across a material made from industrial waste and orange peel that can suck the metal right out of H20. Synthetic chemists from South Australia’s Flinders University have created a polymer that…

Full-Disk Encryption Is Mandatory on Android 6.0—If the Device Can Cope

Google has a long-held ambition to make full-disk encryption mandatory on Android. It didn’t quite work for Lollipop—so it’s taking another stab with Marshmallow. With Android 5.0, attempts to roll out all-encompassing encryption fell through because many devices lacked the specs to make it happen. That led Google to simply ‘strongly recommend’ full-disk encryption to…

This Is What Happens When You Combine Ferrofluids and Glowsticks

Ferrofluids are cool. Glowsticks are cool. And what happens when you combine them is pretty neat, too. Ferrofluids are liquids that hold tiny nano-sized particles of magnetic material within themselves in suspension. When they experience a magnetic field, they assume all kinds of interesting patterns, from complex swirling loops to spiky hedgehog-like domes. Here, Physics…

Your Self-Encrypting Hard Drive May Use Encryption That Really Sucks

Self-encrypting hard drives are a bright idea, allowing you to back up data safe in the knowledge that nobody else can sift through it. Unless, that is, the encryption system is easy to crack — which a new security study had found can be the case. Motherboard reports that a study sent to the Full…

Carbon Nanotubes Found in Human Lungs For the First Time

What’s that up your nose? Researchers have found carbon nanotubes lurking in the lungs of children in Paris, marking the first time the tiny tubes have been observed in humans. New Scientist reports thatDuring a study of the fluid found in the airways of 64 astmathic children, a team from the University of Paris-Saclay found…

23andMe to Resume Giving Health Data to Its Users

23andMe quickly gained notoriety by providing private customers with health and ancestry information directly from their sequenced DNA, then, in 2013, it was stopped from providing health details by the FDA. Now it’s got the green light to resume. The New York Times reports that, two years later, the company has gained FDA approval to…