Technology

Fake Trees Charge Your Car While You Park

Purely electric cars may be green, but it’s tough to find a parking place close enough to an electrical outlet. But one designer has come up with the perfect solution: solar-powered sculptures that charge your car while you park. Generally, parking in the sun just means coming back to a boiling hot car. But industrial…

io9 Lauren Davis Jul 27

Scientists Make Color-Changing Light Bulbs From Fish DNA

Yes, you read that correctly. Scientists at the University of Connecticut have made adjustable LEDs out of strands of salmon DNA. The DNA is mixed with dye that absorbs UV light and emits bright white light. The team used two different dyes: one absorbs UV light emits blue visible light, and the other absorbs part…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jul 22

Use Your Cell Phone To Diagnose Blood Diseases

The medical tricorder is now closer than ever to reality. A group of Berkeley engineers have invented a mobile phone microscope that can photograph microbes in your blood, and analyze them for disease. The research group, who published an article about their CellScope in today’s edition of PLoS One, wanted to figure out a way…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 22

The Unholy Love Child of Bicycle and Monorail Could Revolutionize Your Commute

I’m still waiting for the day when humans navigate cities by being sucked through pneumatic tubes. But in the meantime, New Zealand’s bicycle-monorail mash-up, known as the Shweeb, might be the next best thing. The Shweeb is a human-powered transit system that employs a recumbent cycle to move a clear passenger tube along a rail.…

io9 Lauren Davis Jul 21

Amazon Secretly Removes “1984” From the Kindle

Thousands of people last week discovered that Amazon had quietly removed electronic copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from their Kindle e-book readers. In the process, Amazon revealed how easy censorship will be in the Kindle age. In this case, the mass e-book removals were motivated by copyright . A company called MobileReference, who did not…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 18

“Camera Fabric” Cloth That Takes Color Pictures

The soldier of the future might be able to see in all directions at the same time. Researchers at MIT have developed a fabric made of fibers that can “take pictures” of its surroundings. The individual fibers are composed of two rolled-up semiconducting glass layers, coated in an insulator. When light interacts with the semiconductor,…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jul 16

Wired Explains Proper Etiquette In the World of Social Technology

Wired’s new issue, featuring guest writer Brad Pitt promoting the newest Brad Pitt movie starring Brad Pitt, goes deep into social technology etiquette. Can you answer your phone while peeing? Is it okay to lie on Facebook? All is revealed. I don’t agree with everything in the issue—I will not accept Facebook friends I’ve never…

Social Media Dan Nosowitz Jul 16

Alternate Histories Of Objects For Sale On eBay

Would you pay more money for items on eBay if they had interesting stories behind them? A group of writers has determined to find out, by selling objects on eBay that come with fictional alternate histories. Among the participating authors are Matthew Battles, whose article on space travel we linked to the other day, as…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 8

Your Smile Will Be Monitored To Evaluate Quality Of Service

More than 500 employees of Keihin Electric Express Railway in Japan will be subject to “smile checks” every morning. Software will evaluate the quality of their grins, and alert them if they aren’t looking happy enough. The smile-evaluating software takes a picture of Keihin employees every morning and assigns smile values to various parts of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 4

Now You Can Use Quantum Physics To Send Top Secret Messages Online

In a breakthrough in quantum cryptography, a team of 41 institutions has created the world’s largest quantum key distribution network. The network enables them to create the most foolproof system in history for sending secret messages. The process relies on the quantum mechanical property of quantum indeterminacy, meaning when a particle is measured, this alters…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jul 2

More Augmented Reality Software That Will Change the Future

Using a new augmented reality (AR) service called Pachube, you can use your smart phone to "see" invisible environmental data about air quality and energy consumption. And we’ve got another amazing AR application too. Augmented reality provides you with an information overlay for your daily life, supplying data for things you are seeing via a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 1

Super Small, Super Powerful Quantum Processor Can Solve Multiple Problems At Once

Soon your processor might be able to do three things at once. In a major stride towards commonplace quantum computing, a Yale university team has just unveiled a new two-qubit quantum processor that actually looks like a conventional computer chip. The chip’s qubits (or quantum bits, a unit for quantum information) are built from billions…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 29

Two Augmented Reality Technologies That Are About To Change The World

Augmented reality is a technology futurists and scifi authors like Vernor Vinge have been talking about for decades. Now the tech has matured and is entering the market. Two videos of new products show you the near future. In a nutshell, what augmented reality does is provide you with an information overlay for your daily…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

35,000-year-old Flute Is First Instrument Ever

This flute is the first musical instrument in the history of humankind—one of the first examples of technology—which has surprised everyone demonstrating that music already existed 35,000 years ago. Stone Age Rock Band, here we go. It was made from the bone of a giant vulture during the Upper Paleolithic. Found in Ach Valley, in…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jun 25

Sonic Black Hole Swallows Every Sound It Hears

Imagine a giant tank that can roll into town emitting literally no sound. This could be the future of stealth warfare. Scientists have recently devised a “sonic black hole;” any sound that passes its edge can never come out again. The Technion in Israel developed this “black hole,” creating a well into which air flows…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 17

7 Virtual Reality Technologies That Actually Work

So far, virtual reality has mostly been a colossal disappointment. But VR has had its share of breakthroughs and innovative applications. Here are seven VR technologies that work, and that may yet point the way to truly successful virtual reality. https://gizmodo.com/7-failed-virtual-reality-technologies-5280347 Anxiety Therapy For years now, virtual environments have been used to treat anxiety problems…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 12

New Tiny Robots Can Crawl Through Your Veins

Imagine tiny robots crawling inside of you, diagnosing problems and imaging your body. Israel’s Technion has developed just the tool: the ViRob, a robot with a diameter of 1mm. It’s controlled by external magnetic fields, and it crawls through veins. The minuscule robot is powered and directed by external magnetic fields. That means no wires…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 5

7 Failed Virtual Reality Technologies

There was a time when people were calling home virtual reality the wave of the future. Now most people just call it goofy and expensive. Here are 7 virtual reality technologies that didn’t work, and never will. The Sensorama In what may be considered the first case of virtual reality reaching beyond its own limitations,…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 5

What Gender Is Your Roomba?

Why do we assign genders to robots, even when they look like Wall-E or a Roomba vacuum cleaner? That was the subject of a panel at WisCon, where a roboticist debated sexbots and macho tanks with writers and science fiction fans. Technical writer Heidi Waterhouse chaired the panel called “What Gender is Your Roomba?” where…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 24

US Spy Flies To Gain New Eyes

New miniature camera technology may be about to give the US military’s insect-sized surveillance drones a new way of seeing the world that’s more energy-conscious than before. Yay, technology? New Scientist reports that a new microchip-sized digital camera, developed by the California Institute of Technology using funding from NASA and the Pentagon, has been patented…

io9 Graeme McMillan May 24

Fake Trees Charge Your Car While You Park

Scientists Make Color-Changing Light Bulbs From Fish DNA

Use Your Cell Phone To Diagnose Blood Diseases

The Unholy Love Child of Bicycle and Monorail Could Revolutionize Your Commute

Amazon Secretly Removes “1984” From the Kindle

“Camera Fabric” Cloth That Takes Color Pictures

Wired Explains Proper Etiquette In the World of Social Technology

Alternate Histories Of Objects For Sale On eBay

Your Smile Will Be Monitored To Evaluate Quality Of Service

Now You Can Use Quantum Physics To Send Top Secret Messages Online

More Augmented Reality Software That Will Change the Future

Super Small, Super Powerful Quantum Processor Can Solve Multiple Problems At Once

Two Augmented Reality Technologies That Are About To Change The World

35,000-year-old Flute Is First Instrument Ever

Sonic Black Hole Swallows Every Sound It Hears

7 Virtual Reality Technologies That Actually Work

New Tiny Robots Can Crawl Through Your Veins

7 Failed Virtual Reality Technologies

What Gender Is Your Roomba?

US Spy Flies To Gain New Eyes

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

If You Make Fart Music, ChatGPT Will Be the Most Supportive Girlfriend You Could Ask For

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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