science

AUSTIN, Texas--The most important thing right now is to make sure no one gets hit by flying watermelons.

Under usual circumstances, this might be an odd concern. But I'm here in the Texas capital for Maker Faire, and the three organizers--Dale Dougherty, Louise Glasgow and Sherry Huss--just want to be sure that there are no safety issues with the fruit-launching trebuchet that has been set up on the west side of the event.

I've been riding around with Glasgow, Maker Faire's event producer, for a little while, hoping to see what she encounters in the course of … Read more

At a recent conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of space travel, scientists predicted that the next 50 years will uncover that we're not alone in the universe.

Some researchers believe that time may be sooner than later.

Scientists at the Geneva Observatory of Switzerland have reportedly discovered a "second Earth," a planet that's circling a star 20 light-years away. According to an article from the Guardian in the United Kingdom, the scientists said the planet's warm and rocky conditions are most like Earth's, meaning that it could likely support water and life.

"We … Read more

This is my new all-time favorite YouTube video.

Most people with any interest in music understand that sound moves in waves. A vibrating object (guitar string, speaker cone) causes air to compress and decompress in a rhythmic motion. The air itself doesn't travel far, but the waves travel through the air--similar to the way waves move across the surface of water--where they hit your ear, which turns them into signals your brain understands as sound.

The length of the wave determines its pitch. The lowest notes we can hear are approximately 30-foot waves, while the highest notes are fractions … Read more

High schools not only house next year's basketball legend, but also the future gadget mastermind.

Take, for example, the robotic coconut-tree climber, Web 2.0 pancake maker and human-powered irrigation pump entered in this year's Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Program, a 5-year-old initiative to grant money to high school inventors. This year, Lemelson-MIT awarded grants of up to $10,000 to 16 high school teams from around the country.

In honor of the prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson, the program is designed to encourage creativity among high-schoolers and encourage studies in math and science. To win the grant money, teams must … Read more

The lives of office file clerks may get a little easier if Xerox delivers on its promise of new smart-paper technology.

Researchers from the company's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on Thursday announced three new technologies that augment digital and paper documents.

First is the hybrid categorizer, software that uses computer vision and other machine learning techniques to understand text and general images on a digital page. Then it links the text and images so the document can be categorized. For example, an insurance company could use the software to digitally file a document containing an image of a … Read more

Scientists are making progress on neural devices that can translate the thoughts of a paralyzed person into driving action for a prosthetic device.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Wednesday that they've developed an algorithm for a neural prosthetic aid that can link an individual's brain activity to the person's intentions; and then translate that intention into movement.

Of course, other scientists have already done that, and built prototypes for neural brain-to-machine devices that can work for animals or humans. But each team has taken a different approach to the problem, such as developing algorithms … Read more

The X Prize Foundation and Google are looking to whiz kids for robot ideas.

Three weeks ago, the L.A.-based prize organization announced the Google Lunar X Prize--a $20 million-plus contest to put a robot on the moon that can rove for at least 500 meters and send visuals back to Earth. As if to add heft to the unveiling, Google and X Prize executives talked about the mission and the future of space exploration while surrounded by throngs of school-aged kids from around Los Angeles.

Now, the people behind the Google Lunar X Prize are calling on middle-school … Read more

"Mother of Satan"--that's what bomb makers call peroxide-based explosives like triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which are easy to make and hard to detect. But a new pen-shaped detector doodad offers hope for those doing time in airport security lines.

The Peroxide Explosives Tester, or PET, by Acro is supposed to help security personnel quickly and accurately identify peroxide-based explosives, from diacetone diperoxide and hexam-methalene-triperoxidediamine to the notorious TATP, a component allegedly used by Mr. Goofy in the shoe bomb he tried to detonate on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.

Acro announced this month that it had licensed … Read more

There's no end to scams on the Internet, and it can be hard for anyone to tell the difference between a legitimate and fake Web address. (Can you pick the bogus URL between "www.express.ebay.com" and "www.ebaysale.nl"?)

That's why computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University developed a cutesy online game to teach people how to spot a so-called phishing scam before giving up personal information like bank account passwords to a rogue operator. The 15-minute game, called Anti-Phishing Phil, features a little fish named Phil that must discern between good … Read more