Future tech

Telescopic contact lenses could give superhero vision

Many superheroes come equipped with special seeing abilities, like X-ray vision or night vision. Superman even sports telescopic vision, the ability to see over long distances. Researchers are working on a contact lens that bestows telescopic vision, though it won't let you spy on faraway planets.

The lens experiment came about through DARPA-funded research into vision enhancement devices for soldiers. What the researchers developed could become a solution for people suffering from age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness for older adults. The goal is to improve vision with an unobtrusive device.… Read more

The 404 1,296: Where we take our filters to the grave (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Help Kickstart a documentary on the cultural impact of "Back to the Future."

- How movie theaters keep cool through summer's scorching months.

- A Web site that exposes Instagram frauds that use #nofilter.

- Kanye, the new Steve Jobs, gets Jobs-signed Apple mouse.

- How Xbox fans in Japan earned the nickname "Gropers."

- Pebble smartwatch coming to Best Buy starting July 7.… Read more

App marries Google Glass to Tesla

Google Glass may not have as much porn as it once did, but an app developer is fulfilling another techie fantasy.

How about using the wearable computer to start charging your Tesla Model S, the electric automaker's sports sedan?

Developer Sahas Katta, known for a Microsoft fracas over a Windows Phone challenge, has created an app marrying Google glass with the vehicle, according to a post of his on a Tesla forum.

Katta says the app, called GLASSTESLA, can:

View vehicle charging status or start or stop charging via Glass Open the charge port without having to get back … Read more

3D-printed concept car would build itself

Designers and makers have been busy imagining uses for 3D printers, ranging from casts to houses to duck feet. Vehicle designer Nir Siegel doesn't just want to 3D-print cars, he wants them to assemble themselves.

Siegel's Genesis concept would involve the delivery of a specialized 3D printer to a car buyer. The printer would then print out a car all around itself to match the buyer's specifications.… Read more

The 404 1,295: Where we telegraph it in (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ants aren't the only ones destroying electronics: Bored pets are, too.

- Snapcat: A photo app for cat selfies.

- Stop the presses: Today is the last day to send a telegram in India.

- RIP Google Reader: Today it is kaput.

- What happens when a guy logs in under his wife's gamer tag? Understanding sexism in gaming.

- Computer and printer prices to rise in EU because you can print copywritten stuff.… Read more

Future of search and rescue: Cockroaches piloted by Kinect

File this one under the grossly, absurdly, and perhaps soon patently awesome. Researchers at North Carolina State University say they have developed a system by which cockroaches may actually perform search and rescue.

Using Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect, they plotted a path for cockroaches and tracked them. Researchers nudged the roaches into motion with wires attached to the bugs' sensory appendages, and they steered the roaches by sending small electrical impulses to wires attached to the bugs' antennae. The old-fashioned horse and whip are just so crude by comparison.

Still, why the cockroach? Presumably their size could prove useful in … Read more

The 404 1,294: Where we give you the evil eye (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Miracle Berry tablets make sour food taste sweet.

- Man implants magnets in his ears to use as invisible headphones.

- Crazy Ants that will destroy your electronics.

- Inside Atlantis, the new Amazon for illegal things.… Read more

The 404 1,293: Where it's in that place where I put that thing that time (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- So weird: Bruins fans watched tons of porn after they lost on Monday night.

- A collection of songs ruined by film, TV, and humanity.

- New kiosks at 7-Eleven stores will store your keys.… Read more

A solid step toward vaccinating against type 1 diabetes

Most vaccines work by giving the immune system a crash course in how to attack bacteria or viruses. The goal is to protect against diseases -- think influenza, polio, and smallpox, which have collectively killed tens of millions of people in recent history.

Now an experimental vaccine being developed at Stanford University uses an entirely different approach to get at the same end goal -- protecting against type 1 diabetes by instructing a diabetic's immune system to stop attacking its own body.… Read more

Device aims to eliminate multiple breast-cancer surgeries

A prototype device created by John Hopkins University grad students can enable a pathologist to inspect excised breast tissue mid-surgery to determine whether a cancerous tumor has been fully removed.

The prototype's ability to dramatically reduce the time to inspect breast tissue -- down to as quickly as 20 minutes -- could ultimately decrease, if not flat out eliminate, the need for a second operation on the same tumor, John Hopkins announced this week.

One in five women who have surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue have to go back for follow-up surgery because not all the diseased tissue … Read more