For all the heady talk about the misleadingly “deific,” recently confirmed quantum specks named after a Scottish physicist, another kind of historic event has transpired: in a shot fired on July 5, a record-shattering laser beam …
Alt Tech
Mission to Mars: 8 Amazing Tech Tools Aboard NASA’s Curiosity Rover
Everyone’s talking about the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover‘s “terrifying” Hollywood-blockbuster-worthy landing: seven knuckle-in-teeth minutes in early August during which its aeroshell-armored bulk will plummet through Mars’ thin …
Can We Fix Computer Science Education in America?
The tech industry is one of the few bright spots in a dim economy. So why aren’t we teaching kids the skills they need to participate in it?
Quantum Computing at Room Temperature — Now a Reality
You’ve read about the world’s first quantum network built from two atoms and one proton. You’ve heard about the quantum computer someone plonked inside a diamond to grapple with something called “quantum decoherence.” I mean, who …
Allen Institute: Microsoft Cofounder’s Organization Holds Brain Hackathon
Yesterday, I wrote about a researcher “hacking” into Stephen Hawking’s mind with a new device called the iBrain. But for most scientists, hacking the brain doesn’t mean bypassing the physical body — it means making sense of the …
Reading Stephen Hawking’s Mind to Keep His Voice Alive
Philip Low almost didn’t meet Stephen Hawking.
Running his own start-up, NeuroVigil, was exhausting for Low and after his speech at the World Science Festival in New York, the last thing he wanted to do was socialize at an …
Google Joins Fight to Save Nearly 3,000 Endangered Languages
The last native speakers of Miami-Illinois died in the 1960s. Two centuries earlier, Jesuits came to the United States and found two tribes — the Miami and the Illinois, which both shared a common language.
“The Jesuits …
It’s the End of the Standard Model (of Particle Physics) as We Know It?
And they’re off: An electron and a positron race east toward Stanford’s main campus along a two-mile course — the longest of its kind (and straightest) in the world — that from high above looks like a giant chalk-colored dam, …
Better than 3D Maps from Apple and Google? Hover Aims for Ground-Level Detail with Practical Value
Apple and Google have each announced visually dazzling 3D mapping software that lets you pan around major metropolitan areas rendered in beautiful, photographic detail from a bird’s eye view.
In Google’s case, it’s an update …
Game Boy Beats: Reaching Music’s Next Level at Blip Festival 2012
My memories of the original Game Boy are inextricably linked with the Tetris theme, a jaunty 8-bit rendition of the Russian folk song Korobeiniki playing out of tinny speakers. It was addictive, yes, but not something you would …
Like to Brag on Facebook or Twitter? That’s Because Self-Disclosure Is like Eating and Sex, Says Study
We love talking about ourselves, we really do — that’s what a group of Harvard neuroscientists found while testing the theory that we’re big on self-disclosure, anyway. In fact, say the scientists, we love self-disclosure so …
The Collapse of Moore’s Law: Physicist Says It’s Already Happening
Moore’s Law is finally breaking down, according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. He’s talking about the so-called law that says the number of transistors that can be fit on a computer chip will double every two years, …