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The level of performance at the TTX GP gave some credibility to the emerging electric-vehicle technology. Averaging 87mph on this circuit, as the Agni bike did, is no mean feat on what’s arguably the most demanding course in the road-racing world. The lap record with a gasolene-fuled bike is an average of 131 mph, held by a Honda CBR1000RR. But to maintain 87mph certainly demands both skill and bravery. Unlike a MotoGP race circuit, there is no gravel to run off to at the TT....

Not all of the sailors involved in the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises are human. As part of the multinational naval exercise, the U.S. Navy deployed several Mark 7 Marine Mammal Systems, also known as dolphins, on an exercise designed to locate sea mines. The dolphins are trained to locate mines and mark them for disposal, and in return get praise and fish treats.The mine countermeasures exercise was held at Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego....

Sometimes it’s best not to think about just how many nukes are out there. Nuclear weapons are enormously destructive devices capable of leveling entire cities and, in the case of an all-out nuclear exchange, ending human civilization. But what would happen if all the world’s nukes were launched at once? The YouTube channel Kurzgesagt followed this thought experiment to its apocalyptic conclusion. It’s not pretty. ✈︎ Don’t miss our best-in-class military news....

Anglerfish are the stuff of nightmares. National Geographic called the other-worldly terrors from the deep “possibly the ugliest animal on the planet,” and they’re definitely not wrong. Everything about them is creepy, from their maw full of razor sharp, translucent teeth to their dead eyes, and yet, we’re still fascinated by them because they’re so mysterious. These deep-sea carnivores are rarely seen alive since they live several hundred meters below the surface of the ocean and when one gets caught in a fishing net or washes ashore, it’s because it’s dead....

View full post on TwitterYour Twitter feed is getting crowded. Now, in addition to the tweets and retweets by accounts you follow—and those dreaded Promoted Tweets—there are tweets favorited by people you follow. It was reported this week that for some accounts, these favorited tweets will start showing up just as retweets do, with Twitter displaying the tweet and telling you which account you follow declared it a favorite. The company’s hope is that by showing you more than just the tweets you’ve asked to see, you’ll find something unexpected and follow more people....

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed a working window that’s also a solar panel. Using the experimental solar material perskovite, NREL scientists crafted a window with a solar power conversion efficiency of 11.3 percent.Even if you’re not deeply familiar with solar panels, you’ve surely noticed their distinctive colors—dark hues like black and blue. Black solar panels are made of silicon, while the more common blue solar panels are made up of polycrystalline solar cells—silicon melted down and poured into squares....

NASA hasn’t come for her moon dust yet, but Laura Cicco is ready for it. In a lawsuit filed against the space agency last week, Cicco asserts her lawful ownership of the vial of grey dust, which an expert cited in court documents state “may have originated” on the moon. According to Cicco’s lawsuit, the vial was given to her by Neil Armstrong, who was friends with her father through his service in the U....

The Cold War saw numerous oddball inventions of lethal intent, but leave it to the British to slap one with a silly name. And Blue Peacock’s name wasn’t the end of its peculiarities.Blue Peacock was supposed to be a nuclear land mine. It was designed to blow up on a time lag, days after U.K. forces had given ground to invading Russian troops. British engineers even considered using chickens as a crude (but theoretically effective) detonator timer....

Computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Qatar Computing Research Institute have come up with a new piece of software called RoadTagger, which uses AI to figure out what roads look like behind obstructions.RoadTagger will be used to make more detailed maps with the ability to recognize how many lanes a road has and whether it is a residential road or a highway.The results were published to the scientific journal pre-print server arXiv....

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new kind of solar cell that can convert sunlight into electricity, but instead of using electronics like most solar cells, this particular invention relies on bacteria.Many bacteria are already capable of turning sunlight into energy using photosynthesis. This is thanks to a chemical that the bacteria produce, although the specific chemical varies based on the species of bacteria. Some groups of researchers in the past have attempted to isolate these chemicals and use them inside solar cells, but the process of isolating them is difficult and tends to destroy the photosynthetic chemicals....

In November 2014, the European Space Agency pulled off the incredible feat of successfully putting a lander on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The craft, a solar powered probe named Philae, went dark shortly after. But this morning, the craft surprised ESA when it radioed back to the agency. This comes just days after the agency was scouring for images of the little lost lander, which had only just begun its primary mission when it shut down....

The entrance to the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center is busy and confusing. Based on how much the soldier at the gate my Uber driver and I pulled up to was shouting at us, we were not doing a great job of navigating that entrance. But after a few phone calls and with the help of our escort for the day, I was finally on my way down the long path to the correct building....

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs may have also triggered an intense series of underwater volcano explosions, according to a new study published in Science Advances. The six-mile-wide asteroid crashed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago and precipitated the mass extinction that brought about the end of the dinosaurs. New research shows that this may have also caused undersea volcanoes around the world to erupt, further intensifying the devastating environmental impact of the event....

The titanium replacement piece.The age of 3D-printed plane parts is upon us. The U.S. Air Force has printed and installed a new titanium replacement piece for the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. The Pentagon hopes this is the start of big things to come, as additive manufacturing could allow for newer, stronger parts for aging aircraft produced in less time. The piece in question is a fairly minor part—a bracket installed in a kick panel in the F-22 cockpit....

Everyone knows that Facebook makes its money through targeted ads. By tracking what you look at and click on while using its website, Facebook assembles a detailed profile of you that it uses to figure out what you’re interested in, and tailors its advertising to match. But a recent investigation by ProPublica has revealed that the social media company tracks much more than your online activities.At the heart of the issue is the fact that Facebook buys data from offline sources like retailers, and bundles that data with its own to create more detailed profiles of its users....

Unique architectural projects are often seen as ways of boosting tourism. If that’s true, then visitors may soon be pouring into the small Danish town of Brande (pop. ~7,000). Last month the local city council approved a 1,049-foot (320-meter) skyscraper that Danish clothing giant Bestseller hopes to build in the little town.When finished, the super-tall building in the middle of nowhere would be among the tallest in Western Europe, reaching higher than both the British Shard (1,016 feet) and the German Commerzbank Tower (850 feet)....

You wanna be an X-Wing pilot? Of course you wanna be an X-Wing pilot. Now you can get a better taste of that fantasy than ever before. This is a trailer for Star Wars VR. It’s not real. It’s not official. And it’s more than likely it’ll never actually exist in this form. But man does it ever prove how something like it just has to happen. View full post on IframeBuilt by HammerheadVR Studios in Unreal Engine 4, this trailer was produced by two artist in just two weeks....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeOne upon a time, the ads that ran before a movie were previews of other movies. Now it seems like anything is fair game—TV shows, cell phone carriers, snack brands—and now, apparently, space exploration.A recently conceived Indiegogo campaign aims to raise $33,000 with the intention of selling summer moviegoers on the promise of human spaceflight. Before screening of Star Trek Into Darkness, out this May, the campaign’s backers want to play a video called “We Are the Explorers,” a celebration of going to space....

The Major League Eating circuit approaches its Super Bowl this July 4th weekend, with the 100th anniversary of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Competitive eater Crazy Legs Conti will be there as he tries to dethrone defending champ Matt Stonie.Crazy Legs joined us in the studio for this week’s How Your World Works podcast (available at the iTunes store) to share his tips on hot dog dunking techniques, staying lean in competition, and eating as many of them as you can....

The U.S. Air Force has released photos of F-22 Raptor jets that were caught in a hurricane. All 17 Raptors stuck on the ground at Tyndall Air Force Base not only survived the virtual destruction of the base but were brought back up to airworthy condition within days.Hurricane Michael, which struck the Florida region in early October 2018, was the third most powerful hurricane on record to make landfall in the United States....