This February, Karamel the squirrel was caught in a trap set for wild animals in Turkey’s southeastern province of Batman. Luckily for the squirrel, 19-year old Rüzgar Alkan walked by and noticed the injured animal. Alkan told the Turkish Hürriyet at the time:“I found it in the woods. It couldn’t move. I had to do something so I took it to a veterinarian in the center of Batman, using what little money I had....
Media Platforms Design TeamAfter spending nearly seven years in space and logging 2.88 billion miles, the Stardust spacecraft is finally facing a peaceful retirement. Its record-breaking 29,000-mphatmospheric re-entry, on the other hand, hardly qualifies as serene. The capsule will plummet to Earth just faster than the speed of sound and—assuming that its parachutes activate as planned—arrive safely at the Air Force’s Utah Testing and Training Range on January 15.The capsule contains a two-sided collector, shaped like a tennis racquet, that is made of a light, porous material called aerogel....
Facebook is notorious for slurping data from users and nonusers alike to feed its advertising business. According to a new study, the social network also gets a lot of data in a steady stream from apps that offer it up of their own accord. The new study from Privacy International sheds light on a slew of popular Android apps that provide user data to Facebook without the explicit consent of users who don’t necessarily have to be logged in to Facebook or even maintain an account to have their data snagged....
One of the contenders to replace the iconic UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter hit a major milestone late last week when it flew in cruise mode for the first time. The V-280 Valor tiltrotor flew like a fixed wing airplane, a flight mode that gives it a major speed boost over conventional helicopters. View full post on YoutubeThe flight took place on May 11th at the Bell facility in Amarillo, Texas. In cruise mode, the tiltrotor aircraft rotates its engine nacelles forward to zero degrees for forward flight....
The vision of a drone-filled future involves tiny buzzing pieces of plastic and lithium-ion filling the skies above us. But for that vision to be realized, companies need to make sure a plummeting drone won’t cause a horrific injury to innocent passersby below. So what actually happens when a drone collides with a human?It’s a question that the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) has sought to answer with an 18 month-long study....
The Navy wants a reliable way to stop small boats without opening fire on them, inadvertently causing injuries or even death.Hagfish secrete a defensive slime that instantly blows up in size, allowing them to ward off predators.Hagfish slime could gum up propellers and ship intake systems, leaving hostile ships dead in the water.The U.S. Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division is developing a means to stop boats based on the slime created by hagfish and the silk spun by spiders weaving webs....
Russian Navy divers recently recovered a World War II fighter from the bottom of an arctic lake. The fighter was one of thousands supplied to the Soviet Union during World War II by the United States and Great Britain. A video uploaded by the Russian Ministry of Defense documents efforts to recover the aircraft and restore it.The fighter, a P-39 Airacobra, crashed into Lake Shukozero near the Russian city of Murmansk....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Fall 2014Base Price: $99,895Competitors: Audi R8, Porsche 911 Turbo, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Nissan GT-RPowertrains: Supercharged 5.0-liter DOHC V-8, 550 hp, 502 lb-ft; eight-speed automatic; RWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, est.): 16/23What’s New: What a difference a roof makes. Jaguar’s sexy convertible F-type is pretty solid, but the coupe’s closed lid adds 80 percent more stiffness. That extra rigidity means you can say goodbye to the slightly squishy on-the-limit handling of the convertible and say hello to a more powerful version of the supercharged V-8, which punches out 550 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque....
Media Platforms Design TeamWhile engineers build cheaper and more efficient solar panels to soak up more of the sun’s rays, it’s storage that needs a breakthrough so that solar energy can be used when the sun’s not shining. Batteries, at least those we have today, just aren’t cutting it. “We need to find a way to store massive amounts of electrical energy,” says Michael Aziz, a professor of energy technologies at Harvard University....
Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)The bad news continues for Target as the big box store amends its previous total of customers affected by the big holiday breach, from 40 million to upwards of 110 million.When the original breach was announced in December, only names, emails, and phone numbers had been accessed. But it progressively got worse as Target later revealed that the hackers also stole credit and debit card numbers and security codes from customers shopping at the brick-and-mortar stores....
Various space agencies have found traces of water on Mars before, but there’s always been a suspicion that more could lurk underground, liquid or solid. But the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found evidence of plenty of ice under the martian surface. In fact, it’s a frozen slab with a land area equal to Texas and 13 stories thick. The slab is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars, running between the equator and the north pole....
The Pentagon’s newest air-to-ground missile is about to get a long range upgrade, allowing it to strike targets from farther away than ever before. The JASSM-XR cruise missile will give U.S. tactical aircraft the ability to strike targets more than a thousand miles away. To give you an idea of this kind of reach, it means a bomber circling Manhattan could strike targets as away as Minneapolis, Minnesota or Jacksonville, Florida with pinpoint accuracy....
Knees are often the first thing to go. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons predicts that by 2030 total knee replacement surgeries will grow by a stunning 673 percent, with 3.5 million procedures per year. These surgeries are often replacing another knee replacement, which can wear out within five to ten years. That’s why a smart knee replacement device could prove to be a crucial innovation in the coming years.“We are working on a knee implant that has built-in sensors that can monitor how much pressure is being put on the implant so doctors can have a clearer understanding of how much activity is negatively affecting the implant,” says assistant professor Sherry Towfighian from Binghamton University in a press statement....
Media Platforms Design TeamThis is the Bloodhound SSC. Or, at least, this will be the Bloodhound SSC, which will attempt to achieve the land speed world record and drive more than 1,000 mph, across the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.The array of parts you see here will be bolted together before the engineers add the hydraulic and electrical systems. The team has until summer 2015 to turn this spread of metal — just more than 3,500 pieces — into a functional land-rocket, which they’ll test to 200 mph on an airplane tarmac....
For the first time in nearly 150 years, Britain has gone an entire week without burning any coal. The record follows the recent news that in April, renewable electricity surpassed coal-produced electricity in the United States for the first time as well.The last time Britain went a week without coal was in 1882, when the first coal-fired plant opened in London. Since then, coal has been burned nearly every day to produce electricity for the country....
A new study looks at how lab-made rust can could conduct electricity with salt water.Scientists claim that the technique could generate electricity at 30 percent efficiency, a higher rate than even modern solar panels.From buoys to scientific expeditions, this could help power objects already adrift in the oceanRust is often associated with decay and disrepair, but scientists at Caltech and Northwestern University are looking at rust differently: as a means of generating electricity....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe rivalry between Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. is leaving your junior high bedroom and jumping to the big screen. Sony announced today that it would back the film Console Wars, about the early 1990s video gaming rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who created Superbad and other films together, will direct. The film is based upon Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation, a book by Blake J....
Media Platforms Design TeamSteve Christini’s first all-wheel-drive bike—his senior mechanical engineering project from Villanova—hangs near the main entrance of shop in downtown Philadelphia. That first bike used a series of chains, shafts, and pinions to transfer power to a suspended, steerable front wheel. His latest two-wheelers—a line of all-wheel-drive off-road racing motorcycles—get power to their front wheels in much the same way. But rather than being prototypes hanging on the wall, they are competing on the world stage at venues like the X Games’ Enduro X and Erzbergrodeo enduro....
A chess set is a great DIY project for any craftsman, and it doesn’t have to be cut from brass or made from lightbulbs to look impressive. This wooden chess set crafted by Redditor benjaab123 takes a minimalist approach to designing and crafting all the pieces and the board. The entire set was built using only a circular saw, drill press, and a spray gun (as well as sandpaper, wood glue, and some other odds and ends)....
Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s northwestern coast with a strength unparalleled in the history of the region. This has meant devastation for many in the region. Hurricanes can often bring unexpected things with them, and Michael has dredged up a part of Floridian history: ships wrecked in 1899 have been unearthed by the storm.“They’ve been mostly stationary since 1899 when they were wrecked in a hurricane,” says Florida Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell, speaking to the Tallahassee Democrat....
