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We’ve seen the Atlas robot—built by Google-owned Boston Dynamics—do all sorts of things. It can walk across rocky ground, stay standing after hits by a wrecking ball, and even do a pretty good imitation of Rocky. But now it’s taken its first steps out into the real world, and it appears to be able to handle the challenge with ease.The new footage of Atlas taking a hike in the forest (both on and off the beaten path) comes by way of a presentation by Marc Raibert, the founder of Boston Dynamics, at the 11th Fab Lab conference and symposium....

View full post on YoutubeTheme parks like Disneyland and Disney World offer up a bit of a petri dish for transportation nerds. In a completely controlled environment with a self-selected populace eager to get from Point A to Point B, theme park engineers have to think up an equally diverse transportation safety structures. As YouTuber Technology Connections shows, Disney’s got a variety of tricks for keeping people safe without them ever realizing....

More new skyscrapers went up in 2014 than any previous year. London alone has 250 new towers on the docket that are set to overhaul the skyline in the next few years. But as buildings take it higher and higher, their long shadows could leave those of us at ground level increasingly in the dark.Architects at NBBJ in London thought of a way for cities to have the best of both worlds....

There are thousands of known exoplanets—planets orbiting stars other than the sun—but only a handful of those are the right size and in the right place to support standing bodies of liquid water. Scientists refer to these planets as being in the “habitable zone,” but new research seeks to pinpoint which planets might be truly habitable.A study published today in the journal Science Advances looks at the conditions that created the very first primitive microbes on Earth....

Non-profit Magic Wheelchair has been making badass costumes for children who use wheelchairs since 2015, and each year their projects get even more impressive. This year’s costumes, many of which were revealed over the weekend, include a hyper-realistic hummingbird with a light-up beak, a Jurassic World-themed chassis “pulled” by life-size a velociraptor, and an animatronic recreation of Fluffy, the three-headed dog from the Harry Potter series. These and a dozen other amazing outfits were built by Magic Wheelchair’s volunteer teams located all over the country....

Nine out of 12 members of the U.S. National Park Service advisory board abruptly resigned on Monday night, citing a “profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside.” In a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, board member and former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles accuses Zinke and the Department of Interior (DOI) of refusing the meet with the advisory board as required by law....

South Korea’s intelligence agency has reported a wave of cyberattacks by neighbor North Korea on the cell phones and internet of government officials. The attacks are just a part of North Korea’s latest round of provocations against its southern neighbor. According to ZDNET, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service claims North Korean hackers were able to hack the cell phones of senior government officials by sending texts that in turn planted malicious codes when clicked....

Last year, a Chinese scientist earned global condemnation for genetically editing two infant girls. Now a Russian molecular biologist named Denis Rebrikov wants to try it again.Speaking to the scientific journal Nature, Rebrikov says he will use CRISPR techniques to target CCR5, which affects HIV, the same gene that He Jiankui focused on during his now-infamous efforts. He’s work ostensibly wanted to make the children, now known as Lulu and Nana, HIV-resistant....

For a couple minutes on August 21, 2017, day will turn into night. The Great American Solar Eclipse, as it’s being called, is unlike any eclipse that most of us have ever seen—or will ever see—in our lifetimes. For the first time in nearly a century, a total solar eclipse will cross the entirety of the continental United States, with a band of totality stretching from South Carolina to Oregon.A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes directly between the sun and earth, blotting out the bright yellow disk and darkening the sky for several minutes....

It’s Monday morning. You’re on your way to work, and maybe running late. The last thing you want to deal with is the hassle of topping off your gas tank—which is exactly why you should. According to a 2019 study by USA Today and GasBuddy, Mondays are the least expensive day of the week in most states to fuel up.A few states have slightly lower prices on Tuesdays and only two of the 50 states returned a result other than Monday or Tuesday....

The EmDrive, a hypothetical miracle propulsion system for outer space, has been sparking heated arguments for years. Now, Guido Fetta plans to settle the argument about reactionless space drives for once and for all by sending one into space to prove that it really generates thrust without exhaust.Even if mainstream scientists say this is impossible.Fetta is CEO of Cannae Inc, and inventor of the Cannae Drive. His creation is related to the EmDrive first demonstrated by British engineer Roger Shawyer in 2003....

The Pacific Ocean is full of trash, and the only plan to clean it up isn’t working very well. For years, the startup Ocean Cleanup has pursued its goal of removing plastic trash and other debris from the Pacific Garbage Patch, which holds hundreds of millions of tons of plastic in an area the size of Texas off the coast of North America. Its solution is to build a giant net that floats along the waves, held on the surface by a horseshoe-shaped buoy....

A German company says its invented a new radar it says it capable of detecting the radar-evading F-35.The radar, TwInvis, reportedly tracked two F-35s for 93 miles.The radar relies on sorting out radio signals bouncing off aircraft, allowing it to detect aircraft designed to evade radar.A German defense contractor claims it tracked two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters with a new type of radar system. Hensoldt says it tracked the new American jets for nearly 100 miles....

What would happen if you detonated the most powerful nuclear weapon ever used at the deepest point on Earth? Would an enormous fireball consume the trench? Would the world crack open and would earthquakes and volcanoes tear the entire region apart? Would anyone even notice?The YouTube channel Kurzgesagt decided to find out:View full post on YoutubeKurzgesagt framed this hypothetical scenario with two exercises in superlatives: the Marianas Trench and the Soviet thermonuclear bomb Tsar Bomba....

Like all stars, our sun began in a nebula, where gas and dust collapsed on itself in a flurry of cosmic friction. Building pressure and heat created nuclear fusion, which ignited the star into shining. Hydrogen fused into helium, and for billions and billions of years, the center of our solar system has blazed on. Eventually, though—in about five billion years—the hydrogen, its fuel source, will run low and heavier elements will begin to fuse....

In the future, will self-driving cars be our designated drivers?To those of us who enjoy a spirited spin along a twisty back road, an off-road adventure in a 4x4, or even a good old-fashioned stoplight drag race, a self-driving car has all the appeal of a self-eating cheeseburger. Unless, of course, we’re able to throw a rolling interstate cocktail party, simultaneously toasting the marvels of technology and lamenting the obsolescence of the human race....

“The only thing keeping the bricks in place was gravity,” David Hacin says. Hacin, the architect in charge of preserving the historic Newport, R.I., firehouse, shared his observation with homeowner Clint Clemens shortly after removing the structure’s roof. Clemens peered inside the 1-foot-thick outer wall to see for himself: The interior mortar, which had been made from local beach sand when the building was constructed in 1887, had turned to a fine dust....

America learned about the sudden collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis in great detail when it buckled and fell last August. And with good reason: Thirteen people died. The cause of its failure remains undetermined despite faulty plates being cited as a major design flaw.What’s been less closely watched is this story’s surprisingly happy ending–or at least its new beginning–some 13 months later. By 5 am on Sept. 18, cars and trucks had been lined up for hours on either side of the Mississippi River....

EvacuationIf it becomes necessary to leave your home, there may be little advance notice. Determine ahead of time what to bring, where to go and how to get there. Create a backup plan in case your primary route or destination becomes unworkable. Then, practice: Make sure everyone in the family knows the location of rendezvous sites. Keep at least a half-tank of gas in your car­, and keep weather-resistant clothing and sturdy shoes handy....

Late January exerts a chilly grip on the hearts of those who launch fellow Americans into space. As NASA readies Atlantis for a Feb. 7 launch to the International Space Station, it observes a week packed with painful memories of three spaceflight tragedies: Apollo 1, Challenger and the fifth anniversary of the loss of Columbia. The space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. During launch 16 days earlier, a briefcase-size, 1....