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A group of scientists have turned graphene into a superconductor, capable of carrying electricity with no resistance. The secret involved sandwiching two layers of graphene together and offsetting them by a ‘magic angle.’ This discovery could help scientists trying to develop superconductors that work at room temperatures.Superconductors are practically the holy grail of electrical engineering. Unlike regular copper or gold conductors that usually transmit electricity, superconductors can do it without any resistance....

Russia’s latest nuclear-powered ballistic missile sub taken design cues from Western submarines, improving the sub’s efficiency and ability to stay undetected. The result is a submarine that will be better able to protect its deadly cargo of 16 nuclear missiles from U.S. and NATO hunter killers in wartime.The Borei-class subs are simply enormous. Each one is 525 feet long, 45 feet wide, and displaces 21,000 tons fully submerged. A single OK-650B 190-megawatt nuclear power plant drives the sub to speeds of 15 knots on the surface and 29 knots submerged, and allows the submarine to cruise underwater indefinitely, its range restricted only by the food supply....

Scientists at MIT have created an AI psychopath trained on images from a particularly disturbing thread on Reddit. Norman is designed to illustrate that the data used for machine learning can significantly impact its outcome. “Norman suffered from extended exposure to the darkest corners of Reddit, and represents a case study on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence gone wrong when biased data is used in machine learning algorithms,” writes the research team....

Last month, a Houthi vessel packed with explosives rammed a frigate of the Saudi Navy at high speed, killing two sailors and injuring three others. That small boat was unmanned was an unmanned drone, Defense News now reports, and this may be the first such attack by a drone boat.The attack on the Al Madinah-class frigate took place in broad daylight on January 30, in the Red Sea approximately 30 miles from the Yemeni port of Hudaydah....

Dunkirk won’t be Hollywood’s sole big-budget return to WWII. The Battle of Midway is set to get the film treatment by Roland Emmerich the director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. One of the turning points of World War II, the Battle of Midway ranked second in our list of most important engagement of the war. The 1942 battle, which cemented the aircraft carrier’s position as the new capital ship of the seas, ended Japan’s aspirations to naval dominance in the Pacific and showed the Allies that victory was possible....

A whodunit has been unfolding in space over the past few months. It all started back in August, when astronauts aboard the International Space Station discovered a small hole in one of the walls, letting air escape into the vacuum of space. The hole itself was quickly patched, but questions about it remained. Specifically: How did the hole get there? And was it made deliberately?A few people seem to think so....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis marvelous 26-foot sculpture by Hung-Chih Peng, an artist living in Taiwan, is built of 100,000 individual parts, each 3D printed and assembled by hand into the boat. More than 1,200 pounds of plastic have gone into the as-yet-unfinished ark. Construction on the project will end sometime in January, but the creation is already on display at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.The work is called “The Deluge: Noah’s Ark....

Media Platforms Design TeamNot so long ago, Uber and Lyft were plucky startups primarily at war with the local governments and taxi commissions trying to block these services and preserve the old way of doing things. Now that the two phone-based car services have grown up a little, they’re at open war with each other.Dirty tricks are the order of the day. First, Lyft complained that Uber employees ordered and then canceled more than 5,000 rides with Lyft over the past year, presumably to make Lyft drivers waste time and money driving to pick up non-existent passengers, and perhaps to diminish the supply of Lyft drivers so real customers would be more likely to pick Uber....

Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, December 7th the Russian Navy submarine Rostov-on-Don launched a series of Kalibr cruise missiles against targets in Syria. The launches were filmed and promptly uploaded to the Internet. In the video the Rostov-on-Don is surfaced while firing, unusual considering the submarine is capable of firing the missiles while underwater. One explanation is the launches have more propaganda value with the submarine in the picture. In one case, a Kalibr missile’s booster rocket can be seen burning out and falling off, while the cruise missile’s turbojet engine takes over propulsion....

As of this writing, the Great American Eclipse is 19 weeks, 5 days, 13 hours, and 48 minutes away. At 10:15 a.m. PDT on August 21, the eclipse will make landfall on the Oregon coast near Salem. It will sweep over the United States heading southeast, crossing Idaho Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; and finally it will pass over Charleston, South Carolina before flying out over the Atlantic Ocean at 2:49 p....

Hydrogen has lots of uses in the world. Scientists have created a catalyst they believe can radically reduce the price needed to create hydrogen.After testing the catalyst for over 10 weeks, they think it can withstand the public’s scrutiny.Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have, for the first time, proven that an inexpensive catalyst can generate hydrogen gas in a commercial environment. Known as an electrolyzer, the team hopes the catalyst has potential for large-scale hydrogen production powered by renewable energy....

Anonymous text messages claiming the receiver has been drafted into the U.S. Army are popping up on cell phones across America.The Army has disavowed the messages, claiming that it’s not even the agency that would manage a Draft.Although U.S. men must register for the Selective Service, it would take an act of Congress to bring the Draft back. A mysterious set of text messages is making the rounds, telling American civilians to get ready to ship out to Iran—or face jail time....

The X-60A is a test vehicle designed to aid hypersonic weapon research, reaching speeds of mach 8.Hypersonic vehicles can reach temperatures of 3,800 degrees, making testing difficult. The rocket is meant to fly payloads at hypersonic speeds, allowing scientists to test the stresses of high speed flight on the payload.The Air Force Research Laboratory’s X-60A hypersonic research rocket completed a new round of realistic ground testing. The rocket’s engine was tested in both “cold flow” and “hot fire” testing, and incorporated realistic operational procedures that a real rocket might face....

Zero has become the biggest name among the ascendant electric motorcycle companies, making bikes for dirt riders, commuters, and even police. I’ve ridden a few, and they’re a blast. The brand’s electric bikes have all the benefits of electricity—minimal maintenance, energy efficiency, instant torque—alongside the main benefits of a motorcycle, such as easy parking, paying less than you would for a new car, and feeling cooler than you are. Today, Zero announced its new lineup of electric motorcycles....

Yesterday’s fuel cells, like those seen here on Spacelab, require a hydrogen infrastructure. (Photograph by H4NUM4N)Coal is dirty, and fuel cells run on hydrogen–that’s the conventional wisdom. But a new generation of “direct carbon” fuel cells challenges that. Instead of relying on hard-to-produce hydrogen, these cells pull their power from an electrochemical reaction between oxygen and pulverized coal (or some other source of carbon, like biomass). The advantage: carbon-based energy production that requires no combustion, allowing it to operate at about twice the efficiency of a typical coal-fired power plant....

All flights departing Heathrow Airport in London were briefly suspended on Tuesday following a drone sighting near the airport, less than a month after another drone incident shut down neighboring Gatwick International for 36 hours. Departures were paused as a “precaution” shortly after 5 p.m. UK time, according to The Telegraph, with police responding to “reports of a sighting of a drone in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport.” Flights later resumed as normal at 6:15 p....

On June 26, 2016, an earthquake hit the Sea of Marmara, just outside Istanbul, Turkey. It wasn’t until 50 days later that it finally stopped. At the time, no one knew it was even happening. The earthquake is called a “slow-slip” event, and these types of quakes might be able to forecast more damaging quakes in the future.All earthquakes have the same basic cause: tectonic plates slipping and sliding against one another....

After much back and forth between Apple, the FBI, and other government bodies, the California tech company has filed its official, mandatory response to the state court order compelling it to aid the FBI in cracking into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. Apple’s first public resistance to the order came earlier this week, followed by Tim Cook’s insistence that Apple would take the issue all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary....

The wood carpenter’s pencil is an indispensable marking tool, but it has it flaws. The cheap ones are junk. Spend a few cents more and you can buy a better quality pencil (if you can find it) that will see you through the construction of an entire house, provided you don’t lose the thing. But then there’s sharpening. If you’ve got a good pencil and a sharp blade in your utility knife, you can whittle the tip of a carpenter’s pencil to a pleasingly sharp point....

Media Platforms Design TeamLOS ANGELES – By now, it’s to be expected: When you see a truly innovative video game here at E3’s cavalcade of unveilings, there’s a good shot you’ll see it again next year. And the next year. And so on. Killzone 2, a sci-fi shooter for the PlayStation 3, is one of the worst offenders. A trailer for the game debuted at E3 in 2005, and Sony later had to admit that the footage wasn’t, in fact, actual gameplay....