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Of all the tools you use to shape wood, the hand plane is the one that has come to symbolize craftsmanship of the highest order. And it’s no surprise. Here’s a cutting tool that’s designed to create truth: dead straight and flat surfaces ready for finishing and precise joinery. Tuning one up and mastering its use are two of the greatest thrills of woodworking. But, if you really want to bring the planes in your shop to the next level, it’s time to make your own....

The James Webb Space Telescope is set to be the biggest, baddest telescope in space, taking the crown from Hubble after (at launch) a 25 year run. But before JWST can launch in 2018, NASA needs to make sure it’s ready for space. They do that by simulating space here on Earth. This video from NASA Goddard shows the team inside the clean room of the Webb telescope, preparing it for a final cryogenic test in the Space Environment Simulator....

Mathematical proofs, or ways of showing one’s work, have become extremely complicated. One mathematician worries whether proof-checking has kept up.In a new lecture, a number theorist challenges ideas of memory and trust, saying computers can aid human conception of big proofs.While most math is likely right, he cautions, computerizing proofs would allow people known beyond any reasonable doubt. Kevin Buzzard’s video lecture, “The Future of Mathematics?” begins with a story about both him and his romantic partner finding boxes from their youth....

To produce good music, you need a good set of tools. Artists require a bevy of instruments and technology to create and mix songs, but at the center of it all is the digital audio workstation (DAW). Perhaps the most crucial part of a producer’s setup, the DAW is an electronic device or application software designed to compose, record, edit, and mix audio. It also serves as a receptacle of all the audio elements you want to incorporate in a track, which you then arrange and harmonize to make music magic....

One of the world’s greatest meteor showers, the Leonids, will return this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting, you can watch the sky fill with up to 20 meteors per hour.Known for “producing great meteor storms in the years of 1833, 1866, 1966, and 2001,” according to the American Meteor Society, the Leonids stem from an icy parent comet known as Tempel-Tuttle. Discovered independently by American Horace Tuttle and German Ernst Wilhelm Tempel in the 1860s, Temple-Tuttle comes by Earth every 33 years or so....

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has died at 55 years old, the company announced in a short statement today.Iwata had been with Nintendo for decades, working on games like Kirby and Balloon Fight back in the 1980s. He became president in 2002, succeeding Hiroshi Yamauchi, who had led Nintendo’s ascension as a world gaming power. Says Kotaku:In his time as President, Iwata oversaw some of the strongest (Wii, DS) and weakest (GameCube, Wii U) periods in Nintendo’s history as a video game company....

Scientists are modeling radiation-scrubbing technology for use in space after mechanisms from nature.Solar flares affect Earth’s atmosphere much the same way scientists believe a nuclear blast could.Research has focused on ways to pump very low frequency radio waves into radiated areas to blast electrons away.The AAAS’s Science magazine reports that scientists are studying natural ways to remove radiation in order to create artificial versions. Their goal is to make sure humankind has a way to clear interfering nuclear radiation out of space in order to restore communications and more following hypothetical use of a nuclear weapon....

After the threat of a rocky landing, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down on Sunday night in an unexplored region near the Martian north pole, then sent back its first images of the planet’s surface.The first critical pieces of hardware have been deployed successfully, including solar arrays and the long stereoscopic camera that will examine the surroundings for earthbound geologists to geek out over and help aim the robotic digging arm....

Over the last few days, several prominent figures have received pipe bombs from an unknown terrorist, apparently with a political motivation—all the targets are vocal critics of President Trump. Devices have been delivered through the mail and by courier to locations around the country. In the wake of these troubling attacks, you may be wondering how the authorities determine that a package is “suspicious” and what happens after they carry the object away....

A rocket booster from a Chinese rocket that launched Friday, January 12 local time, fell back to Earth and exploded near a small town in the Guangxi province of southwest China, according to GBTimes. No injuries or casualties have been reported from the incident. A local video posted to the ChinaSpaceflight Twitter account caught the whole fiery scene. View full post on TwitterThe rocket booster was one of four strap-on boosters used on China’s Long March 3B rocket to provide extra thrust....

View full post on VimeoThe cargo ship of the future will be a bridge that looks more like Gene Roddenberry than Herman Melville, at least if Rolls-Royce gets its way. The concept is called oX Bridge, and Rolls images it as a suite of technologies including augmented reality that would help a vessel to navigate rough waters, whether it’s on a rescue mission or just traversing a treacherous route. The company thinks the concept bridge could come to life by 2025....

An industry conference has voted to allow 5G providers to trespass through weather satellite frequencies.Scientists have been trying to avoid this outcome since at least April, but some seem optimistic about finding a way forward.Weather data touches daily life in many ways, including in emergency preparation.In April, Popular Mechanics reported that 5G network frequencies could interfere with weather satellites on a very similar frequency. Now, The Verge reports that the mobile industry has struck a blow against the concerns of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other weather data organizations....

Media Platforms Design Team Following on the coattails of contests in the name of education such as the Automotive X-Prize and FIRST, the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors are backing a new competition (a follow-up to theChallenge X contest), called EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, in which 17 colleges work to design, develop and prove the very best in eco-friendly car design. Schools will use different approaches and will team up with different partners, with fuel-efficiency projects that use a complete Saturn Vue as the starting point, then working to modify or completely replace the factory drivetrain....

Compressed air, power outlets, and proper lighting are three essentials for DIYers, and life in the workshop suddenly becomes much easier when all three are always within reach. That’s why we like the Chamberlain Garage Station, an overhead solution that improves your garage and makes DIY a cinch.The Chamberlain installs on the ceiling and provides a 25-ft. auto-retractable utility cord that delivers compressed air, a power outlet, and an LED light to wherever you need it....

Media Platforms Design Team"The Clock" is a perfectly good timepiece, but its creator envisioned it as something more—a work of art. This mechanical beauty uses 60 LED lights, 1161 diodes, 340 transistors, and 346 resistors. The LEDs light up to visualize time in a unique and creative way: They’re powered by the 60hZ voltage common to American appliances. Creator Gislain Benoit explains:The clock reference, in other words the heartbeat of this clock, comes from the AC outlet....

South Korean scientists have developed tiny robots that don’t need an engine or battery to power their movements. But it’s not perpetual motion. Instead, the robots run on environmental humidity, absorbing the moisture in their surroundings to be powered by water.In a new paper in Science Robots, the scientists from Seoul National University describe the advantages of microrobots and how their so-called hygrobots could increase their usage. Microrobots can already help people have children and pull cars, but they’re limited by the number of power sources available to them....

There are few things more annoying than an inbox so crammed with junk mail that you begin losing valuable correspondence inside a tidal wave of spam.So New Zealand cybersecurity firm Netsafe has unveiled a creative solution to combat automated spam emails—automated spam responses. Called Re:scam, a chatbot will reply to spam emails for you, taking up the spammer’s time so they don’t bother you or someone else.View full post on YoutubeIf you receive a spam email, you can forward it to the address me@rescam....

Robotic arms can’t quite mimic the warm embrace of a human hug. From Mars rovers to undersea explorers, robotic arms are generally focused on the utilitarian ask of grabbing. But that stiffness comes with some unpleasant disadvantages, which is why engineers at Harvard, Baruch College, and the University of Rhode Island have built a range of soft robotic grippers for undersea bots that need to handle more sensitive material.Using a glove with wireless sensors, scientists can control a new, unique modular, soft robotic “arm” that can grasp and take samples from even the most delicate aquatic life....

A team of government and university researchers is tackling how to launch drones on the move. Their system involves using a modified baseball pitching machine and fishing line to launch a drone into the air.The drone is being developed for emergency personnel and planetary research, but the military applications are obvious. A team of researchers from Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab have settled on a novel way to launch drones in a hurry: shoot them into the air with a baseball pitching machine....

Media Platforms Design TeamIschemic strokes, caused by blood clots that can develop in the brain and cut off blood flow, make up more than 80 percent of strokes suffered in the U.S. annually. To date, the most effective treatment is the clot-dissolving thrombolysis drug tissue plasminogen activator, tPA. But tPA is a far-from-perfect solution, says Andrew Barreto, a neurologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. “IV-tPA will help about 30 of 100 patients who receive it within the first 4....