STEM

Anyone that’s ever tried to plan an outdoor activity in advance knows that weather forecasting is not an exact science, but the perpetual sky-watchers at NASA may have inadvertently found a way to improve these guesstimations. They have been testing a laser system for measuring lunar dust and soil kicked up by rocket exhausts, and Continue Reading →

Hairspray might one day serve as the sign that aliens have reshaped distant worlds, researchers say. Such research to find signs of alien technology is now open to funding from the public. Science fiction has long imagined that humans could transform hostile alien worlds into livable ones, a procedure known as terraforming. For instance, to Continue Reading →

Turkey and all the trimmings are a staple for Americans on Thanksgiving, and that doesn’t have to change for Americans in space. Astronaut food has come a long way from the early days of human spaceflight, and crewmembers on the International Space Station these days can enjoy many Turkey Day traditions, such as cornbread stuffing, Continue Reading →

These are tough times for plagiarists and would-be academic cheaters. That may seem a counter-intuitive statement, given how much material is online, just waiting to be copied-and-pasted, and how many services are ready to write your papers for you for a nominal (or not so nominal) consideration. But just as authoritarian governments can use Twitter Continue Reading →

I’ve been thinking about the future of robotics, artificial intelligence (also known as A.I.) and the future of sports. I’m a futurist and can’t help it. When I talk to people about the future of these things, people are pretty fearful of it. They worry that robots will take our jobs and that A.I. will Continue Reading →

You’ve seen the films, you’ve read the popular science stories. It’s time to ask: when will you have your invisibility cloak? Hold your horses. It’s looking like a great many things inspired by cloaking science will come to pass before then. Behind most cloaking ideas is the use of metamaterials – materials whose properties are Continue Reading →

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, reaching 1 billion active users at the beginning of October. People across the globe use Facebook to connect with old friends, share news about their lives and even to maximize their brand’s social reach. In its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook lists a minimum age requirement of Continue Reading →

Maker culture is moving from a small movement to the mainstream. There is no better proof of this than the attendance figures at the Maker Faire. Created in 2006 as a gathering for the MAKE magazine crowd, the Maker Faire is held in over 20 cities worldwide, with the flagship faire in the Bay Area, Continue Reading →

Researchers at Stanford claim they’ve figured out how to erase the traumatic memories of mice while they sleep bringing them one step closer to their goal of ending PTSD for humans. Apparently a prescription memory-eraser could even be on the way. Are we closer to an Eternal Sunshine moment than we think? The conventional treatment Continue Reading →

We don’t yet know how to kill the common cold—we can only suppress it. But we might be able to use the ever-changing virus to kill something else we’ve been unable to destroy: cancer. According to researchers at the Salk Institute, the common cold has the ability to prevent cells from killing themselves when infected Continue Reading →