Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
Though it's unlikely that film critics will ever demand an Academy Award for IBM's A Boy And His Atom, this doesn't change the fact that the short flick is still a bloody good movie—for something that occurs on a microscopic level, anyway.
The proud holder of the Guinness World Record for World's Smallest Stop-Motion Film, A Boy And His Atom was created with the help of an IBM-invented scanning tunneling microscope. According to IBM Research's Christopher Lutz, the microscope is the first device that enables scientists to "visualize the world all the way down to single atoms."
Elizabeth Fish is a freelance writer who happens to run a hyperlocal news website in Lincoln, UK. She also covers all things geeky for TechHive. More by Elizabeth Fish
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science InstituteA false-color image of a giant hurricane-like storm on Saturn.
It seems like Saturn's atmosphere has brewed up a literal version of the phrase “a perfect storm,” judging from these images from a NASA spacecraft.
NASA’s Cassini probe took images of an enormous “hurricane” sweeping across the planet's north pole. Using false-color images, scientists were able to deduce that the eye of the hurricane alone is around 1,250 miles wide. To put that in perspective, that’s 20 times larger than a typical hurricane here on Earth.
Kevin is a small-time tech hound, amateur photographer, and a general know-at-least-something of all things geeky hailing from New York. More by Kevin Lee
SpaceShipTwo was first carried aloft to an altitude of about 47,000 feet (14,000 meters) by the mothership WhiteKnightTwo. Once it reached its cruising altitude of sorts, WhiteKnightTwo released the craft so it could test-fire its rocket engine. It ultimately reached a maximum supersonic speed of Mach 1.2, or roughly 913 miles per hour (1,500 kilometers per hour), which is well past the speed of sound (768 miles per hour or 1,236 kilometers per hour).
Elizabeth Fish is a freelance writer who happens to run a hyperlocal news website in Lincoln, UK. She also covers all things geeky for TechHive. More by Elizabeth Fish
Well, this is it, guys. Here’s where humans really do start become obsolete. We’re now building robots that can not only play sports, but can learn how to play better using an artificial brain that works like a human's.
Researchers from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology built a robot that can hit baseballs. The artificial brain is built around a Nvida GPU and it contains around 100,000 neurons, each programmed to focus solely on playing baseball.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. More by Sharon Gaudin, Computerworld
NASA engineers are waiting to see if they can pull a long-running Mars rover out of stand-by mode.
The Mars rover Opportunity, which has been working on the Red Planet for more than nine years, put itself into stand-by mode this month during a period when communications with its handlers on Earth were cut off.
Earlier this month, communication with all NASA's machines working on Mars became spotty and then stopped all together because the sun was almost directly in the path between Earth and Mars.
Kevin is a small-time tech hound, amateur photographer, and a general know-at-least-something of all things geeky hailing from New York. More by Kevin Lee
Coffee, one of the most important drinks in the world, is also one of the most terrible things you consume in space. Since the Apollo days, astronauts have complained about these freeze-dried, premixed packages of coffee.
But no more! A group of freshman engineering students at Rice University have developed a solution that will let our space explorers mix exactly the right amount of sugar and creamer to their cup—er, bag of Joe.
Elizabeth Fish is a freelance writer who happens to run a hyperlocal news website in Lincoln, UK. She also covers all things geeky for TechHive. More by Elizabeth Fish
Where you one of those kids who liked to wave a magnet against your old CRT display to watch the rainbow of colors bending to your will? You certainly weren’t the only one, and a German artist wants to help you relive those memories, albeit on a grander scale.
Carsten Nicolai created the “crt mgn” project in memory of artist Nam June Paik and his work with magnets. The installation consists of two arms equipped with magnets thar swing like pendulums above two CRT displays. The movement of the magnets creates a bright, rippling effect across the monitors. Carsten also took photos of the effects, producing images such as the one above.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
