Giving robots sight and hearing is fairly straightforward these days, but equipping them with a robust sense of touch is far more difficult.
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Scientists say that our existing internet infrastructure — namely undersea cables — isn’t equipped to weather the next big solar storm. Here’s why.
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Mount St. Helens, Vesuvius, Krakatoa: history is full of volcanic eruptions that took humans by surprise and caused devastating damage. But with the help of drones, an international team of scientists from the US and seven other countries say they’ve…
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For the first time, scientists have observed signs of plasma "flowing, splashing and sloshing" in a galaxy cluster. This kind of motion has been predicted, but it was only theoretical. Now, with data on how the plasma moves, researchers hope to disco…
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Good news for goths — black somehow just got even blacker. MIT engineers have cooked up a material that's 10 times blacker than anything else previously reported. Capturing more than 99.96 percent of any incoming light, the material is made of verti…
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Water vapor is common in gas giants; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all have H2O floating around in their atmospheres. But water on a rocky planet is exceedingly rare, making the discovery of water vapor — and possibly even rain — on the exopl…
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The scientists that captured the first image of a black hole are being rewarded with a $ 3 million prize. The Breakthrough prize, known as the "Oscars of Science," is sponsored by Silicon Valley execs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, and recog…
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Nosebleed seats may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the University of California San Diego have created a prototype contact lens that is controlled by the eye's movements. Wearers can make the lenses zoom in or out by simply blinking twice…
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Your muscles are soft, pliable, and can resist fatigue after thousands of repetitive movements. Researchers at MIT have found a way to make synthetic hydrogels act like muscles by putting them through a vigorous workout. After being mechanically trai…
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A team of scientists at Stanford have figured out a way to make hydrogen fuel out of saltwater. The discovery could open up the world's oceans as a potential source of energy. Researchers view electrolysis, or the act of splitting water into hydrogen…
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Researchers have long suspected that a supermassive black hole lies in the center of our galaxy, and now they have strong evidence to support that suspicion. Using the Very Large Telescope — an array of four individual telescopes stationed in the At…
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There are research teams around the world dedicated to finding a remedy for the growing plastic pollution crisis, but now it seems that one group of scientists have found a feasible answer — and they stumbled upon it by accident. Researchers studyin…
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The 2017 winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics were announced today. One half of the prize will go to Ranier Weiss from MIT, while the other half is being awarded jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne, both from Caltech. The three scientists…
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Researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) presented a mission plan today at the European Planetary Science Congress that would allow scientists to observe hundreds of asteroids over the course of just a few years. Their plan is to sen…
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Now that they're spotting gravitational waves more often, scientists are expanding their search for cosmic events. Specifically, they're using new computer models to depict the cataclysmic collision that occurs when a black hole joins a neutron star…
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Your PIN code might be frighteningly easy to crack. Researchers at Newcastle University showed how a phone’s gyroscope and other sensors, along with special software, could crack it.
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Scientists in Germany have discovered a protein that can prompt the body’s blood stem cells to act young again, potentially reversing some of the bad aspects of the aging process.
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This week European scientists launched the “I Support AIM” campaign — an initiative to urge the European Space Agency (ESA) to move forward with its Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) in 2020. Over 100 scientists have signed on.
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A European research project lets scientists in Russia wear an exoskeleton to control a connected robot in Germany. It could one day allow earthbound scientists to control a robot on the ISS.
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If you think losing weight is simply diet plus exercise, the equation is not so simple. A recent study of Biggest Loser participants showed that even if you manage to drop pounds, your body will fight you for years afterward to gain them back. That's…
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It took us almost 50 years to get a close look at Pluto, so we think it's safe to say humanity has to wait a while before we can catch a glimpse of Planet Nine. In fact, we still have to prove that it really does exist. Mike Brown, who played a key r…
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Would you like to live 35 percent longer? Apparently the trick is removing worn-out "senescent' cells that have a degenerative affect on your body. "Cellular senescence is a biological mechanism that functions as an 'emergency brake' used by damaged…
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This week, scientists from Harvard University unveiled a new 4D printing process which manufactures objects capable of changing shape when submerged in water. The process uses a hydrogel composite filled with fibers of cellulose.
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Researchers believe they've identified the part of the brain which ends light sleep, called the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) cycle, and ultimately wakes you up. Professor Antoine Adamantidis from the University of Bern and his team found a neural ci…
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Researchers in Korea have developed the world’s first real, floating, three-dimensional hologram in the form of a Rubik’s Cube. The hologram appears thanks to the effect of diffraction from a complex system of high-powered multicolor lasers.
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Current solar panel technology has enough trouble as it is converting sunlight into useable current, what with their paltry 20 percent average efficiencies. And it certainly doesn't help matters that up to a tenth of every solar panel's active coll…
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University of Tokyo’s Janken robot is on a winning streak. Ever since its inception in 2013, the robot has never lost a game of rock-scissors-paper. Now on version 3.0, the robot is better than ever.
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