Here Comes Tomorrow

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June 2008
- Mars Through a Microscope
  
  Reuters | Jun 6, 08 7:34 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Phoenix Mars Lander has taken the first high-resolution images of another planet's dirt and sand in its continued quest for signs of life in the planet's polar region. The microscopic particles were kicked up when the lander touched down and collected on a slide, Reuters reports. Scientists note that a whitish material in one image probably is not ice but some kind of mineral. More »
- Now They Can Boldly Go
  
  BBC | Jun 5, 08 3:47 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A Russian astronaut worked like a space janitor for two hours to finally fix a toilet aboard the International Space Station yesterday, the BBC reports. The space shuttle Discovery delivered a new pump for the broken toilet, which has dominated NASA press conferences. "It's something perhaps everyday people can relate to," said one NASA official. More »
- Neil Young Steering His '59 Lincoln Green
  
  Associated Press | Jun 3, 08 12:12 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Neil Young has shifted gear in his quest to make the world a better place, reports the AP. The Canadian rock legend known for his protest songs is working with a Wichita mechanic to convert his 1959 Lincoln Continental to run on an electric battery. Young hopes the prototype could be a model for the world's first affordable, mass-market electric car. More »
May 2008
- Robot Offers Hope to Would-Be Spidermen
  
  MIT Technology Review | May 29, 08 3:30 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Researchers have created a wall-climbing robot that uses electrically activated adhesion to get up any surface—dusty, wet, glass or concrete. Other Spiderman-imitating machines use a different kind of gecko-inspired technology and generate stronger sticking power than the new ‘bot, but the simplicity of the approach means it could work for human wall-climbing, MIT Technology Review reports. More »
- Self-Fixing Plane in the Works
  
  Gizmag | May 28, 08 5:55 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - British aerospace engineers are working on technology that could create self-repairing aircraft, Gizmag reports. In a technique very much like nature's healing process, resin would "bleed" out of damaged parts of the plane and harden, making a damaged aircraft strong enough to continue to fly until it could be repaired properly on the ground. More »
- Nanotech Cancer Risk Seen
  
  Los Angeles Times | May 21, 08 4:28 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Researchers have found that microscopic “wonder particles” used in a small number of materials, including bicycle parts and bumpers, have asbestos-like effects if inhaled, the Los Angeles Times reports. Consumers aren’t really at risk from the carbon nanotubes, but factory workers making the products could be, the researchers concluded. More »
- Microsoft Takes Windows to the Walls
  
  CNET | May 15, 08 8:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Microsoft has already unveiled mega-expensive “Surface” computers, with which a user interacts solely through touch. Now, cNet reports, it's unveiled an impressive lower-budget version: the TouchWall. Touchwall looks like an ordinary projector, except that the image it projects on the wall is itself an interactive touch screen. More »
- Robo-Maestro Takes Baton
  
  Guardian (UK) | May 14, 08 3:27 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - It was classical music, but when the Detroit Symphony Orchestra hit its final note last night, it sounded an awful lot like the future. Honda’s Asimo robot led a real, live, human orchestra, and though the android was only repeating the recorded movements of a human, the performance went beautifully, impressing the musicians and delighting the crowd, the Guardian reports. More »
April 2008
- PETA Offering $1M Prize for Test Tube Meat
  
  New York Times | Apr 21, 08 10:21 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - PETA is offering a $1 million reward to the first researchers who can figure out a commercially viable artificial meat-production system, the New York Times reports. Scientists have been working on in vitro meat for years, hoping to grow edible tissue cultures that could replace slaughtered livestock. But there was a “near civil war” within the animal-rights group over the reward. More »
- Firm Poised to Boost Wireless Tracking
  
  Wall Street Journal | Apr 14, 08 4:19 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A Los Angeles company has figured out a way to make a radio frequency identification (RFID) system that is cheaper and has better range, the Wall Street Journal reports. New wireless networks could expand to cover entire warehouses, keeping track of individual items with cheaper radio tags. "I think this could have significant impact," a technology analyst says. More »
March 2008
- Shuttle to Launch Giant Robot Into Space
  
  Houston Chronicle | Mar 10, 08 2:05 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - When the shuttle Endeavour launches at 2:28am tomorrow, it will carry what has been pure sci-fi until now: a giant space robot. After astronauts assemble it, Canada’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, known as “Dextre,” will roam the outside of the International Space Station completing repairs considered too dangerous for spacewalkers, the Houston Chronicle reports. More »
- Quantum Computing Works in Experiment
  
  Ars Technica | Mar 4, 08 11:44 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - In theory, a quantum supercomputer would be insanely powerful. By manipulating atoms, quantum bits—qubits, for short—would never be definite 1s or 0s. Instead, they would be both at once, in theory allowing a device using them to solve nigh-impossible problems. That theory is getting closer to reality, Ars Technica reports. In recent as-yet-unpublished research, scientists report they've made a tiny two qubit computer. More »
- Robot Dogs Cheer Up Elderly
  
  Associated Press | Mar 1, 08 8:02 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Robot dogs are almost as effective as the real thing in cheering up elderly nursing home residents, a new study at St. Louis University has found. Once the patients had some time to get used to him, researchers say robot mutt AIBO lowered loneliness levels about as well as a lovable therapy dog named Sparky did in a control group, the AP reports. More »
February 2008
- States Cracking Down on 'Spychip' Privacy Lapses
  
  Ars Technica | Feb 27, 08 9:02 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Radio Frequency ID tags—data-loaded microchips that track everything from shipping containers to cars to humans—increasingly are raising concerns with privacy advocates who worry the “spychips” could reveal too much about our lives, reports Ars Technica . Tech-savvy states such as Washington and California are trying to legislate RFIDs, banning non-consensual chip reading and regulating how RFIDs are used. More »
- Move Over, Heisenberg: Electron Caught on Film
  
  LiveScience | Feb 26, 08 12:40 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Electrons are tiny, fast, and, until recently, impossible to capture on film. But a short, super-slow-mo video offers the first direct look at the wily subatomic particle. Coaxing the reclusive electron into the limelight took major maneuvering by Swedish scientists, LiveScience reports. The paparazzi of physicists caught the negative particle by using extremely short pulses of laser light. More »
- Terrifying Robot Is Ready to Massage Breasts
  
  Gizmodo | Feb 25, 08 3:08 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The developer of a new robot designed to massage women's breasts is full of ideas for the gadget, reports the Gizmodo blog. Wang Wei of Beijing BUBBY Robot Technologies suggests numerous potential customers for the Breast Massage Robot, including "girls who are reaching or having reached puberty, hope to improve the growth of breast," and "women, who are under pressure, want to relax themselves." More »
- Olé! Breeder to Clone Prize Bull
  
  Independent (UK) | Feb 24, 08 2:16 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Alcalde is one in a million: The hulking black bull's sons have struck fear in the hearts of Spain's bravest matadors for more than a decade. But now, in his waning years, his famed breeder has commissioned a US company to make him two in a million—with the cloned bull taking Alcalde's place as sire to champions. More »
- Japan Launches Super Speed Internet Satellite
  
  Associated Press | Feb 23, 08 1:33 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Japan today launched a satellite that, if successful, will be able to sling information across Japan and remote parts of Southeast Asia at high speeds and low cost, the AP reports. The satellite, dubbed “Kizuna,” won’t be used commercially–instead, scientists will run about 100 experiments on it, including a test HDTV broadcast. But researchers hope it will help Japan build one of the most advanced networks on the planet, Reuters reports. More »
- A.I. Will Match Human Brain in 20 Years
  
  BBC | Feb 16, 08 6:54 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - One engineer and futurist says it’s only a matter of time before machines are as smart as people, and people are part machine, the BBC reports. Ray Kurzweil claims that artificial intelligence will produce human-level smarts and even emotions by 2029. Humans, meanwhile, will inject nanobots into their brains to improve intelligence. More »
- DWI: Driving While Immersed
  
  Times (UK) | Feb 15, 08 2:13 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The first car capable of diving and maneuvering both underwater and on land is in the works, the London Times reports. Inspired by James Bond’s Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me, the sQuba is an electric-powered open-top two-seater that "moves like a fish in the water" and can dive 33 feet down. More »