A new resource unveiled today by researchers from several Harvard University labs in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin provides both experienced and aspiring researchers with the intellectual raw materials needed to design, build, and operate robots made from soft, flexible materials. With the advent of low-cost 3D printing, laser cutters, and other advances in manufacturing... Continue Reading →

Home Depot said today that cyber criminals armed with custom-built malware stole an estimated 56 million debit and credit card numbers from its customers between April and September 2014. That disclosure officially makes the incident the largest retail card breach on record. The disclosure, the first real information about the damage from a data breach... Continue Reading →

Just 40 percent of Americans put a “great deal or fair amount” of trust in the media–a majority tied for the lowest rate since Gallup started tracking trust in the media nearly 20 years ago. After registering slightly higher trust last year, Americans’ confidence in the media’s ability to report “the news fully, accurately, and... Continue Reading →

Check out this latest citizen-science project. It's a site where you can look at photos gathered by an Antarctic network of wildlife cameras and mark if there are penguins in the photos. In other weo you get to look at cute animals online and help environmental science! Sounds like a win-win to me. A warning:... Continue Reading →

A chin strap that can harvest energy from jaw movements has been created by a group of researchers in Canada. It is hoped that the device can generate electricity from eating, chewing and talking, and power a number of small-scale implantable or wearable electronic devices, such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, electronic hearing protectors and... Continue Reading →

Australian engineering students have invented a simple water filter using chip packers and glass tubing, in response to the 1.5 million deaths around the world caused by polluted water every year. A team of students at the University of Adelaide in South Australia has come up with a super-cheap and easy way of putting together... Continue Reading →

Just over 1 percent of the American population has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that causes debilitating symptoms including paranoid delusions, auditory hallucinations, and impaired social behavior. A new study has revealed that schizophrenia is not one disease, but eight disorders with genetically distinct causes. This could dramatically change how schizophrenia is... Continue Reading →

Yesterday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new therapy for patients with advanced melanoma. The treatment, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), proved so successful in a large Phase 1 clinical trial that the drug was granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA, meaning that it was fast tracked for approval. Melanoma is a type of... Continue Reading →

Remember the giant hole in the Earth's ozone layer? Scientists say it's shrinking a little, thanks in part to the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, beginning in the 1980s. For the first time in 35 years, scientists have confirmed a statistically significant increase in the amount of ozone, which shields us from skin cancer and... Continue Reading →

Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS), a small firm in Stockton-on-Tees, UK, has succeedin in synthesizing gasoline from water and carbon dioxide (CO2) extracted from air. The Independent reported on Friday that the company has manufactured five liters of gas since August using a small refinery at its demonstrator plant. While that is a small volume to... Continue Reading →