New engineering developments offer opportunities to develop smart wheelchair assistive technology that can improve the lives of many people who use wheelchairs. In our work, we are designing tomorrow's intelligent wheelchairs: we are developing a voice-commandable intelligent wheelchair that is aware of its surroundings so that it can assist its user in a variety of... Continue Reading →

Russians hackers stole more than 1.2 billion usernames and passwords in a series of attacks on about 420,000 websites, the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials.So far, the stolen information did not seem to have been sold. Most of the accounts hav been used to deliver marketing schemes and other viral messages.The breach was... Continue Reading →

Big wins can happen in small places.The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.The settlement was approved last year, but details were... Continue Reading →

In Harvard researcher Robert Wood’s lab, a robot the size of a quarter lifts off the ground, its wings a blur. This micromachine, or RoboBee, is a marvel of modern robotics, able to hover and steer by independently flapping its wings 120 times a second.RoboBee’s inventors think it might one day pollinate crops, supporting bee... Continue Reading →

At a sprawling shipyard in South Korea, workers dressed in wearable robotics were hefting large hunks of metal, pipes and other objects as if they were nothing. It was all part of a test last year by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, at their facility in Okpo-dong. The company, one of the largest shipbuilders in... Continue Reading →

Almost a year since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaked information was first revealed to the world, US officials today confirmed to CNN a new leaker is responsible for providing additional secret documents to The Intercept. The Intercept is an investigative website cofounded by Glenn Greenwald, the reporter to whom Snowden entrusted the bulk of... Continue Reading →

Imagine it: trillions of dollars worth of precious metals, fossil fuels, and fresh water, just lying around waiting to be claimed by anybody with a little know-how and an adventurer's spirit--any lucky person willing to travel a few million miles into the great black unknown, latch on to a big hunk of funny-shaped rock, and... Continue Reading →

Three-dimensional printing is changing the way the Army treats injuries and builds bombs, and now the technology is poised to revolutionize how soldiers are fed. 3D printing will allow the Army to print food on demand, from pasta to pizza, and tailor its nutritional content to an individual soldier’s needs. Feeding thousands of soldiers in... Continue Reading →

Of all the technologies coming in the near future, one stands out that is a social and political minefield. Ectogenesis: growing a fetus outside the body in an artificial womb. It has the possibility to change one of the most fundamental acts that most humans experience: the way people go about having children. It also... Continue Reading →