Cutting Edge

Meta glasses bring 3D and your hands into the picture

Meron Gribetz and Ben Sand just rolled into Silicon Valley from New York, landing at Paul Graham's Y Combinator startup incubator with some angel money in their pockets and the bold conviction that they can deliver the next major technology transformation.

Their startup, Meta, is developing wearable computing eyewear, but unlike Google Glass enters 3D space and uses your hands to interact with the virtual world. The Meta system includes stereoscopic 3D glasses, supplied by Epson, and a 3D camera to track hand movements, similar to the portrayals of gestural control in movies like "Minority Report" and &… Read more

NASA plans asteroid mission. First stop: Bennu

NASA's plan to go poking around on an asteroid, with the ultimate goal of snagging one of the space rocks and towing it closer to Earth, is moving forward, and a specific asteroid has been chosen to visit and sample in the next few years.

NASA has announced that the Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (Osiris-Rex) passed a key confirmation review Wednesday, approving the spacecraft to move into development phase. Translation: we're building a new spaceship, y'all!… Read more

Mars rover Opportunity hits new record for miles driven in space

The plucky little Mars rover Opportunity has proven itself to be the Marco Polo of space. This extraterrestrial robot has set the new record for miles explored by a NASA vehicle in a world other than Earth, according to NASA.

On its 3,309th Martian day on the planet, Opportunity drove 263 feet along the western rim of the Endeavour Crater and broke records by putting its total distance traveled on Mars at 22.22 miles.

The previous record was set 40 years ago by Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt when they visited the moon for a … Read more

How injectable nanogel could help fight diabetes

For diabetics who have to constantly manage their blood-sugar levels, insulin works. The problem is, many people with Type 1 diabetes have to prick their fingers multiple times a day to monitor their levels, and inject themselves with insulin when those levels are too high. And they don't always administer the right amount at the right time.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Children's Hospital hope to automate insulin delivery with a novel nanotech approach that involves injecting a gel that detects blood-sugar levels and secretes insulin when needed -- with a single injection doing do the trick for as many as 10 days.… Read more

UniKey Bluetooth door lock emerges as Kevo

Joining Apigy's Lockitron, the Kevo represents another attempt to link door-entry management to your smartphone.

The core technology behind Kevo comes from a company called UniKey, which was featured last year on ABC's startup competition show "Shark Tank." The idea is that a UniKey-powered door lock allows you to open the lock simply by touching it when you're carrying a UniKey-enabled smartphone or an included key fob. The technology also lets you assign access to others who have a UniKey-compatible smartphone.

The Kevo lock bearing the UniKey technology will come to market through a partnership … Read more

Dream Chaser space plane to begin NASA flight tests

In another sign of ever-increasing commercial spaceflight activity, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane has arrived at NASA for testing.

Wrapped in plastic, the craft arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it will eventually undergo its first autonomous free flight Approach and Landing Test (ALT).

Part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program along with SpaceX and Boeing, the Dream Chaser is designed to launch vertically on top of an Atlas 5 rocket, dock with the International Space Station, and then return to Earth like a glider, landing on a runway. … Read more

3D scanning shows a butterfly's metamorphosis

Thanks to the magic of dissection, we have a pretty good idea of the changes that occur when a caterpillar spins its chrysalis and enters its metamorphosis -- the developmental stage that sees it move from the juvenile larval stage to the gorgeous adult life of a butterfly.

However, as you might have already guessed, dissection destroys the specimen, meaning that researchers are unable to follow the full development of a creature. We do know that the caterpillar will use enzymes to break down some of its proteins to reform; Scientific American called this a cocoon full of "caterpillar soup." However, scientists have performed research revealing that while some breakdown occurs, the idea of caterpillar soup is mostly wrong (but still gross).

Using micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT scanning, which uses X-ray imaging to re-create 3D cross-sections of the scanned object, Tristan Rowe and Russell Garwood from the U.K's University of Manchester and Thomas Simonsen from London's Natural History Museum have discovered exactly what happens to a painted lady butterfly inside the chrysalis. … Read more

Google quantum computer lab to study artificial intelligence

Google is opening a new research lab to see if a quantum computer can solve problems too taxing for traditional computers.

Hosted by NASA's Ames Research Center, the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will be home to a quantum computer made by D-Wave Systems. Operated by the Universities Space Research Association, the supercomputer will be available to researchers around the world to work on their own projects.

The goal, as stated in a Google blog posted today, is "to study how quantum computing might advance machine learning."

Traditional computers are limited, as they think in terms of … Read more

NASA's Kepler telescope crippled by technical failures

The Kepler space observatory has been a source of great wonder since it first launched in 2009. It has turned its eyes out into the great vastness of space and seen new planetary systems and potentially life-supporting planets. The telescope's original 3.5-year mission was extended into 2016, but that may now come to a halt as serious technical issues take a toll.

Kepler is able to look out in certain directions thanks to four reaction wheels that are used to point the spacecraft. As of Wednesday, two out of four reaction wheels have failed.… Read more