Cutting Edge

The race for a lab-grown meat alternative has been on for years. Modern Meadow, for example, has gone after a type of 3D-printed meat using bioprinting techniques. Dutch tissue engineer Mark Post is using stem cells to make a lab-grown hamburger, one that may be actually going down someone's gullet very soon.

Post's Cultured Beef Project has been in development at Maastricht University in the Netherlands for some time thanks to $325,000 in funding from an anonymous donor. Cow muscle stem cells are grown into miniscule strips of tissue. Each strip can take several weeks to grow. It takes 20,000 of these to make a single hamburger. It's a time-consuming and expensive product at this stage of the project.… Read more

The X-47B prototype on Tuesday flew off an aircraft carrier and into the history books.

Today's achievement, the first-ever catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from the flight deck of a carrier, promises to open up a new chapter in the annals of naval aviation.

The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator launched from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush at 11:18 a.m. ET off the coast of Virginia. It executed several planned low approaches to the carrier -- a carrier landing will take place at a later time -- and then flew across … Read more

After keeping wildlife and sports photographers waiting for years, Canon has put a price tag on its 200-400mm supertelephoto lens with an unusual built-in 1.4x telephoto extender.

And it's not cheap: $11,799, at least on B&H Photo's preorder page for the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender.

Canon one-ups Nikon's $6,400 200-400mm lens with the 1.4x extender, which changes the Canon lens range to 280-560mm with a f5.6 aperture.

The built-in extender can be engaged by flipping a lever, a rapid operation that … Read more

The one-man media machine has landed.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield returned to Earth in a Soyuz descent capsule after his six-month stint on the International Space Station, during which he became an Internet sensation.

Along with ISS crewmates American astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romaneko, Hadfield was extracted from the capsule in the Kazakhstan morning (around 10:31 p.m. ET) following a smooth descent.

Hadfield, the last to emerge from the capsule, waved and gave a thumbs-up once he was propped in a chair in the sunshine.

The trio is to be whisked off by helicopter to … Read more

How do you top months of amazing photos, demos, and tunes done aboard the International Space Station? If you're Chris Hadfield, you cover David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in a showstopping finale.

On the eve of his return to Earth, the Canadian astronaut released a beautifully done video of himself singing the 1969 classic.

Mixed with the help of staff at the Canadian Space Agency, musician Emm Gryner, and others, the cover features a somber piano intro and modified lyrics that reference the Soyuz capsule that will return Hadfield to Kazakhstan. … Read more

Saturday saw a first for NASA and the International Space Station, as two astronauts conducted an impromptu spacewalk to try to locate the source of a problem on the craft's exterior.

The space agency hadn't yet ordered such a spur-of-the-moment maneuver in regard to the ISS, according to the Associated Press, but when crewmembers on the craft spotted ammonia flakes floating through space beyond a window Thursday, the spacewalk was hastily planned.

After Mission Control and the ISS crewmembers prepped intensely -- for less than 48 hours -- astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy exited a hatch and … Read more

Imagine carving your way down a particularly challenging slope, your skis kicking up clouds of snow, trees flying by, your death-defying stunts captured perfectly on camera. And you're all by yourself.

How would you pull off such a feat?

Short of those with a film crew on hand, or at least a buddy with a GoPro camera tracking your every move, it's hard to imagine it being possible at all, let alone while you're alone.

But you may not have to imagine it for long.

Next week, a startup called Universal Air will finish shipping out its … Read more

What if you could easily add custom-designed circuits to DIY projects like 3D-printed stuff? Here's a small mill that can churn them out with precision and power.

Othermill is a Kickstarter project that has quickly exceeded its fundraising goal. It's designed to be a portable, desktop three-axis mill that can produce printed circuit boards, jewelry, molds, and other objects.

Conceived by the wizards at San Francisco-based R&D shop Otherfab/Otherlab, known for its crazy inflatable robots, Othermill works with CAD software to cut material in three dimensions. Unlike 3D printing, it cuts material away instead of adding it. … Read more

For those who worry that even 24 hours without the ability to download 3D-printed gun blueprints is too much, fret no more: The Pirate Bay is on the case.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department successfully demanded the removal of a set of 3D-printed firearm files from Defcad, a file-sharing site run by Defense Distributed, the group at the center of the 3D-printed gun controversy.

The founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, told CNET on Thursday that he had been expecting the State Department's action, though he felt that the International Traffic in Arms Regulations permitted Defcad to … Read more