Cutting Edge

In his quarterly earnings letter to shareholders on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that "Tesla reached profitability in the first quarter of 2013 for the first time in our 10-year history."

Not only did the electric car company exceed analyst expectations, but Musk said (PDF) Tesla even outdid its own expectations for deliveries and gross margin. The company reported adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $562 million, which is far higher than the expected 3 cents per share. Its profit was $11 million after charges.

Tesla's total revenue for the first quarter … Read more

It's that time of year when student boffins the world over display their final projects, offering tantalizing glimpses into their mad-scientist machinations, and possibly the future.

If inventions out of the California Institute of the Arts -- founded by Walt Disney in the early 1960s and now one of the nation's top art schools -- prove prescient, that future includes a wearable interface that lets dancers control music with the flick of a finger and a virtual studio where you can compose tunes by crouching toward the floor. The school will feature those and more student and faculty innovations Thursday at its Digital Arts and Technology Expo, which this year focuses on future directions in gaming, animation, human computer interaction, digital performance, graphic design, projection mapping, and machine learning. … Read more

Lockheed Martin's ADAM laser weapon wants to step up its game.

In a series of tests in March and April, the prototype directed-energy system destroyed eight small-caliber rocket targets in flight at a range of approximately 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile), Lockheed said Wednesday. The defense contractor described the targets as "free-flying Qassam-like rockets," making reference to the simple but deadly projectiles developed by the military arm of the Palestinian group Hamas.

You can see a video of one of those test-firings below.

The 2013 tests follow a series of trials in 2012 when the ADAM (… Read more

We've all known people who, let's face it, have a bit of a pong, and not the cool video game kind. The trouble is that no one wants to be the impolite person who lets them know about it. Well, two companies in Japan have designed a pair of robots that do it for you.

The robots, designed by robot manufacturer CrazyLabo in collaboration with the Kitakyushu National College of Technology, are in the shape of a girl's head and a rather lumpy-looking dog, and they can detect the aromas emanating from your breath and your socks, respectively.

The girl, called "Kaori-chan" (which means perfume or fragrance), analyzes a person's breath when they exhale into her open mouth (ew). A commercially available odor sensor quantifies the components on the breath and give it a rating on a scale of one to four: … Read more

We can't help but leave our DNA all over the place. If you drop a chewed piece of gum or a cigarette butt, it might get picked up by artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg. She may mine it for DNA, analyze the results, and generate a portrait based on the data. That's either really spooky, really cool, or a bit of both.

Dewey-Hagborg's Stranger Visions project combines artistry and science while raising questions about genetic privacy. She starts by collecting genetic material from public places. She then analyzes it at a lab, mining the DNA for information like gender, ethnicity, and eye color.… Read more

Douglas MacArthur famously said that old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Some old aircraft take a different route: they go digital.

Boeing announced Tuesday that it has received a $76 million contract that will enable the company to start upgrading the U.S. Air Force's aging but still potent fleet of B-52 Stratofortress bombers with Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) systems. CONECT is designed to let B-52 aircrews send and receive information via satellite links, meaning they'll be able to change mission plans and reset weapons targets in flight. Pilots also will be able to interact … Read more

While we remain dubious about the legitimacy of using the word "invisible" when visible light isn't involved, that's what a team of engineers at Duke University have dubbed their creation. Seven years ago, they demonstrated their first "invisibility cloak" in a laboratory; now, thanks to 3D printing, the fabrication process is a lot more accessible.

The object -- which looks more like a Frisbee made of Swiss cheese than a wearable cape a la Harry Potter -- has a large hole in the center, with seemingly random holes in the disc. The size, shape, and placement of these holes have actually been determined using algorithms to disguise any object placed in the center hole from microwave beams aimed through the side of the disc, making it appear as though the object isn't there. … Read more

Tesla, the electric car maker, has been in talks with Google about the development of a self-driving car, the former's CEO revealed Tuesday.

In a Bloomberg interview, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his company has "had some technical discussions with Google" about the search giant's self-driving car technology. However, he pointed out that the technology that Google uses, which is based on laser sensors to detect what's around, is too expensive to be feasible anytime soon.

Instead, Musk told Bloomberg, he'd like to see a camera-based system that "sees" what's … Read more

Google Glass has generated plenty of interest and excitement. But before we crown it an industry revolutionizer, let's not forget that Google Glass still doesn't have a clear response to the one big question that all revolutionary products must answer:

How does it make my life better?

Every game-changing product innovation over the past three decades had a very simple answer to that question. For example, the iPhone gave you the Internet in your pocket. The BlackBerry gave you e-mail on your phone. The Macintosh (and later Windows) gave you a computer you could use without typing in … Read more