Cutting Edge

The world is changing fast for Sigma Chief Executive Kazuto Yamaki.

The leader of the Japanese camera lens manufacturer has some successes on its hands, most notably the recent 35mm f1.4 DG lens that's brought new cachet to the Sigma brand. But at the same time, new contenders in the camera market have shattered the stable dominance of Canon and Nikon.

Camera makers old and new have begun jockeying for dominance in the chaotic world of small "mirrorless" models that bring interchangeable lenses to cameras much smaller than traditional SLRs. Contenders there include Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, … Read more

System administrator and photographer Jared Earle took some amazing photos of the recent supermoon, and he's willing to share his secrets with the world. He didn't have to break into an observatory or fly his camera to the edges of space. In true MacGyver fashion, he only required an iPhone and a telescope to pull off the photo shoot.

The telescope was a necessary part of the equation. While Earle said any telescope will work, he used a 5-inch Celestron spotter scope with his iPhone 4S. He also used a Magnifi adapter, a photo adapter case designed to attach an iPhone to most pieces of optical equipment, whether it's a microscope, binoculars, or a telescope.… Read more

Much like Steve Jobs and Apple's original iPhone, cybersecurity specialist Dan Roelker and DARPA have a vision for executing cyberwarfare that "just works."

According to an in-depth feature over at Wired, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which originally helped to create the internet, is now looking at ways to manage the battlefield our networks have evolved into that is as intuitive as a game of Angry Birds.

Dubbed Plan X, the initiative to create a technology infrastructure to allow those with little or no hacking experience to engage in cyberwarfare has tapped some of the biggest names in tech, design, and gaming.

Some of the ideas for interfaces ranged from Google Glass-like wearables to a gesture-based system using a Kinect, but the Wired piece focuses on a prototype from Frog Design centered on a Samsung Touch Table.… Read more

It's not the same as turning lead into gold, but scientists at the Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 have developed a method for turning cement into a liquid metal semiconductor.

The process sounds like a mad scientist's invention. It involves equipment like an aerodynamic levitator and a carbon dioxide laser beam. The levitator uses gas pressure to keep the material out of contact with any container surfaces. The carbon dioxide laser beam can heat the material to 3,632 degrees Fahrenheit.… Read more

The computer graphics industry has an insatiable appetite for realism, and researchers next month will show how they plan to feed it with innovations in computerized hair, snow, cloth, paper, and more.

Those researchers will strut their stuff at the annual Siggraph 2013 conference in Anaheim, Calif. Conference organizers published a video preview of coming attractions at Siggraph for those who want a taste of the technical papers.

Siggraph attendees can relish work at UCLA and Walt Disney Animation Studios to combine "a Lagrangian/Eulerian semi-implicitly solved material-point method with an elasto-plastic constitutive model."

The rest of the … Read more

From personal photographers to aerial artworks, drones are finding new applications every day. Now Germany's national rail network wants to deploy them against graffiti.

Deutsche Bahn says its trains were defaced about 14,000 times in 2012 alone, costing the operator about $9.8 million in cleanup expenses.

The company will start testing drones at large rail depots, where vandalism frequently occurs at night. The drones will be nearly silent and will have GPS tracking and sensitive infrared cameras to establish evidence for criminal prosecution.

The drones will fly at altitudes up to 492 feet with a top speed … Read more

Buzz Aldrin is one of just a handful of people on earth with good reason to be unimpressed with the idea of a "moon shot." After all, he's among the privileged few who can say "Meh. Been there, done that."

Aldrin is far more interested in a Mars shot these days.

The second man to step on the moon in 1969 -- right behind the late Neil Armstrong -- is now 83 years old and out with a new book "Mission to Mars," in which he outlines his vision for taking humans to Mars by 2035.… Read more

Spider silk is about four or five times stronger than steel, but it is remarkably lightweight. So, what would it feel like to walk around in a suit woven of the stuff?

Spiber, a startup in northern Japan, is showing off a dress made from synthetic spider silk. The firm is one of several groups looking into how to make and use artificial spider silk, a task that has proven to be very challenging for scientists.

The electric-blue dress was created from a material Spiber calls Qmonos (from kumonosu, or "spider web," in Japanese). The material is extremely strong and more flexible than nylon. … Read more

Better Place wanted to make the world a better place by replacing gas stations with battery switching stations that would remove the driving mileage limitations from electric cars and eventually rid the world of fossil-fuel burning vehicles. But after six years and burning through $850 million, the company is filing for liquidation in an Israeli court.

As reported by the Associated Press, Better Place's Board of Directors issued a written statement Sunday announcing that the company was winding down.

"This is a very sad day for all of us. We stand by the original vision as formulated by … Read more