Science

I guess there are a lot of things you can do with a home planetarium projector, like the HomeStar Pro Planetarium that I read about on Uncrate. You can use it to create spectacular ceiling art for your next party (just make sure nobody spills anything on the $350 projector), or to woo that cute astronomy geek next door. Or, you could (gasp) actually learn about the night sky. It's got all kind of cool stories behind it, you know, like science-y stuff and mythology and whatnot. For real.

But, since it's Monday morning and I've already … Read more

This looks kind of like the slide projector that we used in my third-grade social studies class back in...whenever I was in third grade. But it's not: it's actually a digital tool to enhance the experience of bird-watching, called the Song Sleuth Digital Bird Detector. Turn it on, and it can decipher 160,000 different bird calls in real time, thanks to audio data from Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology. It can also record sound so that you can put it on your computer later, for whatever reason.

I might be wrong about this, as bird-watching … Read more

It could be the 21st-century version of the Sunday drive: Blow up the hot-air blimp, take it for a spin, then fold it up and put it away.

Of course, that's assuming you've got $200,000 liquefying your Tiffany money clip.

The Personal Blimp from Skyacht Aircraft made its maiden voyage in late October, and although the company calls it a blimp, it's essentially a steerable hot-air balloon. It utilizes hot air in place of helium and is propelled by electric motors.

Though the cost may seem high for a leisure activity, consider that the average helium … Read more

Lest there be any doubt about the convergence of digital technology and the human body, consider this: a "bio-inkjet printer."

Carnegie Mellon scientists working on stem-cell research have developed a printer that uses "bio-ink," which Popular Mechanics describes as "solutions of hormones that alter cell behavior." In an article that sounds like natural sci-fi fodder, the magazine says the machine uses a custom-made nozzle that prints highly accurate patterns "to create a blueprint for cells to grow and differentiate into the various types that scientists want to create."

And why not? Manufacturing … Read more

If you think you can fool a breathalyzer by downing a whole tin of Altoids, don't bother (we have friends who've tried). Besides, testing for alcohol levels by breath may soon be a thing of the past thanks to newer technologies.

Take this machine from a company called TruTouch Technologies, for example, which tests for blood alcohol by analyzing the skin and can yield results in 30 seconds. Uber Review says the technology uses "infrared reflectance spectroscopy," which we're all familiar with, of course.

Just don't mistake it for a toy cash register, or … Read more

The invasion of the robots is heading into the sea.

Just a few days ago, we witnessed an underwater robot lumberjack that bore an unsettling resemblance to Spongebob Squarepants. Now the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is showcasing a bionic lobster that is joining the denizens of the deep, mimicking its living counterparts for research purposes in coastal waters.

As Ubergizmo points out, the Crustastun may have finally met its match.

If necessity is truly the mother of invention, we must take an unusual step and thank the government for prompting the creation of this technology. As federal laws mandate the digitization of health records, technology companies such as BioMETRX have been figuring out ways to make that happen confidentially.

Its prototype "SmarSTIK-MD," for example, allows medical professionals to transfer data securely with a biometric USB storage key that uses fingerprint identification to its information, according to Ubergizmo. Other biometric devices such as palm readers can control access to material stored on computers but, given the track record of … Read more

The untrained eye may find some resemblance to Spongebob Squarepants, but this underwater lumberjack is far more useful and probably nowhere near as irritating. As surface dwellers continue to ravage the planet, we may need help increasingly from technologies like "the Sawfish," a 7,000-pound "underwater harvesting specialist"--or, as we would call it, a submarine that cuts down trees.

Proving once again our desperate ignorance on many subjects, we were surprised to learn that underwater forests are routinely created when hydroelectric dams are constructed and flood terrestrial timber that can still be harvested for decades … Read more

The virtual world Whyville has undertaken a novel approach to educating kids about the dangers of influenza and the preventative measures that can be taken to protect from it: giving users virtual flu shots.

The idea is to give "vaccinations" against the "Why-Flu," a made-up disease that is intended to simulate the spread of the common flu.

Coordinated by Whyville and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu vaccination initiative is seen as a way to help kids--the users of Whyville--see that the flu is dangerous but preventable.

"The citizens of … Read more