• Entertainment & Gaming

    Why Digg is the New Digg and You're My New Editor

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 9.17.2008 0 Comments

    Day two at the Web 2.0 Expo, and the name of the game is, without a doubt, social media. To hell with professional editors and publishers; the new world Web order is built on the backs of the people. Or so every speaker and every wide-eyed business owner frantically scribbling notes here would have us believe. All we have to learn is how to game wisdom of the masses and we're gold But is it that simple?

  • Science

    Readers Ask: Where Are Our Mechs?

    By Paul Adams Posted on 8.29.2008 19 Comments

    Reader Nathan asks: "Do you think we'll ever be able to build robot mecha like the Gundams from the Japanese anime series Gundam or the Valkyries from the Japanese anime series Macross?" The comment box is open. Practical? Plausible? What are the obstacles? Submit your science and technology questions to fyi@popsci.com.

  • Science

    DNA from Scratch

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 6.9.2008 1 Comments

    DNA provides the genetic code for everything from bacteria to blue whales through combinations of just four DNA units, or bases. Now chemist Floyd Romesberg of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego hopes to expand biology’s potential by adding more bases to the mix.

  • Science

    Why Grandma May Get the Coolest Robot on the Block

    By Gregory Mone Posted on 4.21.2008 2 Comments

    Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are developing child-sized, wheeled robots that could soon start helping elderly people in their homes. Computer scientist Rod Grupen, who led the team that developed uBot-5, notes that robots are finally safe and inexpensive enough to perform a real function in homes. The robot has an LCD screen, a webcam, and a wireless connection to the Internet. It speeds around and balances on two Segway-like wheels. If it does happen to fall, though, uBot-5 uses its long arms to do a push-up, and return itself to an upright position.

  • DIY

    Do I Need to Buy Microsoft Office?

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 6.12.2008 6 Comments

    Not necessarily. It’s hard to ignore MS Office, but you don’t need to blow 400 bucks to get your work done. In fact, you don’t need to install any programs at all. Sign up for the free Google Docs (documents.google.com) or Zoho (zoho.com), and you can do everything in a Web browser. The programs look similar to Word, Excel and PowerPoint and offer all the same features (save for a few lesser-used ones like certain spreadsheet formulas). Zoho even kicks in a few extra applets like a Wiki-building tool. Best of all, these applications let you access your files from any computer that’s online. If you don’t have reliable Internet access or are more comfortable installing programs on your computer, there’s no shortage of competition, either.

  • Science

    Future Human: The Evolution of Immediate Emotion

    By Nicole Dyer Posted on 5.5.2008 6 Comments

    In my Science Confirms the Obvious post today, I discussed the first psychological proof (so say the authors) that humans can indeed experience emotions without immediately knowing why. We do this, they say, because we evolved that way. True, scientists love that explanation, but here its quite intriguing. Say youre walking through the woods and encounter a grizzly bear. You see it and freeze that instant—even before your stomach drops with fear.

  • Science

    Super-Repellant Surfaces

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 6.3.2008 5 Comments

    A trio of prismatic drops (left to right: water, ethylene glycol and ethanol) balances on a new ultra-repellent surface invented by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The surface, made up of silicon spikes just 400 nanometers wide, physically repels a wide variety of liquids, including water, oil, solvents and detergents. Previously, scientists relied on chemical modification to make surfaces repel liquids, a time-consuming process. In the end, each coating worked to repel only certain liquids, and oil-repellent surfaces simply weren’t possible to manufacture.

  • Science

    Generating Energy by Recycling Semiconductors

    By Gregory Mone Posted on 3.21.2008 1 Comments

    A new low-cost, nanotech-based approach to power generation developed by researchers at Boston College and MIT could lead to cleaner-running semiconductors, air conditioners, car exhausts and more. The technique, published online yesterday in Science, uses the nanostructures to dramatically increase thermal efficiency.

  • The Environment

    Threads for a Sunny Day

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 3.26.2008 3 Comments

    Back to the Future II was a bit of a disappointment in the face of the original. Granted, it was hamstrung by the throw-away ending of the first, but it did have that brilliant opening sequence with the hoverboards. How much did you want a hoverboard after seeing that? Not to mention, the computerized, self-drying jacket Marty puts on to blend in. The stuff of fantasy, right? At least for the latter, not for much longer.

  • Cars

    A Motorcycle You Can Wear

    By Megan Miller Posted on 5.29.2008 15 Comments

    The tripod is a fine and stable construct for photography and navigation, but how well will it work for motorcycles? We're not sure, but one student at California's Art Center Pasadena is challenging singletrack motorcycles and typical three-wheelers with an anthropomorphic, Yamaha-branded three wheeler concept called the Deus Ex Machina. The forward-looking personal conveyance is a mobile exoskeleton propelled by in-wheel electric motors—or, more succinctly, a trike you can wear.

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