Jason Dorrier
From This Author
Australian Outback Launches Fastest Radio Telescope in the World
Radio telescopes have been sifting the stars since 1937. Most slowly scan a small percent of the sky. But that’s about to change. A new radio telescope will be the fastest sky surveyor yet—and it’s part...
$25 Million Michigan Project Hopes to Add Cars to Internet of Things
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is conducting a 12-month, $25 million study to see if cars sending data to each other over Wi-Fi can make driving safer. Cars talking to each other and maybe braking...
America’s Titan Surpasses Sequoia as World’s Fastest Supercomputer
Last week, a throng of computer geeks descended on snowy Utah to show off, admire, and debate the future of the fastest computers on the planet. And of course, to find out which Boolean...
Space Exploration on the Cheap: Kickstarter Sensation NanoSatisfi Launches in 2013
While information technology may be advancing exponentially—the pace of the space race has seemed glacial since the 1970s. By now, most of us are used to a top-down, monolithic model of space exploration with...
X Prize to Sequence Genomes of World’s Oldest People. Hopes To Unlock Secrets of Longevity
Toni Balcean turned 101 in September. How’d she beat a century? Simple. “Clean living and good Italian wine.” Case closed! Unless, of course, you like science. A retooled Archon Genomics X PRIZE aims to help scientists better understand...
Paging Dr. Watson: IBM and Cleveland Clinic Collaborate to Train Watson in Medicine
Can you imagine telling someone a century ago that a hundred years hence a stack of electrified silicon would be studying for its medical exam? It’s the stuff of Star Trek. (“Computer? Early Grey,...
Curiosity Game Goes Viral! Millions Want to Know What’s Inside Giant Cube
Video game developer 22Cans’ Curiosity—What’s Inside the Cube has the net all a-twitter. What is inside the cube? The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything? Or better still, the question? An all expenses paid trip to Disney...
Traders Employ Choppers, Satellites, and Infrared Telephoto Lenses to Gauge Food, Oil Supply
Spies snapping pics with infrared telephoto lenses. 24/7 helicopter and high def satellite surveillance. Special forces in Afghanistan? The latest espionage thriller? Hardly. Just oil data providers gathering information in Cushing, Oklahoma to give...
Bionic Limbs Step Up – Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Leg Climbs 2,100 Stair Building
On November 4, Zac Vawter climbed 2,100 steps to the top of Chicago’s Willis Tower. Vawter made the climb on a prosthetic leg. Neither of these facts would be particularly notable but for one...
Saudi Arabia’s “Magic Powder” Freezing Water Droplets
Our hunt for intriguing new tech research recently turned up a mini-buzz about some so-called “magic powder” freezing water droplets. Following are some cool high-speed photographic sequences in a video from King Abdullah University...
Campaigns Embrace Big Data, Algorithms, Mobile Tech…They Know Who You Are
Otto von Bismarck said, “Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.” Truer words there never were. Even modern polling requires a healthy dose of interpretation...
The Race to a Billion Billion Operations Per Second: An Exaflop by 2018?
Control Data Corp’s (CDC) first supercomputer, the CDC 6600, operated at a speed of three megaflops (106 floating-point operations per second). A half century on, our most powerful supercomputers are a billion times faster....
New Upper Body Bionic Suit Uses Air to Lift Loads of 50 Kilograms
The University of Tokyo’s latest robot suit can help humans lift heavy loads using naught but air. How exactly? Instead of complex, heavy electronic actuators, the suit uses simpler pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs). These rubber bladders...
IBM’s Watson Expands Commercial Applications, Aims to Go Mobile
In the past couple years, we’ve watched IBM’s supercomputer Watson mature at an alarming rate. A mere concept birthed five years ago, the cybernetic prodigy is now Jeopardy! champ and doctor in training. Up...
Kickstarter Funding Success LIFX Proposes Networked LED Smartbulbs
Ever wish you could network all your devices, toaster to television, and manage them on your smartphone? Well, that vision just edged closer with the LIFX LED WiFi enabled smart light bulb.
Using your smartphone...
Surging Solar in 2011 Proof of Ray Kurzweil’s Bold Prediction?
A recent report by British Petroleum (BP) found solar power generating capacity surged 73.3% last year. If you’re a dedicated fan of the singularity, statistics like that are reminiscent of Ray Kurzweil’s solar dictum—that solar...
Free 123D Catch App Makes Your iPhone a 3D Scanner
In three years 3D scanners have gone from $30,000 to $3,000 to—$0.00?! AutoDesk’s free 123D Catch app is now available for the iPhone and iPad. Users can take up to 40 pictures, upload them...
RFID Tracking Of Students? Electronic Roll Call in Texas Stirs Debate
The eyes of Texas are upon you—if you happen to be a student from San Antonio that is. John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School in the Northside Independent School District are...
Liquid Robotics Aims to Usher in Era of Smart Oceans With Autonomous Robots
When Liquid Robotics’ Ed Lu dreams, he sees thousands of his firm’s Wave Gliders blanketing the sea—a smart grid for the ocean. It may yet be a dream, but Lu’s vision isn’t terribly far...
Boston Dynamics Robot Cheetah Outruns Swiftest Human
Usain Bolt, the fastest human in history, has been outpaced by a robot.
Catchy hook, huh? Fact is, Boston Dynamics’ Cheetah was outrunning the rest of us six months ago when it clocked its then...
Tech Billionaire Milner Aims to Accelerate Progress by Bankrolling Science
Ever imagine you’d see $27 million in physics prizes awarded in one fell swoop? Me either. Reportedly, Alan Guth was likewise “knocked off his feet” after receiving one of nine inaugural Fundamental Physics Prizes...
3D Printed Homes? Here’s The Scoop
In a recent TEDx presentation, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, a USC engineering professor, showed off a prototype 3D printer he says may one day construct buildings in 20 hours. In the presentation, the printer extrudes...
