the digest (Page 165)

Latest in the digest

The China Lunar Exploration Program has released a new photo of the mysterious "gel-like" and "colored" substance found by its Moon rover.

Science & Energy

China Releases New Pic of Weird Substance Its Moon Rover Found

By Victor Tangermann

New details have emerged on the partnership between the US Army and a UFO research group founded by former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge.

The US Army Is Spending $750K to Partner With UFO Research Group

By Kristin Houser

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk just sent a tweet out using satellite internet provided by a network of Starlink satellites launched by the space company.

Elon Musk Just Tweeted Using SpaceX Satellite Internet

By Victor Tangermann

A team of scientists at the University of Richmond, Virginia have taught rats how to drive tiny cars around a track to get to a food reward.

Science & Energy

Scientists Taught Rats How to Drive Tiny Cars

By Victor Tangermann

The AI systems now used to grade essays on standardized tests in 21 states are deeply flawed, according to a new Motherboard investigation.

Artificial Intelligence

21 States Are Using AI to Grade Essays on Standardized Tests

By Kristin Houser

A famous supernova has a cloudy, cotton candy-like appearance. Finally, scientists think they may have an idea of where its bizarre clumps came from.

Science & Energy

Here’s Why the Remains of This Supernova Look Like Cotton Candy

By Dan Robitzski

The Trump administration is planning to force almost all future asylum seekers and migrants to have their DNA taken and added to a database.

Trump Admin to Require DNA Samples From Asylum Seekers

By Victor Tangermann

Militants for the terrorist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, are using the social media video app TikTok to spread propaganda.

ISIS Is Using TikTok to Spread Propaganda

By Victor Tangermann

When deployed its remote-controlled robot tanks in Syria, the Russian military ran into all sorts of problems like delayed signals and inadequate sensors.

Russia’s Semi-Autonomous Robot Tanks Were Utterly Useless in Syria

By Dan Robitzski

20 year-old Austin Grabas from Edmonton, Alberta turned himself in after vandalizing a Tesla Model 3 by keying it in a parking lot last week.

Pickup Truck Driver Turns Himself In After Vandalizing Tesla

By Victor Tangermann

Customers using Amazon to buy food have reported receiving spoiled, expired products, and the company isn't always quick to grant a refund.

Amazon Keeps Delivering Moldy, Spoiled Food to Customers

By Kristin Houser

Dunkin' Donuts has accelerated the nationwide rollout of a breakfast sandwich featuring a plant-based sausage patty created by Beyond Meat.

Dunkin’ Donuts Is Rolling out Fake Meat at More Spots Than Any Other Chain

By Kristin Houser

A mysterious robotics company wants to buy the rights to someone's face so it can put them on its new line of virtual humanoid companion robots.

Startup: We’ll Pay You $125,000 to Turn Your Face Into Robot Skin

By Dan Robitzski

Hyperstealth Biotechnology has filed a patent on a new invisibility cloak material that bends light to make objects disappear.

Watch a Real-Life Invisibility Cloak Designed for Military Use

By Kristin Houser

As lab-grown mini brains become increasingly complex, some neuroscientists warn that scientists may be creating and killing off sentient life.

Science & Energy

Scientists Worried That Human Brains Grown in Lab May Be Sentient

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers have developed a human-inspired, artificial skin that can "augment" interactive devices, including a phone and wearables.

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists Wrapped a Phone in Fake Human Skin

By Victor Tangermann

One of the mockup Moon habitats NASA is considering is a 55-foot-long inflatable tent that reaches a height equivalent to a two-story building.

NASA’s Considering Giant Inflatable Tents for Moon Habitats

By Kristin Houser

Severe storms can actually shake the ocean floor, causing "stormquakes," according to a newly published study of seismic activity.

Science & Energy

Some Storms Are so Strong They Shake the Ocean Floor, Says Study

By Kristin Houser

A local photographer used his heat-seeking drone to find a six-year-old boy who'd gotten lost in a cornfield in Minnesota.

Man Uses His Heat-Seeking Drone to Find Missing Child

By Kristin Houser

When Donald Trump confused the first all-female ISS spacewalk for the first female spacewalk, astronaut Jessica Meir was quick to correct him.

Watch Astronaut Jessica Meir Tell Trump He’s Wrong, From Space

By Jon Christian

An alien and UFO research group founded by former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army.

Tom DeLonge’s UFO Research Group Partners With US Army

By Kristin Houser

A new technique for Identifying stranded whales in satellite imagery could make it possible for conservationists to detect strandings sooner.

Science & Energy

Scientists Are Now Detecting Stranded Whales From Orbit

By Kristin Houser

Tech giant Samsung has admitte that any thumbprint can unlock its Galaxy S10 phone — a flabbergasting security misstep for a leading iPhone competitor.

Robots and Machines

Oops: Samsung Admits Anyone’s Thumbprint Can Unlock Its New Phone

By Jon Christian

The Catholic Church has a new idea to promote religion in the age of smartphones: a $109 smart rosary bracelet that connects to an app.

Catholic Church Launches $109 Bluetooth “Click to Pray” Gadget

By Jon Christian

Across the globe, cities are banning cars on the roads in an effort to decrease traffic and air pollution, while encouraging a sense of community.

The Latest Urban Trend: Banning Cars on City Streets

By Kristin Houser

This bizarre organism can learn without a brain, digest food without a mouth or stomach, and rapidly heal itself after being chopped in half.

Paris Zoo Unveils Bizarre “Blob” That Can Learn With No Brain

By Jon Christian

Senator Ron Wyden's new privacy bill would hold tech companies' CEOs responsible if they lie about protecting users' personal information.

New Privacy Bill Could Send Mark Zuckerberg to Jail

By Kristin Houser

Space.com delves into the the history of research into the star, and finds that though scientists have made some progress, the mystery remains unexplained.

This Star Appears to Be Older Than the Universe

By Jon Christian

Congress still isn't ready to approve a budget increase to support a 2024 crewed Moon mission — but it isn't quite ready to deny it either.

Congress Is Preparing to Kill 2024 Moon Mission

By Kristin Houser

Investigators took down a massive child pornography site and arrested hundreds of its users by tracking their bitcoin payments.

Agents Bust Massive Child Porn Site by Tracking Bitcoin Payments

By Kristin Houser

The US Army is about to conduct the first tests related to its Strategic Long Range Cannon, a weapon designed to hit targets 1,000+ miles away.

Robots and Machines

US Army Is Building a Cannon That Can Shoot From NYC to Nashville

By Kristin Houser

New research found that the soil on Mars and the Moon could feasibly be used to grow plants, suggesting future space colonists may be able to farm crops.

New Research: You Could Grow Crops in Martian Soil

By Dan Robitzski

NASA required SpaceX to undergo review to make sure workers weren't getting high after Elon Musk smoked weed. But, inexcplicably, NASA paid for it.

Science & Energy

NASA Paid $5 Million to Make Sure SpaceX Workers Don’t Smoke Weed

By Dan Robitzski

A video from the Tesla crash test lab highlights the safety work that goes into making the company's Model 3 one of the safest cars on the road.

Watch Tesla Slam a Model 3 Into a Wall at High Speed

By Kristin Houser

A small survey shows that most Chinese workers would prefer to be managed by an impartial AI algorithm than a human, in a positive twist on job automation.

88 Percent of Chinese Workers Would Prefer a Robot Boss

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is well aware of a potentially fatal flaw in the company's plan to use a Moon base as a refueling station.

Here’s What Worries Elon Musk About a SpaceX Moon Base

By Kristin Houser

Using data gathered by the Hubble space telescope, astronomy professor Paul Karas created a remarkable video of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov.

Science & Energy

See a Video of the Interstellar Comet Created From Hubble Data

By Kristin Houser

OpenAI build an AI-powered robot hand that can solve a Rubik's cube more often than not, even when they started messing around with it.

Watch a Robot Hand Solve a Rubik’s Cube

By Dan Robitzski

NASA has designed two new spacesuits to support its 2024 mission to the Moon, and the suits are better than their predecessors in almost every way.

NASA Unveils Spacesuits for Next Moon Mission

By Kristin Houser

Scientists are getting closer to cracking the physics of warp drive, according to aerospace engineering professor Jason Cassibry.

Science & Energy

Professor: Progress Toward Warp Drive Has Been “Enormous”

By Kristin Houser

Contrary to previous reports, hackers are stealing from more ATMs in more countries around the world than ever with jackpotting attacks.

Robots and Machines

This Malware Makes ATMs Spit Out All Their Money

By Dan Robitzski

Russia is working on a lunar rover with a wheeled base supporting the body of its humanoid robot Fedor, which has already visited the ISS.

Russia’s Working on a Lunar Rover With a Humanoid Torso

By Kristin Houser

Old Tesla cars are running into problems: their flash memory is wearing out as a result of excessive data logging and resource-intensive updates.

The Flash Memory Is Wearing out in Old Teslas

By Dan Robitzski

A robodog does a push-up every time the Virginia Tech football team scores a touchdown, putting a high-tech twist on an old college tradition.

Robodog Replaces Cheerleaders in College’s Touchdown Celebration

By Kristin Houser

Smart Summon is a technologically impressive feature, and it works most of the time, but it also appears to have caused several fender benders already.

Smart Summon Keeps Causing Teslas to Crash

By Jon Christian

Ford Patents Drone That Pops Out of a Car’s Trunk

Ford Patents Drone That Pops Out of a Car’s Trunk

By Kristin Houser

Mercurial Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeting that the upcoming vehicle will be "closer to an armored personnel carrier from the future."

Elon Musk: Tesla Is Making An “Armored Personnel Carrier”

By Jon Christian

Image via Pixabay/Kevin Sanderson/Tag Hartman-Simkins

Science & Energy

NASA Engineer Says New Thruster Could Reach 99% Speed of Light

By Jon Christian

China is building a flying saucer-like experimental attack helicopter, and according to state media, it could fly as soon as 2020.

New Chinese Military Aircraft Looks Exactly Like a Flying Saucer

By Jon Christian

UK-based startup SpaceBit's Moon rover is not only the smallest ever, but it also has legs instead of the typical wheels.

2021 Moon Rover Will Have Legs Instead of Wheels

By Kristin Houser

PayPal left Facebook's cryptocurrency project last week. Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, and eBay have decided to abandon the crumbling project as well.

Facebook’s Cryptocurrency is Collapsing in Front of Our Eyes

By Victor Tangermann

Porsche and Boeing Want to Build This Sexy Flying Car Together

Advanced Transport

Porsche and Boeing Want to Build This Sexy Flying Car Together

By Victor Tangermann

The world's largest 3D-printed boat took just 72 hours to construct using the world's largest 3D printer — and it didn't even push the device to its limits.

Watch a Giant 3D Printer Spit out an Entire Boat

By Kristin Houser

At least six of the smaller galaxies orbiting the Milky Way were stolen from one of its other satellites, according to new research.

Science & Energy

Our Ravenous Galaxy Keeps Stealing Smaller Galaxies

By Kristin Houser

A Dutch sex worker website has been hacked, with the thief getting away with the email addresses and other data of more than 250,000 users.

Sex Worker Website Hacked, Details on 250,000+ Users Now for Sale

By Kristin Houser

In an unusual stunt, former Paralympian and bronze medal winner James Brown glued himself to the top of a British Airways plane at a London airport.

A Climate Protester Just Glued Himself to the Top of an Airplane

By Victor Tangermann

Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Didier Queloz is "convinced" that aliens exist — and that we could find signs of extraterrestrials before 2050.

Scientist Wins Nobel Prize, Then Announces Belief in Aliens

By Kristin Houser

Professor Lewis Dartnell, professor at the University of Westminster, has an ingenious plan as to how to build a human colony on the Moon.

Check Out This Beautiful Design for a Moon Habitat

By Victor Tangermann

At an event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that the social network is still hoping to one day release a brain-controlled wearable

Mark Zuckerberg: Wearables Will Soon Read Your Mind

By Victor Tangermann

Rwandan tech company Mara Group just released the first entirely-African-made smartphones, marking the country's progress as a tech hub.

Robots and Machines

This Is the First-Ever Smartphone Made Completely in Africa

By Dan Robitzski

Today, Pitchfork reports that a material shortage of has thrown a roadblock into the production of cassette tapes.Yes, you read that right: cassette tapes.

It’s Almost 2020 and There’s a Cassette Tape Shortage

By Tag Hartman-Simkins

Big tech companies have by and large avoided the blackouts in California, as they're powered by more robust transmission lines.

The CA Blackouts Are Oh-so-Coincidentally Not Affecting Big Tech

By Dan Robitzski

As the International Space Station approaches its inevitable retiring, NASA is encouraging private companies to build their own.

NASA Has a Plan to Encourage Private Space Stations

By Dan Robitzski

The idea of colonizing exoplanets if Earth becomes uninhabitable is "completely crazy," according to Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Michel Mayor.

Nobel-Winning Astrophysicist Says We’ll Never Colonize Exoplanets

By Kristin Houser