Science & Technology – Week of 01.05.14

Anatomy of a Snap Attack
The New Yorker | 09 January 2014
Snapchat, the social network that allows people to send photo and video messages that disappear within ten seconds…

Broadcom’s Billionaire Chairman Names Seven Big Tech Trends Not to Miss at CES
Forbes | 03 January 2014
The successor to high-definition television has arrived in the form of 4K TVs, also known as Ultra HD…

The National Ignition Facility Just Got Way Closer To Fusion Power
Popular Science | 08 October 2013
In a major first, an experiment in the California lab got more energy out of its fuel than went into the fuel…

IBM Commits $1bn to New Watson Supercomputer Division
BBC | 09 January 2014
Computing giant IBM has said it will invest $1bn (£608m) creating a new division for Watson, its Jeopardy-winning supercomputer…

CES 2014: Phones Morph into ‘Stun Guns’ and ‘Tricorders’
BBC | 09 January 2014
Add-ons that turn smartphones into Star Trek-like tricorder medical diagnostic kits, Predator-style thermal vision cameras and even electric “stun guns” are being promoted at the Consumer Electronics Show…

Japan Offers to Lend US Half the Cost of ‘Super Maglev’ Train Between Washington and Baltimore
Telegraph | 07 January 2014
The Japanese government has promised to lend the United States half of the cost of building the first “Super-Maglev” train, reducing travel time between Baltimore and Washington DC to just 15 minutes…

Test Flight of a Boeing 757 Sized US Navy Drone
Telegraph | 08 January 2014
The US Navy is set to receive a drone which has a wingspan of 130ft which is greater than the 124ft wingspan of a Boeing 757 plane.

China’s Moon Mission Captivates Scientists
Los Angeles Times | 08 January 2014
They say the lander and the rover, equipped with ground-penetrating radar, cameras, a telescope and spectroscopic instruments, could gather significant new information, especially relating to the chemical composition and depth of the lunar soil…

China Tops Europe in R&D Intensity
Nature | 08 January 2014
Reforms to commercial and academic research systems still needed despite reaching spending milestone, say scientists…

Sunspot Goes Wild! X-Class Solar Flare Blasts in Our Direction
NBC News | 07 January 2014
The sun erupted with a powerful solar flare on Tuesday…

The Inside Story Of Snapchat: The World’s Hottest App Or A $3 Billion Disappearing Act?
Forbes | 06 January 2014
Thirteen months ago Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, the richest twentysomething in history, reached out to Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel…

Meet The People Who Want To Print A Home In A Day
Popular Science | 16 December 2013
The open-source construction system WikiHouse could upend architecture as we know it…

Google, Apple Tackle the Next Digital Frontier: Cars
Fox Business | 06 January 2014
Your vehicle could be running strictly on iOS, Android and batteries in the future…

Why Is Renewable Energy So Expensive?
The Economist | 05 January 2014
Most people agree that carbon emissions from power stations are a significant cause of climate change. These days a fiercer argument is over what to do about it…

Innovega to Demo Augmented-Reality Contact Lenses at CES
Fox News | 03 January 2014
It’s like Google Glass for your eyeball…

Boeing to Use Former Space Shuttle Hangar for Secret Space Plane
Yahoo | 08 January 2014
A former NASA space shuttle hangar will serve as the new home and servicing facility for a fleet of secretive military space planes…

Using Sound To Levitate Objects And Move Them Midair
NPR | 02 January 2014
Researchers in Tokyo have put a new twist on the use of sound to suspend objects in air…

Mars Mission Selection ‘To Be Reality TV Show’
The Telegraph | 02 January 2014
Mars One chooses its 1,508 candidates for the one-way trip to Mars and plan to make selection for final 40 wannabe astronauts a reality TV show…

Planet Labs Raises $52 Million for Fleet of Satellites
Gizmag | 18 December 2013
Space and analytics firm Planet Labs has secured US$52 million in new funding…