I’m old enough to remember when man first set foot on the moon, but even before that I was a huge fan of space exploration.  As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with space and the idea of going there. For the majority of my life the very idea of an average citizen [...]

I’m going to really date myself here, but when I was a kid one of the coolest things about watching Lost In Space was when they’d break out the jet pack and fly, almost like Superman.  Well, close enough.  James Bond even did it once.  James Bond is cool. We used to think that one [...]

Smartphones are great, I think we can all agree on that.  They’re little computers in your hand that can do almost anything short of cooking dinner.  There is a divide however: You either have to go with a completely touch screen phone or something bulkier if you want a real keyboard with raised keys. Personally, [...]

Okay, maybe not your DNA specifically, but it looks like the key to extremely high density data storage could lie in using DNA itself as the storage medium.  Over at Nature.com is an article describing how three researchers have encoded a little over 5mb of a book draft along with some jpeg images and a [...]

The image above probably doesn’t look very impressive.  After all it’s just someone shining a light at a water-filled Coke bottle, right?  Well, yes and no. What you’re actually seeing is a pulse of light captured as it’s passing through the bottle.  In fact, it’s captured with such a high frame rate that it looks [...]

It’s hard to believe that NASA’s Curiosity rover will be landing on the red planet in less than a week.  Like all space ventures, this is an unbelievably complex task with no margin for error and no “do overs” if something goes awry.  So far everything’s gone perfectly and we all hope it stays that [...]

Back in March we posted the article Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dreams and NASA’s Budget.  In it is a video consisting of a montage of clips surrounding the history of NASA.  These clips were set to a speech by acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about how the “space race” began and how it has fizzled out due [...]

You’re probably familiar with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) the nonprofit organization whose talks are viewed by countless individuals online.  They’ve been around since 1984 (How Orwellian!) and have over 1,000 talks available online for free viewing.  The speakers get a maximum of 18 minutes to present their subject matter in what is usually a very [...]

Every now and then we hear something about quantum computing and how it has the potential to revolutionize computer technology.  The applications for scientific research with such devices are practically unlimited and could help us make discoveries that may otherwise be out if our grasp.   They’re far more powerful than classical computer architecture, but a [...]

Arthur C. Clarke was known worldwide as a prolific author, futurist and the man most often credited with the concept of the geostationary communications satellite.  While the idea was posited by others before Clarke, he was probably most instrumental in giving the idea widespread popularity, and in that vein he brought them to life.  Because [...]

We live in an awesome time when today’s technology can bring us computer-generated imagery of almost anything we can imagine and make it nearly indistinguishable from reality.  Even with all the truly unbelievable vistas created using CGI, you still can’t beat the real thing.  For example, the picture above is a Hubble Telescope image of [...]

On Doctor Who, the Doctor’s most valuable tool is his brain, but when that’s not quite enough he turns to his trusty sonic screwdriver.  Calling it a screwdriver is really doing the handy little tool a disservice as it’s been used for a myriad of purposes no other tool bearing the word “screwdriver” could ever [...]

One of the greatest traits of the human race is our ability to dream and then act on those dreams.  Everyone, no matter who they are or what their lot in life may be, has dreams, aspirations, hopes.  That is what brought us down from the trees, out of the caves and ultimately into space. [...]