Brandon Banas

A Recent Ice Age Was Triggered by a Firestorm Bigger Than The One That Killed The Dinosaurs

It lasted 1,000 years.<p>In a hugely detailed and comprehensive new study, researchers have painted a picture of how around a tenth of Earth's surface …

This NASA map will prepare you for August’s rare total solar eclipse

On August 21, 2017, North Americans will be able to see an eclipse of the sun. <b>But depending where you are, you may be able to see something even better: a total solar eclipse, in which the sun’s corona will appear like a halo around the moon when it passes in front of it.</b> NASA has dedicated an …

Elon Musk's new company said to seek brain-computer link

Billionaire entrepreneur launches Neuralink to focus on transmitting signals between the brain and computers, The Wall Street Journal reports.<p>Elon Musk believes we are ready for a mind meld, but instead of connecting the brains of two Vulcans, a la "Star Trek," the billionaire entrepreneur wants to …

How Your Ancestors' Environment Determines The Shape Of Your Nose

Whether your nose is long and narrow or short and wide, you may have your ancestors’ climate to thank.<p>New anthropological research finds that nose shape is formed through a process of natural selection responding to the temperature and humidity of the local environment.<p>For the study, published …

Robots of the Future: First Robot Cop to Join Dubai Police Force in May

The first robot cop is expected to join Dubai’s police force in May. Officials in Dubai unveiled plans to introduce a robotic police officer to the …

This Teenager’s Inventions Will Revolutionize Space Travel And Help Combat Global Warming

Facts surrounding global warming are terrifying. Just try listening to the <i>This American Life</i> episode, “Hot in My Backyard,” without spending the rest of the day sobbing in bed, we dare you. As the population continues to increase, and the temperature continues to rise, the destruction we are …

LHC: Five new particles hold clues to sub-atomic glue

<b>The Large Hadron Collider has discovered new sub-atomic particles that could help to explain how the centres of atoms are held together.</b><p>The particles are all different forms of the so-called Omega-c baryon, whose existence was confirmed in 1994.<p>Physicists had always believed the various types …

Beware the hype on stem-cell breakthroughs

Health science gets a lot of attention in the popular press. People love hearing about breakthroughs, paradigm shifts and emerging cures. The problem is, these stories are almost always misleading.<p>While optimistic miscalculations of the state of biomedical research may seem as if it were a harmless …

This incredible Mars video took 3 months and 33,000 images to create

Photos from NASA have given us a sense of what it discovered on the surface of Mars, but a recent video from Finnish filmmaker and space enthusiast …

Researchers develop a drone that swoops and lands like a bird

Watch out, birds. The drones are coming for your jobs. Researchers at BMT Defence Services (BMT) and the University of Bristol in Britain have built a fixed-wing UAV that can land as well as its avian counterparts, reports <i>Popular Mechanics</i>. Although BMT's project is currently part of a wider …

David Rockefeller — Philanthropist, Banker And Collector — Dies At 101

David Rockefeller, who died Monday morning at the age of 101, leaves a legacy that eludes a simple description. At once the grandchild and heir of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and a globe-trotting billionaire banker in his own right, Rockefeller also earned a reputation as a prodigious patron of …

The climate change battle dividing Trump’s America

Climate change denial and energy conspiracy are high on the president’s agenda, but US scientists are fighting back<p>Ever since Donald Trump became US president, certain sectors of American society have felt particularly embattled. His statements on Mexicans and Muslims are notorious, but there is …

In a Massachusetts warehouse, NASA’s Valkyrie robot helps lay the groundwork for Mars settlements

NASA’s Valkyrie (R5) robot will never slip the surly bonds of Earth. The humanoid space robot is destined to spend the rest of its days on terra firma with the rest of us. But like Robonaut before it, the six-foot, 290-pound piece of machinery represents a link to the future.<p>She’s a first step …

Trump Sets Terms for Nice-Looking Wall Impervious to Pick Axes

President Donald Trump’s Mexican border wall must be at least 18 feet tall, resistant to sledgehammers and “aesthetically pleasing,” at least on the …

Scientist have found a way to reverse hearing loss

Hearing loss is an ever increasing problem. That’s probably not news to you as hearing aid acoustician pop up almost everywhere. Hearing is so …

Home explodes in DC suburb: 'It's just a pile of bricks'

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A house in a Maryland suburb of the nation's capital was leveled early Friday by a thunderous explosion heard for miles around, a blast so powerful it shattered windows and caused other damage to several neighboring homes, authorities said.<p>The explosion shook the city of …

Flyover reveals Apple Park is still dirty ahead of April opening

Apple is set to move into its new spaceship campus next month, but based on the latest drone video of the construction site, there’s still a lot of work left to do.<p>The grounds of Apple Park are still littered with construction crews working on everything from landscaping to solar panels. Tim’s big …

US Air Force Leaks Sensitive Information On 4,000 Officers | Inc.com

What happened?<p>A United States Air Force officer appears to have accidentally exposed extremely sensitive information including the personal information of over 4,000 Air Force officers (names, contact information, ranks, Social Security Numbers, etc.), clearance-application-related information, …

Cities Across the U.S. Will Splurge on Electric Vehicles After Automakers Said There Wasn't Enough Demand

Thirty U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are looking to spend $10 billion on electric cars and trucks in a bid to prove to …

Giant green sea turtle goes overboard

Apollo astronaut: 'You go to heaven when you are born'

It seems like the world has caught a case of moon fever.<p>On February 27, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that two unnamed people are paying his rocket company, SpaceX, to send them on an auto-piloted trip around the moon in 2018. Later The Washington Post revealed that Amazon.com founder Jeff …

Tesla-Backed Solar Farm Provides Power Day or Night

The new 13-megawatt solar farm also includes 52 megawatt-hours of battery storage.<p>Energy from the sun will now be powering homes on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, even in the middle of the night. This is thanks to a recently-completed Tesla project that installed Tesla Powerpack batteries next to a …

Doppler Labs Makes a Huge Splash in the Innovation of Personal Sound

Here One is a pair of ear buds coupled with an app that not only acts as a volume control in an ever louder world, it couples Bluetooth streaming with some powerful noise filters. The result is a product unlike any other. As the creators point out, there are plenty of headphone solutions in all …

Netflix wants to kill buffering dead

CEO Reed Hastings thinks it'll go the way of the old dial tone noise for internet access. He also weighs in on piracy, artificial intelligence and more.<p>Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was in a good mood.<p>Hastings, after all, just saw his company win its first Oscar for the documentary "The White Helmets" …

The Internet Has a Lot of Hilarious Ideas on What to Name the 7 Planets NASA Discovered

When NASA announced its discovery of a new solar system with seven planets earlier this week, the internet collectively wanted to pack its bags and leave Earth immediately. With the exciting space news trending everywhere, Twitter users came up with the hashtag #7NamesFor7NewPlanets to help NASA …

A growing threat could kill 10 million people a year by 2050

Most of us have encountered an antibiotic at some point in our lives — to treat an ear infection, combat a round of strep throat, or treat a pesky cough.<p>But, as antibiotic resistance continues to be a growing problem around the world, it's often hard to make the connection between drug-resistant …

Scientists hold rally in Boston to protest threat to science

BOSTON (AP) — Hundreds of scientists, environmental advocates and their supporters held a rally in Boston on Sunday to protest what they see as increasing threats to science and research in the U.S.<p>The scientists, some dressed in white lab coats, called on President Donald Trump's administration to …

Dangerous spider spins deadly-strong silk

The American brown recluse spider is already known for being one of the most venomous arachnids on the planet. It turns out, however, that the spider …

A Computer to Rival the Brain

More than two hundred years ago, a French weaver named Joseph Jacquard invented a mechanism that greatly simplified textile production. His design replaced the lowly draw boy—the young apprentice who meticulously chose which threads to feed into the loom to create a particular pattern—with a series …

CRISPR patents, potentially worth billions, belong to Broad Institute

A blow to University of California, Berkeley<p>The disputed patents on the gene-editing tool CRISPR belong to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, according to a ruling by judges at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in Alexandria, Virginia. The ruling comes a little over two …