Jacob Ransom

Secret Air Force Space Plane Gets Darth Vader-Style Engine

For secret reasons, like turning in secret directions<p>The Air Force’s secret robot space plane is going to try out a new engine. The X-37B has so far spent a total of 1367 days tooling around in Earth’s orbit, doing classified things. Yesterday, the Air Force Research Lab announced that on its …

Is This Weird 3-Story Solar Powered Jet The Airliner Of The Future?

Probably not, but check back in 30 years<p>The Progress Eagle is a gigantic concept airliner by designer Oscar Viñals. It's an amazing air transit behemoth, with solar panels and a giant wind turbine, all for a glorious future that may never come to pass.<p>By design the Progress Eagle is a plane that …

How It Works: The Large Hadron Collider

To chaotically combine particles, you need a lot of space ... and a lot of power<p>The world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), famously upended physics with the discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson in 2012. But it was only operating at half power. Since then, …

Guy Plans To Live Inside Giant Orange Ball On Top Of Melting Iceberg

What could go wrong?<p>Alex Bellini is an explorer. He’s rowed a boat across the Atlantic Ocean, walked 1,200 miles across Alaska pulling a sled, and ran 2,300 miles across America. Next, he plans to camp out on an iceberg for a year--or as long as he can before it melts. <i>Outside</i> magazine reports that …

Vatican ends crackdown on 'radical' US nuns

<b>The Vatican has ended its controversial control of the main organisation representing US nuns.</b><p>The Leadership Conference of Women Religious was under close supervision from Rome after being accused of undermining Catholic teaching.<p>The Vatican said the group's focus was now Christ and faithful …

Before Messenger crashes on Mercury, NASA bids spacecraft farewell

NASA's Messenger spacecraft is about to end its mission with a bang. After spending more than four years and 4,100 orbits circling the closest planet to the sun, the satellite will crash into Mercury's crater-pocked surface April 30.<p>NASA officials and mission scientists have given tribute to the …

Seattle CEO to cut his pay so every worker earns $70,000

SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle CEO who announced that he's giving himself a drastic pay cut to help cover the cost of big raises for his employees didn't just make those workers happy.<p>He's already gained new customers, too.<p>"We've definitely gained a handful of customers in the last day or two," said …

Exploring Civilization Beyond the Walls

Changing Planet<p>Before we’d even become <i>Homo sapiens sapiens</i>, humans lived everywhere from South Africa up to Britain and over to China.<p>There were mountain people, coastal people, people who hunted woolly mammoths, and people who’d never seen a woolly mammoth in their lives.<p>Just like we see with …

Top NASA Scientist: We’ll Find Signs of Alien Life ‘Within a Decade’

Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, high-ranking NASA scientists say.<p>"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday …

Big Bang Beam: Large Hadron Collider Restarts After Two-Year Break

The Next Frontier for 3-D Printers is Healthy Food

3-D printers are all the rage in the high-tech food world, turning out gorgeous sugar polyhedra and chocolate rosebuds – but if they’re to address world food problems in the future, they’re going to have to move into far more nutritious fare.<p>That’s the idea behind Dutch designer Chloé Rutzerveld’s …

Eavesdropping Barbie is "downright creepy," privacy advocates say

Mattel's new "Hello Barbie" has more tricks up her sleeve than just saying hello.<p>With the press of a button, Barbie's embedded microphone turns on …

China Shows Off Its Deadly New Cruise Missiles

DH-10 for a speedy 1100-pound delivery<p>A DH-10 land attack cruise missile (LACM) launches out of its canister, heading for parts unknown. Weighing about 1-1.5 tons (about the same size as the American Tomahawk cruise missile), it can be launched from land on a three missile transport erector launch …

Solar Impulse Pilots Get Ready for Sun-Powered Flight Around World

Two years ago, Solar Impulse's Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg became the first pilots to fly a solar-powered plane across America without burning a drop of fuel. But that was just a warmup for the months-long, 22,000-mile odyssey that's due to begin Monday.<p>"The real thing, of course, is …

FCC Approves Major Net Neutrality Rules

No fast lanes, no special treatment<p>After years of struggling and debate, the Federal Communication Commission today voted to reclassify broadband providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, paving the way for new rules on net neutrality. But what does that actually mean?<p>"Nothing changes …

French Researchers Bother Birds With Drones, For Science

Ecologists study how wildlife-studying drones affect the creatures<p>Everyone from filmmakers to drug traffickers knows that drones are useful for innumerable tasks. Scientists have started using drones in ecological research, monitoring animals in places that are too remote or delicate to visit in …

Huge waves to batter Britain as Moon alignment triggers high tides

British coastlines could see waves of up to 50ft this weekend as the new Moon and high spring tides meet Atlantic storms<p>Huge 50ft waves which could bring storm surges and flooding to Britain are expected this weekend with coastal communities braced for the biggest tides in two decades.<p>Emergency …

New Injectable Hydrogel Delivers Drugs Without Surgery

Turning six injections into one<p>To treat certain types of medical conditions, such as some forms of vision loss or cancer, patients have to receive drugs through periodic injections. These doctor visits can be time-consuming—sometimes happening once per week—and demoralizing, and the drugs affect …

Farmers Eye Drones For The Future

Drone, drone on the range<p>Even though humans have been farming for thousands of years, there’s always a new trick to learn or a new technology to try. In modern times, these tricks often come attached to small flying aircraft, a fact evidenced by the continued and growing presence of drones at …

Ancient Fortune-Telling Shrines Unearthed in Armenia

Three shrines, dating back about 3,300 years, have been discovered within a hilltop fortress at Gegharot in Armenia.<p>Local rulers at the time probably used the shrines for divination, a practice aimed at predicting the future, the archaeologists involved in the discovery say.<p>Each of the three …

US and UK Governments Hacked SIM Card Manufacturer

"The call is coming from inside the house."<p>In its increasingly wider net, the NSA and its British equivalent Government Communications Headquarters …

New York Towns Threaten Secession Over Gov. Cuomo's Ban On Fracking

Fifteen New York towns that are upset at Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking have threatened to secede from the state and join neighboring Pennsylvania, where fracking is allowed.<p>The towns, all members of the Upstate New York Towns Association, have expressed interest in …

Jerry Lawson, a self-taught engineer, gave us video game cartridges

<i>To celebrate Black History Month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African-American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Jerry Lawson.</i><p>If you've got fond memories of blowing into video game cartridges, you've got Gerald …

Hacked Hardware Could Cause The Next Big Security Breach

Microchips govern our homes, cities, infrastructure, and military. What happens when they're turned against us?<p>In late summer of 2006, the Japanese division of McDonald’s decided to run a new promotion. When customers ordered a Coca-Cola soft drink, they would receive a cup with a code. If they …

There's a weird problem with the new Raspberry Pi computer

The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced on February 2 the new Raspberry Pi 2, a more powerful version of the computer that first debuted in 2012.<p>Early customers of the Raspberry Pi 2 have been testing it out - and they've found a pretty strange problem with it.<p>It turns out that if you try and take a …

Mexican Meth-Smuggling Drone Crashes Near San Diego

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a drug mule<p>In the transitory space between Mexico’s Tijuana and America’s San Ysidro, the drone flew. Six rotors carried it forward, and strapped to its body were six packets of methamphetamine, weighing more than six pounds. Discovered by Tijuana police crashed …

Egyptian police 'using rape as a weapon' against activists

Four years after its revolution, Egyptian activists warn that the number of deaths and rapes in police custody is rising fast<p>Rape is being used as a weapon by Egyptian police against both men and women, former detainees have told The Telegraph and human rights activists inside and outside the …

Mystery ‘alien’ radio signal picked up in space

Radio waves in space could be evaporating black holes, alien communication or merging neutron stars<p>A mysterious radio signal which may have come from a black hole, a neutron star or even an alien civilisation, has been picked up by astronomers.<p>Fast radio bursts, which last only milliseconds, are …

Special report: How the rise of a mega solar panel farm shows us the future of energy

Advertisement<p>34 Comments<p>Credit: First Solar<p>After about an hour of weaving up and down the winding, mountainous, two-lane highway that is route 58, …

Stick-On Tattoo Measures Blood Sugar Without Needles

Sweet news for diabetics<p>Diabetics often prick their fingers up to eight times a day to check their blood sugar. Researchers have long looked for a solution that provides constant monitoring without being so invasive, and researchers at the University of California San Diego have come up with a new …