Innovation

By Live Science

Cool science and technology products and inventions that just might change your life.

Technology
AI Sucks at Making Adorable Cat Photos, Clearly Misses the Entire Point of the Internet
Live Science - Mindy Weisberger
Artificial intelligence (AI) recently tried to generate cat photos from scratch, and the results were cat-astrophic. This particular neural network (a …
Science
Gorgeous Fractal Patterns, Normally Found Only in Nature, Re-Created Using Laser Light
Live Science - Yasemin Saplakoglu
Nature is brimming with beautiful patterns, like the seemingly complex shapes of snowflakes, coastlines, clouds and seashells. But zoom in, and you'll …
Technology
China Has a Robot Ship that Launches Small Rockets ... for Science
space.com - Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
China has built the world's first robotic, partially submersible boat for launching sounding rockets — a technology that will help meteorologists …
Technology
What Is Genetic Modification?
Live Science - Rachel Ross
Genetic modification is the process of altering the genetic makeup of an organism. This has been done indirectly for thousands of years by …
Technology
This Is the Purest Beam of Light in the World
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made the purest laser in the world. The device, built to be portable …
Technology
What Is the Large Hadron Collider?
Live Science - Adam Mann
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a marvel of modern particle physics that has enabled researchers to plumb the depths of reality. Its origins …
Technology
New MIT Laser Device Whispers Secret Sounds Into Your Ear
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
Imagine sitting down to dinner with a group of friends, when a laser tickles the water molecules inside your ear. "You need to get home right away," …
Technology
Physicists Made a Flying Army of Laser Schrödinger's Cats
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
A laser pulse bounced off a rubidium atom and entered the quantum world — taking on the weird physics of "Schrödinger's cat." Then another one did …
Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch, Builder of Gargantuan Airplane, Drops Rocket Plans
Live Science - Megan Gannon
Stratolaunch, the private spaceflight company building the world's largest (and, perhaps, most bizarre-looking) airplane, is scaling back its …
Technology
Check Out These Amazing Super-Detailed Images of Fruit Fly Brains
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
A team of neuroscientists has produced a series of amazing, detailed images of fruit fly brains. The images aren't quite photos, but they were made by …
Technology
Physicists Want to Build an Even More Powerful Atom Smasher at CERN
Live Science - Yasemin Saplakoglu
The universe is filled with particles we don't know about that are governed by rules we don't yet understand. But by smashing familiar particles …
Physicists Built a Machine That Breaks the Normal Rules of Light
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
Physicists have built a ring in which pulses of light whip circles around each other and the normal rules that govern light's behavior no longer …
Scientists Are Legit Building a Steam-Powered Spaceship, And It Sounds Awesome
Live Science - Brandon Specktor
Come one, come all and behold the future of space travel: steam power! No, seriously; half a century after the world's first manned space mission, it …
Machine Learning
Mathematicians Discovered a Computer Problem that No One Can Ever Solve
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
Mathematicians have discovered a problem they cannot solve. It's not that they're not smart enough; there simply is no answer. The problem has to do …
Amelia Earhart would have a hard time disappearing in 2019
theconversation.com - Brian Strzempkowski and Shawn Pruchnicki
When Amelia Earhart took off in 1937 to fly around the world, people had been flying airplanes for only about 35 years. When she tried to fly across …
China May Have Put a Working Electromagnetic Gun on a Warship. Is This a Big Deal?
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
China appears to have beaten the U.S. in the race to mount a rail gun on a battleship, as Popular Mechanics reported Dec. 31. Does it matter? Sort of. …
Technology
AI Can Now Decode Words Directly from Brain Waves
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
Neuroscientists are teaching computers to read words straight out of people's brains. Kelly Servick, writing for Science, reported this week on three …
Technology
Laser-Blasted Plasma Is Cooler Than Deep Space...Literally
Live Science - Mindy Weisberger
Researchers who make the coldest plasmas in the universe just found a way to make them even colder — by blasting them with lasers. The scientists …
Scientists Proposed a Nuclear 'Tunnelbot' to Hunt Life in Europa's Hidden Ocean
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
A group of scientists wants to send a nuclear-powered "tunnelbot" to Europa to blaze a path through the Jovian moon's thick shell of ice and search …
What Is X-Ray Spectroscopy?
Live Science - Rachel Ross
X-ray spectroscopy is a technique that detects and measures photons, or particles of light, that have wavelengths in the X-ray portion of the …
Humanity's Largest Atom Smasher Takes a Pause, Will Wake Up Again in 2021
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
Particles: Breathe easy. Scientists at the world's largest particle collider have no plans to smash you together until spring 2021. When you update …
While You Weren't Looking, Engineers Combined a Plane and a Blimp to Make a Plimp Airship
Live Science - Laura Geggel
What happens when you cross a blimp with a plane, and give it a few helicopter features? A lighter-than-air plimp-hybrid airship is born, according …
Technology
Cyber Monday Deals on DNA Kits: Here's What These Tests Might Tell You
Live Science - Mindy Weisberger
Curious about your ancestry? Now may be the time to act on that — Cyber Monday offers big savings on best-selling DNA kits. These commercial kits …
Everything ThinkGeek Is 50% Off Today!
Live Science - Jeanna Bryner
Pehaps the best site on the Internet for finding cool science-y gifts that are unique and imaginative, ThinkGeek is going all out it seems for Cyber …
Black Friday 2018 Deal: littleBits Marvel Avengers Hero Inventor Kit
space.com - Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor
The STEM toy company littleBits has a Black Friday 2018 deal just might perfect for your little superhero: The Marvel Avengers Hero Inventor Kit, but …
European Researchers Baked Fake Moon Dust into Money and Screws
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
How do you start a colony on the moon? Can you ship everything the colonists need from Earth? That's how NASA handled brief excursions to the lunar …
Schrödinger's Bacteria? Physics Experiment Leads to 1st Entanglement of Living Organisms
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
A lot of scientists think that major quantum effects like entanglement, in which particles separated by vast distances mysteriously link up their …
Satellite Images Reveal North Korea's Missile Program Is Very Much Alive
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
North Korea's missile program is still very much alive, according to a report published this weekend. Experts at the Center for Strategic and …
I Took 9 Different Commercial DNA Tests and Got 6 Different Results
Live Science - Rafi Letzter
The thing about me is that I'm Jewish. It's not the only thing about me. I'm also 5 feet 11 inches tall, a glasses wearer and into bicycling. But …