science

This isn’t really a gadget, but the technology on display is rather impressive, and it’s probably good to know about anyway, in case you make a lot of clandestine audio…

So I read about this portable biometric scanner (it’s been around for a while, but the Pentagon just ordered $10 million worth of them) and immediately looked up the first…

The Voyager 2 transmission hiccup appears to have been identified. The problem? “A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1,” said JPL’s Veronia…

What qualifies as a robot, exactly? This thing appears to be a sort of polyhedron that stands on its tiptoes. Sure, it’s impressive — but “robot?” But that’s neither here…

You tend to think of archaeologists as academic types, dusting off pottery shards and bones, and a comfy tent in the desert. Generally speaking, you don’t think of them buzzing…

Our Gadgets of Days Gone By series is over, and it focused pretty much on consumer goods that made our lives more entertaining or more bearable. But there’s an awful…

Looks like you’ll have to put off that vacation to beautiful Iceland yet again. The volcano whose name must not be spoken has resumed erupting and is at this moment…

Software that helps to detect “illegal” video content on the web automatically isn’t really new, but NEC claims its technology has two selling points that sets it apart from similar…

Social networks are a dime a dozen. Many of them focus on the social, or the networking, independent of other aspects that might bring people together. It’s no big surprise…

Everyone loves the idea of solar energy. The three big challenges are that solar cells are expensive to produce, they’re not very efficient, and you need some means to store…

There’s a trick here, I just can’t quite figure it out. Ordinary cameras, for centuries now since the very first experiments in optics, have relied on organizing lenses in sequence…

We’re no strangers to grand promises of storage and speed here at CrunchGear. Holographic is a term used almost without break as scientists and engineers pitch giants like 3M and…

Here in Seattle (welcome!) we have no problem getting enough rain. Lasers are not necessary. But this international project studying the effect of high-power lasers on mistifying the atmosphere could…

The European Southern Observatory will construct the world’s largest telescope in Chile. They’re calling it the European Extremely Large Telescope, and it’s being constructed in Chile because the night sky…

Mind-reading devices are nothing really new, but Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) apparently sees a huge potential for that market in the near future. The MIC will…

A lot of sophisticated, portable gadgets nowadays have a touchscreen, but what if you could operate those gadgets with your fingers – without touching the display or any part of…

Major toymaker Bandai yesterday announced the Hyper Telescope [JP], which is being marketed as a “science toy” for kids. It’s the ideal gadget if you want your kid to become…

Interesting question no? Would something so simple like a lava lamp work at the higher gravity found on Jupiter? The easy solution would have been to just do the research,…

Radio waves are nice and all, but when you think that your Wi-Fi signal weakens when you go into another room, just think about what would happen if there were…

Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, powering small gadgets, cars or even buildings. It’s not a surprise to see a number of companies currently working on improvements. Just a few weeks ago,…

I remember the glory days of bionics… you know, when I’d see an article on bionic eyes and not think “Another one?” Because really, there are a lot out there.…

No clue what makes this list authoritative, but it’s Friday, and it’s the day before life as we know it changes with the release of… something. Anyhow, it’s a list…

It’s an interesting time to be in the e-book business. E-readers in their many varieties are sussing out the perfect user experience, and the race to the bottom might end…

Another possible breakthrough for LCD TVs? Researchers at Japanese chemical company Teijin and Yamaguchi University claim they have developed a new technology that makes it possible halve the weight of…

If it turns out that Gates really is an evil genius, we’re all screwed. I mean, first he’ll unleash a plague of hurricanes on the coasts of the world, then…

We’ve heard of wind harvesting, wi-fi harvesting, and even corpse harvesting, but who would have thought to harvest the energy from traffic noise and all the other ever-present vibrations of…

Someone call Pauly Shore, because there’s a new closed environment that’ll need his madcap hijinks to stave off boredom and no doubt save the day. The Mars500 project, located in…

Mosquitos are one of the major ways that malaria is spread, causing an estimated two million deaths per year. Wouldn’t it be cool if those mosquitos could be genetically modified…

You’ve probably heard about some quantum this-and-that where it was implied that certain particles can be here and there, or moving and not moving, simultaneously. “Splendid,” you said, disparagingly, as…

A research team from Japan-based Mitsui Mining & Smelting and Tohoku University says it managed to develop a spreadable electrode that may lead to lower prices for LCD panels in…