Surprising Science

A team of researchers at Brown University have taught a paralyzed woman to move a robotic arm with her mind, enabling her to take an independent sip of coffee for the first time in 15 years. 

An engineer has released incredibly detailed technical specifications for builing a real Star Ship Entreprise which could take us to Mars in 90 days and to the Moon in just three. 

We’re sorry to inform you that the space mining position you were seeking has been filled. That’s the message from Planetary Resources, who was inundated with resumes to mine space rocks. 

Despite a recent privacy snafu, the creator of the smartphone-based social network Path says he wants to create a portable Internet that provides an intimate place for private social groups. 

A new education initiative brings together app developers and professional educators to use the power of tablet computers in the classrooms. New apps teach everything from spelling to Chinese script. 

MIT economist Esther Duflo has documented how anti-poverty programs create an economic benefit larger than the sum of their parts. She says the margin represents the yield of hope’s seeds. 

While researching creativity for his book Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer spent some time at 3M, analyzing the company culture that earned it the title of third most innovative company in the world in a recent survey of executives. 

The vast empire over which human reason once ruled has been made a fiefdom by current neurological research. The brain is as vulnerable to outside influence as any other organ.  

A clever experiment designed by Harvard researchers suggests that we mostly imagine, and recall, positive visions of the future. Though negative forecasts occasionally help us correct our course. 

Since the industrialization of agriculture and the more recent trend toward genetically modified foods, we have lost an astounding 93% of the diversity in our food seeds. 

A new approach to cancer treatment involves extracting a patient’s bone marrow and then infecting it with a virus which carries a genetic immunity to certain chemotherapy drugs. 

An expert committee has recommended that a drug trade-named Truvada be offered daily to gay men and people living with infected partners to prevent them from catching HIV. 

Upon awakening this morning, and for no discernable reason, my first thought focused on religion, and why there is more disdain among the religious, of religions that are not their […]

What is the Big Idea? Social media has been inspiring change in the way business leaders interact with their customer base. And for good reasons. Companies that adopt social technologies […]

Here are seven technologies, from apps to standalone devices, that can aid us in getting a better night’s sleep. 

What really goes on in a brain-on-porn? A recent study conducted at the University of Groningen Medical Center came to a surprising conclusion.

The words we pay the least attention to in conversations–connectors like ‘the’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘and’, etc.–are highly reflective of our sexual desire and our relative place in society. 

By consciously practicing optimism, Jason Silva believes, we create circumstances that make external challenges weaker and easier to overcome. It’s mind over matter – thinking your ideal world into being by choosing to believe it already exists. 

Coming up with a brand name can be tough, so a team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence system which creates a name for you by using ideas essential to the product.   

By improving on machine-learning technology, engineers are working to create man-machine hybrids that can not only recommend great music but usher in a new era of scientific discovery. 

After months of regulatory negotiations with Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles, Google has been given an official driver’s license to test its self-driving vehicles. 

There are approximately 105,000 people currently on the waiting list for solid organ transplant in the United States. 18 of those people die every day. These deaths are due entirely to […]

As we find more planets outside our solar system and more terrestrial life that survives brutal conditions, scientists are wondering what a completely new form of life might be like. 

Medic Mobile integrates technologies to connect and train health systems. The company uses technologies such as FrontlineSMS, OpenMRS, Ushahidi, Google Apps, and HealthMap to allow healthcare workers to communicate with each […]

Cheetah is a four-legged robot that has attained the highest land speeds yet of any robot with legs. The Cheetah, developed by Boston Dynamics, mimics the movements of the real […]

DIY Drones is the largest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle community on the web.  The website allows enthusiasts to analyze, compare, and troubleshoot each other’s UAV projects through an open-source atmosphere. The […]

Living PlanIT is a company that aims to build the new, sustainable cities of the future. They are teaming up with different partners to help them develop and implement new […]

Rather than being afraid of our new publicness, says Jarvis, we ought to use it to solve some of our most complex problems. 

A new kind of satellite measuring just four inches on each side could help NASA find nearby planets similar to ours as well as examine asteroids for deposits of rich mineral resources.

Astronomers are coming to know more about a planet twice the size of Earth which revolves around a star in the constellation Cancer. Just 40 light years away, the planet is a brother of sorts.