Tag: STEM

Our smartphones are cold, passive devices that usually can’t move autonomously unless they’re falling onto our faces while we’re looking at them in bed. A research team in France is exploring ways to change that by giving our smartphones the ability to interact with us more (via New Scientist). MobiLimb is a robotic finger attachment that plugs in through a smartphone’s Micro USB port, moves using five servo motors, and is powered by an Arduino microcontroller. It can tap the user’s hand in response to phone notifications, be used as a joystick controller, or, with the addition of a little fuzzy sheath accessory, it can turn into a cat tail.

MobiLimb is a research project by PhD student Marc Teyssier and his team across from French…

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The Magicians — Syfy’s TV show adaptation of the novels by Lev Grossman — is coming back for a fourth season. And at New York Comic Con, we finally got the exact date: January 23rd, 2019. We also got an ominous first look at the upcoming season, which teases just how much aspiring magician Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) and his friends will have to go up against.

The events of last season saw our heroes succeed in their quest to bring back magic (which, all things considered, is probably a good thing in a show called The Magicians). But it was at a cost: a seemingly unstoppable monster is on the loose, and all of our would-be heroes are stuck in our boring, mundane world, believing that they’re fashion editors and DJs instead of…

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Welcome to Fav’d For Later, a Friday roundup of our favorite memes, trends, and all-around good internet content. This week IS A TEST. NO ACTION IS NEEDED.

On October 3rd, aka Mean Girls Day, the first FEMA Presidential Alert lit up phones across the US. Right on time! By that, I mean the memes. The memes were right on time.

The punchlines are pretty hit or miss, but what I love about this very predictable joke (if you text it, they will meme) is the unity, you know? We all got the text* so we all get the meme. How often does that happen? Usually, the teens do something funny to Kermit or SpongeBob, and we all sort of laugh and nod until we actually get it, at which point the wave is already long over, and we’re just reheating the…

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In a collision, a car’s airbag has a tiny fraction of a second in which to inflate—which is why airbags use explosives.

From an epic account of the online drug market Silk Road, to a poignant tale about a man seeking intimacy with his robot clone, these stories will blow your mind. Again.

This Sunday, SpaceX intends to launch a Falcon 9, with a souped-up block 5 booster, from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

An off-road e-bike that’s as beastly on the single-track as it is on paper.

Under current US safety rules, a motor vehicle must have traditional controls, like a steering wheel, mirrors, and foot pedals, before it is allowed to operate on public roads. But that could all change under a new plan released on Thursday by the Department of Transportation that’s intended to open the floodgates for fully driverless cars.

The department, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards” as applied to autonomous vehicles, the 80-page document reads. In particular, regulators say they will look to change those safety standards “to accommodate automated vehicle technologies and the possibility of setting exceptions to…

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After announcing some updates to the Google Assistant user experience yesterday, today Google is rolling out a new way of booking rides with your voice — or at least getting most of the way there. Starting this week, you’ll be able to say “Hey Google, book a ride to” or “Hey Google, get me a taxi to” your destination.

Assistant will then respond by listing off price estimates and current wait times for Uber, Lyft, Ola, Grab, GO-JEK, “and many more” ride-hailing apps, according to Google. You can avoid the longer list and specify your preferred service by using its name when requesting a ride. This works on Android, iPhone, Google Home, and all other smart speakers that have Assistant built in.

Previously, Assistant would kick you over…

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Volvo’s in-house performance arm begins constructing verification prototypes of the Polestar 1 hybrid super coupe.