The Shape-Shifting Robot That Evolves by Falling Down
Don't even worry about Dyret the robot. At first glance, the scrawny quadruped looks pathetic, as it struggles to walk without collapsing. But keep watching, and you’ll see it start to improve—walking slowly, yet ever more proficiently. Dyret the robot is teaching itself to walk. Or even, according to a new class of robotics researchers,…
While You Were Offline: Another Glitch in the Wall
Only in times like these can the internet oscillate between getting excited about the woman serving water on the red carpet at the Golden Globes and fascination with Jeff Bezos' love life in the same week. That's especially true when one considers there were pitstops along the way for musicians apologizing for collaborating with R.…
The Weird Saga of the Gaming Conference Hosting Steve Bannon
The International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, a relatively niche academic symposium in its 15th year, is embroiled in a white-hot controversy over its keynote speaker: Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist and founding member of the right-wing publisher Breitbart News. According to the conference organizer, Bannon—who has no academic background…
How NASA Will Look for Geysers (and Life) on Europa
In recent years, scientists have suggested that images from the Hubble telescope show plumes of icy water spewing from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Others have doubted the claim—which is fair enough, because the images are kind of fuzzy and the satellite's instrument couldn’t always capture them. But intrigued by Hubble's images from 2014…
Inside a Chemist’s Quest to Hack Evolution and Cure Genetic Disease
David Liu’s office on the third floor of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts is designed to quiet the mind. A museum-grade gemstone collection lines the walls, interspersed with blue-tinged photos Liu has taken of inspiring science-on-location scenes—the concrete corners of the Salk Institute, a sunset through the Scripps pier, the lights of Durango, Colorado…
Flattened Fluids Help Scientists Understand Oceans and Atmospheres
Turbulence, the splintering of smooth streams of fluid into chaotic vortices, doesn’t just make for bumpy plane rides. It also throws a wrench into the very mathematics used to describe atmospheres, oceans and plumbing. Turbulence is the reason why the Navier-Stokes equations—the laws that govern fluid flow—are so famously hard that whoever proves whether or…
How to Watch the Grammys
The bad news: The Grammy Awards show airing this Sunday has two things in common with the Super Bowl halftime show. The good news: Neither of them is shirtless Adam Levine! The 61st annual Grammys airs on CBS, just like the Super Bowl. The telecast will feature a Travis Scott appearance—again, just like the Super…
Why Can't We Fix Puerto Rico's Power Grid?
And then the lights went out. Again. The loss of electrical power in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria churned across the islands in September 2017 was already the second-biggest blackout in the history of power on Earth—3.4 billion lost customer-hours. But in recent weeks, various agencies were touting their success…
While You Were Offline: Trump's Fast-Food Nation
Yes, yes, we know: A lot of energy last week was focused on people sharing how much, or how little, they've changed in the past decade. But that wasn't all. They also fretted over how much Netflix costs and marveled at the streaming numbers for You and Sex Education. Meanwhile, Texas is apparently at war…
The Big Engineering Behind Olympic Snowboarding's Big Air Event
A jump with the exact proportions of the launch ramp for snowboarding’s big air event, which will make its Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, does not exist in nature. It must be built. And so, fewer than a dozen times a year, at venues ranging from ballparks to parking lots, impeccably orchestrated teams of engineers, ice…