NASA's supercomputer Pleiades is sort of a reverse time machine.Astrophysicists recently ran a program for 18 days on Pleiades, the 7th most powerful supercomputer in the world, to get a simulated view of how galaxies and other very space large structures developed since the Big Bang.
Maybe some Chinese folks didn't know what they we listening too and maybe it was just a mistake, but a number of news outlets reported that China's state TV (CCTV) this week played "America the Beautiful" as it broadcast the country's first space station launch.
First the good news: There are far fewer near Earth asteroids than NASA previously thought and it knows now where 90% of them are. The bad news, if you will is that there are still 19,500 mid-sized asteroids floating around out there.
With a name like Octoroach, you'd have to be one amazing robotic bug.UC Berkeley researchers this week showed of two insect-like robots that could ultimately crawl into all manner of super-secret surveillance or emergency recovery applications.
An interesting study by Rice University recently found that in one of the one of the more voracious social (and increasingly political) battlegrounds, science v. religion there is more common ground that most folks believe. In fact, according to the study, only 15% of scientists at major...
Research out of the UK today says that perhaps as many as 200,00 people in that country have been victims of online romance scams and the same study says over 1 million people personally know someone who has been scammed by one of these heartless fraudsters.
Only a few days after it made what US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called "brazen" changes to its privacy policy, General Motors subsidiary OnStar has backed down and said it would revert back to its previous terms of service.
After arguing in court over privacy concerns from the sale of bankrupt Borders customer loyalty database to Barnes & Nobel, the lawyers in the case agreed to email customers and give them 15 days to opt out of the system.
US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission to get the agency to investigate recent changes made to navigation and emergency services company OnStar made to its privacy practices.
The American Library Association this week observing its 13th annual Banned Book Week where it takes a look at censorship and all manner of literary issues. The ALA says the Banned Books list was started in 1982 as a "response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools,...
The US Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center is tracking the 6.5 ton NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS that is expected to break up and pass through the Earth's atmosphere today.
To perhaps to no one's surprise, Borders bookstore collected a ton of consumer information - such as personal data including records of particular book and video sales - during its normal course of business. Such personal information Borders promised never to share without consumer consent. But...
Researchers says they have created a system that can boost battery life by 54% by better managing idle-"listening" times on smartphones or other wireless devices.
A number of sources are reporting this afternoon that Hewlett Packard CEO Leo Apotheker may be on the way out the door after less than a year at that post.The HP board is meeting today and considering a CEO move which may include hiring current HP director and ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman into the position,...
NASA today said it would host an open source-based application competition that it hopes will deliver a new generation of software that can address space, weather and economic issues.NASA said it will coordinate with other interested space agencies around the world on an International...
The Federal Trade Commission the week said it will hold a workshop that examines how burgeoning use of facial recognition technology impacts privacy and security.
When NASA rolled out its Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1976 it was met by not only NASA dignitaries, but also some of the cast from the "Star Trek" television series. According to NASA, there was a good reason for the Star Trek folks to be there. That's because Enterprise, the first Space...
The idea sounds simple enough: you can go to your utility's Web site, click a green button and you get information about your household energy use. Develop the technology that makes such a green button possible, is what US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra told attendees of this week's GridWeek...
When it comes to securing the nation's critical energy networks, the Department of Energy says much work remains. Key to that work are the engineers, network administrators, vendors and others behind the security technology -- but they will be leaving the industry in droves in the next five years,...
Talk about going extremely viral. Reports today from a number of outlets has Nigerian officials trying to quell public concern that by answering a certain phone number, cell phone users are killed.
Luke Skywalker phone home. Outside of Star Wars movies real-world astronomers haven't actually seen a planet orbiting two stars at the same times - until now.
NASA's most ambitious and highly over-budget space projects, the James Webb Space Telescope has apparently been spared the budgetary axe.The US Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved about $530 million of NASA's $17.9 billion budget to "enable a 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope."
If you thought those electronic cigarettes which deliver nicotine in a vapor form might slide by on airlines, the US Department of Transportation has some bad news for you. It wants them banned.
It's not the first time we've heard this but it's always a little disconcerting especially from some one so closely involved with the security realm: A destructive attack from cyberspace "is coming, in my opinion. It is a question of time. What we don't know is how far out it is," and whether it will...
The Environmental Protection Agency wants to bolster its Internet-based information clearinghouse to speed accurate and timely exchange of the technical information found in the on-board computer diagnostic systems of your car and the auto service industry.
The US government and the National Science Foundation have announced a plan they say will go a long way toward building applications that can take advantage of ultrafast broadband networks.
There is an urgent need for businesses and our government to develop high-level cyber intelligence as a way to combat the unacceptable levels of online security threats because the current "patch and pray" system won't cut it in the future.
If you thought taking part in the office Super Bowl pool or filling out a March madness bracket at work wasn't a big deal, think again - especially if you work at Verizon. The Taunton (Mass.) Gazette today reported that Verizon fired six workers and suspended 32 others for taking part in a Super...
The Federal Trade Commission today settled cases with two mobile companies who claimed their IPhone and Android smartphone apps could treat acne. The cases are the first the FTC says it has brought targeting mobile app health claims.
With the goal of taking ideas for new robots off the drawing board and moving them into real-life situations, Carnegie Mellon University will host a series of competitions aimed at bringing new robotic technologies for manufacturing, healthcare and national security applications.
A space scientist with a PhD in Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who once worked for NASA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the White House's National Space Council, pleaded guilty today to attempted espionage for offering classified satellite...
The US Department of Justice said a man who placed $35 million worth of false telephone bill charges while serving jail time has been sentenced to 21 more years for the cramming scam.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today said it would seek a $175,000 civil penalty against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for alleged violations of Department of Transportation Hazardous Materials Regulations.
If you remember the "Dirty Harry" movie "Dead Pool" where a radio controlled corvette model car containing a bomb chases Harry around the streets of San Francisco and eventually detonates under his car destroying it, then you have the general idea of the technology a retired 66-year-old mechanical engineer...
The US Department of Energy and its Oak Ridge National Laboratory have built a security system that is aimed at thwarting at least some of the copper thefts that plague utilities and other large facilities.
The classic video game Doom can now be bought and played in Germany after a 17-year ban on the program.The German government agency that controls such things, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (Bundesprufstelle) had banned the video game 1994 saying it was "likely to harm youth."...
