technology

Most of us see the moon almost every night, but few people have seen a decent high-res picture of the moon, let alone a high-res picture of the dark side of the moon. To be able to see the moon - every side of it - in detail would really require being in space and flying around it. And 99.9% of us Earthlings don't have that opportunity (yet). So once again, NASA has come to the rescue, this time providing us with an amazing 3D map of the whole moon for computer graphics artists to use to their heart's content. For the first time, we can explore the moon (digitally). And it's incredible. If you want to see some more amazing photos from NASA, check out these new photos of Mars. 

Boston Dynamics has done it again. By 'it', I mean surprising the heck out of everyone with their latest show-off of technology: Atlas, their humanoid robot, can now do parkour. 

When life goes right it's like a machine working perfectly. If you're the kind of person who likes analogies like this, then we reckon you'll love these mechanical GIFs. 

December 26, 2004. On this day, the worst tsunami in living memory pummeled Indonesia and shocked the world. The first tsunami to occur in the age of mobile camera phones, it was experienced by people all over the world through the shaky handheld videos that emerged of the catastrophe. The footage of the tsunami conveyed the ordeal through the eyes of the survivors, but it also had a practical benefit. Video footage enabled scientists to understand tsunamis more. Here's how. 

Although driverless cars are still a long way off from being mainstream, it's a different story for driverless mining trucks in the outback of Australia. And this technology could be a key component for NASA's 2024 moon mission. 

We can't all be walking talking IT departments. But some people are, and thank GAWD for them. These techy memes will resonate with anyone who's been able to help people with the internet or coding beyond saying "have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?"

Like so many things in our lives right now, stock photography is being revolutionized by artificial intelligence. This technology is so advanced that it can create completely realistic pictures of people. Generated Photos is a company that has AI generated 100,000 images of peoples faces, of all ages and ethnicities, and they're all available for downloading and use on Google Drive. Some of the photos are impossible to tell apart from real people. 

But, advanced as it is, the AI making these faces still has it's flaws and sometimes botches the photos, making the people look just wrong. In the really extreme cases, the AI has created weird hats (for want of a better word) on these really happy people. And they are hilarious. Bless the AI for trying it's best, but these photos will make you ask "Why? Just why?. It seems that photographers don't have to worry about losing their jobs to AI just yet. 

With space technology increasing rapidly, we're learning more than ever about the planets in our galaxies. In the latest news, radar evidence shows that one of Saturn's moons is snowing. Yep, snow isn't only an Earth thing. And the weirder part? It's snow is falling onto the other moons of Saturn too. I had no idea that could even happen.

It looks like Spidermanwas onto something. Police in the US have started using mechanical lassos (but not made from spiderweb) in place of tasers, which caused 49 deaths in America last year. This could potentially be the end of tasers.

Although the speed at which today's technology is developing may scare some people, it has a huge potential to create life-saving machines. This is one of them. The 'robo-thread' is a small, snake-like robot that can glide through the brain's blood vessels and deliver clot-reducing drugs to treat strokes or aneurysms. Although the idea of a robot snake crawling through your brain isn't the most pleasant of thoughts, this little robot is promising to save lives and replace open brain surgery. 

Retro is a concept we're all familiar with. Interior design, fonts, electronics, homewares, and fashion all pay homage to the trends of the past and constantly recycle old concepts into new ideas. So why not reinvent old-fashioned cars? That's exactly what Mercedes Benz did, reimagining the Mercedes Simplex car from 1902 into it's modern equivalent. And we must admit, it's very cool. 

There's nothing we love more here than some random information. The world is full of interesting things, so why limit yourself to one topic? This article is jam packed with tidbits from very different topics, from evolution to bionic limbs. Absorb that info, my friends. 

We're so glad technology has come as far as it has. Waiting a day to download an album or a movie sounds like sheer torture.

Have you ever wondered what the surface of an asteroid looks like? Well wonder no more, because the world has been blessed with pictures of Ryugu, a diamond-shaped asteroid the Japanese Space Agency has a spacecraft hanging around. The photographer is a little shoebox-sized probe named MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) who bounced around the asteroid and snapped some pics for us. Thanks, buddy. 

Remember when 3D printing became wildly popular overnight and everyone started 3D printing everything? Well 3D printing has just taken on a new dimension. Scientists have just 3D bioprinted a tiny human heart from stem cells. This is big, people. This is huge. 

On September 10th, a Japanese rocket carrying cargo bound for the International Space Station (ISS) was unable to launch after a fire broke out on the launch pad. No-one was hurt, but the whole thing was a little unusual.