A British gentleman has a pair of prototype cyber-spectacles, able to detect signals he can't see and transmit them into his brain, and he uses them to sort his socks.  As you might guess he isn't James Bond.  He's called Ron, a seventy-three year old cyborg who can now see for the first t...

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losin...

"I can hear DNA on the internet."  No, it's not Philip K. Dick's facebook status: it's what you could say too, listening to the broadcast of an entire human genome online.  A project that's already started, and is going on right now. The fantastic folk over at DNA-Rainbow have re...

NASA are looking at sending robots to build landing pads for rockets arriving at their 2020 Moonbase.  Possibly because someone said "I dare you to make having a goddamn moonbase even cooler!" The project isn't just an awesome opening cinematic, though - the realities of living on the...

Many of us are blissfully unaware that almost the whole of human history -from the hunters and gatherers to the rise of towns and cities, the development of science and medicine -the whole of our great human pageant- has taken place within an atypical period of fair weather. For most of our 4.5-bill...

Backing up your data is important, but let's be honest - the most important things on your hard drive are old photos and some stuff for work.  Unlike the Hubble archives, which uncovered an entire planet that  lurking in eleven year old data, and as many as a hundred more could be hiding i...

Some of the earliest steps of modern man have been discovered in Kenya, revealing that Homo Erectus would have worn a size 9.  Assuming he didn't try to eat it.  Or pass out in unholy terror of the insane "lighting" magicks of the modern shoe store. Fossilized footprints were fou...

It’s the most famous chord in rock 'n' roll, an instantly recognizable twang rolling through the open strings on George Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker. It evokes a Pavlovian response from music fans as they sing along to the refrain that follows:     "It’s been a hard day’s...

This past summer, the Phoenix Mars Lander has documented several profound discoveries: It snows on Mars. Martian soil contains calcium carbonate — a mineral that’s typically formed in the presence of water. And a hard layer of ice, which may......

"We still can't cure the common cold", the rallying cry of anyone trying to belittle progress.  You'll notice that these people don't live in caves, walk to work, die of smallpox or eat anything they caught themselves, but it makes them feel better to complain.  And it makes us f...