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1 of 5 Next All of the snowflake photos on this page, believe it or not, were captured using a six-year-old point-and-shoot Canon camera and a standard 58mm SLR lens that was produced in the USSR sometime between 1958 and 1992. Such photography ought to be impossible without a microscope or other expensive gear, but it just perfectly illustrates the ...

When it launches in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will let us see deeper into the universe than ever before. Its enormous eye is centered around 18 octagonal mirrors which assemble to form the largest telescope mirror ever built, but someday even the James Webb Telescope (formerly the Next-Gen Space Telescope) will outlive its usefulness — and then what ...

Simple tasks, like plucking the stem off a cherry, are still monumental challenges for artificial hands. With a bill of materials perhaps a few hundred components long, it is not surprising that their functionality is low compared with one assembled from trillions of components. A new prosthetic bionic hand, designed and built by researchers at Case Western University is now ...

Alienware laptops have long had a reputation for elite gaming machines, with high resolution displays, dedicated graphics, and tons of processing power always coming standard. On sale right now with a coupon, you can save a hefty sum off the most portable of the bunch in the Alienware 14. Let’s start with the specs: You’re getting a fourth-gen Haswell Core ...

After weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions with the FDA, 23andMe has just announced that it is suspending its genetic health analysis for new customers. Those of you who purchased DNA kits after November 21st will only receive the raw genetic data and ancestry analysis from 23andMe. Unfortunately, this means the utility of the company’s $ 99 DNA test is drastically reduced ...

Earlier in 2013, NASA’s Cassini orbiter captured a stunning photo (above) of a mysterious storm on Saturn. This storm, known only as the hexagon, is roughly 20,000 miles (32,000 km) from edge to edge — more than twice the width of the Earth, or around the same size as its interstellar anticyclonic buddy, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Until now, we’ve ...

If you’ve ever watched The Matrix or Ocean’s Eleven, you’ll be familiar with EMP weapons — pulses of intense electromagnetic radiation that melt any nearby conductors, disabling just about any electrical system or electronic device. Despite their sci-fi-like portrayal by Hollywood, EMP weapons are very real, and very capable of destroying computers or knocking out a power grid. That’s why ...

It’s a good thing we have SpaceX, or Google’s “moonshots” would almost certainly be more literal than those we see today. The company, which has recently set itself to fixing such problems as the global energy crisis and death, could never turn away from such a placid, mocking challenge as the moon, were a suitably trendy genius not already concerned ...

Despite assurances from companies like Intel that the worst is over for the PC market, the tune coming from analyst firm IDC paints a very different picture. According to IDC, PC sales are now expected to fall by 10.3% in 2013 — the worst contraction on record. The new forecast suggests that PCs will drop a further 4% in 2014, before ...

Amazon, the company that already automates many of its warehouses and fulfillment centers with robot workers, has unveiled Amazon Prime Air — a new delivery method that will see autonomous quadcopters deliver your order within 30 minutes. A couple of years from now, perhaps on Cyber Monday in 2015, you might be able to order a PS4 game or the ...