Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2014

Math for Drones, Self-Driving Cars Wins Top Student Science Award

Mathematical research that could help drones navigate, and computer models for how trees growsnagged top honors at a national student math and science competition, the event's organizers announced today (Dec. 9). Twenty of the nation's brightest high school students descended on Washington, D.C., over the weekend for the 15th annual...

Nov 30, 2014

'Captain America' to 'Interstellar': The Science of 2014's Sci-Fi

From intelligent machines to intelligent apes, and from alien plant creatures to wormhole-hopping spacefarers, the sci-fi movies of 2014 brought a heap of science tidbits to the screen. Here are the 12 best science nuggets from the last 12 months of science-fiction films: January: I, Frankenstein shows how science blurs...

Oct 31, 2014

Here’s How to Fix America’s Crumbling Bridges

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. There are about 600,000 bridges in the United States, and about one in four is classified as functionally obsolete or structurally deficient. This doesn’t mean they’re in danger of...

Sep 30, 2014

Chaos! Space Tourists, Entrepreneurs Geek Out at Math-Themed Gala

NEW YORK — It's not every day that a gala event is devoted to the celebration of math, but that's exactly what happened Tuesday night (Oct. 14), when actor Alan Alda and mathematician Steve Strogatz regaled a crowd of New York's business elite here at the National Museum of Mathematics'...

Sep 30, 2014

Elon Musk: Artificial Intelligence Is Humanity's 'Biggest Existential Threat'

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is concerned about artificial intelligence. In fact, the inventor of the private spaceflight company SpaceX and the car company Tesla says that AI is humanity's biggest existential threat. I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence, Musk said in response to an audience question...

Aug 31, 2014

Apple's Watch Promises Fitness Tracking (Infographic)

The Apple Watch combines a suite of sensors with an innovative interface to provide a new computing experience on the wrist. Combined with an iPhone 5 or later (required), the Apple Watch provides fitness data and personal tracking information as well as time and other functions. The Watch's force-sensitive retina...

Aug 31, 2014

Maker Faire Celebrates Innovation and Tech in NYC This Weekend

NEW YORK — A festival of tech enthusiasts, DIYers and crafters is taking over the New York Hall of Science in Queens this weekend. The fifth annual World Maker Faire in New York will be open Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 20-21). This celebration of innovation, hands-on education, science and technology...

Aug 31, 2014

Gallery: Snapshots from NYC's World Maker Faire 2014

Fun for all ages (Image credit: Kelly Dickerson/Live Science)World Maker Faire, a festival that celebrates science, technology and innovation, is being held on Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, 2014. The event features hands-on workshops, panel discussions and exhibits from inventors, engineers and companies. Here are some photos from the 2014...

Jul 31, 2014

Navy's Secret to Building a Stealth Ship (Op-Ed)

Nikhil Gupta is an associate professor and Steven Zeltmann is a student researcher in the Composite Materials and Mechanics Laboratoryof the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at New York University's Polytechnic School of Engineering. Gupta and Zeltmann contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. A typical syntactic...

Jun 30, 2014

Self-Guided Sniper Bullets Could Help Soldiers with Bad Aim

How do you hit a target if you have bad aim? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is known for developing some of the country's most futuristic technologies, has developed a high-tech sniper-bullet system to solve that problem. DARPA recently conducted its first successful live-fire tests of the...

May 31, 2014

Microchip That Birthed Modern Computing Could Fetch $2 Million

NEW YORK — A prototype microchip designed by famed inventor Jack Kilby, who went on to create the world's first integrated circuit that revolutionized the world of computing, will hit the auction block tomorrow (June 19) here in Manhattan. The vintage piece of technology, built more than 55 years ago,...

Apr 30, 2014

Galaxy S5's Health App Review

In a step toward wellness, Samsung's latest phone, the Galaxy S5, comes with a built-in heart rate monitor and an installed personal wellness app called S Health to help users keep track of their health and fitness measures. The S Health app has a simple, intuitive design, and covers many...

Apr 30, 2014

US Navy Test-Fires New Land-Based Missile Launcher

The U.S. Navy successfully launched a Standard Missile-3 — traditionally a ship-based, anti-ballistic missile — from an onshore launch site for the first time, military officials announced Wednesday (May 21). The successful missile launch late Tuesday (May 20) from a test site at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the...

Apr 30, 2014

Combatting TBI by Engineering Resilience in the Brain

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Compared to the monumental machines of science, such as the International Space Station or the Large Hadron Collider , the human brain doesn't look like much. However, this three-pound amalgam of squishy cells...

Feb 28, 2014

In Images: Vertical-Flight Military Planes Take Off

Vertical-Lift (Image credit: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation)The U.S. military is investing in manned and unmanned aircraft that can take off, hover and land vertically. These so-called vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles could one day transport troops, weapons or cargo to and from the battlefields. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency...