Hasta La Gadget!

Canadians well-versed in their history are very aware of Sir John Franklin‘s ill-fated 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage: a British voyage that set out to establish a sailing route through the Arctic and ended with the untimely, mysterious deaths of its two ship crews. No human ever found the abandoned ships, which makes it all the more fitting that the next best shot at discovery might come through a just-launched autonomous underwater vehicle from the University of Victoria and Bluefin Robotics. Meet the Mano, a new sonar-toting robot that can produce detailed undersea maps all by its lonesome while keeping a steady altitude above the ocean floor. It can only operate for 12 hours at a time, which will keep humans in the area, but its ability to run untethered below storms and cold Arctic winds should dramatically expand the territory that researchers can cover during their share of a larger five- to six-week journey. There’s no guarantee that the Mano will hit the jackpot, or find something recognizable even if it does. Still, any mapping should improve navigation for modern boats — and hopefully prevent others from sharing Sir Franklin’s fate.

Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt

University of Victoria’s Mano underwater robot to prowl Arctic waters for legendary ships originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A trio of Star Trek: The Next Generation fans have rescued the junked remains of the Enterprise-D bridge from Paramount Pictures, with an eye to restoring it to its former glory. The fibre glass set was built for Star Trek: The Experience, after the original (wooden) set was unsurprisingly destroyed filming Star Trek: Generations. When the group knows how much the project will cost, they’ll go to Kickstarter to raise funds, with the hope of exhibiting the set to the public. If you feel you might well-up at the sight of your childhood heroes’ home lying in pieces in a parking lot, we advise you not to click on the gallery below, and instead kick in a couple of bucks when their appeal goes live.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Meta, Alt

Star Trek fans rescue Enterprise-D bridge, plan to restore it to former glory originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

All good things come to an end, they say. Thankfully, most bad things do, too. So while the rest of the world of tech is dealing with the fallout, and possible implications of patent law, over here in the wild party that is Alt, we’re fist pumping at all the awesome weekly sci-tech fodder. For example, we’ve got a robo-nose that can sniff out nasties in the air, a 110-million-year-old footprint found in NASA’s back yard, and not one, but two space stories to reflect on. There’s a hidden joke in there too, come back once you’ve read through to find it. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 8.25.12: robotic noses, Nodosaurs and Space X launches again

Filed under: Science, Internet, Alt

Alt-week 8.25.12: robotic noses, Nodosaurs and Space X launches again originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If, like us, you spend most of your time wondering exactly what’s going on in other people’s heads, then this video is for you. Okay, so it might not reveal the reason why that jerk cut you off at the junction, or why that co-worder didn’t show up to your date exactly, rather, it’s a little more literal than that. This is video footage of proteins moving within a single neuron. The USC researchers were able to capture this video by using bioluminescent proteins from a jellyfish to visually track their movement. Not only is this mind-boggling to the layperson (just think how small these things are) it’s also mind-revealing. By that, we mean it gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these tiny, yet vital, cerebral elements restore themselves. Which, when you’re constantly worried about the amount of grey matter you were blessed with in the first place, can only be a good thing.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Video of protein movement within a neuron shows how our brains renew themselves originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Whether you’ve got your head in the clouds, or your feet firmly locked on terra firma (or is that terrorist firma?) the last seven days in Alt have something for you. We look at a massive aircraft, that could revolutionize air travel as we know it, as well as look back at a real-world project that heralded a significant shift even further up in the sky. There’s the NASA logo that never came to be, and lastly, for those less fond of heights, we hear how a US government department is heading in the other direction — albeit culturally — all in the fight against terror. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science, Internet

Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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