In The Matrix, human beings are a literal (and metaphorical) power source – specifically, they supply bio-electricity to our AI overlords. Fortunately, enslavement to robotic masters in a virtual-reality prison is completely unnecessary for biochemistry to power our machines. Instead, all we need is sugar and vitamins.

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Category: Energy, Technology

Tags: Battery, flow cell, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Biomimicry

An antibiotic primarily used in veterinary medicine was found to turn the gut into a factory that pumps out life-extending compounds. The finding could change the way we think about the development of longevity drugs.

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Category: Aging Well, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind

Tags: Longevity, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bacteria, Gut Bacteria, Microbiome

Apparently, one amazing music venue just isn't enough for Hamburg, Germany. The city already boasts the Elbphilharmonie – one of the world's most notable concert halls – and now it's lining up a second. The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has revealed plans for a new state opera house, which will allow Hamburgers to enjoy a stroll in a park and watch a ballet at the same venue.

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Category: Architecture, Technology

Tags: Building and Construction, Bjarke Ingels Group, sustainable design

Legendary British automaker TVR, which has a history of building championship-winning sports cars dating back nearly 80 years, is returning to the performance vehicle market after a long break. Up first: the super-light, V8-powered Griffith that was supposed to ship in 2019.

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Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: TVR, Sports Cars, British

The “trophy wife” trope has been given a modern twist. New research shows that after the wedding, beauty-for-status becomes a two-way street, with both husbands and wives adjusting their looks as income power shifts.

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Category: Society & Community, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind

Tags: Sex and gender, Relationships, Weddings, Money, University of Bath

The Portuguese man-of-war, or Physalia, is a jelly-like creature that uses a special gas-filled balloon to float on the sea surface. Physalia inhabits the area where the ocean meets the atmosphere, in contrast to the majority of jellyfish that drift deeper. Its balloon serves as a sail, allowing it to glide with the wind and currents. Large groups may occasionally be carried to coastlines where they are rarely observed due to changing winds and ocean temperatures.

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Category: Biology, Science

Tags: Marine Biology, jellyfish, Species, Climate Crisis, Japan

Some people don’t lose enough weight after bariatric surgery, but a new study shows that adding a daily shot of GLP-1 drug liraglutide can help patients shed extra pounds and may reduce the need for further surgery.

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Category: Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind

Tags: Obesity, Bariatric surgery, Weight Loss, GLP-1 receptor agonists, Monash University

Antarctica's ice cores are like frozen diaries of Earth's past, preserving ancient air and climate clues. Most continuous records go back about 800,000 years. But in a region called the Allan Hills, a special patch of blue ice holds scattered snapshots dating back as far as 2.7 million years.

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Category: Science

Tags: Antarctic, Ice, Climate Crisis, Environment

Fruit smoothies have become a huge trend in healthy lifestyle world – and for good reason. They are a quick source of vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants, and they take just a few minutes to make! Bananas are the number-one ingredient for a good smoothie. Creamy and naturally sweet, they seem to pair well with pretty much every other fruit ... or do they?

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Category: Diet & Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind

Tags: UC Davis, Diet, Nutrition, Fruit

Just over a year after it launched its novice-friendly Neo camera drone that doesn't require a license or even a remote control, DJI has updated it. There are several compelling upgrades and a few new features that make it worth a look if you want to get started shooting video hands-free.

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Category: Drones, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Camera drone, DJI Innovations

3D-printed architecture has evolved from futuristic concept to everyday construction technique at lightning speed – and the pace shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. A recent example of this progress comes in the form of a non-towable tiny house that was printed in just one week.

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Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, 3D Printing, House, Home

Valve – which runs the Steam game store and made the legendary Half-Life series – already makes a VR headset for hardcore gamers who care to tether themselves to a beefy PC for an immersive experience. Its new headset, the Steam Frame, is designed to make VR gaming a lot more accessible to folks who want to easily jump into their favorite titles, with some clever tech hidden inside.

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Category: Virtual Reality, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Gaming, VR, Valve

You won't find us endorsing aggression towards animals very often, however, scientists have discovered that raising your voice to seagulls – especially if you're male – will make them think twice about stealing your food. It's simply science.

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Category: Biology, Science

Tags: University of Exeter, Birds, Beach, Animal science, Tone, Human, Behavior

Tens of millions of people with type 2 diabetes might actually be undermining their efforts to improve their health, with researchers demonstrating that the commonly prescribed metformin blocks the cardiovascular benefits normally gained through exercise.

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Category: Diabetes, Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind

Tags: Rutgers University, Type 2 diabetes, Medication, Chronic illness, Exercise, Cardiovascular, blood-glucose, Hypertension, Metabolic syndrome

If you want to build an actual HAL 9000, all you need is an LED, some carpentry skills, and any laptop accessing a talking AI. If you want to build your own R2D2, you’ll have a tougher job assembling a range of materials, motors, and electronics. But what if you wanted to make your own working version of TARS, that bizarre, blocky robot from Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar that looks like a stainless steel ATM with metal posts for legs sprouting from its shoulders?

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Category: Robotics, Technology

Tags: Carnegie Mellon University, locomotion, Movies

So I've had these headphones for almost two weeks now. When I got them, I chucked it onto the charger until it said it was fully charged. Since then, I've worn them every single day, 95% of the time in Bluetooth mode connected to everything from my phone to my laptop to my projector. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes most of the day. And I haven't charged 'em since.

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Category: Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Headphones, Bluetooth, Studio

British electric drive specialist Helix builds some of the most power-dense electric motors in the world. Now it's working to springboard that compact, power-packed design into a marine drive ecosystem it believes will help change the face (or at least underbody) of everyday recreational and utility boating. The company's all-new Pod Cartridge brings the e-drive components necessary to make 360-degree pod drives a widely available solution capable of increasing efficiency and boosting maneuverability across a huge market of vessels.

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Category: Marine, Transport

Tags: Electric Motors, Marine Innovations, Climate Solutions: Shipping, Electric Boats

Sitting at a desk for at least eight hours a day is the reality for most remote workers today. But what if you could keep moving while working? That’s exactly the question that inspired Johannes Kettmann, a software developer from Berlin who knows firsthand the challenge of hitting those 10,000 steps per day while working a remote desk job. The result is the Office Walker, a minimalist walking pad designed for simplicity, silence, and long-lasting durability.

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Category: Fitness & Exercise, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind

Tags: Kickstarter, Exercise, Treadmill, Wooden

Boosting levels of a certain molecule that declines with age was found to restore memory and brain function in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) models – not just by improving energy metabolism, as previously thought, but by fixing RNA splicing errors that disrupt hundreds of genes crucial to neuron health.

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Category: Alzheimer's & Dementia, Brain Health, Body and Mind

Tags: University of Oslo, Alzheimer's disease, Neuroscience, Neurodegenerative conditions, Cognitive functioning, Age-Related, Memory, Brain

After a couple of successful crowdfunding campaigns over the past year, Hong Kong-based EDC brand Eck Studio is back at it with a versatile little tool that's perfect for outdoorspeople and DIY enthusiasts who need different kinds of blades to hand.

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Category: Knives and Multitools, Gear, Outdoors

Tags: EDC, Outdoors and Camping, Tools, Knife, Kickstarter