science

He's got blood flowing through him, but he sure isn't human. Meet Rex, the world's first complete "bionic man."

Rex has the face of a man; prosthetic limbs; a functional artificial blood-circulatory system; and artificial organs including a pancreas, kidney, spleen, and trachea. At 6.5-feet tall, Rex is valued at a whopping $1 million.

Created for the TV documentary series "How to Build a Bionic Man," Rex was constructed by a team of roboticists. The researchers say they wanted to test scientific boundaries and demonstrate how modern science is beginning to catch up with sci-fi in the race to replace body parts with man-made alternatives. … Read more

I'm single, I live on my iPhone, and I'm cautiously optimistic about online dating. Those qualities make me the perfect match for Let's Date, an iOS-only application for finding love, or whatever it is you're looking for, in an unconventional fashion.

Let's Date, first released in San Francisco in early November, today launches more widely to offer people in all major U.S. markets, Canada, London, Sydney, and Melbourne a funky new way to find dates.

The application is one of the many pet projects of Science, a buzzy Los Angeles technology studio that creates, … Read more

Forty of the nation's best and brightest high school seniors have been chosen as finalists for Intel's 2013 Science Talent Search.

Offered by the Society for Science & the Public, the Intel-sponsored program chooses finalists based on several factors, including their own scientific research, their achievements, and their leadership, both inside and outside of school.

The competition asks students to come up with scientific solutions to answer questions and resolve problems that affect the entire world.

"This year's Intel Science Talent Search finalists are presenting a wide range of research, from optimizing algae oil for biofuel … Read more

The Curiosity Mars rover has found intriguing veined rocks just below tilted cross-bedded layers that indicate water once flowed and "percolated" through fractured terrain near the landing site in Gale Crater, scientists said today. The discovery provides additional evidence of a watery past on the Red Planet.

Taking their time evaluating a surprising variety of scientific targets, mission scientists and engineers now are gearing up for the first tests of a powerful impact drill that will be used to collect samples from inside targeted rocks.

The drill tests are a final major milestone before the rover begins creeping … Read more

The Mars Curiosity rover recently detected signs of organic compounds on the Red Planet, but NASA won't call the findings definitive. One holdup is the issue of contamination. The trace amounts may be the result of contamination from the rover itself.

The contamination issue could rear its head again should the rover or future expeditions turn up any microbes. Finding microbes on Mars would be a cause for scientific celebration, but a study published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" shows that Earth microbes could very well survive in the brutal conditions on Mars.… Read more

You might agree that the complex design in a snowflake appears almost comparable to a work of art. Do you know how that tiny frozen masterpiece comes to life, though? If you're like me, you may never have witnessed a complete representation of that journey from cloud to ground before.

The trip isn't as simple as you think. … Read more

Have you ever seen billions of dollars in gold bars? A video -- made in the name of science -- gives a glimpse into the massive gold reserves at the Bank of England.

University of Nottingham professor Martyn Poliakoff loves the elements. The eccentric science wizard works with others on a popular Web site and YouTube channel known as The Periodic Table of Videos; one latest video focuses on one of the most valuable elements in existence -- gold. … Read more

After a record-breaking 9,000-mile journey across the ocean, a small autonomous robot recently arrived in Australia having collected and transmitted a wealth of scientific data that could lead to a better understanding of the world's seas.

On November 17, 2011, a Silicon Valley startup called Liquid Robotics launched four of its Wave Glider robots from San Francisco, two of which were heading toward Australia and the other two on their way to Japan. The hope was that the Wave Gliders, which are designed to travel across the globe without fuel or outside propulsion, would set the Guinness World … Read more

In an ongoing effort to restructure its Mars exploration program in the wake of deep budget cuts announced earlier this year, NASA announced plans Tuesday to send a new $1.5 billion rover to the red planet in 2020 based on the design of the agency's hugely successful Curiosity.

The as-yet-unnamed rover is the second new Mars mission announced in the wake of the budget cuts that will be built using already-existing designs, a money-saving architecture agency officials say is more in line with current funding reality.

"The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from … Read more