My RSS » MSNBC.com: Technology & Science

MSNBC.com: Technology & Science

NASA says key SpaceX launch may slip to April

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 7:09pm MST

The launch of the first privately built spaceship to the International Space Station is targeted for late March, but will most likely lift off in early April, a top NASA space station official said today (Feb. 2).
Google tightens security in Android app store

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 6:16pm MST

Google Inc has been quietly policing its online store for months now in an acknowledgement of malware's growing threat to its increasingly popular Android mobile software.
How to make solar cells from grass clippings

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 5:20pm MST

Within a few years, a special powder sold in little plastic baggies could turn your grass clippings into an electricity-generating solar cell, scientists reported Thursday.
Video: Jimmy Urine joins 'Lollipop Chainsaw'

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 4:55pm MST

Jimmy Euringer (a.k.a Little Jimmy Urine) the frontman for experimental music group Mindless Self Indulgence and a member of The Left Rights will star in and compose music for the zombie action game "Lollipop Chainsaw." In-Game's Todd Kenreck reports. (In-Game)
NASA releases flip side of 'Blue Marble' photo

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 4:43pm MST

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: NASA reports that its updated "Blue Marble" picture of the Western Hemisphere has gone mega-viral — and now it's releasing the Eastern Hemisphere sequel.
'Social glasses' may reveal person's true colors

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 4:38pm MST

A rosy blush or the sickly green color of a person's skin can tell very different stories about mood and health to human eyes ― a deceptively powerful insight about eyesight. Now a startup has begun creating "social glasses" capable of enhancing the lives of lonely-heart singles or gamblers who play high-stakes games for love and money.
Damaged Russian craft forces space station delay

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 4:35pm MST

A botched pressure test of a Russian space capsule slated to launch the next crew to the International Space Station has forced NASA and its partners to delay the planned liftoff for more than a month.
365 new species discovered in Peruvian park

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 4:14pm MST

Hundreds of species never before seen in a Peruvian national park have been found during an inventory of the Amazonian forests there, according to a conservation group.
Before the Super Bowl, there's the Madden Bowl

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 3:54pm MST

The Madden Bowl pits teams comprised of current NFL pros, all time NFL legends, and those hoping to be either of the two camps in the game "Madden NFL 12.”
Humpbacks share ocean, but not their songs

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 3:52pm MST

Humpback whales living on different sides of the southern Indian Ocean bellow very different songs, suggesting the behemoths don't mingle much, or at least they aren't freely sharing their musical material, a new study finds.
Very rare 'supergiant' crustaceans netted

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 3:28pm MST

Scientists on an expedition to sample a deep-sea trench got a surprise when their traps brought back seven giant crustaceans glimpsed only a handful of times in human history.
Video: Taking a bite out of Apple

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 3:20pm MST

Fortune Magazine’s Adam Lashinsky discusses his new book, “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive Company – Really Works,” and shares his thoughts on one of the biggest tech companies in the world. (Dylan Ratigan Show)
Are 'The Sims' reality TV's most realistic stars?

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 3:09pm MST

"The SuperMes" might be the most honest stab at reality television so far.
Released lizards show evolution at work

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 2:55pm MST

Like something out of reality TV, scientists released pairs of small lizards onto tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas and watched what happened. The reptiles played for survival, allowing the voyeuristic researchers to witness the interaction between evolutionary processes rarely observed in nature.
Kiss a robot, send a smooch

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 2:37pm MST

Long-distance relationships are rough — partly because of the lack of physical contact during times apart. But what if you could one day share a kiss with your partner through the Internet? All it may take is locking lips with a strange ball-shaped robot.
There's more than one way to bet on Facebook IPO

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 2:06pm MST

While investors decide whether to place their bets on Facebook’s initial public offering of stock, there are plenty of other ways to gamble on one of the biggest IPOs on record.
Dizzying pulsars slow down by flying apart

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 2:00pm MST

The spectacularly fast-whirling dead stars known as millisecond pulsars put the brakes on their spinning in large part by blasting pieces of themselves into space, a new model suggests.
Facebook IPO explained ... in cartoon form!

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 1:48pm MST

Is the social network worth $100 billion? You could read the endless stories on every angle of this infamous IPO and figure it out for yourself — or you can watch the latest in Facebook's animated antics in this new offering from Taiwan's New Media Animation.
Window allows a look into live brain

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 1:35pm MST

What if we had a glass window into the brain that lets us look inside? For the first time ever, a team of physicists, chemists and biologists has done just that. Led by a microscopy pioneer, they peered into a living mouse's brain using powerful technology.
Report: 'iMessage bug not a bug, says Apple'

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 1:34pm MST

On Wednesday, popular gadget blog Gizmodo proclaimed that the site's writers were able to "spy on a total stranger's iPhone" thanks to an iMessage-related bug. But today there are reports that Apple deems the incident "an extremely rare situation" — not a bug.
Facebook's IPO guarantees a peek at its privacy

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 1:14pm MST

While you probably won't receive so much as a virtual sack of FarmVille pumpkin seeds from Facebook's long-awaited IPO — set to grant Facebook's shareholders millions and billions — there is one thing you'll get out of the deal: a chance to ogle the social network's private business, sort of like it's been doing to you for years.
Alien stars' habitable zones tied to chemistry

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:58pm MST

Trace elements in stars may influence the evolution of habitable zones around them where life as we know it might dwell, scientists now find.
Verisign, at Web's core, hacked: What does it mean to you?

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:57pm MST

It should be clear by now that nothing online is sacred, and no security company is safe from hackers.
Russian Roulette, the video game

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:57pm MST

We've had video game adaptations of "Reservoir Dogs," "Scarface," and even "The Godfather." So perhaps one based upon "Deer Hunter" is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Report: Sprint customers 'at high risk of leaving' get discounts

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:50pm MST

According to information uncovered by a blog, Sprint intends to offer $25 to $100 discounts on new devices to customers it believes are "at a high risk of leaving Sprint.
'Dance Dance Revolution coming just for the classroom

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:20pm MST

A new edition of the now seminal dance-driven video game will make its world debut later this month just for schools.
Asia still presents big challenge for Facebook

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:18pm MST

Facebook aims to connect all two billion Internet users. So far it has captured 845 million of them. Of the rest, nearly 60 percent live in Asia and hooking them is going to be a daunting challenge.
Scientific visions that take the prize

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:09pm MST

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Visualizing science has come a long way since the days of overhead projectors — to see how far we've come, check out the winners of a competition that highlights the artistic side of science and engineering.
Grossed out by hotel TV remotes? There's an app for that

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:07pm MST

Watching TV or a movie in your hotel room just got a little less icky. LodgeNet Interactive Corporation now has a free mobile app that allows guests to use their own smartphones or tablets to control the TV.
South Korea man charged for re-tweeting North, says group

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:07pm MST

Amnesty International has called for the release of a South Korean activist accused of breaking security laws by re-tweeting messages from the North Korean government.
Users experience brief Facebook outage

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:04pm MST

Many Facebook users appear to have experienced a brief outage or have encountered particularly slow-loading pages, both of which are extremely rare for the social network.
Astronaut well-grounded for 'Big Bang' debut

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:02pm MST

NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who gained Internet fame as the first spaceflyer to send Twitter updates from space, is about to get another taste of stardom, this time on the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."
World's rarest gorilla has room to roam

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:35am MST

The world's rarest gorilla has significantly more suitable habitat than thought, a new study using satellite data has revealed.
Sex and parenting genes found in mice

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:20am MST

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but how did they get there? Our gender differences might be a function of how our brains react to hormones, a new study on mice suggests.
A high-frying idea: Cooking oil to fuel jets

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:10am MST

It didn't smell like fried chicken when an Alaska Airlines jet took off from Seattle last November for a cross-country flight to Washington, D.C. Yet some of the fuel flowing through the Boeing 737’s engines had previously been used in restaurant fryers.
A high-frying idea: Cooking oil to fuel jets

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:10am MST

It didn't smell like fried chicken when an Alaska Airlines jet took off from Seattle last November for a cross-country flight to Washington, D.C. Yet some of the fuel flowing through the Boeing 737’s engines had previously been used in restaurant fryers.
Rage-filled video demonstrates Siri's big weakness

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 10:51am MST

Siri, the virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S, can be pretty darn helpful (and hilarious) thanks to its voice-recognition capabilities. But unfortunately, it has a big weakness: Scottish accents.
Groundhog Day myth stretches back centuries

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 10:36am MST

On Thursday, a roly-poly rodent named Punxsutawney Phil was hoisted from his burrow in front of TV cameras and cheering crowds and called upon to predict the weather. Phil saw his shadow, which, according to legend, means that winter is here to stay for six more weeks. Weird tradition, huh?
Groundhog Day myth stretches back centuries

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 10:36am MST

On Thursday, a roly-poly rodent named Punxsutawney Phil was hoisted from his burrow in front of TV cameras and cheering crowds and called upon to predict the weather. Phil saw his shadow, which, according to legend, means that winter is here to stay for six more weeks. Weird tradition, huh?
Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 10:07am MST

VeriSign Inc, the company in charge of delivering people safely to more than half the world's websites, has been hacked repeatedly by outsiders who stole undisclosed information from the leading Internet infrastructure company.
How spider's silk strands keep a web intact

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 10:00am MST

A spider web gets its strength from silk strands working together and their ability to stretch when stressed, new research suggests.
HTC security flaw lets malicious apps steal Wi-Fi passwords

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 9:38am MST

HTC has acknowledged that a security flaw affecting several of the company's popular wireless devices allows malicious apps to steal users' Wi-Fi passwords. A fix for the issue has been developed and even deployed via software update to many of the affected devices.
iPad 3 rumors: What, when and how?

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 9:27am MST

It's that time of the year again — that agonizing month before the next iPad launch when there seems to be a fresh rumor every hour about the upcoming model. In an effort to seek out those kernels of legitimacy, we've compiled the most significant iPad 3 rumors for you here.
Pre-caffeine tech: Facebook billions, Puppy Bowl!

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 8:45am MST

Some might argue that Newt Gingrich's emphasis on scientific pursuits hurt his political chances — but what's really needed is more science, not less, says our own Alan Boyle.
Newfound super-Earth just might support life

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 8:35am MST

A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.