Invention & Technology: Strong Armed

by | Oct 1, 2009 | Articles

Building a truly useful prosthetic arm remains a major engineering challenge: while new designs show promise, they still can’t beat the utility of a simple hook mechanism that dates back to before World War I. By Michael Belfiore. Invention & Technology...

First poet in space

by | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog, Uncategorized

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté blasted off for the International Space Station this morning aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule.He’ll spend a week and a half in orbit on what he’s calling the first poetic social mission from space. The event will...

SpaceX preps for Falcon 9 launch

by | Sep 24, 2009 | Blog, Uncategorized

SpaceX has been busy since my visit to company HQ for my recent Popular Mechanics article.I’ve just received a progress report from the company, including some gorgeous photos of vehicle assembly and testing in progress.The Falcon 9 launch vehicle is getting...

It’s a wrap for DARPA audio book

by | Sep 23, 2009 | Blog, Uncategorized

I’ve just finished reading the audio version of my book on DARPA, The Department of Mad Scientists, for Random House Audio.My director, David Rapkin, seemed particularly taken with the chapter on the Urban Challenge, DARPA’s autonomous vehicle race.David...