CNET News - Cutting Edge

Ta ta, Tesla

Jon Oltsik — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:20:00 PST

Tesla Motors, a start-up focused on high-performance electric cars, appears to be in a bit of trouble.

Although Tesla just raised an additional $40 million, it is asking for $400 million in low-interest loans from the federal government as part of the $25 billion ...

Originally posted at Green Tech

A longer delay for the Large Hadron Collider

Tom Espiner — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:42:00 PST

The Large Hadron Collider will come back online in late summer 2009 at the earliest, and not in June as previously expected.

The LHC was shut down in September, nine days after it was first fully powered up, following a helium leak caused by ...

Household bot makes theatrical debut

Leslie Katz — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:46:00 PST

A Wakamaru robot, named Momoko for a performance at Japan's Osaka University, appears onstage alongside actress Minako Inoue.

(Credit: AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

The Wakamaru is best known as a domestic robot that can greet guests and provide information like weather forecasts. But soon, it may be signing ...

Originally posted at Crave

'Star Wars'-like light syringe could target cancer

Eric Franklin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:43:00 PST

(Credit: Lucasfilm)

OK, the whole Star Wars thing? A little misleading.

Basically, the Herald Sun is reporting on a technology that involves firing a laser beam accurate enough to puncture a hole in an individual cell. Sounds more like The Authority--or any other Mark Millar-written comic--than Star Wars...

Originally posted at Crave

Video: A jet-pack flight over a Colorado gorge

CBS Interactive staff — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:41:00 PST

It's the stuff of science fiction and James Bond. Strap a jet pack to your back and fly like a bird--sort of. But jet packs are science fiction no more.

It's 1,500 feet across from cliff to cliff, and more than 1,000 chilling feet down ...

Water ice glaciers spotted on Mars

Jennifer Guevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:02:00 PST

An artist's concept of how glaciers on Mars might look.

(Credit: NASA/JPL)

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected what NASA scientists believe are huge glaciers of water ice lying beneath a layer of rocky debris.

The finding is significant because it helps scientists better understand a feature ...

Mathematica 7 arrives with built-in human genome

Stephen Shankland — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:41:32 PST

Mathematica 7 gets genetic data-processing abilities.

(Credit: Wolfram Research)

Wolfram Research on Tuesday released version 7 of Mathematica, bringing new techniques for image processing, building in the entire human genome, and improving the software's ability to run on multicore processors.

The software, not for the faint of heart at $...

Q&A: Kurzweil on tech as a double-edged sword

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:53:00 PST

Ray Kurzweil has invented and commercialized a raft of innovative technologies--including a text-to-speech synthesizer, voice recognition software, and a print-to-speech reading machine for the blind--garnering a clutch of awards in the process. He has also written extensively on artificial intelligence and robotics.

In several of his published books, including The ...

Artist envisions turning fake eye into bionic eye-cam

Elinor Mills — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:42:18 PST

Tanya Vlach wants to turn her artificial eye into a bionic eye.

(Credit: Jonathan James)

Three years after losing her left eye in a car accident, San Franciscan Tanya Vlach wants to make her artificial eye more useful: She's planning to put a video camera in her eye socket ...

LHC restart gets reset to June

David Meyer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:19:55 PST

The world's most powerful particle accelerator will go live again in June at the earliest, after a shutdown in September.

Click image for gallery on the Large Hadron Collider.

(Credit: Maximilien Brice for CERN)

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which runs the Large Hadron Collider, previously suggested ...