Category: Science

Video

Stephen Hawking gets a cosmic sendoff

by Alan Boyle on June 15, 2018June 15, 2018 at 11:25 amComment

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking’s ashes were interred among the greats of British science at Westminster Abbey today — and to mark his passing, his message of peace and hope was beamed… Read More

Video

Elon Musk: Chicago express tunnel could be started in 4 months, finished in 3 years

by Alan Boyle on June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 at 6:58 pm1 Comment

News Brief: Mark this down for later: Tech billionaire Elon Musk says the Boring Company could begin work on the express tunnel linking downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport in… Read More

Photos

GoFly Prize unveils 10 winning designs in $2M contest for personal air vehicles

by Alan Boyle on June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 at 8:24 amComment

Some of the designs look like winged motorcycles. There’s a cute mini-airplane with stubby wings. And a couple of the contraptions look more like time machines than flying machines. The… Read More

Elon Musk’s Boring Company wins the nod from Chicago for airport express link

by Alan Boyle on June 13, 2018June 14, 2018 at 8:52 amComment

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Boring Company is getting the go-ahead to build a multibillion-dollar express transit system between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport, city officials said. Mayoral spokesman Grant… Read More

Video

Warming warning: West Antarctic ice loss rate tripled in 25 years, study shows

by Alan Boyle on June 13, 2018June 13, 2018 at 6:47 pm1 Comment

An analysis of satellite data collected since 1992 suggests that ocean-driven melting has led to a tripling in the rate of ice loss from West Antarctica, from 53 billion to… Read More

Sleuth solves Puget Sound UFO mystery

by Alan Boyle on June 13, 2018June 14, 2018 at 10:17 am 4 Comments

Was it an airplane? A missile? An honest-to-goodness unidentified flying object? For a couple of days, a mystery swirled around a long bright streak that was caught by a webcam… Read More

Video

TLDR: Uber could use AI to identify drunk riders, big bets on energy storage, LEGO Seattle

by Starla Sampaco on June 13, 2018June 13, 2018 at 4:53 pmComment

[Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s tech news rundown show, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube, check back weekday afternoons for more, and sign up for TLDR… Read More

Video

Backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Breakthrough Energy Ventures places first bets on power storage

by Alan Boyle on June 12, 2018June 12, 2018 at 3:29 pmComment

Eighteen months after its founding, the $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund’s first investments have been revealed, and they both have to do with energy storage systems. Quartz reports today… Read More

Elon Musk announces 9 percent job cut at Tesla in ‘difficult’ drive for profitability

by Alan Boyle on June 12, 2018June 12, 2018 at 12:12 pm1 Comment

Just days after promising he’d make Tesla profitable within months, CEO Elon Musk announced today that 9 percent of the company’s workforce is being laid off as part of the… Read More

Video

National Academies call for systemwide steps to fight sexual harassment in science

by Alan Boyle on June 12, 2018June 12, 2018 at 12:53 pmComment

A newly published report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine calls for dramatic steps to curb sexual harassment in scientific and technical fields. The report cites a… Read More

Flame on! Elon Musk says Boring Company delivers its first ‘Not-a-Flamethrower’

by Alan Boyle on June 9, 2018June 11, 2018 at 11:03 am1 Comment

Billionaire tech guru Elon Musk showed off pictures of the Boring Company’s first commercial flamethrowers being distributed to lines of buyers today — and joked that the device has been renamed… Read More

Video

U.S. makes its pitch to wrest the world’s supercomputer top spot from China

by Alan Boyle on June 8, 2018June 8, 2018 at 2:30 pmComment

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory staked its claim to retake the lead from China in the world’s supercomputer race with a machine capable of performing 200… Read More

Video

Boeing HorizonX joins in $5M funding round for Kittyhawk drone venture

by Alan Boyle on June 6, 2018June 6, 2018 at 5:51 pmComment

Boeing says its HorizonX venture capital arm is investing in Kittyhawk, a San Francisco startup that provides end-to-end software solutions for autonomous drone operations. The investment is part of a… Read More

Video

Washington state makes its pitch for Boeing’s future 797 jet … with science!

by Alan Boyle on June 6, 2018June 6, 2018 at 3:20 pm1 Comment

Boeing hasn’t yet declared whether it will build a new breed of midsize passenger jet — variously known as the New Mid-Market Airplane, NMA or 797 — but Washington state officials are… Read More

Video

What caused 2014’s bird die-off on the Pacific coast? Scientists blame the Blob

by Alan Boyle on June 5, 2018June 5, 2018 at 8:02 pmComment

Researchers have untangled the mystery behind a die-off that felled hundreds of thousands of tough seabirds known as Cassin’s auklets in 2014 and early 2015. It’s not a simple answer:… Read More

Video

Tesla turns back challenges at annual meeting, and Elon Musk bares his soul

by Alan Boyle on June 5, 2018June 6, 2018 at 4:23 pm1 Comment

Tesla shareholders at today’s annual meeting swatted down challenges to billionaire CEO Elon Musk, who laid out an admittedly optimistic plan for the crucial months ahead. “This is going to… Read More

Video

Boeing goes vertical and partners with Safran on auxiliary power units for planes

by Alan Boyle on June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 at 1:58 pmComment

Boeing and Safran have set up a joint venture to design, build and service auxiliary power units for airplanes, marking another big step in Boeing’s drive to build a more… Read More

Video

Physicists at CERN add a new top-quark twist to tangled tale of the Higgs boson

by Alan Boyle on June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 at 11:44 amComment

News Brief: Experiments at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider have produced hard-to-come-by evidence of interactions between the Higgs boson and top quarks. The findings, announced today at a conference in Bologna,… Read More

Boeing partners with Degreed.com as part of $100M workforce education investment

by Alan Boyle on June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 at 10:41 amComment

Boeing is launching new educational initiatives to follow through on its pledge to spend $100 million of its federal tax savings on workforce development programs. The initiatives include a partnership… Read More

Video

Team Saffron enters the home stretch in competition for Women’s Safety XPRIZE

by Alan Boyle on June 4, 2018June 6, 2018 at 12:50 pmComment

Students representing the Global Innovation Exchange are nearing the finish line in a competition to create wearable sensors that can send wireless alerts in threatening situations — even if the… Read More

Video

Washington Hyperloop unveils pod racer with thrusters for SpaceX’s next contest

by Alan Boyle on June 2, 2018June 3, 2018 at 5:38 pm 2 Comments

The Washington Hyperloop team is counting on the third time being the charm. But it’s not just a question of superstitious sayings: For SpaceX’s third university Hyperloop competition, the three… Read More

Kavli Prizes go to pioneers of gene editing, neuroscience and astrochemistry

by Alan Boyle on May 31, 2018May 31, 2018 at 11:31 amComment

Three inventors of the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 technique for editing DNA are among the recipients of this year’s Kavli Prizes, which recognize scientific breakthroughs in fields outside the sweet spots for… Read More

Boeing HorizonX invests in Agylstor to boost ruggedized data storage systems

by Alan Boyle on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 at 11:06 amComment

The latest investment by Boeing’s HorizonX venture capital arm is going to Agylstor, a Silicon Valley startup that’s developing ruggedized computational storage systems with potential aerospace applications. Boeing HorizonX Ventures… Read More

Amazon patent covers how to signal a delivery drone (and how it signals back)

by Alan Boyle on May 29, 2018May 29, 2018 at 4:09 pmComment

For an earlier generation, one of the sweetest sounds of summer was the music coming from an ice-cream truck. For the next generation, will it be the tune of a… Read More

Video

Paul Allen marks Memorial Day with a look back at deep-sea gravesites he helped find

by Alan Boyle on May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 at 10:39 am 2 Comments

It’s traditional to revisit the gravesites of America’s fallen warriors on Memorial Day, but billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen is adding a non-traditional twist. Today the co-founder of Microsoft is highlighting… Read More

Video

Elon Musk berates media critics and vows to create ‘Pravda’ news rating website

by Alan Boyle on May 23, 2018May 23, 2018 at 6:56 pm 9 Comments

Elon Musk’s Tesla electric-car and power company has been getting some bad press lately, and today the tech billionaire pushed back with a tweetstorm criticizing “the holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big… Read More

Video

Grail raises $300M for cancer detection tools, boosting total investment to $1.5B

by Alan Boyle on May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 at 5:32 pmComment

News Brief: Grail, a biotech company with early backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it’s raised $300 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing… Read More

Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano sparks memories 38 years after Mount St. Helens

by Alan Boyle on May 18, 2018May 18, 2018 at 11:52 am 3 Comments

The ash plumes, red alerts and evacuations caused by the Kilauea volcano’s eruption are stirring up wonder and worry in Hawaii, but they’re also stirring up memories on the 38th… Read More

Video

L.A. tunnel rides for $1: Six takeaways from Elon Musk’s Boring Company talk

by Alan Boyle on May 18, 2018May 18, 2018 at 1:07 pmComment

If billionaire Elon Musk’s tunnel vision comes to pass, travelers will be able to zip beneath Los Angeles through an underground Loop system at 150 mph for about $1 a… Read More

Video

Worried about fake news? Get ready for the rise of fake humans that sound just like us

by Alan Boyle on May 17, 2018May 19, 2018 at 11:53 pmComment

We have heard the voice of our future AI overlord — and it’s making hair appointments for us. Last week, Google wowed the world by demonstrating a voice assistant called Duplex… Read More

Stephen Hawking gets a cosmic sendoff

Elon Musk: Chicago express tunnel could be started in 4 months, finished in 3 years

GoFly Prize unveils 10 winning designs in $2M contest for personal air vehicles

Elon Musk’s Boring Company wins the nod from Chicago for airport express link

Warming warning: West Antarctic ice loss rate tripled in 25 years, study shows

Sleuth solves Puget Sound UFO mystery

TLDR: Uber could use AI to identify drunk riders, big bets on energy storage, LEGO Seattle

Backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Breakthrough Energy Ventures places first bets on power storage

Elon Musk announces 9 percent job cut at Tesla in ‘difficult’ drive for profitability

National Academies call for systemwide steps to fight sexual harassment in science

Flame on! Elon Musk says Boring Company delivers its first ‘Not-a-Flamethrower’

U.S. makes its pitch to wrest the world’s supercomputer top spot from China

Boeing HorizonX joins in $5M funding round for Kittyhawk drone venture

Washington state makes its pitch for Boeing’s future 797 jet … with science!

What caused 2014’s bird die-off on the Pacific coast? Scientists blame the Blob

Tesla turns back challenges at annual meeting, and Elon Musk bares his soul

Boeing goes vertical and partners with Safran on auxiliary power units for planes

Physicists at CERN add a new top-quark twist to tangled tale of the Higgs boson

Boeing partners with Degreed.com as part of $100M workforce education investment

Team Saffron enters the home stretch in competition for Women’s Safety XPRIZE

Washington Hyperloop unveils pod racer with thrusters for SpaceX’s next contest

Kavli Prizes go to pioneers of gene editing, neuroscience and astrochemistry

Boeing HorizonX invests in Agylstor to boost ruggedized data storage systems

Amazon patent covers how to signal a delivery drone (and how it signals back)

Paul Allen marks Memorial Day with a look back at deep-sea gravesites he helped find

Elon Musk berates media critics and vows to create ‘Pravda’ news rating website

Grail raises $300M for cancer detection tools, boosting total investment to $1.5B

Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano sparks memories 38 years after Mount St. Helens

L.A. tunnel rides for $1: Six takeaways from Elon Musk’s Boring Company talk

Worried about fake news? Get ready for the rise of fake humans that sound just like us

Rising Stars: Fresh Faces

Monitoring: Doing it the Right Way

Recent Developments in Software Patent Law