We’ve discussed the importance of right-to-repair legislation and the need to protect the right of consumers to modify and fix their own equipment a number of times at ET, but we’ve always tackled the topic from a civilian consumer perspective. According to a recent op/ed by Captain Elle Ekman, …

  All the current launch platforms certified to make supply runs to the International Space Station (ISS) use a parachute to return to Earth after each mission. Although, SpaceX has designs on propulsive landings with its Dragon capsule. Sierra Nevada Corporation has something else in mind with its uncrewed Dream …

  PayPal announced today it has agreed to acquire Honey Science Corporation, the makers of a deal-finding browser add-on and mobile application, for $4 billion, mostly cash. The acquisition, which is PayPal’s largest to date, will give the payments giant a foothold earlier in the customer’s shopping journey. Instead of …

  Google likes to talk about its AI prowess, but much of that is hidden from view. There are precious few places in the Google ecosystem where the power of the company’s AI is on display for the average user. Gmail’s Smart Compose feature is one of them (in addition …

Facebook’s NPE Team, a division inside the social networking giant that will build experimental consumer-facing social apps, has now added a third app to its lineup with the launch of meme creation app Whale. Currently, the app allows users to decorate photos with text and stickers in order to create …

  Twitter’s radical “Hide Replies” feature, one of the biggest changes to how Twitter works since the invention of the Retweet, is now available to Twitter’s global user base. The company says the feature will roll out to all Twitter users across platforms by today, with only one slight tweak …

An analysis of the first three-dimensionally preserved skulls and skeletons of the extinct legged snake Najash rionegrina shows that nearly 100 million years ago (Cretaceous period), legged snakes still had a cheekbone — also known as a jugal bone — that has all but disappeared in their modern descendants, and …

An international team of scientists from Japan and the United States has found ribose and other bioessential sugars in two primitive meteorites, NWA 801 and Murchison. A model of the molecular structure of ribose and an image of the Murchison meteorite. Image credit: Yoshihiro Furukawa. Sugars are indispensable molecules for …

A research team led by American University scientists has sequenced the genome of the thermophilic subterrestrial nematode Halicephalobus mephisto, one of the deepest living animals, and determined the mechanisms by which the nematode adapted to an extreme environment. Halicephalobus mephisto (magnified 200x). Image credit: John Bracht, American University. Halicephalobus mephisto …

Ohio University Emeritus Professor William Romoser has analyzed photos from NASA’s various Mars rovers, mostly from the rover Curiosity, and found insect/arthropod- and reptile-like organisms (both as fossils and living creatures) in the images. Various anatomical structures seen in different photos: (A – E) and probably (F) are ‘beelike,’ but …