Would Dune Ornithopters Work In Real Life?

From Cleo Abram. Why don’t Dune ornithopters exist in real life? They’re so cool looking! To answer that question, here’s how a helicopter works and how these ornithopters would compare… But my favorite part of the story is this: Helicopters themselves were inspired in part by science fiction. The father of modern helicopters, Igor Sikorsky,…

New Discovery In The Deep Ocean

From Cleo Abram. Scientists just discovered over 100 new species living on underwater mountains that we didn’t know were there! Here’s how they found them and why it matters for how we search the deep ocean… The first thing to know is the surface of the ocean isn’t flat. There are tiiiiny dips and bumps…

How Laparoscopic Surgery Works

From Cleo Abram. This video shows a surgeon using graspers to fold a tiny paper crane, because they’re practicing for laparoscopic surgery. These tools help surgeons work through tiny incisions, reducing pain and recovery time. Their invention over a century ago revolutionized how surgeons are able to operate on people. Now, they’re getting even more…

This is How Animals See Color

From Cleo Abram. A group of scientists just created a new camera to help us see how animals see – and it’s so cool. Here’s how it works and why it matters… You and I see color because of special cells in the back of our eyes called photoreceptors. But we can only see this…

New Extreme Images of Solar Flare

From Cleo Abram. These are extreme closeup images of a massive solar flare. Here’s where this solar flare ranks in the scale of intensity and what happened when the strongest solar flare ever hit the Earth… If you like optimistic tech stories, subscribe for more! And if you liked this video, I think you’ll love…

Building an F1 car, in less than 60 seconds

From Cleo Abram. Here’s how a Formula 1 car gets built, in less than 60 seconds: The team starts by getting the regulations. They design and narrow down concepts using tons of computer simulations. They test hundreds of parts for weight, aerodynamics, and strength. They build a 60% scale model version of the car to…

How Oil Rigs Are Built In the Deep Ocean

From Cleo Abram. If you put Mt. Everest into the water upside down, there would still be over a mile before you got to the bottom. It’s roughly the average cruising altitude of a 737 airplane! But if that’s true… then how do we build oil rigs in it? How deep are they?Turns out, INSANELY…

Taylor Swift Deepfakes Reveal This Huge Problem

From Cleo Abram. Congress is getting involved with the Taylor Swift deepfakes and that might be a great thing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, a bunch of explicit, fake images that looked like Taylor Swift went viral on X/Twitter and got millions of views before they got taken down. Despite how much…

New Blood Test To Detect Alzheimer’s

From Cleo Abram. A new blood test for Alzheimer’s is showing great early results. Here’s why this matters for everybody. Right now, the two gold standard for diagnosing Alzheimers – the most common type of dementia – are scanning your brain or testing fluid from your spine through a spinal tap, which are either expensive…

First Ever PRIVATE Lander On The Moon?

From Cleo Abram. There is a private lunar lander on its way to the moon! And if it lands, it would be the first lander made by a private company to touch down in one piece. BUUUT… three other private companies have tried and failed in the last 5 years, so the stakes are high.…

No One Was Expecting This New F1 Car

From Cleo Abram. These are the brand new Formula 1 cars for this year! And I’m gonna go see one IN PERSON. People are particularly surprised by Red Bull’s new car, the RB20, because that team won the Constructors’ Championship last year with their previous car, the RB19. And most people thought it would stay…

THIS IS AN AI GENERATED VIDEO

From Cleo Abram. OpenAI just released a new tool to generate video from text and it is incredible. Terrifying. Insane. It’s called Sora, and here’s what it can do… This is the first time I’ve seen AI video that felt REAL. The big challenge of even the best versions so far has been keeping visual…

Someone Built A Real-Life Transformer

From Cleo Abram. This enormous robot is a real-life Transformer. Right now, it’s being controlled by a person INSIDE it… like in Avatar. And it can also transform from “robot mode” to “vehicle mode”… like Bumblebee. Or Optimus Prime. Or Megatron, take your pick. Buuuuuuut…. its top speed is only 6 mph. You might be…

NASA Beamed This Cat Video From Space

From Cleo Abram. NASA just beamed this cat video from deep space back to earth. Uh… Why? As part of NASA’s new project to increase the amount of data we can send and receive from deep space, they swapped out a standard radio frequency device on a spacecraft for a new, optical, near-infrared laser. While…

NASA Lost a Tomato In Space

From Cleo Abram. Did you hear they lost a tomato on the International Space Station? Here’s what happened and why it matters (besides just being funny). Astronauts on the ISS started growing tomatoes as part of NASA’s “XROOTS” experiment, which was all about growing plants without soil and hopefully sustaining astronauts on longer missions. Astronaut…

First Neuralink Brain Chip in a HUMAN

From Cleo Abram. Elon Musk says his company Neuralink just implanted its first brain chip into a human. Here’s how this works and why it matters: Neuralink is working on brain-computer interfaces to try to let people control a computer with just their thoughts. They’re calling this first product “Telepathy” which… fits. The actual implant…

Japan Just Landed on the Moon!

From Cleo Abram. Japan just landed on the moon!!! But now, the spacecraft is upside down. Here’s what’s happening and why it matters. This is a huge deal, not only because it makes Japan the fifth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon, but also because they accomplished a very accurate landing, just…

This Famous Robot Dog Has A New Job

From Cleo Abram. This is Spot, the robot dog from Boston Dynamics. You might’ve seen it in all these viral videos. But now… Spot got a new job! A lot of real jobs, actually: At the Purina dog food factory, Spot is inspecting packaging for air leaks. On an oil rig in the Gulf of…

This Rover Made Oxygen On Mars

From Cleo Abram. The Mars Perseverance Rover MADE OXYGEN on Mars. It’s actually been doing it for years, but it just officially completed its mission, proving we can make oxygen reliably and long term. And that, as you might have guessed, will be crucial for any future astronaut missions. This device works by intaking some…

How Fast Is the World’s Fastest Supercomputer?

From Cleo Abram. The world’s new fastest supercomputer is insanely fast. It’s the first to be able to compute a quintillion calculations per second, which is a billion BILLION calculations. If every single person on earth did one calculation per second, it would take FOUR YEARS to equal what this computer can do in one…

This Ring Makes Your Finger See-Through

From Cleo Abram. These rings are made using augmented reality. The image is first generated in a 3D modeling software. Then, to make them look like they’re in the real world, the artist Piper XY tracks the position of a real piece of paper on her hand – using her camera and some additional software.…

This Is A Real Flying Car

From Cleo Abram. This might become the first flying car. The FAA just gave this prototype an “airworthiness certificate," which lets them test it more extensively. It’s not the first electric vertical take off and landing vehicle, but they say it’s the first that can drive normally on roads and also fly. So, “flying car.”…

Most People Don’t Understand Sonic Booms

From Cleo Abram. Most people don’t understand sonic booms – but they’re the reason the plane you fly in doesn’t go faster. As any plane flies, it pushes air out of its path, creating pressure waves. When a plane flies FASTER than sound, the air molecules get compressed into bigger shock waves which our brain…

This New Electrode Expands Inside Your Skull

From Cleo Abram. This new electrode is a big deal for brain-computer interfaces. Here’s why. You might have seen interfaces controlling prosthetic limbs or converting brain waves into speech. Thing is, it’s pretty challenging to get these electrodes into people’s brains. Scientists typically use larger grids of electrodes, but that means removing at least an…

Building Crazy Legos With AI

From Cleo Abram. I LOVE Legos. And I found an app that will scan a pile of unused Legos and shows you what you can build with them. It doesn’t just give you build instructions, it will show you exactly where in your pile each piece is. It’s called Brickit. It’s powered by a machine…

This Is Basically Mind Reading (For Real)

From Cleo Abram. This is basically mind reading: Researchers just reconstructed a Pink Floyd song using the brain activity of people listening to it. Neuroscientists at UC Berkeley played 29 patients Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” and they recorded their brain activity with implanted electrodes. Then, they used a regression-based model…

You Can Now Make 3D Models From Just Text

From Cleo Abram. You can now create 3D models from just plain text. This is “Genie," a tool that allows you to type in anything you want – like "a purple sweater" – then, describe its appearance – like, “fuzzy” and “photorealistic” – then hit enter, wait several seconds, and VOILA! A 3D model. This…