Since 1962, NASA has had dozens of launches, spacewalks, and missions into space. But if you think about it, how far have we really come in the last 50 years?

Looks like humans won’t be the only intelligent beings in space (that we know of, so far) anymore. For the first time ever, a human astronaut was greeted by, and shook hands with, a humanoid robot. With what looks like a cross-breeding between the Rocketeer and C-3PO, Robonaut2 (aka R2) is an impressive leap forward in robot technology. After shaking hands with astronaut Daniel Burbank, R2 used his incredibly dexterous hands, signed “Hello, World” in American Sign Language.
General Motors teamed up with NASA to build a robot to help astronauts …

In the tech world, one of the most popular and fastest developing trends is cloud computing, and Intel is set on creating the industry standard. Essentially, cloud computing eliminates much of the stress and fatigue that our networks and infrastructure are burdened with. End users (clients, customers, etc) are able to access cloud-based applications via the Internet as if it were “business as usual,” but the real benefits are reserved for the businesses providing the data.
Humanity recently hit a huge milestone. Earth is now home to over 7 billion people. …

Phoenix is an island. And that’s not a good thing. Sure, we have palm trees and lots of dirt that could be confused with sandy beaches, but instead of being surrounded by ocean, Phoenix is surrounded by cooler temperatures. During the day, the city is hot regardless. However, the difference comes at night when the heat energy simply cannot dissipate from the city. In most studies, cities on the outskirts of Phoenix tend to be around 10 degrees cooler at night. Yes, Phoenix is a heat island, and every single one of us is stranded on it.

MADCAP Theaters will be hosting Geeks’ Night Out, Tempe’s celebration of all things science, science fiction and technology 5 to 10 p.m. Feb. 16. On tap: sci-fi trivia, video games, a ghost hunting tour and a tech job fair.
As this super-nerdy promo video says: May the Geeks be with you!

There’s little question that climate change (formerly known as global warming) is the real deal. The Earth’s average temperature has increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last 100 years or so. While that might not seem like much, it’s enough to cause widespread chaos and flooding across the globe. Some of the more remote and colder areas in the globe are heating up even faster, causing icecaps to melt, polar bears to become homeless, and oceans to invade our homes. Warmer oceans create conditions for larger and more intense …

What are Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s REAL motivations for mounting a colonial expedition to the moon?

Until recently, attempts to make objects invisible have been focused around artificial materials engineered to provide properties not available in nature. But new experiments performed at the University of Texas at Austin have enabled researchers to cloak a 3D object in free space, a world first.

In a recent study done at Utah Valley University, researchers found that students who use Facebook are Debby-downers compared to students who didn’t use Facebook. Why is this, you wonder? The answer is simple. It’s girls.
Women use Facebook more than guys in any given age group. It’s a proven fact. Look it up if you don’t believe me. The last thing I’m trying to do is sound sexist in my wording, however, women are stereotypically known for comparing themselves to other women. All you guys (and most Nerdvana readers are …

CES 2012 has brought a lot of cool tech ideas to the world, and one of the most exciting is Samsung’s Smart Window. Essentially, Samsung has plans to turn your ordinary windows into interactive displays that even Apple would be jealous of. But not only is your window a display, it’s a full on computer.
Check out the video for a brief demonstration of the concept. Let’s hope Samsung is able to bring these to market. I only hope that it will be affordable and that I’ll live long enough to …