The British Army and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) have completed a multi-week test in Essex using drones, advanced sensors, and AI to speed up and make safer the hunt for deadly mines and munitions scattered on battlefields.
Category: Military, Engineering
Tags: British Army, Land Mines, drones, Artificial Intelligence
This tiny house keeps things simple with a single-level layout that sleeps up to two people. Named the Audrey, the home's compact but comfortable interior is well-suited for use as a vacation home or a guest house or similar.
Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors
Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home
After nine days of journeying around the moon, the Artemis II mission has come to a successful conclusion with the crew landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on the evening of April 10. The lunar flyby portion of the trip lasted roughly seven hours, and the crew said they took over 10,000 images during that time alone, so there are an untold number of images from the entire mission.
While NASA hasn't uploaded anywhere near that many, the organization has been sharing plenty across various platforms, including its own website. We've been keeping our eyes on those photographs and have compiled a selection of our favorites from pre-launch through splashdown, which you can see at the bottom of this article.
The photographs are absolutely stunning simply for what they are, but the crew wasn't only taking them to create pretty images. They were also intended for scientific purposes, and there's a lot you can learn from them as a result. I'm no scientist, though, so I've really been enjoying listening to those who know more explain some of what's going on.
One such example is a video by Hank Green, a popular YouTuber and science communicator. In the video, Green walks through some of the photographs taken by the Artemis II crew, explaining in depth what we are looking at and providing additional context behind the photographs. For example, in one of the images of the Earth, Green points out the sodium line that goes all the way around the planet, explaining what it is and what its importance is.
Green also covers some things we photographers already know, such as why Earth looks so big in some shots (telephoto focal lengths), and some things caused by factors inherent to space, such as the surreal lighting in some shots. In his words: "Pictures are often worth a thousand words, but sometimes they are worth considerably more than that." It's a fantastic video, well worth watching all the way through.
CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut and Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen is seen taking images through the Orion spacecraft window during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
Photo: NASA
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover summed it up nicely when witnessing the eclipse from the spacecraft: "It is truly hard to describe." We can't wait to see even more from NASA once they are able to go through the enormous number of images and videos from these inspiring astronauts.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.Here I am, talking about a scooter that is more powerful than most motorcycles that some people will ever own. And it doesn’t even come from the likes of Honda, Yamaha, or any other usual suspects. Rather, it comes from Kymco, a scooter manufacturer from Taiwan.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Beyond the rather low efficiency of today’s solar panels in converting the power of the sun into electricity, the transformational potential of solar energy is presently held back by battery storage technology.
Category: Energy, Engineering
Tags: Chemistry, Solar Power, UC Santa Barbara, Battery Technology
The very first motorcycle from a relatively new company is often a stepping stone. More often than not, it would likely be a small displacement street bike made for the masses with white-labeled components, barebones tech, and definitely not a liter-class engine.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: qjmotor, MV Agusta, Artificial Intelligence, Road Safety, Autonomous, Radar
Some of us get bitten far more often than others. A new study, yet to be peer-reviewed and published in a journal, has revealed that certain mosquito species show a clear preference for men, while others zero in on specific scents from our skin. However, some experts in the field disagree on the significance of the findings.
Sharrow knew it had a market disruptor on its hands the instant it transformed propeller blades into more efficient twisted loops. The hold-up of that disruption, however, has been in getting those props out of the factory and onto the actual market. Now it receives a big helping hand from a rather well-known fellow Detroiter: Ford Motor Company. Ford's expertise in 3D sand-casting technology has broken open Sharrow's path to scaled production, promising to fractionalize build times.
Tags: sharrow, Boating, Outboard Motor, Marine Innovations
Who could possibly compare to Superman, the Man of Steel? Definitely not a man of plastic! Right? Wrong. Researchers at the University of Sharjah, UAE, have discovered that plastics, in certain shapes, may perform as well as steel bars as reinforcement materials in concrete.
Category: Materials, Engineering
Tags: Building and Construction, Concrete, Plastic
Peak Design, the company behind many popular camera bags and accessories, is making an L-bracket and is looking for people's input via a survey.
Given that the product is still in the works, details are relatively scarce, but that's where your answers come in. The survey collects basic information about you as a photographer – what types of photos you take, where you shoot, and which cameras you use – before getting into the specific questions about the upcoming bracket.
It asks whether you'd be interested if it has a quick-attach mechanism that lets it transform from a baseplate to an L-bracket, if you'd like a stowable accessory "similar to an AirTag," whether you care if there are add-ons like a cheeseplate or handstrap, and whether you own a Capture Clip and currently use it with an L-bracket. It also, of course, asks how much you'd expect to pay for such an accessory.
It's not particularly rare for Peak Design to send out these kinds of surveys. I recently got one asking about potential upgrades and additions to its lineup of photographer-focused bags, though those have yet to materialize. (Which is not a complaint, as I got that survey mere days after buying a new bag from them and would be sad to see it obsoleted so quickly.) But given how relatively popular the company's tripods and clips are with photographers, we figured it was worth sharing the survey so you could weigh in, in case this is the kind of product you're interested in.
While Hyundai's diverse Ioniq range of electric vehicles (EV) has been racking up awards around the world, it hasn't been available in China – until now. The Korean automaker is making a splash in that competitive electric car market with a big launch – and the unveiling of two wild concept vehicles that are worth a closer look.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Electric Vehicles, Concept Cars, Hyundai, Sedan, SUV, China
Volkswagen unveiled its new Atlas SUV at the New York International Auto Show recently, but the smaller engine and lack of hybrids suggest it still doesn’t grasp what American buyers want in the booming three-row seven-seater market.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: New York International Auto Show 2026, Volkswagen, SUV
The compact film camera was widely seen as an outdated category relegated to the past. For years, the consensus was that film itself was fading away, smartphone cameras gutted the point‑and‑shoot market and repair expertise was thinning out. Yet as Stephen Dowling recently explored in a detailed feature for Kosmo Foto, the humble 35mm compact has quietly shuffled back into the spotlight in recent years.
Dowling’s piece takes an in‑depth look at the path of this revival. In it, he traces how compact film cameras went from niche products to the focus of new premium releases with renewed interest among younger shooters. A big part of the film compact revival story is the reality that most of the classic models people now lust after were never designed for a second life. They rely on aging electronics, brittle plastics and parts that no major manufacturer is producing – or servicing – anymore.
Takeo "TKO" Suzuki poses with a Pentax 17.
Photo courtesy of Takeo Suzuki
That fragile ecosystem is exactly what pushed Takeo "TKO" Suzuki, the industrial designer behind the Pentax 17 project, to start thinking about a new film camera designed for today's beginners. "I wanted to create a camera especially for new and young users," TKO told Kosmo Foto via email. "When I heard about a young person who had saved up money to buy a used film camera – only to find it broken – I was moved to tears. My first idea was to create a camera they could use with peace of mind," he said.
Dowling's piece also makes clear how radical that ambition sounds inside a modern camera company. As TKO recalled, "what struck everyone was simply how unrealistic it seemed to build a film camera in the modern era. When I first presented the concept to the executive team, including the company's top leaders, everyone froze."
That comment underlines the tension at the heart of the compact revival: there is obvious cultural momentum, but bringing new hardware to market means convincing risk‑averse executives to invest in a format that had been left behind. Complicating things further, even if those executives were fully on board, the process would require recovering long-dormant or even lost institutional knowledge and figuring out how to make or obtain parts that haven't been mass-produced for a decade.
Image: MiNTThe Pentax 17 hasn't been the only compact film camera released in the past few years, either. The MiNT Rollei 35AF came out around the same time. Dowling spoke with MiNT's founder, Gary Ho, who highlighted the difficulties of manufacturing such cameras at this point. "Finding the right components is challenging. The supply chain for film cameras is long gone. But technology has advanced a lot and there are ways to do things that were otherwise impossible before,” Ho said.
Dowling also delves into the recently released Lomography MC-A and the currently in-progress Analogue af-1 to find out more about the processes and challenges of designing new film cameras these days. The article includes insightful comments from key players at both companies, providing a peek behind the curtain for devices that seem so simple on the surface.
Our article only scratches the surface of the history and personalities behind the compact film camera comeback. Dowling's original feature goes much deeper into what new cameras (and the people behind them) are keeping the market churning, and what it might take for new film cameras to become more than limited curiosities. If you want the full story, including more from TKO and others trying to give compact film cameras a true second act, it's well worth reading in full over on Kosmo Foto.
Since the early 1900s, dogs have helped people who are blind or have low vision to navigate their world. Now, in a very 21st century twist, seeing-eye dogs have gone robotic and added a skill that not even the most well-trained canine could pull off: conversation.
Category: Robotics, Engineering
Tags: Unitree, Dogs, Binghamton University, Blindness
The specs race in high-end electric mountain bike motors has long had the feel of the 1990s processor wars – bigger numbers every year, but precious little difference when you're actually grinding through the mud. Avinox might have finally changed that. DJI's dedicated ebike drive system brand changed that a couple of years back and left the competition in the dust. Now Avinox is set to do it all again with what it claims is the most powerful and lightest production eMTB motor on the market in a package that is, essentially, drone engineering on two wheels.
Tags: DJI Innovations, Pedal-assisted, ebikes, Mountain Bikes, Motor, Battery, Drives
Not everything old is worth a modern makeover, but this is something audio-lifestyle brand Gadhouse seems to understand. Following on from some stunning retro-modern turntables, it's now reviving 1980s portable audio paired with modern convenience.
Category: Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: Cassettes, Retro, Audiophile, Sound, Music Player
In a "triple win" for green research, scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a new sunlight-activated reactor that uses one waste stream to tackle another – all while producing clean hydrogen, and promising to be profitable at commercial scale.
Category: Environment, Science
Tags: Recycling, Plastics, Plastic waste, University of Cambridge, Hydrogen, Clean Energy
Sometimes, the most important paleontological discoveries may come from the most disgusting materials.
Tags: Paleontology, Predator, Reptile, Fossils
Over the years, we've seen a number of RV innovators develop lightweight, small-packing camping trailers with inflatable living areas, from the roomy Air Opus to the pinchably adorable Booba trailer. The new ToW trailer starts from the other direction, coming from a tent manufacturer instead of an RV brand. Dutch inflatable pioneer Karsten ports one of its popular air-beamed domes over to a trailer, creating a Tent on Wheels (ToW) that rides lightly, offers loads of payload, and quickly sets up into a ground tent with elevated bed. Enjoy the basic dome or build it out into a multi-unit mega-tent with Karsten's modular ecosystem.
Category: Camping Trailers, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors
Despite decades of technological progress, robots still can’t move as smoothly as humans – they drop objects, and struggle to pick them up properly. Scientists have been trying to teach robots to move with the same precision as humans, but hand movement is more complex than it might seem at first glance. Even a simple action, like holding and scrolling your phone, uses dozens of small muscles, joints, and over 100 tendons and ligaments working together.
Category: Robotics, Engineering
Tags: MIT, Remote Control, Ultrasound, Hand
