Hot-air drying is important in pretty much all the modern industries you can think of. It’s used to dry fruits and vegetables, preserve grains and spices, and make everything from powdered milk and instant coffee to fertilizers, fabrics, and medicines. Evaporating all that moisture with hot air takes a lot of energy. Most of that energy still comes from burning natural gas, and there are a few serious issues with that.

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Category: Energy, Engineering

Tags: Steam, Fraunhofer

In another edition of “this heritage bikemaker was once European,” we have Speedy Working Motors (SWM), a name once plastered across Italian-built dirt bikes and now under the umbrella of Chinese industrial giant Shineray. SWM's story is a particularly interesting one: born in Milan in 1971, successful in the golden age of European off-road racing, dead and buried by the mid-'80s, and then dragged back into the sunlight three decades later with Chinese money behind it.

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Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: Italy, China, Touring, Affordable, Adventure Bikes

If you use Comcast's Xfinity broadband service, you might be eligible for a pretty interesting freebie: a layer of home security that doesn't require cameras or any additional hardware.

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Category: Around The Home, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Home Security, Security, Radio Waves, Privacy, Motion sensor, Wi-Fi

It’s Friday night. The weekend is here. Yet once again, nobody has called to ask you out. You have no plans. It’s just you, Netflix, and a bottle of gin.

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Category: Diet & Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Alcohol, Social isolation, Mice, Brain, Addiction, Loneliness, Northwestern University

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, and one of the least serious but still frustrating consequences is that campfires are not allowed for much of the season. A San Diego-based company called Happy Caveman has designed a product that can keep you warm when traditional campfires aren’t an option. It’s currently seeking backing on Kickstarter.

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Category: Gear, Outdoors

Tags: Camping, Kickstarter, Heating, Fire

The Ulanzi TC001 is a small Wi-Fi clock built around a 32 x 8 RGB LED matrix. It’s compact, bright and just retro enough to be charming without looking like something dragged out of an arcade cabinet. Out of the box, the appeal is simple. The display is clear enough to read from across a room, small enough to sit unobtrusively on a desk or kitchen bench, and far more interesting than another anonymous black LCD clock.

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Category: Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Clock, Alarm Clock, Smart Home

Dementia is typically considered a disease of the elderly. Older brains are more likely to fail under protein buildup or reduced blood flow.

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Category: Alzheimer's & Dementia, Brain Health, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Dementia, Children, Treatment, Brain, Stem Cells

Clusters of towns and cities around the world have become curious case studies for scientists looking into just how residents there appear to defy natural aging, living healthier for much longer than anywhere else on the planet. Now, another "longevity hotspot" is in the spotlight.

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Category: Aging Well, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Aging, Age-Related, anti-aging, Health, Well-being, Happiness, Activity, Social Experiment, Diet, Nutrition

This tiny house squeezes about as much as you could reasonably ask into its 16-ft (4.9-m) length while still remaining practical for daily use. Named the Petite Pelican, the towable model uses its space-saving layout to sleep two comfortably, plus it can fit another couple of guests too.

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Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home

“Better the devil you know ...” That’s a worst-case scenario outlook. The best case is an angel you know. But what if that angel was somewhat of a devil all along? Researchers have shown that ordinary Wi-Fi technology can serve as a powerful surveillance tool.

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Category: Technology

Tags: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Wifi, Surveillance, Privacy, Identification

There was a time when getting a decent electric dirt bike meant spending serious money. Then the Chinese e-moto industry happened; the internet, of course, facilitated the change, and someone decided that a motorcycle capable of doing 40+ mph should cost about as much as a decent mountain bike.

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Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: Electric Motorcycles, Dirt Bikes, Enduro, urban transport, Off-road, Affordable

Nowadays, technology is increasingly focused on making electronics smaller, as many industries – from medicine to aerospace and security – stand to benefit. But reducing the size of devices brings a new challenge: what if they become simply too small to fit a conventional battery, motor, and other mechanical parts?

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Category: Electronics, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Sound, Power, drones, Micro drones, EPFL

Finding a human body buried with a sickle around their neck and a padlock around their big toe isn’t exactly common fare.

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Category: Archaeology, Science, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: grave, vampire, Archaeology, Bones, ancient, Fossils

The new Space Age looks to be shifting into top gear as SpaceX signs an agreement with the state of Louisiana for the company to invest US$100 billion to build the world's largest spaceport that could conduct over 10,000 launches per year.

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Category: Space Systems, Engineering

Tags: SpaceX, Starship, Falcon

For years, America's been in the chokehold of unnecessarily oversized pickup trucks, but recent announcements of new vehicles show that common sense – and more reasonably proportioned utes – may soon prevail.

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Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Pickup, Truck, Volkswagen

Scheduling days without food may have a knock-on effect that eases both chronic pain and its associated cognitive problems, according to a study on mice by researchers from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University in China.

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Category: Chronic Pain, Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Fasting, Pain, Gut Bacteria, Gut-brain axis, Neuroinflammation

This charming log cabin-style tiny house looks more like it belongs nestled in the woods than being towed behind a truck. It combines a rustic exterior with a spacious interior that sleeps up to four in comfort.

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Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home

Are household humanoid robots getting cheaper already? We've only just begun seeing companies start to make promises and accept pre-orders for machines that can do your laundry and tidy up the living room. A San Francisco-based startup is now making one that you can bring home for just US$1,688.

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Category: Robotics, Engineering

Tags: Robot, Tele-operation, Humanoid, assistant robot

Supercar unveilings are usually gloriously theatrical but the reveal of the latest one has been called ‘the greatest ever’ by some observers across social media.

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Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Supercars, Hypercar, Monterey Car Week 2026, Gordon Murray

Macro photography captures beautiful, otherworldly images of the tiny world around us. But to shoot a dewdrop or an insect's eye, you have to get so close that the camera itself blocks out most of the light you need. Adaptalux's answer to that problem is the Pod Mini, a palm-sized portable lighting hub that's just gotten its first major overhaul – headlined by Bluetooth control and a tougher aluminum body.

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Category: Photography, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Photographic, Macro, Macro Lens, Lighting