New Atlas: Technology-Innovation-Outdoor News

Ordinary Wi-Fi can identify people with nearly 100% accuracy

Etiido Uko — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:59:18 GMT

“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.

Category: Technology

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

Battle of $1,500 e-dirt bikes: Engwe Eagle vs Buffseek R01 vs Tasaca T500

Utkarsh Sood — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 13:03:00 GMT

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.

Category: Motorcycles, Transport

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

Sonic micro-robots burst into motion without batteries or motors

Maryna Holovnova — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:03:00 GMT

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?

Category: Electronics, Consumer Tech, Technology

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

Secrets of mysterious 17th-century Polish ‘vampire’ have finally come to light

Mike McRae — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:42:58 GMT

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

Category: Archaeology, Science, Refractor: Science & Health

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

SpaceX to build world's largest spaceport in Louisiana

David Szondy — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:13:09 GMT

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.

Category: Space Systems, Engineering

Tags: SpaceX, Starship, Falcon

Cross your fingers for VW's Brazil-bound pickup to make it stateside

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 01:36:27 GMT

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.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Pickup, Truck, Volkswagen

Intermittent fasting reduces chronic pain – and its mental toll

Mike McRae — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:55:53 GMT

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.

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

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

Extra-wide tiny house brings log cabin comfort to small living

Adam Williams — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:37:15 GMT

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.

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

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

Sub-$1,700 household robot promises to handle chores and more

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:47:29 GMT

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.

Category: Robotics, Engineering

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

Gordon Murray S1 is a gorgeous V12 supercar from another era

Simon Heptinstall — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:03:00 GMT

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.

Category: Automotive, Transport

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

Tiny, modular pod attacks macro photography's lighting nightmare

Omar Kardoudi — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:03:00 GMT

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.

Category: Photography, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Photographic, Macro, Macro Lens, Lighting

World's first laser-beam mosquito shooter is now available to buy

Bronwyn Thompson — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:33:00 GMT

This personal air defense system that tracks and shoots mosquitoes with a blue laser is officially available now. The runaway crowdfunding hit has been scaled up by its makers and is available for preorder from the company Photon Matrix's website.

Category: Gear, Outdoors

Tags: Mosquito, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, Portable, Laser, Pests, Consumer Electronics

Claude will now watermark all content generated using its tools

Etiido Uko — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:20:23 GMT

Roughly three-quarters of newly published web pages now carry some machine-written text, according to a 2025 Ahrefs analysis of around 900,000 pages. This figure doesn’t account for offline documents. It also only covers text. Generative AI now produces music, illustrations, software, photographs and increasingly convincing video. The problem is that much of it is becoming difficult to distinguish from human-created work, raising transparency and security concerns.

Category: AI and Humanoids, Technology

Tags: Claude, Anthropic, Artificial Intelligence

Purple is the new white for ‘cool’ summer fashion

Mike McRae — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 22:03:00 GMT

As the kind of person who wears black in the height of an Aussie summer, I’m not one to give fashion advice.

Category: Chemistry, Science, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: metal-organic frameworks, Colors, Smart Fabric, Materials, Fashion, University of Adelaide

Hyundai launches $30K electric hatch America can't have

Utkarsh Sood — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 19:54:42 GMT

It still surprises me just how many good, affordable cars fail to make their way to certain markets. Whether it be due to regulatory reasons, differences in consumer tastes, production constraints, or simply because automakers don't think the numbers add up, there's a whole world of interesting metal that never gets the opportunity to cross certain borders.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Hyundai, Electric Vehicles, Hot hatch, America

Upgradeable mini PC doubles as a portable Steam gaming console

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:32:20 GMT

Valve's Steam Machine is the gaming system that PC gamers have been dreaming of for years. Sadly, it's hard to get your hands on one, and it costs a pretty penny. This new mini PC with some clever tricks up its sleeve might be just the thing to shop for instead.

Category: Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Gaming, PC, Windows, Linux, Console, xxKickbooster, Kickstarter

Humanoid 'Olympics' reveal why the US can't compete with China's robots

Bronwyn Thompson — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:54:45 GMT

As the second World Humanoid Robot Games got under way on August 21 at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, most of the interest has been on the machine sprinters and boxers. But away from the sporting arena, the five-day games reveal something telling about why China's winning this technology race.

Category: AI and Humanoids, Technology

Tags: Competition, Racing, Honor

A higher BMI may help you live longer in later years – but there's a catch

Mike McRae — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:43:34 GMT

Obesity is a public health crisis, with excess fat linked with a wide variety of chronic conditions. Yet our tendency to use body mass as a convenient proxy for unhealthy weight gain may obfuscate the true risks – and even benefits – of being a little bigger.

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

Tags: Body mass index (BMI), Waist, Heart Disease, Aging, Diet, Weight, Exercise

FDA approves first Alzheimer's blood test for Americans as young as 40

Bronwyn Thompson — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 06:13:07 GMT

In a move that could help drastically slow the advancement of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared C2N Diagnostics' PrecivityAD2 blood test for patients as young as 40 who have shown some potential cognitive symptoms of the condition.

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

Tags: Washington University in St. Louis, Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Diagnostic tools, Blood, Tau protein, Amyloid-beta protein, clinical trials

Saab goes supersonic with next-gen Loyal Wingman concept

David Szondy — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 05:03:00 GMT

The future of Scandinavian military aviation was rolled out by Saab at the Swedish Armed Forces Jubilee Air Show at Malmen Air Base in Linköping, Sweden, with the unveiling of a full-scale mock-up of the company's A3-001 supersonic Loyal Wingman autonomous combat aircraft concept.

Category: Military, Engineering

Tags: drones, Supersonic, Fighter, Saab

Broccoli for women, beans for men? Study reveals sex split over healthy diets

Paul McClure — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 23:14:40 GMT

A new study has found that eating more legumes was associated with better cardiometabolic health in young men, while cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower were the prime choice of vegetable for young women.

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

Tags: Heart Disease, Cardiovascular, Diet, Vegetables, Sex and gender, Diabetes

Cubic camper trailer gets vertical to maximize post-adventure living

C.C. Weiss — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:17:49 GMT

SylvanSport has long lurked as an outlier in the RV world. For years, its primary offerings were skeletal gear-hauling tent trailers unlike virtually anything else on the market. It then leaped from that compact, lightweight low-rider style straight to launching one of the boldest, boxiest campers of its class in the expandable Vast. Now it's circling back to fill in some of the sprawling space in between, launching the all-new Vire trailer as a camper that's just as boxy as the Vast but smaller and simpler. The new camper packs everything you need for a great weekend in the wild, without anything to complicate the trip.

Category: Camping Trailers, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors

Tags: trailers, Caravan, Sylvansport, RV, Trailer, Camping, Outdoors and Camping

Affordable tiny house hits sweet spot for family living

Adam Williams — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:03:00 GMT

Fitting in a small family without sacrificing portability is always a challenge when it comes to downsizing, but this tiny house strikes a good balance with a mid-sized layout that sleeps up to four. It features two bedrooms, including one on the ground floor, while remaining relatively affordable.

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

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

USA finally gets the modular smartphone owners can repair themselves

Monica J. White — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 15:03:00 GMT

As right-to-repair rules spread and buyers grow weary of sealed, disposable slabs, a handful of companies are betting that people will pay for a device they can actually open up and keep going for years.

Category: Mobile Technology, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Fairphone, sustainable design, Repair, smartphones

China's colossal tunneling machine bores AND blasts through raw ground

David Szondy — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:03:00 GMT

China has unveiled the world's largest multi-tool as it rolled out the world's first Boring and Blasting Machine (BBM) that combines a tunnel-boring machine with the ability to set explosives to blast through solid rock.

Category: Engineering

Tags: China, Tunnel

Italian moto marque launches big US comeback with 5 limited-run bikes

Utkarsh Sood — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:03:00 GMT

Bimota has never really been in the business of making motorcycles for everybody. Since its birth in 1973, the Italian marque has made a name for itself doing things the unnecessarily complicated way: take a proven engine from somebody else's parts bin, build an outrageously sophisticated chassis around it, drape the whole thing in Italian bodywork, and then make only a handful of them.

Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: Bimota, Kawasaki, America

Aston Martin's Valen is the most powerful front-engined supercar ever

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:03:00 GMT

Aston Martin's latest offering presents a radical departure from its usual design direction. If you like your cars burly and mean, you'll dig the Valen. It's also plenty fast.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Aston Martin, Sports Cars

New process spins nuclear waste into radioactive 'gold'

David Szondy — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 17:03:00 GMT

The United States has about 94,000 tonnes of nuclear waste in storage, though that's a bit like calling all that gold in Fort Knox "waste." A new technique is being developed to recover its trapped value, unlocking billions of dollars in reusable fuel and high-value isotopes.

Category: Energy, Engineering

Tags: Nuclear, Nuclear Fission, Waste

Space-saving cuboid tiny house stows a bed beneath its floor

Adam Williams — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 15:03:00 GMT

This neat little cuboid tiny house is simplicity itself. I say tiny house, but it's really best thought of as an extra bedroom or office on wheels. It has a clever interior that maximizes floorspace with a bed that's hidden under the floor when not in use.

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

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

Plastic-free vegan leather sees production-scale breakthrough

Maryna Holovnova — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:03:00 GMT

Scientists have been searching for ethical, high-quality alternatives to animal leather, which notoriously comes with environmental costs and ethical compromises. While synthetic alternatives solve the ethical dilemma, many of them are plastic-based and very difficult to recycle. Now, researchers are trying to find an option that checks all the boxes, and the best material for it seems to be … mushrooms.

Category: Materials, Engineering

Tags: VTT Technical Research Centre, American Chemical Society, Mushrooms

CFMoto's liter-class adventure bike lands in the USA for $12,499

Utkarsh Sood — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:03:00 GMT

Liter-class motorcycles haven’t exactly been accessible per se. Not just state-of-the-art superbikes that look like Greek goddesses, but even something as rugged and exposed as the Honda Africa Twin comes for upwards of $15,000. CFMoto clearly doesn’t like to play by the conventional rules, and its latest offering takes a direct shot at big-bore ADVs at a fraction of the price.

Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: CFMoto, Adventure Bikes, Off-road, KTM

Review: 2026 Audi SQ5 delivers sensible misbehavior

Aaron Turpen — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 01:03:00 GMT

There is a particular kind of automotive ridiculousness that I find charming. The 2026 Audi SQ5 is a family crossover with five seats, a useful cargo area, and all-wheel drive. It’s also capable of launching itself to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. Because apparently groceries need to be accelerated urgently.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: SUV, Audi, Audi Quattro, Crossover, Reviews

Ferrari just sold a single super-divisive Luce at 62x its asking price

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 21:03:00 GMT

As Ferrari revealed its first electric car to the public over the last few months, it first drew immense praise for the inventive interiors with a focus on physical controls.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Ferrari, Auction, Monterey Car Week 2026, Electric Vehicles

Boldly twisted tower lures you into its Escher-like space to spy on birds

Bronwyn Thompson — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:57:00 GMT

A new 19.9-meter (65-ft) tower rises like a brutalist-inspired, twisted monolith above its rural surroundings, providing a space for watching migratory birds that populate Wuhan's Chenhu Wetland, China.

Category: Architecture, Engineering

Tags: China, Engineering, Birds, nature, Art, Experience, Structure

HoverAir's latest flyer eradicates divide between pocket cam and drone

Monica J. White — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:17:00 GMT

The line between a pocket camera and a drone keeps getting blurrier, and HoverAir has just about erased it. The company, which helped pioneer the self-flying camera, has now shared full specifications for the Versa, the palm-sized gimbal camera it teased earlier this month. We covered the initial reveal when the Versa first broke cover, and this follow-up digs into the numbers behind the concept.

Category: Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Flying-cam, Cameras, drones, Camera drone, Gimbals, Indiegogo, xxAffiliate

Tiny titanium keyring puts a versatile toolkit in your pocket

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:49:07 GMT

This new piece of EDC gear we've spotted looks like a handy little screwdriver with bit storage. However, it serves two additional functions beyond fastening that make it practical for more than just DIY projects and repairs.

Category: Knives and Multitools, Gear, Outdoors

Tags: EDC, Titanium, Tools, xxKickbooster, Kickstarter

New controller makes operating an excavator almost instinctive

Omar Kardoudi — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:33:00 GMT

Watching skilled excavator operators work is almost hypnotic. They make it look so easy that the machine seems to move like an extension of the operator's own arm. That intuition usually takes years to build, but a new controller from MIT engineers compresses that learning curve to a single session.

Category: Robotics, Engineering

Tags: Robotics, MIT, Interface, Robotic construction, Construction

NASA abandons orbit-boost attempt to rescue Swift space telescope

David Szondy — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 06:00:32 GMT

The mission to rescue NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory space telescope may be in need of some rescuing itself. Due to multiple malfunctions in the LINK spacecraft's attitude control system, space engineers have decided to abandon the boost attempt.

Category: Space Systems, Engineering

Tags: Swift Satellite, NASA, Satellite

'Light pumping' bends beams in femtoseconds toward faster computing

Malcolm Azania — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 23:03:00 GMT

As sighted creatures, humans have always used light for communication through body language, writing, smoke signals, and more. Harnessing invisible frequencies of light such as radio massively expanded our communication range, while hyper-focusing light into lasers tremendously increased communication fidelity. And sending lasers through fiber optic cables meant communication that was free from the tyranny of straight line-transmission.

Category: Engineering

Tags: Caltech, Light, Optical Computing

Plug-n-play US camper pod turns a bare van into a homey RV in 1 hour

C.C. Weiss — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 20:47:00 GMT

I want the camper van ... but without tying myself to one van. That's essentially what spinoff brand Hunker sells with its new slide-in camper system. An all-in-one camper van floor plan on roller skates, the Hunker Pod turns an empty Ram Promaster into a warm, inviting camper van with kitchen, dining area, queen bed and toilet – no time-sucking DIY conversion work, no six-figure custom build, and no bottomless pit of never-ending obstacles and expenses. The pod and van combined cost well less than most US-market fully built camper vans, and the Hunker Pod will even outlast the van itself, installing in a new van just as easily as the first time.

Category: Campervans, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors

Tags: camper-in-a-box, Campervan, RV, Modular, RAM, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, Van

Top 10 tiny houses that showcase the extremes of small living

Adam Williams — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:03:00 GMT

Tiny houses come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. Some models push toward the upper limits of what can reasonably be considered a portable home, while others embrace extreme downsizing. Here are 10 of our favorites from both ends of the spectrum.

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

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

Tiny turtles to cuttlefish combat: 2026 photo winners revealed

Bronwyn Thompson — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:01:00 GMT

It's that time of the year again – when nature photo competition winners are announced and we get to look at some amazing images that remind us that the world is made up of more than AI slop. For now, anyway.

Category: Photography, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Animal science, Photographers, Awards, Animals, Marine Biology, Ecology

New timber office tower to become tallest in the USA

Adam Williams — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:07:00 GMT

Plans have been revealed for an ambitious wooden high-rise in Bellevue, Washington, that will set a new height record. The timber tower will rise to a height of 180 ft (54.8 m), making it the tallest mass timber office building in the United States once completed.

Category: Architecture, Engineering

Tags: Building and Construction, Timber, cross-laminated timber, Office, Skyscrapers

Fast-fold mini e-scooter powers a smooth urban commute

Simon Heptinstall — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:56:50 GMT

Chinese mini-transport engineering company Blizwheel has spent years evolving lightweight electric scooters that fold like origami to become small enough to vanish inside a standard backpack. Its latest version is perhaps the best yet.

Category: Urban Transport, Transport

Tags: xxKickbooster, Kickstarter, Electric Vehicles, Scooter

Yamaha brings its smallest roadster to the West

Utkarsh Sood — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:39:06 GMT

Personally, I’ve always loved the Yamaha XSR lineup. I think the 700 and 900 are brilliant-looking motorcycles that most people can hop on, ride practically anywhere, and have a ball while doing so. They offer something for modern motorcycle enthusiasts alongside a dose of authentic retro style.

Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: Yamaha, America, Affordable, Kawasaki, Honda Motorcycles, Retro

A ‘living GLP-1 drug’ could revolutionize diabetes treatment

Mike McRae — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:18:05 GMT

Bacteria engineered to sense and reduce glucose levels could be the future of type 2 diabetes treatments, following pre-clinical trials on animal models.

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

Tags: Type 2 diabetes, GLP-1 receptor agonists, Weight Loss, Probiotic, Diet

AI-guided chain gun fires steerable bullets to shred drone swarms

David Szondy — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:06:31 GMT

Northrop Grumman has unveiled its Raid Hunter chain gun system, adding a new layer to anti-drone swarm defenses by combining cutting-edge AI sensors, precision-guided ammunition, and a motor-driven chain gun feed firing up to 200 rounds per minute.

Category: Military, Engineering

Tags: Northrop Grumman, Missile Defense, drones

Programmable photonic chip could unlock light-speed optical computing

Etiido Uko — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 23:03:00 GMT

We want faster and faster computers, and light is the fastest thing in the universe. Therefore, light-based computers should be awesome. Right? Not quite. Computing isn't always about data arriving fast. Sometimes it's about arriving on cue. We have learned how to force light to calm down, but today’s hardware matches a specific design to a specific speed. But how do we command light to arrive faster or slower, using the same hardware?

Category: Computing, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Seoul National University, Light, Optical Computing, Photonics

World-first eVTOL vertiport gets the green light

Etiido Uko — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 19:03:00 GMT

Ever been stuck in traffic and wished you could simply fly above it all, straight to your destination? Well, that dream is one step closer to reality, as the world's first airport for flying taxis has just received the regulatory green light.

Category: Aircraft, Transport

Tags: eVTOL, urban transport, Electric Aircraft

Landmark study upends how we think the brain responds to psychedelics

Mike McRae — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Psychedelics are inherently chaotic drugs, dissolving the boundary between self and surrounds by sowing discord in the brain.

Category: Mental Health, Brain Health, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Psychedelic Medicine, psilocybin, mental health, Brain, Pharmaceuticals, Monash University, neurons

Blu-ray burner doubles as USB hub and card reader

Monica J. White — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 11:34:30 GMT

Modern laptops are the thinnest they’ve ever been. But this sleek form factor has a cost: optical drives are a thing of the past, full-size USB ports are becoming less common, and card readers are often an optional extra. BluHub is aiming to restore a lot of this lost connectivity via a single box.

Category: Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: xxKickbooster, Kickstarter, Blu-ray, DVD, CD Player, USB 3.0, Connectivity

'Blockbuster' one-shot low back pain drug in the home stretch of final test

Bronwyn Thompson — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:02:27 GMT

A highly anticipated drug trial is in its final stages as its 350 participants receive their single dose to treat chronic low back pain. If successful, the experimental medication could be a breakthrough therapeutic for people with the common but debilitating condition.

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

Tags: Cells, Back Pain, Low back pain, clinical trials, Regenerative Medicine, Chronic pain, Age-Related

Lucid's new 1,070-hp SUV aims to change the American luxury game

Simon Heptinstall — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 02:33:00 GMT

Unveiled amid the high-octane glamour and pristine lawns of the Monterey Car Week in California, the Lucid Gravity GT-S is a direct assault on the most lucrative auto segment in North America.

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Lucid Motors, SUV, Electric Vehicles, Luxury, Monterey Car Week 2026

The Minimal Phone 2 encourages you to type, not scroll

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 23:03:00 GMT

Los Angeles-based The Minimal Company specializes in stripped-down phones that put just a handful of essential tools in your pocket and leave out the distracting stuff. Its latest model marks a major departure, while aiming to stay true to the vision of reducing your screen time.

Category: Mobile Technology, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Smartphones, Android, Minimalist, Kickstarter

German multitool's badge flashes deeper history than Swiss Army knife

C.C. Weiss — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 20:47:00 GMT

The white cross with red surround has long been a sacred badge in the world of knives, indicating the timeless dependability and versatility of the Swiss Army knife. The latest multifunctional pocket knife to float onto our computer screen isn't a white cross-badged Swiss Army knife, but it wears an equally proud badge of origin and heritage. The newly released Böker Treebrand Camp Knife is a purely German design, its roots winding back hundreds of years to the 17th century.

Category: Knives and Multitools, Gear, Outdoors

Tags: Multitools, EDC, Everyday Carry, Knife, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, Backpacking

Taylor Swift’s ties to a rise in fatal US car accidents

Mike McRae — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:26:00 GMT

As a fan of old-school '90s rock and grunge, I can’t say I’m much of a Swifty. Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Taylor Swift’s albums are immensely popular, even before the Eras Tour swept the globe.

Category: Society & Community, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Smartphones, Music Streaming, Spotify, Traffic, Accidents, Crash

38-ft tiny house goes extra wide for a more livable layout

Adam Williams — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:03:00 GMT

With its length of 38 ft (11.6 m) and increased width of 10 ft (3 m), the Retirement Retreat isn't the smallest tiny house on the market, but all that space is cleverly used to provide an interior that's more like a small apartment than a typical towable home.

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

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

The extraordinary engineering that builds nature's only straight tusk

Bronwyn Thompson — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:01:00 GMT

The narwhal's defining feature – its continuously growing tusk – is the only straight structure of its kind seen in nature. Now, scientists have cracked the code on how these elusive Arctic whales grow such an impressive and unique tool.

Category: Biology, Science, Refractor: Science & Health

Tags: Marine Biology, Whale, Marine Innovations, Tools, Biomechanics, Sensory, Teeth, Arctic

Retro e-paper alarm clock puts kibosh on late-night phone scrolling

Monica J. White — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:40:01 GMT

Designed in Copenhagen, the Habity bedside clock swaps your phone screen's glow for an eye-friendly e-paper display, gentle wake-up tones, and a local library of sleep sounds, all running fully offline with no app, account, or subscription.

Category: Around The Home, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: E-Ink, ePaper, Clock

Modular hiking stick cleverly hides essential tools for the trail

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:51:32 GMT

I'm always happy to discover outdoor gear that's designed to take up less room and allow you to pack light. This trekking pole falls squarely in that category, and does a lot more than you'd expect at first glance.

Category: Gear, Outdoors

Tags: Hiking, Camping, Tools, xxKickbooster, Kickstarter, Modular