There was a time when high school science projects involved baking soda volcanoes dropping egg-filled containers from helicopters. That may actually still be the case, but not for a batch of 1,600 high school students at this year’s 2013 Intel International Science. 18-year-old Eesha Khare developed a super-capacitor with a special nano-structure that allows more energy within a lower volume. It is able to deliver the energy more efficiently and stores it for up to 10,000 cycles (compared to most batteries that last around 1000 cycles). It can charge cellphone batteries in 30 seconds and…

It’s the grandfather of all video games. Pong has been played on many grand stages, but according to Dr. Frank Lee, gaming professor at Drexel University, the game played on April 19th and the followup games on April 24th are the biggest games of Pong in history. Dozens of people got to play, being selected as part of a “Golden Ticket” lottery on April 17th. The games are being held on the Cira Centre Building in downtown Philadelphia as part of Philadelpha Tech Week. “The project came to me as I driving down 76,” said Lee. “As the sun was going down I saw the sparkly lights at the Cira Centre. In my mind I…

LED lights are small, but integral components in our technology. From tiny blips of light that serve as electronics indicators, to large-scale LED clusters that form business signs, these diodes have played an impactful role in the history of electronics and computing. LEDs were a brainchild of the 1960s, an era marked by innovation and competition in the semiconductor field, as researchers strived to propel their companies to the forefront of technology. As several big players, including Texas Instruments, Bell Laboratories, RCA, and GE jumped into the race, LEDs have developed as increasingly…

Turn them on. Turn them off. Turn them on. Turn them off. On busier roads, it gets to the point that toggling between low beam and high beam gets so repetitious that most people just turn them off and go semi-blindly into the night. Volvo feels your pain. They know that there are times when drivers want to avoid blinding other drivers but still keep a view of sides of the road. With their new Active High Beam Control, drivers can keep their brights on at all times and let the car decide where to block out the beams. As you can see in the visual above, they high beams persist in the view around the car but keeps…

Let’s go ahead and start with a disclaimer – if you build a real lightsaber and harm someone or yourself with it, please do not blame us. We’re only showing you the “how”. What you choose to do with the most powerful weapon in the galaxy is up to you. With that out of the way, take a look at these awesome and detailed instructions on how to build one. Be a jedi. Defend the galaxy. If it’s not for you, we’ll see if we can find a good blaster-building tutorial. Click to enlarge. Courtesy of: Herbert Pocket …