A structure like those found on water striders’ legs keeps a robot out of the water. Robots can serve pizza, crawl over alien planets, swim like octopuses and jellyfish, cosplay as humans, and even perform surgery. But can they walk on water? Rhagobot isn’t exactly the first thing that…
Did an AI write this? Because it reads like an AI wrote this. Yesterday afternoon, while much of the country enjoyed Labor Day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk published a new master plan for the company to his social media platform. It’s the fourth such document for Tesla, replacing the…
You don’t have to track down pricey retro hardware to play the Pioneer LaserActive anymore. Here in the year 2025, it’s not every day that a classic gaming console from the 20th century becomes playable via emulation for the first time. But that’s just what happened last week with…
Google refutes claims that all 2.5 billion Gmail users are at risk. The sky is falling, and Gmail has supposedly been hacked to bits by malicious parties unknown. Or has it? Reports circulated last week claiming that Gmail was the subject of a major data breach, citing a series…
Many Framework Desktop mods are cosmetic, but this is a functional improvement. Despite its lack of upgradeable system memory, Framework has tried to make its Framework Desktop a welcoming platform for upgraders and modders, releasing 3D-printable versions of a few case parts and generally sticking to standard-sized parts and…
As Tesla sales fall in China, Musk says robots will save the company. If Tesla was hoping that decent sales in China might boost the company’s fast-diminishing profits, it was a forlorn hope. For the second month in a row, the automaker has experienced a year-over-year decrease in sales…
Promised protections follow reports of vulnerable users misled in extended chats. On Tuesday, OpenAI announced plans to roll out parental controls for ChatGPT and route sensitive mental health conversations to its simulated reasoning models, following what the company has called “heartbreaking cases” of users experiencing crises while using the…
The Blank Slate will be made from just 600 parts, with no paint or infotainment. Slate Auto provided flights from San Francisco to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and accommodation so Ars could visit the Slate factory. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. WARSAW, Indiana—The Blank Slate pickup scratches a…
A day driving camouflaged prototypes revealed some rather neat features. Porsche provided flights from Albany, New York, to Barcelona and accommodation so Ars could drive a prototype Cayenne Electric. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. Curved displays in cars are increasingly common, adding a bit of shape to…
A 3D reconstruction of the Shroud of Turin, “jelly ice,” regenerating snail eyes, and more It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we…
