New Atlas

ENERGY Tesla's solar roof solution hides in plain sight Tesla CEO ElonMusk has unveiled new types of roofing tiles that also double as solar panels.​ Musk showed off glass tiles that mimic textured tiles, French slate, flat modern and even Tuscan style curved roof tiles.   Read more COMPUTERS Hollywood and Hacking: Into the 21st Century - Real life hackers, computer punks and Hugh Jackman dancing In the third and final part of our series on Hollywood and hacking we move into the 21st century and examine the shift towards true stories and realism in cinematic hacking depictions.   Read more DIGITAL CAMERAS Review: Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack is more than just a camera bag From the moment Peak Design announced its Everyday Messenger bag last year, people asked for a backpack version. After a recent Kickstarter campaign the Everyday Backpack will soon start shipping. We've spent a couple of weeks trying one out, to see whether it should be your next camera bag.   Read more SCIENCE Lung-on-a-chip lights up to model damage caused by smoking Organs-on-chips allow the study of drugs and diseases without testing on animals or humans. Now a team at Harvard has designed a device that smokes cigarettes and sends the smoke through a lung-on-a-chip, to examine just how the habit damages health.   Read more GOOD THINKING Horus wearable helps the blind navigate, remember faces and read books ​The ancient Egyptian god Horus lost his eye in a fight, before having it restored. A symbol of restoration, it's the perfect name for a new wearable device for visually-impaired people, which describes a user’s surroundings to help them avoid obstacles, recognize faces and objects, and read text.   Read more SPACE Tally of known near-Earth asteroids and comets hits 15,000 ​As highlighted by the Chelyabinsk meteor impact of 2013 and frequent fly-bys of asteroids, we need to keep watching the skies for any space rocks that may pose a threat. Teams of astronomers doing that have hit a milestone of 15,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs), and there’s plenty more still to find.   Read more ENVIRONMENT World's largest marine reserve in Antarctica finally gets the green light After six years of diplomatic impasse, the countries that determine the fate of Antarctica's waters have finally reached a historic agreement to declare the Ross Sea an official Marine Protected Area.   Read more AIRCRAFT Boeing lands patent for VTOL passenger plane Boeing has been awarded a patent for a tilt rotor VTOL aircraft capable of carrying up to 100 passengers. By combining vertical lift of a helicopter with the speed and range of a conventional airplane, it could one day turn small airports into passenger hubs.   Read more URBAN TRANSPORT Intelligent e-scooter crams multi-purpose batteries into highly portable package Immotor, a California startup founded by Mophie founder Daniel Huang, offers a stylish, new urban transport solution. Its folding electric Go scooter rolls for up to 20 miles (32 km) around city centers and includes a versatile Super Battery system.  Read more LAPTOPS 13-inch MacBook Pro: 2016 vs. 2015 Is a touchscreen strip enough to justify a staggering sticker price? Let’s line up the 13-inch version of the new 2016 MacBook Pro with its 2015 counterpart.  Read more OUTDOORS Dub Box makes a smaller, lighter VW Microbus caravan Oregon's Dub Box is set to become the latest caravan maker to get in on the smaller, lighter trend. Only its smaller, lighter camping trailer won't be the average teardrop, breadbox or utility bed. It'll be a shortened version of the timeless Volkswagen Microbus.   Read more OUTDOORS These plant molecules moonlight as internal thermometers Molecules called phytochromes are known to help plants detect light during the day and adjust growth accordingly. Now, researchers have discovered that the same molecules do double duty at night, switching from light-sensors to temperature detectors, a finding that could help yield tougher crops.   Read more SCIENCE Bog-pickled dinosaur brains make for a remarkable fossil Scientists have described fossilized dinosaur brain tissue which most likely belonged to a Iguanodon-like species that plunged its noggin into a swamp around 133 million years ago, "pickling" the sample in the process. ​   Read more SCIENCE Tiny object manipulation gets assist from ultrasound and 3D-printed lens ​​Do you know what a laser-generated focused ultrasound transducer is? Basically, it's a device that converts laser light into focused acoustic waves, which can in turn be used to move cell-sized tiny objects. It's a fascinating technology, and it's recently been improved upon.   Read more MOBILE TECHNOLOGY Tips & tricks: Messages goes image-heavy in iOS 10 ​The updated Messages app in iOS 10 introduces a bevy of visual features. Here's how to harness them so your lasers-and-GIFs game is on point.   Read more DRONES Thumb-steered drone leaves you with a free hand ​​The shapes and sizes of drones have changed a lot in recent times, but most serious quadcopters are still controlled by way of a dual-joystick controller. A new crowdfunding campaign is coming at it from a different angle, by developing a drone that can be flown with a single hand.   Read more AIRCRAFT Qantas unveils comfortable, spacious Dreamliner cabins Australian airline Qantas has unveiled the cabin designs for its upcoming fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. They have been designed with a view to maximizing passenger comfort on the long-distance routes on which they will operate.   Read more GOOD THINKING Bitcoin goes on sale across Switzerland via railway ticket machines ​​If you don't have access to a Swiss bank account, you will soon be able to keep your currency secure by instead buying some Bitcoin at any Swiss railway station.  Read more SPACE ESA plans next major space mission to detect gravity waves  ESA is soliciting proposals from scientists for its eLISA L3 space mission slated to launch in 2034, which calls for a multi-satellite mission linked over millions of kilometers to detect gravity waves.   Read more SPACE New Horizons completes marathon Pluto data transfer ​​NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) has received the final piece of data collected by the agency's New Horizons probe during its encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto, which took place Jul. 14. 2015.   Read more ARCHITECTURE Expansion of UK's Heathrow Airport takes flight Earlier this week, the UK government announced its support for the expansion of Heathrow Airport into a "hub airport of the future." The country has spent a number of years considering how best to increase its airport capacity and the decision signals the direction it will pursue​.   Read more SPECIAL PROMOTION FOR NEW ATLAS READERS Pagico 8 Turns Tasks and Project Notes into Beautiful Flowcharts — 62% off In today's digital world, there's simply too much out there trying to distract you from what's important—until now. Pagico is a one-stop app that helps turn all of your tasks, notes, and projects into beautiful interactive flowcharts. They'll keep you in check so you can get things done in a much more effective manner. Plan better, organize smarter, and watch your productivity level reach new heights like never before.   Read more