Jun 28, 2011 12:00 PM

Ban the Black Box: We Have Better Ways to Capture Plane Crash Data

When a plane goes down in the ocean, crucial data goes with it. Streaming black box data in real time is a better way to fly.

Front views of flight data recorder with cover on and with cover removed

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Cat-Like Whiskers Help Tiny Drones Fly in the Dark

Researchers took lessons from nocturnal animals to help rescue drones overcome a key challenge: flying in the dark.

Ritsuko Kawai

Pour One Out for the Leap Second

The metric might not mean much to laypeople, but leap seconds have been a source of contention in the timekeeping community for years. Now, they’re dead.

Brian Kahn

Your Driverless Cab Is Spying on You

Self-driving cars from Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla are studded with cameras and sensors. Some of them are pointing at riders.

Aarian Marshall

What to Know About China’s Top-Secret Spaceplane

This week, the Pentagon released a full-resolution image of the vehicle, the capabilities of which remain rather mysterious.

Stephen Clark, Ars Technica

NASA Just Made Nearly 1 TB of Artemis II Data Available to the Public

The data drop includes photographs, audio, video, and astronauts’ notes that will be used to study the moon and prepare for future human missions.

Jorge Garay

A Tesla Flying Car? I Don’t Know, Man

The Federal Aviation Administration will likely have thoughts about the Tesla Roadster 2’s ability to leave the ground.

Aarian Marshall

Scientists Trapped an Antimatter Particle for Months to Study Its Secrets

These elusive and reactive particles have been challenging to hold on to and even more challenging to study, but a new method paves the way for tests on the differences between matter and antimatter.

Jorge Garay

You Probably Aren’t Going to Get the Plague

The death of a lab worker in Russia has authorities looking at whether plague played a role. Even if it did, though, the odds of it spreading are very low.

Emily Mullin

These Researchers Made AI Drive a Toyota Corolla to Get In-N-Out

Three engineers put GPT, Claude, and Grok in charge of a real car. Only one of them was successful.

Will Knight

Bluesky Is Blocking Links to a Major Leak of DHS Employee Records

Bluesky tells WIRED it blocked links to a leaked archive of information on 41,000 ICE, CBP, and other DHS workers because it contains people’s contact information, shared without their authorization.

Dhruv Mehrotra

The US Government Is Hiding a Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans

Two US senators say the Trump administration is breaking the law by withholding the FISA court decision while it presses Congress to renew America’s most sweeping surveillance program.

Dell Cameron