Imagery

The ease with which the Microsoft Kinect can be torn down�and the familiarity of the software driving it�has quickly proven a feature and not a bug for hackers. Hacking commercial gadgets is nothing new of course; but the pace at which hacks now appear, as well as the appeal they generate, is something to watch.

The Red Planet has been the object of science fiction, paranoia, and fakery. And with numerous spacecraft now beaming back publicly-available images from our neighboring planet, Martian fantasizing is a growth industry. This film is one of the most convincing, and it isn't even from Mars. Video after the jump.

Oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico? Mysterious astronomical phenomenon? Tattoo run amok? Answer after the jump.

It's getting pretty plush up there. Yesterday, NASA released this image of Expedition 25 commander Doug Wheelock in the "cupola," a bay window installed on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station in February 2010.

Hotshoe, or hot shoes? Brandon Bloch stretches the product comparison to the breaking point, with predictably funny results. Video after the jump.

E Ink, the company whose displays power the Kindle and the Nook, is bringing the first low-power, ambient-light color display to market. Like its black-and-white reflective-displays forerunners, Triton promises weeks, not hours, of battery power. But the resolution of the new technology, at least for now, lacks the richness and resolution of its backlit LED competitors.

images have been important in the story of science and technology for a very long time�especially since the advent of movable type and the printing press in the West. I�m asking for help in compiling the Wonderful Gallery of Scientific Imagery. What images have had the greatest impact on the course of scientific knowledge and technological innovation?

Perhaps the most visceral effect Google Earth offers takes place when you open the program and that vision of the Earth from space swings into view. It's tempting to head off into space itself�but the space imagery Google includes is low-res and very incomplete. Now, two Fermilab scientists have created a layer of rich, detailed images of galaxies and galaxy clusters, using data from the Sloan Sky Survey...

A team of brain scientists learns what the artist Yves Klein already knew: that the color blue tickles our emotions.

It's a new day at Gearfuse, powered by the light of science and the storm of progress.