Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
Italians stuck at home are measuring light pollution for ‘science on the balcony’
The fact that so many people are stuck at home makes for strange opportunities. Italy’s confined populace has taken to singing from the balconies — and now researchers are asking them to use t
3D-printed ‘bionic corals’ mimic a reef’s powers of photosynthesis
The mass die-off of coral reefs is a catastrophe of global proportions, but the sheer scale of their success as organisms has lessons for science. Case in point: these 3D-printed "bionic corals."
Virgin’s VOX Space snags $35 million Space Force launch contract and prepares for final test flights
VOX Space, the Virgin space subsidiary dedicated to government launches, has scored a valuable new contract with the U.S. Space Force and is about to move from testing to full operations, the company
After careful quarantine, the next ISS crew arrives in orbit
Working from home is easy for some and difficult for others, but one place it’s downright impossible is the International Space Station . So pandemic or no pandemic, the latest crew had to get t
Android gets a built-in Braille keyboard
Android has received a wealth of accessibility features over the last couple of years, but one that has been left to third-party developers is a way for blind users to type using braille. That changes
Bessemer’s Tess Hatch on the evolving aerospace market and COVID-19 adjustments
The aerospace market is evolving quickly and merging with other segments of tech, making it an exciting space for both startups and investors — but the complications of the global pandemic are being
Google Stadia is now free for everyone, with a two-month trial for Pro tier
Google’s game-streaming service Stadia is now free for anyone with a Gmail account, the company announced today. Assuming you’ve got a compatible device and controller — and good interne
NASA puts $7M toward long-shot research, from moon mining to solar lenses
NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program is all about making high-risk, high-reward bets on unique — and sometimes eyebrow-raising — ideas for space exploration and observation. This year
White House signals support for a new international Moon Treaty
The international community has struggled for decades to formalize rules regarding the collection and use of resources in space and on the Moon. While the U.S. and all spacefaring countries declined t
FCC shoots down petition to label Trump’s coronavirus broadcasts as hoaxes
The FCC has denied a request that it investigate and take action on a broadcast the petitioners allege has made material and deadly contributions to the spread of COVID-19: President Trump's frequent
R&D Roundup: Ultrasound/AI medical imaging, assistive exoskeletons and neural weather modeling
In the time of COVID-19, much of what transpires from the science world to the general public relates to the virus, and understandably so. But other domains, even within medical research, are still ac
Before suing NSO Group, Facebook allegedly sought their software to better spy on users
Facebook's WhatsApp is in the midst of a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance outfit NSO Group. But before complaining about the company's methods, Facebook seems to have wanted to use them for
Google research makes for an effortless robotic dog trot
As capable as robots are, the original animals after which they tend to be designed are always much, much better. That's partly because it's difficult to learn how to walk like a dog directly from a d
FCC enacts $200M telehealth initiative to ease COVID-19 burden on hospitals
The FCC has developed and approved a $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for medical providers, just a week or so after the funding was announced. Hospitals and other health c
Activity-monitoring startup Zensors repurposes its tech to help coronavirus response
Computer vision techniques used for commercial purposes are turning out to be valuable tools for monitoring people's behavior during the present pandemic. Zensors, a startup that uses machine learning
This adorable tiny record maker lets you cut your own 5-inch vinyl singles
Vinyl has been coming back for the last few years, but unlike MP3s, CDs or even cassette tapes (also coming back), records aren’t easy to record on your own. This tiny toy record maker makes it
FCC mandates strict caller ID authentication to beat back robocalls
The FCC unanimously passed a new set of rules today that will require wireless carriers to implement an tech framework to combat robocalls. Called STIR/SHAKEN, and dithered over for years by the carri
We’ve come full rectangle: Polaroid is reborn out of The Impossible Project
More than a decade after announcing that it would keep Polaroid's abandoned instant film alive, The Impossible Project has done the... improbable: It has officially become the brand it set out to save
Coronavirus pushes Folding@Home’s crowdsourced molecular science to exaflop levels
The long-running Folding@Home program to crowdsource the enormously complex task of solving molecular interactions has hit a major milestone as thousands of new users sign up to put their computers to
AI and big data won’t work miracles in the fight against coronavirus
To someone with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail — and as expected, the tech sector is hard at work hammering every nail it can find. But the analytical prowess of the modern data ecosystem