Songs That Make Us Cry

After asking listeners to send in songs that make them cry, NPR trawled through 7,000+ tracks and found that though some of the results were expected, others weren’t. While “Adagio for Strings” sounds like it was composed to make people misty eyed, “Highway to Hell” perhaps doesn’t. However, the team at NPR found that oftentimes, the reasons songs made listeners weepy isn’t about composition and …

A Futuristic Flag for Earth

When American astronauts first landed on the moon, it seemed natural to plant the flag of the United States. But what happens when an international team of space-explorers venture beyond our orbit? They’ll be representing their own nations, but also the entire planet Earth. Recognizing this, 24-year-old Oskar Pernefeldt has designed a new flag called the International Flag of Planet Earth. The design features a …

Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Limbs

The latest installation of The New York Times’ video series “Robotica” examines the ongoing development of mind-controlled prosthetic limbs. The video follows the life of 59-year-old Les Baugh—who lost both of his arms in an electrical accident when he was a teenager—as he helps Johns Hopkins University engineers test the latest technological marvel, Modular Prosthetic Limbs (or M.P.L.). After strapping on two robotic arms, Baugh …