Recently my furnace needed some repairs (unrelated to the Nest), and it was super convenient to be able to toggle it on and off from my iPhone in the basement instead of having to run upstairs, turn it on, run down to observe it, then run back up to turn it off.

FORBES: What Is It Like To Own A Nest Thermometer?

If the calculation on vacuum instability stands up, it will revive an old idea that the Big Bang Universe we observe today is just the latest version in a permanent cycle of events.

BBC: Cosmos may be 'inherently unstable'

To do that, Project 1640 effectively blots out the light from stars, which allows astronomers to more clearly observe what might be around them, including objects up to 10 million times fainter than the star itself (the image on the right above is a nearby star captured with the imaging system in place, compared to the same star captured without the new system on the left).

ENGADGET: Project 1640 offers new way to search for planets beyond our solar system