Adam Clark Estes

Scientists Have Found the Gene That Helps Us Forget

You know that scene in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when they’re scanning through Jim Carrey’s playdoh-faced head, looking for bad memories to erase? A bunch of eggheads from MIT just figured out how to do that for real! Sort of. In all seriousness, though, the discovery is poised to do a lot of…

A Map of Where All the Drones Live in the United States

By now there’s little doubt that drones are here to stay—not just for military use but also for civilian use. In fact, a new “drone census” shows that the number of commercial drone Certificates of Authorization is now almost equal to those from the military. And much of it is happening in California. The drone…

The First 3D Scan of the Tower of Pisa Will Help Preserve It Forever

A team of Australian researchers recently climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa with a 3D scanner and came back with the most detailed map of the building ever. At first you might think that the beautiful results were meant for a museum, but this detailed scan will help scientists protect it from ruin. This first-of-its-kind…

iOS 7 Review: Pretty Is as Pretty Does

There’s little question that iOS 7 is the most transformative update to iOS in its six-year history. It’s not just about the flat design. The first time I laid hands on the new operating system, I felt like I had a new phone, one that looked prettier and, more importantly, felt more useful. https://gizmodo.com/ios-7-the-complete-video-walkthrough-and-hands-on-512580808 Opening…

Elon Musk Is Building a Self-Driving Car Because Of Course He Is

Tesla is joining the race to build and sell the world’s first self-driving car, and it plans to win. In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Elon Musk said he’s working on building a car that can run on “auto-pilot” within three years. That would put Tesla way ahead of competition in typical…

Chinese Mercenaries Are Hacking into American Networks

Cybersecurity firm Symantec took a major swipe at Chinese hackers on Tuesday, when it revealed the details of the group that’s behind some of the best-known attacks on the United States. Unlike earlier reports, however, Symantec’s report isn’t about the Chinese military. These are hackers-for-hire. Symantec has dubbed the mercenary group “Hidden Lynx” and says…

Brazil’s Wild Plan to Purge America From Its Internet

Brazil is not very happy about all these NSA revelations. As home to Latin America’s biggest economy, the country understandably hates the idea that the United States is listening to its phone calls and reading its emails. In fact, Brazil hates it so much that it wants to disconnect itself from the U.S. internet altogether.…

Inside the Pentagon’s Trillion Dollar F-35 Embarrassment

It’s not news that the Pentagon’s fated F-35 program is riddled with dilemmas. For more than a decade, it’s bumped into roadblock after roadblock. When the planes aren’t grounded, they’re forbidden to fly in bad weather, combat missions or at night. Vanity Fair just published a lengthy look at just how bad a mess it…

Graphene Computer Chips Run on Light Instead of Electricity

Thanks to improvements in fiber optics, most of the information that you consume on any given day is transported by light. Quite inefficiently, however, most computer chips need electricity to operate, and scientists haven’t quite figured out how to make the leap to more futuristic materials. At least not until graphene came along. A trio…

Create Your Own Broken Masterpieces with This Glitch Art Generator

Glitch art is sort of like the internet’s code-heavy version of graffiti. While graffiti writers climb walls to get their tag in impossible spots, glitch artists dig deep into code to create chaotic results. It used to require programming skills, but thanks to this new DIY site, just a few mouse clicks will do. Put…

The FBI Just Admitted to Hacking Into the Tor Network

Just over a month after reports of a malware attack on the anonymous Tor network, the FBI told an Irish court that it was behind the shenanigans. But don’t worry, it was for a good cause. The Tor hack was supposed to target associates of the Freedom Hosting’s operator Eric Eoin Marques who’s currently being…

Teen Tries to Buy WikiLeaks Server with $33,000 of His Dad’s Money

The eBay auction for the server that once hosted the WikiLeaks documents, including Cablegate, has finally come to a close with a winning bid of $33,000. There’s only one problem: the winner is a 17-year-old boy who used his dad’s account to bid and is in no position to cough up the cash. After the…

ISS Crew “Flew Blind” on Their Way Back to Earth

While exciting in some ways—homecoming, yay!—the trip home from the International Space Station is a scary enough journey even when everything goes right. Now imagine doing it with no height sensors to tell you how far from the ground you are and when to brace for impact. That’s exactly what happened earlier week. Two Russian…

Man Flying to Europe with Helium Balloons Gives Up After Just 350 Miles

Well, that was quick. Balloon-loving daredevil Jonathan Trappe was supposed to float all the way to Europe under 370 helium-filled balloons in three to six days, but he gave up after only 12 hours citing technical difficulties. He hadn’t even made it out of North America. Late Thursday night, Trappe posted a vague message to…

Meet the Man Attempting to Cross the Atlantic Using Only Balloons

Jonathan Trappe loves balloons. In fact, the 39-year-old IT manager loves them so much that he’s trusting them with his life as he attempts to become the first person to cross the Atlantic using only a life raft and 370 helium-filled balloons. If that sounds crazy, that’s because it is. Trappe took off from Caribou,…

Apple’s Patented Technology Would Make iPhone Virtually Unbreakable

Now that we know all about the latest generation of iPhone(s), it’s time to start guessing what Apple’s going to do next. This is a time when true fanboys dive into Apple’s growing library of patents for clues. And while we can’t expect all these patents to make it to market, it’s fun to wonder.…

It’s Official: Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System

After months of back and forth, scientists now agree that NASA’s Voyager 1 has become the first manmade object to leave the solar system. And it only took 36 years to make the 12 billion mile-long journey. https://gizmodo.com/ladies-and-gentlemen-we-have-left-the-solar-system-up-5991527 It’s obviously a major milestone for space exploration which is probably why scientists have been arguing for…

Microsoft’s Siri Is Based on Cortana, Halo’s Sexy AI Character

Microsoft is next in line to build a mobile personal assistant, one that’s more than more than a robotic voice that obeys spoken commands. The feature will tie together all Microsoft products. So it’s probably appropriate that it’ll be named Cortana after the artificially intelligent character in Halo. Clues of Cortana’s existence have been popping…

With more colorful and fingerprint-savvy devices on the way, Apple is reportedly slashing the prices on the soon-to-be discontinued iPhone 5. With a contract, you can get the old iPhone 5 for $99 for 16GB, $199 for 32GB, $299 for 64GB for the next week or so. Without a contract, the device will cost $549,…

AT&T Just Bought $1.9 Billion Worth of Verizon’s Spectrum

As it struggles to expand its 4G LTE, AT&T is spending $1.9 billion in cash for unused spectrum from its biggest rival, Verizon. This upgrade will improve service for some 42 million people in 18 states thanks to an additional 39 700MHz licenses. This bodes well for AT&T’s ambition to offer 4G LTE to 270…