Casey Chan, Author at Gizmodo

Meet the guy who smells things for a living for NASA

George Aldrich has been working with NASA for nearly 40 years doing one job: he smells things that are about to go to space. Seriously. Aldrich uses his nose to its full potential, sniffing everything around him to give NASA a report on what is allowed to go to space and what is not. You…

Sploid Casey Chan

Seeing scissors get made by hand is just so mesmerizing

You’ll get lost watching him work. I definitely did. Cliff Denton is a ‘putter’ for Ernest Wright & Sons, the last remaining hand manufacturer of scissors there is, and he literally puts together scissors with his hands. He’s a master at it. Watching him work is mesmerizing and satisfying to see. It’s basically art. I…

Sploid Casey Chan

If Captain America actually represented the USA, he’d be embarrassing

If Captain America was a realistic representation of the United States of America instead of some well groomed side part and perfectly pectoral’d ideal of a man, well, he’d be much fatter, much dumber and much more wasteful. Using the USA’s statistics and rankings in how it compares to different countries around the world in…

Sploid Casey Chan

Here’s what it’s like to plummet down the world’s tallest water slide

POV footage shows it’s a helluva drop so yeah, it’s scary. People will pretty much plummet straight down a 168-foot 7-inch tall slide—which makes it the world’s tallest water slide—at thigh burning speeds to blast over a massive hill to ride another “mini” 50 feet slide. It doesn’t get any sicker than this. Called the…

Sploid Casey Chan

The world’s largest firework fills the sky with hundreds of explosions

It costs $1500, measures in at about 4 feet in diameter and causes an explosion in the sky almost half a mile long. It’s the infamous Yonshakudama firework from Japan and if you can somehow snag the sky lighting cannonball before July 4th and shoot it up at your local park, you’d probably become king…

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This pile of trash is actually a realistic portrait

What looks like a random steaming pile of trash is actually a clever piece of art that combines to create a stunning portrait. Made by artist Benard Pras, each item in the pile is strategically placed so that if you look at it from the right perspective, it looks like a painting. But if you…

Sploid Casey Chan

Here’s a wonderful new animation from a Disney animation legend

Even though I love today’s 3D animation movies made with CG, there’s something about seeing old fashioned hand-drawn animation that makes me feel like I’m peering into another world of breathtakingly fluid characters dancing on paper. Former Disney animator Glen Keane was a master at such animation and is responsible for creating characters we adore…

Sploid Casey Chan

Woman photoshopped to fit the definition of beauty in 25 countries

Here’s an amazing experiment to see the differences between feminine beauty “ideals” across different countries: 24-year-old radio journalist Esther Honig had her picture photoshopped by Photoshop artists from 25 different countries. She told them to “make her look beautiful” according to their country standards. Sometimes the changes were sweeping with skin lightening, new hairstyles, excessive…

Sploid Casey Chan

This map shows where the most famous Marvel characters are from

Here’s a map of the world plotting out Marvel characters and there’s no surprise which state is best at pumping them out. Basically, if you want to be a successful superhero in the Marvel universe, you should probably find some way to be born in New York, or at the very least, be from some…

Sploid Casey Chan

The world’s largest gathering of snakes looks like a slithering sea

Imagine your worst nightmare. And then imagine your living room filled with thousands and thousands and thousands of snakes. That’s what it’s like at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba, Canada. It’s the largest concentration of snakes in the world. It basically looks like an ocean of snakes. National Geographic reports: Every year, thousands of…

Sploid Casey Chan

Seeing a nuclear reactor start up is cooler than my sci-fi dreams

Ka-freaking-boom. The piercing blue flash reverberates through the water and looks cooler than my imagination. If watching movies has taught me anything, it’s that when you see that particular shade of glowing blue, something superhuman is happening. And yes, a nuclear reactor starting up is as powerful as it gets. Why does it glow blue?…

Sploid Casey Chan

This video proves how hard it is to focus for an entire 3 minutes now

It’s pretty much impossible for me. And probably for a lot of you. Before the Internet existed in our pockets, I’m pretty sure all of us could watch a clip for the entire 3 minutes and not feel the blistering need to change tabs or see what the newest picture on Instagram was or tweet…

Sploid Casey Chan

Here’s liquid nitrogen turning into solid nitrogen in an extreme vacuum

What happens when you put liquid nitrogen in a vacuum chamber? It turns solid. And then it snows. As the vacuum lowers the pressure in the chamber, it decreases the boiling point of the liquid nitrogen which means the nitrogen boils faster. But! The boiling liquid nitrogen is also evaporating which cools itself which turns…

Sploid Casey Chan

Magic fabric doesn’t catch fire after being doused with molten aluminum

The molten aluminum being poured out onto the thin black fabric is bubbling at a scorching 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot. And yet, for all the heat and fire and flame power, the magic fabric easily withstands the burning liquid metal. The fabric doesn’t catch fire, it doesn’t get burned through and there’s not a…

Sploid Casey Chan

This video explainer makes a very convincing argument to eat bugs

Before I watched this video by the whip smart guys at AsapScience, I never considered eating bugs in my entire life. Now? Well. Damn. It actually makes a lot of sense. Raising bugs doesn’t take nearly as much space as raising animals and it doesn’t require the same amount of resources either. Heck, bugs may…

Sploid Casey Chan

World’s first android newscasters are here to replace cable news hosts

In the future, we’ll get the news from fair and balanced android newscasters that’ll somehow terrify us more than the cable newspeople we have today. These android newscasters are frighteningly lifelike and can interact with humans, read the news and Tweets, tell a joke and basically replace the lousy talking heads on TV. The android…

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Hilariously honest trailer makes fun of everyone who liked Forrest Gump

It’s been 20 years since Forrest Gump was released and Tom Hanks has become the Internet’s friendly uncle, Jenny is the cold hearted wife of a politician and Bubba Gump is a seafood restaurant we all ate at because we remember lines like Run, Forrest, Run. But why did we ever like the movie? Screen…

Sploid Casey Chan

What gives paper money its actual value?

Money is just tinted paper printed with different numbers on it. So what gives the ol’ greenbacks its value? The bills used to be tied to the gold standard but now, it’s up to The Fed to control how many bills there are. So why can’t they just decide to print out ridiculous amounts of…

Sploid Casey Chan

NASA space rover drives on the underside of the ice

NASA just completed a test of an early prototype—maybe just an early, early precursor—space rover that may be flown to explore the Jupiter moon Europa. What’s cool is that the rover is designed to float on the underside of the ice and “rove as if the underside of the ice is the ground.” Up is…

Sploid Casey Chan

What the biggest companies are from each state in the US

The most popular brands in America are not always the largest companies making the most revenue. Brands that you know, stores that you go to and places that you associate with some states get replaced by faceless monoliths who basically repurpose oil, energy, technology, other people’s money, etc. into more money. The Washington Post points…

Sploid Casey Chan

Casey Chan

Meet the guy who smells things for a living for NASA

Seeing scissors get made by hand is just so mesmerizing

If Captain America actually represented the USA, he’d be embarrassing

Here’s what it’s like to plummet down the world’s tallest water slide

The world’s largest firework fills the sky with hundreds of explosions

This pile of trash is actually a realistic portrait

Here’s a wonderful new animation from a Disney animation legend

Woman photoshopped to fit the definition of beauty in 25 countries

This map shows where the most famous Marvel characters are from

The world’s largest gathering of snakes looks like a slithering sea

Seeing a nuclear reactor start up is cooler than my sci-fi dreams

This video proves how hard it is to focus for an entire 3 minutes now

Here’s liquid nitrogen turning into solid nitrogen in an extreme vacuum

Magic fabric doesn’t catch fire after being doused with molten aluminum

This video explainer makes a very convincing argument to eat bugs

World’s first android newscasters are here to replace cable news hosts

Hilariously honest trailer makes fun of everyone who liked Forrest Gump

What gives paper money its actual value?

NASA space rover drives on the underside of the ice

What the biggest companies are from each state in the US

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