Esther Inglis-Arkell, Author at Gizmodo

For No Reason, Here is Bubble Gum in a Blender

This ultra-slow motion video of bubble gum balls getting slowly demolished by a blender is almost festive. Stressed out? Feeling the pressure of the holiday season? Make yourself a cup of tea, sit down, and watch this blender slowly demolish a bunch of gum balls. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be any more complicated than…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 23

Scientists Just Figured Out the Simple Reason Some Snails Change Sex

A surprisingly large number of animals change sex over the course of their lives. But why? Is it chemical? Is it due to some sophisticated twist of genetics? In the case of limpets, it’s way simpler than that. Limpets spend most of their lives clinging to rocks and having very long penises. Eventually, though, they…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 23

Marigolds Are the Temptress-Assassins of the Botanical World

Marigolds are popular plants among city planners and commercial landscapers. They’re bright and cheery, they’re easy to grow, and when the bugs come calling, they have a really nasty surprise hidden in their roots. Some companies use ozone as a decontaminant, and marigolds do as well. Ozone is an oxygen atom in triplicate; it is…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 23

This Squid Could Help Humans Repel Dangerous Flesh-Eating Bacteria

The bobtail squid stays alive because it attracts and keeps a specific kind of bacteria. Scientists still don’t know exactly how it does this, but new research could shed light on why some people get hit with the closely related flesh-eating bacteria. Like a fair amount of ocean animals, the bobtail squid shimmers with bioluminescence.…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 22

Research Shows There Is Such a Thing as a “Harbinger of Failure”

You probably know at least one person who always tends to bet on the loser. From laserdiscs to New Coke, they adore the unpopular product. Turns out that that’s a predictable trait, and the people who display it are “Harbingers of Failure.” What happens when a group of professors from MIT, Northwestern University, and the…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 22

12 Machines That Show Modern Farming Isn’t the Bucolic Life You Imagine

We imagine a farm to be a place where people celebrate simplicity and get back to the land, and why not? Most of our food is sold to us that way. But farms are big business, and they’re more high-tech, with more specialized machines, than most people ever imagine. Olive Harvesting Here we have a…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 22

How One Psychologist Convinced Children to Spurn Sugar

Can you train a kid to hate sugar? Karl Duncker was a psychologist prowling around Britain in the 1930s. He was a master researcher on peer pressure who offered London children fictional “hemlock” to see if he could sway them to avoid sugar. Karl Duncker was one of the many great scientists who fled Germany…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 22

Suck It, Hippies: Study Shows Material Things Can Bring Happiness

Over the past several years, a number of surveys have come out extolling the benefit of experiential goods versus material goods. But those studies may have missed something crucial, according to a new study by Canadian psychologists. Supposedly, experiential gifts provide people with more happiness than material gifts. A picnic is better than a food…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 21

Hopping Wasp Larvae Wrap Themselves in Cocoons of Their Prey

Wasps are notorious for devouring other creatures from the inside out. Now scientists have learned that after they’ve killed something, they wrap themselves up in its cocoon for good measure and exhibit strange jumping behavior while in that cocooned state. Bathyplectes anurus wasps are not perilous to humans, but for the alfalfa weevil, they’re a…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 21

The Asparagus-Urine Smell Is Surprisingly Controversial

Most people know about the strange smell that asparagus gives off after it has been, ahem, processed by some humans. Yet other humans aren’t able to smell the odor at all. That makes asparagus an unusual marker for the intricacies of genetic variation. Asparagus has a reputation for being a stealth skunk. Although not objectionable…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 21

Your Olive Oil Is Only 100% Real If It Tastes Like Ibuprofen

Saying your olive oil is sub-standard isn’t an accusation, it’s just a probability. Adulterated olive oil is extremely common and surprisingly hard to spot. If you’re curious, you might want to grab a bottle of ibuprofen and do a taste test. Good olive oil is relatively expensive, whereas bad olive oil and canola oil are…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 21

Black Holes Only Go Truly Black if They’re Really Big

Black holes don’t emit light, but they still shine. They do so because of accretion disks, but those disks don’t appear around black holes of all sizes. There could be incredibly huge black holes out in the universe that we can’t see, because they’ve gone really dark. Astronomers have seen some massive black holes. They’ve…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 18

We’re One Step Closer to Being Able to Regrow a Lost Tooth

We’re one step closer to being able to regrow a lost tooth, thanks to a new study showing it’s possible to grow multiple teeth from a single root. These teeth can then be implanted to become fully functional. Thus far it has only been tested in rats, but it could lead to a potential revolution…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 18

Scientists Now Know How Drug-Resistant Superbugs Move

The structure you see above has been nicknamed a “comet,” but it’s really bacteria streaking across an agar plate. Scientists have found out that superbugs, antibiotic resistant bacteria, can move, helping them spread and establish new colonies. Some bacteria have little tails. Methicilin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus does not. Some have many tiny hairs all around their…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 18

Scientists Can Now Make Fake Sperm Swim

What you’re seeing in this video is obviously a sperm cell, except it was made in a lab, not a testicle. It’s designed to show how passive elastic swimming can mimic, fairly well, the motions that allow sperm (or fish) to swim. The video above is from a 2013 paper entitled, “Passive elastic mechanism to…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 17

These Images Are Only a Few Millionths of an Meter Wide

A new printing method lets us make images smaller than we’ve ever before managed. What’s more, these images are in color. Invented by scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, the new technique relies on a surface covered with tiny metal plates only a few micrometers wide. A high-intensity laser hits the plates for a…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 17

These Fish Went From Saltwater to Freshwater in Just Fifty Years

Threespine sticklebacks hatch in fresh water pools near streams. When they mature, they need to make their way back to the ocean to live. So if their way to the ocean is cut off, they’re screwed. Or are they? The video tells the story of the 1964 earthquake in Alaska, and the fish it left…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 17

Watch Out, Yogurt. Soon Drinking Water Might Go Probiotic.

You’ve probably suspected that your household drinking water—which came from a reservoir, through underground pipes, to your filthy kitchen sink—wasn’t sterile. Now scientists are studying exactly what’s in that water. DNA sequencing is letting scientists test out things that they otherwise could not—like the contents of your drinking water. Researchers from the University of Sweden…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 16

Here’s a Major Change That Hospital Ranking Systems Need to Make

If you’re lucky enough to be able to choose your hospital and have time to research your choices, you’d naturally take mortality rate into account. There’s a problem with that, and one change in how mortality rates are calculated could help solve it. Hospital rankings according to mortality rate are needed to identify those that…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 15

You Really Shouldn’t Snack on Urinal Cakes

Rarely seen by women, this little tablet is a part of many men’s daily lives. What the hell is in a urinal cake, why does it work, and could it possibly be used to make a deadly poison? Those disgusting little things that sit in urinals are something that men see every day, but few…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 15

Esther Inglis-Arkell

For No Reason, Here is Bubble Gum in a Blender

Scientists Just Figured Out the Simple Reason Some Snails Change Sex

Marigolds Are the Temptress-Assassins of the Botanical World

This Squid Could Help Humans Repel Dangerous Flesh-Eating Bacteria

Research Shows There Is Such a Thing as a “Harbinger of Failure”

12 Machines That Show Modern Farming Isn’t the Bucolic Life You Imagine

How One Psychologist Convinced Children to Spurn Sugar

Suck It, Hippies: Study Shows Material Things Can Bring Happiness

Hopping Wasp Larvae Wrap Themselves in Cocoons of Their Prey

The Asparagus-Urine Smell Is Surprisingly Controversial

Your Olive Oil Is Only 100% Real If It Tastes Like Ibuprofen

Black Holes Only Go Truly Black if They’re Really Big

We’re One Step Closer to Being Able to Regrow a Lost Tooth

Scientists Now Know How Drug-Resistant Superbugs Move

Scientists Can Now Make Fake Sperm Swim

These Images Are Only a Few Millionths of an Meter Wide

These Fish Went From Saltwater to Freshwater in Just Fifty Years

Watch Out, Yogurt. Soon Drinking Water Might Go Probiotic.

Here’s a Major Change That Hospital Ranking Systems Need to Make

You Really Shouldn’t Snack on Urinal Cakes

The First Trailer for ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Takes Terror Stateside

The Trump Phone Still Looks Like Total Trash

‘Masters of the Universe’ Really, Really Wants to Be the Next ‘Barbie’

Samsung’s Micro RGB TVs Provide So Much Color It May Be Too Much

The Crypto Bros Want to Get Their Hands on Anthropic’s ‘Super Dangerous’ Model

This Is What a Music Industry ‘Plant’ Looks Like in 2026

As Starship V3 Lags Behind, Blue Origin Prepares Third Launch of New Glenn

The New Movie From Takashi Yamazaki Could Be the New ‘Pacific Rim’

Forget Samsung Galaxy S26, Google Pixel 10 Pro Hits a Black Friday Low With No Trade-In Required

YouTube Will Stop Showing Ads If You Just Engage Hard Enough

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

The Soundboks Mix Is Going to Make You the Most Popular Guy at the Park

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice