George Dvorsky

Artist Discovers Unseen Color Photos of JFK’s Final Moments

After sitting forgotten in storage for more than 45 years, the daughter of an amateur photographer has uncovered a set of remarkable images taken mere minutes before President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The photos, which now appear in TIME and LightBox, were taken by H. Warner King, a Dallas Jewelry wholesaler and amateur…

Now there’s another bird flu we have to be worried about

A woman in Taiwan has just contracted the H6N1 bird flu — a strain that scientists thought could not infect people. It now joins H5N1 and H7H9 on the list of viruses most likely to make life miserable for humanity. https://gizmodo.com/scientists-no-longer-banned-from-researching-deadly-mut-5978631 https://gizmodo.com/why-the-experts-are-so-worried-about-the-new-bird-flu-473500926 So here’s what we know: Back in May, a 20-year-old woman, who was…

A Dramatic Glimpse of Mars as it Appeared Billions of Years Ago

To illustrate how radically the face of Mars has evolved over the past several billion years, researchers from NASA’s MAVEN mission have put together a revealing new video showing a Red Planet that was once anything but. MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN project, is a research mission and planned space probe primarily concerned…

The chief science officer for the Allen Institute for Brain Science says that consciousness arises within any sufficiently complex information-processing system, whether it be worms or the Internet. It’s a modern take on an ancient concept: panpsychism. Wired’s Brandon Keim recently caught up with Christof Koch to learn more. Image: Bruce Rolff/Shutterstock.

Scientists Use a Mutated Virus to Build a Better Battery

By unleashing a genetically modified virus onto microscopic electrode wires, researchers from MIT have shown that the performance of lithium-air batteries can be significantly improved — a remarkable breakthrough that could revolutionize the way our electric devices are powered. Indeed, lithium-air batteries have generated considerable buzz over the years because of the way they can…

The surface of Pluto like you’ve never seen it before

Using a powerful new software program called the Scientific Exoplanets Renderer (SER), astronomer Abel Méndez has produced a stunning set of new images — including a global map — showing the distant dwarf planet of Pluto in unprecedented detail. Normally, SER is used to generate photorealistic images of planets outside our solar system, including the…

New life found on plastic waste gives rise to the ‘plastisphere’

Tons of plastic floats in the oceans, and it’s covered in microscopic life. But a new study reveals plastic-loving species that have never been seen before, and ecosystems entirely new to science. Say hello to life in the ‘plastisphere.’ For the study, which now appears in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers Tracy Mincer from the…

Synthetic animals will save the planet

A recent project by designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg proposes that bioengineered creatures be released into the wild to save endangered species and clean up pollution. And she’s already designed four organisms to do it, including soil-scouring slugs and seed-dispersing porcupines. All images: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. Synthetic biology is not a new concept. Craig Venter proposed…

How Self-Replicating Spacecraft Could Take Over the Galaxy

Forget about generation ships, suspended animation, or the sudden appearance of a worm hole. The most likely way for aliens to visit us — whatever their motive — is by sending robotic probes. Here’s how swarms of self-replicating spacecraft could someday rule the galaxy. Top image by Alejandro Burdisio via Concept Ships. Back in late…

The world’s first big cats came from Asia, not Africa

A recent fossil discovery in the Himalayas has pushed back the clock on big cat evolution by as much as seven million years. But not only that, the discovery of this previously unknown ancient leopard shows that these apex predators arose in Asia, not Africa. This new species, the elegantly named Panthera blytheae (named for…

Why scientists need to search for alien life on purple planets

Billions of years ago, when microbial life first emerged on Earth, our planet would have appeared purple from space. Armed with this knowledge, scientists now say we should be on the lookout for exoplanets tinged in a similar purple hue — a possible sign of extraterrestrial life. Back during the Archean era, some three billion…

Over a dozen celestial objects can be seen in this photo of Saturn

If you look very, very carefully at this majestic photo of Saturn, you can see a number of familiar astronomical bodies and features, including several Saturnian moons, Mars, Venus, and even Earth. You’ll find a fully annotated version of the photo below. The photo was taken by the Cassini spacecraft last July as part of…

How We’ll Swear in the Future

Every culture has its swear words, nasty and highly offensive terms that pack a powerful punch when we’re not in polite company. But many of our swear words have diminished in potency over time, a sure sign of their ever-changing nature. Here’s how you can expect to be swearing in the future. Alright people, seeing…

Stephen Hawking says physics would have been far more interesting if the Higgs boson hadn’t been found. Not only did it cause him to lose a $100 bet, he hoped the mystery would encourage scientists to look for evidence of more fundamental theories that explain the nature of universe.

Scientists discover the remnants of a 3.5 billion-year-old ecosystem

In a discovery that could influence the search for life on other planets, an international team of researchers working in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have uncovered evidence of complex microbial ecosystems dating back 3.5 billion years. That’s 300 million years earlier than previous finds. What the researchers discovered was a particularly ancient geological phenomenon called…

Watch the most accurate supercomputer simulation yet of the universe

Using some of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet, the fine folks at Argonne National Lab have constructed a virtual model of the universe that tracks 1.1 trillion particles as they expand and bind. The achievement is four times larger than previous simulations. The project, called the Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Code (HACC), is an…

Toys “R” Us creates the most anti-science ad ever

Wrong, wrong, wrong, Toys “R” Us. Wrong. An inane commercial like this — in which children are taught that science and the environment are boring — sends the exact wrong message. In the ad, a group of school children are loaded onto a bus labeled, “Meet the Trees Foundation.” A ranger shows them pictures of…

Stuxnet has infected a Russian nuclear plant and the space station [Updated]

The problem with creating Stuxnet, the world’s most sophisticated malware worm, is that it could eventually go rogue. Which is precisely what has happened. The US- and Israeli-built virus has spread to a Russian nuclear plant — and even the International Space Station. Update (2013.11.13): I received this email today from Kaspersky Lab’s Corporate Communications…

What will jail terms be like when humans can live for centuries?

Radical life extension is coming. That means future societies will have to do a dramatic rethink of our ideas about how long offenders should be imprisoned and — more crucially — the ways they’ll be rehabilitated. I’m not going to spend any time arguing on behalf of the science that’s driving the efforts behind radical…

Wildlife officials successfully remove arrow from young deer’s head

A 5-month-old deer living in the forests of New Jersey was recently discovered wearing this rather unpleasant adornment. Mercifully, biologists from the Department of Environmental Protection were able to remove the arrow this past weekend. A property owner living near Rockaway Township (about 25 miles west of New York City) noticed the deer on November…