George Dvorsky, Author at Gizmodo

Extraordinary Carving Discovered Inside Ancient Maya Pyramid

Archaeologists are calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime find” — a 1,400 year-old frieze vividly decorated with images of gods and rulers. Considered a work of art, the carving is shedding new light into this ancient culture. The high-relief stucco sculpture was discovered last month by Guatemalan archeologist Francisco Estra-Bellie and his team from Tulane University’s anthropology…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 9

These photos of Shanghai’s cityscape were taken just 26 years apart

If there was any doubt about China’s explosive growth over the past two decades, this unbelievable GIF will most certainly put those suspicions to rest. The first picture, which was taken in 1987, shows Pudong, the area east of the Huangpu river. The second image, taken just last week, reveals the futuristic mega-city that is…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 9

An elaborate 12-course meal squeezed into one can

It doesn’t look very appetizing, but designer Chris Godfrey has managed to pack a lavish medieval-style 12-course banquet into a single can. Here’s what’s inside the “All In One” can: A selection of local cheeses with sourdough bread Pickled Kobe beef with charred strawberry Ricotta ravioli with a soft egg yolk Shiitake mushroom topped with…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 9

Wanna buy a medieval castle? Now’s your chance.

Okay, sure — this run down castle in France doesn’t look like much. But just think, for a mere $680,000 it could be all yours! ALL YOURS! Located in Normandy, France, it’s an Anglo-Norman castle that was on the front lines in the wars between England and France during the Middle Ages. And now it’s…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 8

This furry Jurassic-era creature was not our ancestor

With its rodent-like appearance, the newly identified Megaconus certainly looks like a mammal. But this forest dweller lived over 165 million years ago, before the rise of the first true mammals. Megaconus is what paleontologists consider to be a proto-mammal — a transitional line, called a haramiyid, that shared a common ancestor with modern mammals.…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 8

This polar bear starved to death thanks to global warming

This emaciated polar bear, a 16 year-old male, was recently found over 150 miles away from its normal range. Experts believe that a lack of sea ice forced the bear into unknown territory as it desperately searched for food — a quest that came to a grim conclusion. Polar bears primarily feed on seals and…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 8

Astronomers Discover a Pink Planet Around a Sun-like Star

You’re looking at an artist’s conception of GJ 504b, the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star using direct imaging techniques. Located 57 light-years away, it’s about four times the mass of Jupiter. And it’s pink. Really, really pink. https://gizmodo.com/the-first-picture-ever-of-a-tatooine-like-binary-star-s-459231706 The newly discovered planet orbits around star GJ 504, a sun that’s very similar to…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 8

Audi designed this badass concept car for Ender’s Game

Remember that super-futuristic car that briefly appears in the final Ender’s Game trailer? It comes compliments of Audi, a virtual car they’re calling the Fleet Shuttle Quattro. Yes, please. https://gizmodo.com/enders-game-trailer-shows-the-epic-space-war-our-child-1042024912 Audi specifically designed the “purely virtual” car to suit the look and feel of the film. It’s the first time the German company has ever…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 8

Where Stars Get Born in the Galaxy Next Door

These two gas clouds may reside side-by-side within the Large Magellanic Cloud, but as their distinctive coloring suggests, they’re an interstellar odd couple. The image of these two two gas clouds, called NGC 2014 and NGC 2020, was captured by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Space Agency’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 7

The Insidious Trick That Helps Spiders Surprise Their Prey

Wow, it looks like Spider-Man really has been studying the battle tactics of a certain arachnid. By using high-speed film, scientists have learned that jumping spiders use silk draglines to balance themselves mid-air and make soft landings, in preparation for an attack. Previously, scientists assumed that the silk lines merely provided jumping spiders with a…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 7

Why Freud Still Matters, When He Was Wrong About Almost Everything

He’s been dead for nearly 70 years, but Sigmund Freud’s provocative theories are still a huge part of psychology, neuroscience, and culture — this despite the fact that many of his ideas were mindboggingly, catastrophically wrong. Here’s why Freud just won’t go away. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Sigmund Freud was…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 7

Why does a rabbit flash its white tail when its being chased?

Some prey animals, like rabbits and deer, feature flashy white tails that are prominently displayed when they’re been chased down by predators. But why in the world would an animal want to draw more attention to itself in such a precarious situation? We now have the answer. According to evolutionary biologist Dirk Semmann of the…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 7

Ranking the world’s best (and worst) scientific institutions

A new web app called Mapping Scientific Excellence ranks the world’s scientific institutions by discipline and presents this information on an interactive global map. Above image: Agricultural and Biological Sciences. The application, which was developed by Lutz Bornmann and colleagues at the Max Planck Society in Germany, visualizes research excellence worldwide in 17 different subject…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 7

New game creates a hive mind out of Google Glass users

By encouraging Glass users to behave and work like virtual ants, a new game called Swarm! is showing the tremendous potential for augmented reality to bring crowdsourcing to the next level — if not to humanity itself. Swarm! is currently under development by Daniel Estrada of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Jonathan Lawhead…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 6

This computer took 40 minutes to simulate one second of brain activity

And it required 82,944 processors, to do it — showing that we’re still quite a ways off from being able to match the computational power of the human brain. Top image: Japan’s K Computer — a massive array consisting of over 80,000 nodes and capable of 10 petaflops (about 1016 billion operations per second). The…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 6

NASA teams up with Mattel to create Mars Explorer Barbie

The Red Planet is about to get a lot more pink (sorry, couldn’t resist). Introducing Mars Explorer Barbie, a new spacesuited version of the famous fashion doll that was launched this week to commemorate the first anniversary of NASA’s Curiosity rover landing on Mars. https://gizmodo.com/barbie-s-mutated-proportions-are-even-more-unrealistic-475946693 https://gizmodo.com/curiosity-rovers-first-year-on-mars-distilled-down-to-990319039 The new Barbie is packaged with a cardboard cutout…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 6

Chelyabinsk Meteor May Be Part of Larger Pack Threatening Earth

Astronomers studying the dramatic Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia this past February now suspect that it was a fragment of a larger celestial body — and that upwards of 20 related asteroids may be on similar trajectories towards Earth. In the half-year since the event, scientists have learned a lot about the Chelyabinsk meteor,…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 6

‘Happy Birthday’ Performed on Another Planet for the Very First Time

Poor Curiosity, all alone out there in the vast Martian wastelands with no one to hang out with on its first birthday. So what’s an intrepid rover to do? Sing “Happy Birthday” to itself, that’s what. In commemoration of Curiosity’s first year on Mars, NASA transmitted instructions to the rover’s SAM (Sample Analysis Instrument) module.…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 6

What the hell is this massive pentagram doing in Kazakhstan?

Yikes, it looks like Satan worshippers in Kazakhstan are up to no good. But as ominous as this 1,200 foot pentagram appears, there’s a much simpler explanation. https://gizmodo.com/are-the-streets-of-washington-d-c-supposed-to-form-a-5847682 The pentagram, which can be seen via Google Maps, is located near a desolate lake in northern Kazakhstan. According to some, the site has been linked to…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 5

The Happiest Places in America

After parsing the results from a recent University of Vermont study of geotagged tweets, the Huffington Post has compiled a map showing just how happy — or unhappy — Americans are according to the state they live in. The numbers you see in the above graphic were derived by scoring more than 10,000 words on…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 5

George Dvorsky

Extraordinary Carving Discovered Inside Ancient Maya Pyramid

These photos of Shanghai’s cityscape were taken just 26 years apart

An elaborate 12-course meal squeezed into one can

Wanna buy a medieval castle? Now’s your chance.

This furry Jurassic-era creature was not our ancestor

This polar bear starved to death thanks to global warming

Astronomers Discover a Pink Planet Around a Sun-like Star

Audi designed this badass concept car for Ender’s Game

Where Stars Get Born in the Galaxy Next Door

The Insidious Trick That Helps Spiders Surprise Their Prey

Why Freud Still Matters, When He Was Wrong About Almost Everything

Why does a rabbit flash its white tail when its being chased?

Ranking the world’s best (and worst) scientific institutions

New game creates a hive mind out of Google Glass users

This computer took 40 minutes to simulate one second of brain activity

NASA teams up with Mattel to create Mars Explorer Barbie

Chelyabinsk Meteor May Be Part of Larger Pack Threatening Earth

‘Happy Birthday’ Performed on Another Planet for the Very First Time

What the hell is this massive pentagram doing in Kazakhstan?

The Happiest Places in America

First Statewide Data Center Ban Passed by Maine Legislature

FCC Exempts Netgear from Foreign-Made Router Ban for Some Reason

Jamie Dornan Is Your New Aragorn in ‘The Hunt for Gollum’

Trump’s Fed Pick Is Knee Deep in Tech and Crypto Investments

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

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