George Dvorsky, Author at Gizmodo

Watch what happens when you drop hot charcoal into liquid oxygen

Oxygen in its liquid state boils at the chilling temperature of −297 °F (−183 °C). And as we all know, fire is fuelled by oxygen. So what would happen if you brought the two together? Watch this slow motion video to find out. This clip is a part of the Periodic Table of Videos series.

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 6

Gigantic feral cats are wreaking havoc on Australia’s wildlife

When invasive species go wild in Australia they really don’t hold back. Check out this ridiculously massive feral cat caught in the Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land — one of an alarming number of similar cats that are now decimating the local wildlife. According to the Warddeken ranger group, the cats are getting progressively bigger and…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 6

What can we learn from the real superhumans among us?

Humans are a genetically diverse bunch. Some of us are born with extraordinary perceptual powers — neurological gifts that biologists might eventually be able to provide for the rest of us. But do we really want to have some of these ‘superhuman’ quirks? Most of us are familiar with savants and their remarkable cognitive abilities,…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 5

This helicopter is being controlled by a human brain

What’s cooler than a quadrotor? How about one that can be controlled by human thought alone? On the face of it, this achievement might not sound particularly special. It seems that every day we hear about a new EEG advance in which some kind of gadget is controlled by brainwaves. And in fact, it was…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 5

Couples who meet online tend to have better marriages

A new study has revealed that more than a third of new marriages start online. What’s more, couples who meet on the Internet tend to have happier and more enduring marriages. When online dating first emerged, many people considered it creepy, or even a kind of desperate measure. But owing to the popularity of such…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 5

Watch as Buzz Aldrin massacres “She Blinded Me With Science”

Look, we love Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. But as this cringe-inducing rendition of “She Blinded Me With Science” painfully demonstrates, he should probably stick to the speaker’s circuit. This surprise duet with Thomas Dolby tragically occurred on June 1st at the recent The Future is Here conference held by the Smithsonian. [Via @spacefuture]

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 5

The World’s First Mind-controlled Exoskeleton!

Wow, is this a taste of the future, or what? Check out MindWalker — an exoskeleton that will soon enable paralysed and locked-in people to walk using only their mind. Ah, who are we kidding — we’re ALL going to eventually want this for ourselves! The groundbreaking device, which is currently under review by the…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

Thousands of silkworms and one robot made this intricate sculpture

Working under the assumption that silkworms are nature’s original 3D printers, researchers at MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter group have created a domed sculpture from silk fibres woven by a robotic arm — which was then completed by over 6,500 silkworms. The finished project is called the Silk Pavilion, an effort to explore “the relationship…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

Our intergalactic neighbourhood is more prominent than we thought

Good news, everyone! We’re not intergalactic hicks after all! Turns out that our solar system is located in a large spiral branch called the Local Arm, a prominent feature of the Milky Way galaxy. Top image: The left side shows what we used to think the Milky Way looked like, the right side shows the…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

These stunning maps were made entirely from geotagged tweets

Twitter has compiled a series of maps showing geo-located Tweet volumes since 2009. The resulting maps are intricate, gorgeous — and even a bit revealing. According to Miguel Rios, Twitter’s Visual Insights Manager, billions of tweets were used to put these maps together. Every dot is a tweet, and the colors represent tweet volume. What’s…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

Why does this bizarro asteroid have a million-kilometer-long tail?

Three years ago, something rather cataclysmic happened to this asteroid. Whatever it was — and it was probably a collision with a smaller asteroid — has now resulted in an exceptionally long debris tail that just keeps getting longer. Asteroids aren’t supposed to have tails. That’s comet territory. But this object, called P/2010 A2 (LINEAR),…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

The Russian Eccentric Who Wants to Make Surrogates a Reality

In preparation for the upcoming Global Futures 2045 conference, the New York Times has put together a quick preview, including a biopic of its ambitious founder, the Russian entrepreneur and ‘immortalist,’ Dmitry Itskov. Armed with the tagline, “Towards a new strategy for human evolution,” GF2045 will be taking place in New York City during the…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

Could we find alien civilizations using infrared light?

Instead of listening for radio signals, a group of astronomers is proposing that we search for extraterrestrials by detecting their planet’s exaggerated heat signatures — signatures that could be detected in the infrared. But to do so, we’d have to build the largest telescope this world has ever seen. Writing in Astronomy Magazine, a team…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

11 Jaw-dropping Weapons From World War II You Probably Never Heard Of

The Second World War witnessed the introduction of hundreds of cutting-edge and often bizarre weapons, many of which became quite famous. But there were plenty of others that never got the same kind of notoriety. Here are 11 weapons from WWII you probably never knew existed. Before we get started, it’s worth noting that all…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

This ‘disco ball’ is the densest object orbiting the solar system

Called LARES, this tiny — but remarkably heavy — satellite both looks and acts like a disco ball. By bouncing lasers off its reflectors, Italian researchers are hoping to prove Einstein’s conjecture that the Earth warps space-time as it rotates. One important aspect of general relativity is an effect called rotational-frame dragging, or the Lense-Thirring…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

Finally, a successor to the Concorde takes shape

For something that was developed in the early 1970s, the now-defunct supersonic Concorde jet was the most futuristic-looking airliner the world had ever seen. Until now, that is. This unmanned prototype of a supersonic airplane — a plane which can travel faster than the speed of sound — was unveiled to the media in Utsunomiya,…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

Guys Who Are Full of Themselves Get the Girl

A recent study has shown that narcissistic men — guys who have an exaggerated sense of entitlement and an unrealistically positive self-image — are considered sexier by women. At least in the short-term. To demonstrate this, German psychologist Michael Dufner performed a rather interesting experiment. He recruited 61 male heterosexual men and paid them 35…

io9 George Dvorsky May 31

The First Images of Molecules Breaking and Reforming Chemical Bonds

Microscopy is advancing in leaps and bounds these days. It was just last week that scientists produced the first image of a hydrogen atom’s orbital structure. Not to be outdone, Berkeley chemists have now captured a series of images showing molecules as they break and reform their chemical bonds. It looks almost… textbook. https://gizmodo.com/the-first-image-ever-of-a-hydrogen-atoms-orbital-struc-509684901 It’s…

io9 George Dvorsky May 31

Travelers to Mars would face a lifetime’s worth of radiation exposure

We knew that a trip to Mars would expose astronauts to excessive amounts of radiation, but new data from Curiosity’s Mars Science Laboratory is showing that it’s worse than we thought. According to a new NASA study, Martian-bound astronauts would be bombarded with as much cosmic radiation as they’d get from a full-body CT scan…

io9 George Dvorsky May 31

New Theory Explains Moon’s Wonky Gravity

A strange thing happens to satellites when they’re in the Moon’s orbit. When passing over certain craters, they’ve been known to suddenly change course and plummet towards the surface before pulling back up. Scientists now know how these gravitational anomalies formed. These craters are called mass concentrations, or mascons for short — impact basins that…

io9 George Dvorsky May 31

George Dvorsky

Watch what happens when you drop hot charcoal into liquid oxygen

Gigantic feral cats are wreaking havoc on Australia’s wildlife

What can we learn from the real superhumans among us?

This helicopter is being controlled by a human brain

Couples who meet online tend to have better marriages

Watch as Buzz Aldrin massacres “She Blinded Me With Science”

The World’s First Mind-controlled Exoskeleton!

Thousands of silkworms and one robot made this intricate sculpture

Our intergalactic neighbourhood is more prominent than we thought

These stunning maps were made entirely from geotagged tweets

Why does this bizarro asteroid have a million-kilometer-long tail?

The Russian Eccentric Who Wants to Make Surrogates a Reality

Could we find alien civilizations using infrared light?

11 Jaw-dropping Weapons From World War II You Probably Never Heard Of

This ‘disco ball’ is the densest object orbiting the solar system

Finally, a successor to the Concorde takes shape

Guys Who Are Full of Themselves Get the Girl

The First Images of Molecules Breaking and Reforming Chemical Bonds

Travelers to Mars would face a lifetime’s worth of radiation exposure

New Theory Explains Moon’s Wonky Gravity

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

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

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