George Dvorsky, Author at Gizmodo

How Invasive Snakes Have Turned Guam Into a Spider-Infested Horror Show

Back in the 1940s, the highly invasive brown treesnake was accidently introduced to the island of Guam. In just four decades, these snakes had wiped out 10 of 12 native bird species, with the remaining two species forced to live in small areas, protected by snake traps. The result: an island with no bird chirps…

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Rash of demonic possessions in Poland gives rise to ‘Exorcist Magazine’

Business is good in Poland for priests who are skilled in the arts of demonic extrication. The country is in the midst of an exorcism epidemic (or boom, depending on how you feel about it.) And this has inspired Catholic priests to join forces with a publisher, and launch the world’s first monthly magazine devoted…

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Scientists Now Uncertain About Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

An experiment conducted at the University of Toronto has thrown a fundamental aspect of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle into doubt. For decades, we’ve believed that you can’t measure a quantum state without inducing uncertainty — but now, we’re not so sure about that. While this new discovery doesn’t overturn the uncertainty principle as a whole,…

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No, we are not going to be cloning this newly discovered wooly mammoth any time soon

News broke yesterday that a beautifully preserved wooly mammoth had been discovered by Russian scientists in Siberia. The research team quickly got ahead of itself, by claiming that the mammoth remains contained actual living cells, which in turn got the media all excited about the possibility of cloning the extinct beast. Not surprisingly, the scientists…

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If you’re going to get your DNA analyzed, you’d better brace yourself for the results

Genetic testing has taken off in recent years. Companies like 23andMe and Medcan are finally allowing people to get their DNA tested so that they can better understand their genetic lineage and determine if they’re prone to certain diseases. Now all this sounds good in theory — but what if your genetic tests yielded some…

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Sexually aroused women find everything less disgusting

Let’s face it: Sex can be kinda gross. With all those body odors and fluids being traded back and forth, it’s no small miracle that humans voluntarily choose to copulate at all. But as scientists from the Netherlands have recently pointed out, our willingness to engage in sexual acts despite the yuck factor may be…

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Curator finds the world’s first ever color movie hidden inside museum vault

The National Media Museum in the U.K. announced today that it has discovered the world’s first color moving pictures. The reels were found inside a museum vault, hidden inside an old tin dating back to 1899. The remarkable discovery is set to re-write the history of early film. The color film was created by an…

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Dalai Lama tells his Facebook friends that religion “is no longer adequate”

This past Monday, people who have the Dalai Lama as a Facebook friend found this little gem in their newsfeed. All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is…

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9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World

We live in an era of accelerating change. Technology is changing and innovating faster than most of us can keep up. And at the same time, it’s easy to get so caught up in shiny visions of the future, and not notice the astounding things that are happening in science and technology today. So the…

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NASA: Extreme forms of life can survive on planets with weird orbits

Biologists who study extremophiles know just how tough and resilient life can be. Microbes have been discovered in virtually all four corners of the Earth, including deserts, extreme altitudes, and undersea volcanoes. Insights like these have forced astrobiologists to reconsider the types of environments where life is capable of emerging and flourishing. https://gizmodo.com/the-extremest-extremophiles-microbial-oasis-underneath-5886377 https://gizmodo.com/the-microbes-in-earths-most-arid-volcanoes-are-unlike-a-5917218 https://gizmodo.com/methane-exhaling-microbes-found-in-undersea-volcanoes-r-5932477…

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How Neal Stephenson’s 20-Kilometer Space Tower Could Change Everything

Novelist Neal Stephenson wants to create a 20-kilometer space tower, which could inspire people to believe in innovation again — but also transform the way we travel in the air and into space. To this end, Stephenson has teamed up with structural engineer Keith Hjelmstad of Arizona State University in an effort to design and…

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Have mathematicians finally discovered the hidden relationship between prime numbers?

Okay, math lovers, this is the one you’ve been waiting for: Shinichi Mochizuki of Kyoto University in Japan is claiming to have found proof (divided into four separate studies with 500+ pages) of the so-called abc conjecture, a longstanding problem in number theory which predicts that a relationship exists between prime numbers. The tricky part?…

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Placebo effect can be triggered by subliminal cues

Could a placebo work even if you’re not consciously aware of it? Scientists have always believed that placebo effects rely on your conscious expectations of what a pill or therapy is supposed to accomplish. But a new study suggests that your unconscious mind can play a key role in triggering a placebo effect. Could your…

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The most successful presidents could be the ones who exhibit psychopath-like traits

Everybody’s been rethinking psychopaths lately. Instead of thinking of psychopathy as a highly problematic and socially dangerous personality disorder, psychologists are increasingly coming to see it as an extremely complex set of characteristics that play an important role in human diversity and experience. And in fact, as a recent study from Emory University suggests, psychopathic…

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Released documents show U.S. helped hush Soviet massacre of thousands

It’s often said during wartime that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Nowhere in the annals of history is this more true than the uneasy alliance that was hoisted upon the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II. Now, 72 years later, the U.S. National Archives has released 1,000 declassified…

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Hot Mars Theory suggests life never had a chance on the Red Planet

As NASA’s Curiosity rover scours the Martian surface in search of signs that Mars was once capable of fostering complex life, a team of researchers from the University of Poitiers, France, and Caltech have issued a paper that casts serious doubt on the notion that the planet was once habitable. The new theory, which was…

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Teenager sends $50 camera into space and captures these stunning images of Earth

Who needs rockets and multi-million dollar satellites when you can get the same results by spending only $600? This was the thinking of Adam Cudworth, a 19 year-old student from the U.K., who recently sent his Canon A570 camera to the edge of space, in hopes of capturing some cool images of Earth from space.…

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How your body fights to keep you alive when you’re starving

The human body can go without oxygen for about five to ten minutes, and about three to eight days without water. But remarkably, people have been known to live upwards of 70 days without food. How is this possible? The answer lies in a series of evolved physiological and metabolic defenses that work to keep…

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Study: There is enough wind on this planet to meet our entire energy needs

A recent study from the Carnegie Institution for Science is suggesting that planetary winds pack enough power to energize our entire civilization — and by a significant margin. But in order for us to capture all this energy, say the researchers, we’ll have to supplement traditional ground-based stations with atmospheric wind turbines. The study, which…

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Grandmother gives birth to her own grandchild

In vitro fertilization was developed well over thirty years ago, but its far reaching potential for helping couples with fertility issues has yet to be fully explored. The most recent reminder of this arrived on September 5, 2012 when a baby girl named Elle Cynthia was brought into this world via cesarean. But unlike most…

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George Dvorsky

How Invasive Snakes Have Turned Guam Into a Spider-Infested Horror Show

Rash of demonic possessions in Poland gives rise to ‘Exorcist Magazine’

Scientists Now Uncertain About Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

No, we are not going to be cloning this newly discovered wooly mammoth any time soon

If you’re going to get your DNA analyzed, you’d better brace yourself for the results

Sexually aroused women find everything less disgusting

Curator finds the world’s first ever color movie hidden inside museum vault

Dalai Lama tells his Facebook friends that religion “is no longer adequate”

9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World

NASA: Extreme forms of life can survive on planets with weird orbits

How Neal Stephenson’s 20-Kilometer Space Tower Could Change Everything

Have mathematicians finally discovered the hidden relationship between prime numbers?

Placebo effect can be triggered by subliminal cues

The most successful presidents could be the ones who exhibit psychopath-like traits

Released documents show U.S. helped hush Soviet massacre of thousands

Hot Mars Theory suggests life never had a chance on the Red Planet

Teenager sends $50 camera into space and captures these stunning images of Earth

How your body fights to keep you alive when you’re starving

Study: There is enough wind on this planet to meet our entire energy needs

Grandmother gives birth to her own grandchild

Why ‘For All Mankind’ Season 5 Is the Key to the Rest of the Series

ASUS ZenScreen 15.6-Inch Portable Monitor Is Now Cheaper Than Black Friday in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump’s New Fire Agency Isn’t Ready

INIU Brings Another Power Bank to the Spring Sale as SnapGo Keychain Portable Charger Drops to Its Lowest Price

Attorney Hit With Historic Fine for Citing AI-Generated Cases

Travelers Experiencing the Longest Security Lines in TSA History

Could There Be a ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sequel?

Meta Has More Smart Glasses Coming Whether You Want Them or Not

Apple Requires Device-Level Age Verification in the UK Now. Could the US Be Next?

Astronomers Say Recent Rash of Meteor Sightings ‘Warrants Serious Investigation’

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees