Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, Author at Gizmodo

The Largest Dome Ever Built Can Open or Close In 20 Minutes Flat

Every year, a few thousand engineers get together and decide which projects constitute the absolute smartest ideas in their profession. This year, they’ve chosen the largest dome structure ever built—which can open and close in less time than it takes to make dinner. It’s always interesting to see what professionals, not outsiders or journalists, think…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

How a Radical 1960s Architect Inspired NASA’s Next Great Space Robot

NASA’s bizarre Super Ball Bot is unlike any robot ever built–it uses a net of wires and rods to move, and could someday explore harsh exoplanets. It also has an unlikely heritage: It was inspired by the ideas of a visionary from the 1960s building floating cities based on the same concept. Meet Super Ball,…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Vicious Cycle Emerging Between War and Severe Weather Will Be Hard To Stop

The world has changed a lot in the past 12 months, with political conflict focusing the world on immediate crises, not the distant future. But a group of scientists are are showing how these conflicts will affect our ability to adapt to climate change down the road–and our ability to survive as a human race.…

Climate Change Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Find Your House On This Map and Watch the Satellites Passing Above You

There are more than 2,250 satellites orbiting the Earth right now. But that abstract number didn’t prepare me for the shock of watching a Soviet-era rocket body whipping over my house in real-time. Then I watched an elderly Russian intelligence satellite glide over Seattle. A NOAA weather satellite slid by Newfoundland and the ISS passed…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Company Behind This $99 Cup Wants To Keep You Hydrated With an Algorithm

Last summer, Stephen Colbert turned his laser eyes on a new product called Vessyl, a “smart” cup that tracks how much liquid you consume. “Is there any aspect of being a cup this cup can’t do?,” Stephen asked during the brutally funny segment. Mark One–the San Francisco company behind the $200 Vessyl–was undeterred, and ended…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

These Huge Roman Mosaics Were Hidden Under City Streets For 1,700 Years

Twenty years ago, construction workers in the Israeli town of Lod working under a city street came across something extraordinary: A massive mosaic, laid down almost two millennia before. Now, they’ve found another. The Lod Mosaic has become iconic over the years: It was removed from the city street where it was found, it has…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

A City In Taiwan Is Demolishing an Old Mall and Turning Its Parking Lot Into a Lagoon

We’ve seen plenty of dead malls reborn as unusual things, from high schools to greenhouses. The Taiwanese city of Tainan is one-upping them all by tearing down an aging mall to create a network of sandy, shady lagoons. The city recently announced the winning design for a new public plaza on the site of a…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

These Fast-Melting Glaciers Could Change the World’s Coastlines Forever

The rapidly-melting glaciers of Greenland are moving faster than anyone thought—and this slow-motion crisis has the potential to change the world’s coastlines forever. Over the past year, Greenland’s glaciers—and the vast network of lakes, rivers, and other features below them—have gotten a lot of attention. And for good reason: Not only are these glaciers melting…

Climate Change Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

There Are Strange Hot Spots On Giza’s Great Pyramid, And No One’s Quite Sure Why

Well, that didn’t take long. Only a few weeks after a team of scientists began a project using novel scanning techniques to analyze Egypt’s major pyramids, they’ve discovered strange temperature anomalies—but it’s still unclear what’s causing them. In late October, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities launched a project called Scan Pyramids that will use non-invasive technology…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

How NASA Tests a New Weather Satellite Using Mules and Sensors

When you launch a new satellite, how do you know for sure that its measurements are accurate? It’s a lot harder than you’d think–and NASA is heading to the Pacific Northwest to do it. Pack animals are involved. Last year, NASA launched a new satellite called GPM that aims to measure snow and rainfall over…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Can a $35 Battery Beat Smart Smoke Alarms At Their Own Game?

Here is a truth: There’s no such thing as having too many smoke alarms. There’s also no such thing as having too many companies trying to make smoke alarms smarter–which is why Roost, a $35 battery that connects any old smoke alarm to the web, is so interesting. What Is It? A 9-Volt battery that…

Reviews Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

You’ll Never Guess Which Wifi Password the RNC Chose For Tonight’s Debate

At tonight’s GOP debate in Wisconsin, the RNC seems to be hoping to draw attention away from what’s happening on stage with a bit of levity, reportedly choosing StopHillary as the wifi password for press. CNN’s Betsy Klein was one of the first to notice the password on a confirmation email earlier this week, while…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Unlikely Story of One of the Biggest Blackouts In US History

Fifty years ago this evening, at roughly 5:15pm, every light connected to New York’s power grid flickered out–along with those of 30 million people throughout the Northeast. Chaos didn’t ensue, oddly enough. Today, blackouts are scary, for the flashlight prices and cab fares if not the threat of crime. But the great Northeastern Blackout of…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

A Robotic Worm Is Your Only Device In This Incredibly Strange Vision of the Future

For most people in 2015, “one device that can do it all” is a tablet that also has a keyboard. For interaction designers at MIT, it means a shape-shifting soft robot that switches from phone, to watch, to flashlight, to charging cable. The device is called Lineform, and it’s detailed in a new paper by…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Architects Say This Apartment Complex Is the Year’s Best Building–Here’s Why

What do villages look like in a world where most people live in cities? Can close-knit communities even exist in the megapolis of the future? The Interlace, an unusual apartment building that was just crowned Building of the Year, thinks so. The Interlace is an apartment complex in Singapore designed by Ole Scheeren, a German…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

These Mutant Buildings Were Generated By Code and Drawn By a Machine

Architecture and code are inseparable these days–just about every new building involves software in some way. Now a design project is taking the influence of code on architecture to generate building plans designed by software, and the results are oddly human. The recipe for these buildings looks a lot like any other: There are walls.…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

It Was Inevitable: Someone Taught a Neural Network To Talk With Romance Novels

Computer scientists studying machine learning have trained artificial intelligence using human knowledge of the, uh, carnal variety. Neural networks are a form of artificial intelligence that “learn” using images or text. They then use that knowledge by mimicking our own brains. They’ve had a huge year, with major advances made by independent researchers, academics, and…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

This Data Scientist Made a Map of Every Single US Traffic Death In the Last Decade

Statistics about traffic fatalities don’t always have the power to shock most people. Huge numbers–like 373,377, the number of people who died in traffic between 2004 and 2013, for example–are difficult for our brains to really comprehend. “Most people have seen the statistics about traffic accidents, [but] it’s hard to understand what those numbers mean…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Economists’ Surprising Prediction About Climate Change: Less Sex and Fewer Babies

Three researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research have published a working paper showing how increasing temperatures over the next century could mean fewer babies born–because, to paraphrase Cole Porter, it’ll be too darn hot. Did you know that just one day over 80 degrees is correlated with a .4 percent decrease in birthrates…

Climate Change Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Designers Who Make Muji’s Products Are Now Making Muji Cabins

Very few pieces of architecture are forms of trolling. But this tiny hut, designed for Muji by Konstantin Grcic, is one of them: It is just small enough to avoid needing planning permission from the local government to build in Japan. Designboom explains that it’s one of three Muji Huts built in a park in…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Largest Dome Ever Built Can Open or Close In 20 Minutes Flat

How a Radical 1960s Architect Inspired NASA’s Next Great Space Robot

The Vicious Cycle Emerging Between War and Severe Weather Will Be Hard To Stop

Find Your House On This Map and Watch the Satellites Passing Above You

The Company Behind This $99 Cup Wants To Keep You Hydrated With an Algorithm

These Huge Roman Mosaics Were Hidden Under City Streets For 1,700 Years

A City In Taiwan Is Demolishing an Old Mall and Turning Its Parking Lot Into a Lagoon

These Fast-Melting Glaciers Could Change the World’s Coastlines Forever

There Are Strange Hot Spots On Giza’s Great Pyramid, And No One’s Quite Sure Why

How NASA Tests a New Weather Satellite Using Mules and Sensors

Can a $35 Battery Beat Smart Smoke Alarms At Their Own Game?

You’ll Never Guess Which Wifi Password the RNC Chose For Tonight’s Debate

The Unlikely Story of One of the Biggest Blackouts In US History

A Robotic Worm Is Your Only Device In This Incredibly Strange Vision of the Future

Architects Say This Apartment Complex Is the Year’s Best Building–Here’s Why

These Mutant Buildings Were Generated By Code and Drawn By a Machine

It Was Inevitable: Someone Taught a Neural Network To Talk With Romance Novels

This Data Scientist Made a Map of Every Single US Traffic Death In the Last Decade

Economists’ Surprising Prediction About Climate Change: Less Sex and Fewer Babies

The Designers Who Make Muji’s Products Are Now Making Muji Cabins

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, Cut Your Daily Coffee Costs at Home

Amazon Clears Out Govee LED Smart Light Bulbs (2-Pack) at a Record Low, Each Bulb Costs Just a Few Dollars

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