Kristen Philipkoski, Author at Gizmodo

Inside Your Brain on Cannabis: Cognitive Chaos

We already know that smoking (or otherwise ingesting) pot causes an uncoordinated brain. Now scientists say they’ve discovered the mechanism behind pot brain clumsiness, and it could lead to better treatments for schizophrenia. Researchers from Eli Lilly and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom subjected rats to a drug that mimics THC, the…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 25

Fizzy, Sugary Soft Drinks Are Making Teens Hulk Out

Apparently caffeinated beverages are not teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony. Though they didn’t name specific brands of soda, researchers report that teens who over-indulged in non-diet, carbonated soft drinks per week are extra violent. They studied 1,878 kids at 22 Boston public high schools. Of those who drank 14 or more cans…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 24

A Good Day for Vices: Coffee Is Healthy and Hot Dogs Aren’t As Bad As You Thought

Nitrates in hot dogs have had a menacing reputation since the ’70s, and doctors are constantly telling us to drink coffee in moderation. But I have excellent news to report today: hot dogs don’t seem to cause cancer and coffee can actually protect you from it. Let’s start with hot dogs, which are near and…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 24

Mosquitoes Genetically-Engineered to Self Destruct Could Wipe Out Dengue Fever

Scientists have bred mosquitoes in Guatemala that will cause mosquito genocide when they mate with normal mosquitoes. The idea is to thwart disease spread by the insects, in this case dengue fever. Dengue fever cases have quadrupled since 1970, according to the World Health Organization. It estimates the mosquito-spread virus puts 500,000 people in the…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 24

Woman Has Her Breasts and Uterus Removed—and She Didn’t Even Have Cancer

A 35-year-old woman preemptively had a hysterectomy and had her breasts removed after she tested positive for a gene strongly associated with breast and ovarian cancer. It sounds drastic, but it’s what some women with the same diagnosis choose to do; the BRCA1 gene gives women like Dana Bushman, combined with her family history of…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 21

Our Divided Brains Might Be Making Us Unhappy: A Plea for a More Right-Brained World

This video just blew my mind, kind of literally. I will never look at my own brain the same way again. Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist, author, and my new favorite person, tells us that so many of the left versus right brain arguments from the ’60s and ’70s have been disproven—for example that emotion and language…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 21

Climate Change Skeptics Eat Crow

Global warming skeptics suspected climate change scientists were hiding data. So the skeptics paid for a new study to find the real truth. The results are in! And they’re identical to previous results: Humans are heating up the earth. University of California physics professor Richard Muller, one of the most vocal skeptics, gathered a team…

Climate Change Kristen Philipkoski Oct 20

If You Can’t Get an Organ, an Organoid Might Do

The line waiting for organ donors is 112,381 people long and growing, and 18 people daily die waiting. To help patients survive the interim, scientists are working on “organoinds”—mini organs that would temporarily operate outside the body. Dr. Rober Hariri, a surgeon and CEO of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, is using stem cells derived from placentas…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 19

Archaeologists Unearth Intact Viking Burial Site, Swords and All

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking in Scotland, along with his boat, ax, sword and lots of other nifty Viking stuff. Univeristy of Manchester and Ardnamurchan Transitions Project archaeologists found the remains on a remote Scottish peninsula called Ardnamurchan. They say 5-meter-long grave was the resting place of a high-status Viking. He…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 19

Big-Brained People Have More Facebook Friends

Scientists have found that the bigger your Facebook friend roster is, the larger your brain is. Researchers at the University College of London wanted to investigate whether hand-wringing over the Internet being bad for humans is really necessary. So they studied brain scans from 125 university students, all of whom were active Facebook users. They…

Social Media Kristen Philipkoski Oct 18

Living on the Fringes of the Modern World

While most of us get cozier by the minute with the latest iGadgets, perfected work and play stations, and 1,500 thread count sheets, there are still actual nomads out in the world, roaming. Fascinated by these mobile humans’ dedication to travel and eschewing modern-day comforts, documentary photographer Jeroen Toirkens has been following nomadic tribes through…

Climate Change Kristen Philipkoski Oct 18

Nomads gallery

Dukha home, Mongolia, 2007 A building in Inuit West, Greenland, 2009 A woman on a motorcycle in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 2007 A young girl in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 2007 Kola Sami Sleighs, Russia, 2006 A Kola Sami baby, Russia, 2006 Nenets man aiming his gun, Russia, 2005 A man being pulled by a…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 18

Why the Anthrax Murders Are Re-Surfacing 10 Years Later

A decade after the anthrax attacks killed five people and sent 17 to the hospital, and a year after the FBI officially closed the case, it’s once again rearing its ugly head. Sure, everyone loves a 10-year anniversary. But scientists are also posing serious questions about whether the FBI blamed the right guy. There are…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 17

Terrifying Carnotaurus Speedier Than Previously Thought

It was a big day today for dinosaur news! First we found out that the T-Rex was even bigger than we thought. And now we’ve learned that the two-horned Carnotaurus was way faster than scientists realized. https://gizmodo.com/the-t-rex-was-even-bigger-and-scarier-than-we-thought-5849834 It’s thanks to his ginormous tail muscle. Scott Persons, a post-doc at University of Alberta in Canada, found…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 14

Italians Hold Their Liquor Better Than Swedes

It’s science! And it’s not just Swedes who Italians can drink under the table. It’s also Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians. A Swedish behavioral researcher studied 1,000 imbibers from each of the afore-mentioned countries and found that in the Baltic countries and Sweden, drinking led to both social (such as violence) and health (such as liver…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 14

A Look Inside a 100,000-Year-Old Art Studio

Abalone shell-you can see some of the ochre rich deposit. Image: Science/AAAS Karen van Niekerk removes the abalone containing the ochre grinder and ochre from the 100,000 year-old layers at Blombos Cave in South Africa. Image courtesy of Grethe Moell Pedersen Blombos Cave entrance from Indian ocean coast. Image courtesy of Magnus Haaland Blombos Cave…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 13

Look Inside a 100,000-Year-Old Art Studio

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient workshop that was used by early homo-sapiens to make, mix and store ochre. It’s the oldest “art workshop” ever uncovered. Christopher Henshilwood and his colleagues at the University of Bergen in Norway made the discovery in 2008 in the Blombos Cave in South Africa, where they excavated remnants of ochre,…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 13

The Pill Can Lead To a Long Marriage of Bad Sex

The Pill: it brought women sexual liberation, and now research finds it also brings us sexual dissatisfaction. The news isn’t all bad: women on the pill tend to choose men who are more reliable and great fathers. And we stay married to them an average of two-years longer than women who met their mate while…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 12

Lego Blocks Plus Smartphone Equals Super Smart Petri Dish

Caltech engineers built an ingenious Petri dish from Lego blocks that uses a cell phone image sensor and a smartphone light to send pictures of what’s happening inside the dish directly to scientists’ laptops. Here’s how it works (see it in action above): Scientists place a sample on an image-sensor chip, which uses an Android…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 11

Eat Your Greens, Change Your Genes

You already know you’re supposed to eat your vegetables. But a new study shows a healthy diet could go so far as to impact your genetics. Scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Canada looked at 27,000 people from various backgrounds—European, South Asian, Chinese, Latin American and Arab. All of…

Health Kristen Philipkoski Oct 11

Kristen Philipkoski

Inside Your Brain on Cannabis: Cognitive Chaos

Fizzy, Sugary Soft Drinks Are Making Teens Hulk Out

A Good Day for Vices: Coffee Is Healthy and Hot Dogs Aren’t As Bad As You Thought

Mosquitoes Genetically-Engineered to Self Destruct Could Wipe Out Dengue Fever

Woman Has Her Breasts and Uterus Removed—and She Didn’t Even Have Cancer

Our Divided Brains Might Be Making Us Unhappy: A Plea for a More Right-Brained World

Climate Change Skeptics Eat Crow

If You Can’t Get an Organ, an Organoid Might Do

Archaeologists Unearth Intact Viking Burial Site, Swords and All

Big-Brained People Have More Facebook Friends

Living on the Fringes of the Modern World

Nomads gallery

Why the Anthrax Murders Are Re-Surfacing 10 Years Later

Terrifying Carnotaurus Speedier Than Previously Thought

Italians Hold Their Liquor Better Than Swedes

A Look Inside a 100,000-Year-Old Art Studio

Look Inside a 100,000-Year-Old Art Studio

The Pill Can Lead To a Long Marriage of Bad Sex

Lego Blocks Plus Smartphone Equals Super Smart Petri Dish

Eat Your Greens, Change Your Genes

UGREEN’s Bluetooth Tracker (4 Pack) Crashes to $5 Each, Nearly 6x Cheaper Than Apple’s AirTag

Some Locals Are Using AI to Protest Against Data Centers

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Season 2 Filming Has Been Canceled By a Storm

Garmin Forerunner 965 Goes on Clearance, No More Premium Price Tag for This Running Smartwatch

A Crew of Worms on the ISS Aims to Help Scientists Unlock the Secrets of Space Travel

Galaxy Buds 3 FE (2025) Are Now Cheaper on Amazon Than Buying Direct from Samsung, but Only for Prime Members

Lego’s Big New ‘Star Wars’ Set Comes Just in Time for ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ to Replace It

The Case for Tracking Everything

Ring Small Solar Panel Makes Powering Your Outdoor Camera Easy and Affordable, Now Below Black Friday Prices

Scientists Are Using Lightning in a Bottle to Turn Methane Into Methanol

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