Maddie Stone

How Bad Are Arctic Winters? One Photo Says It All.

If you were idly wondering what it might be like to visit the High Canadian Arctic in the dead of winter, this incredible new shot of a cup of hot tea freezing in mid-air sums it up nicely: Cold. As. Hell. The breathtaking image above was captured by photographer Michael Davies and his buddy Markus,…

Exxon Isn’t the Only Oil Company That Knew About Climate Change in the 70s

Several months back, Exxon’s public image took a well-deserved nosedive after an investigation by InsideClimate revealed that the oil company knew about links between fossil fuels and climate change forty years ago, before proceeding to bury and deny the evidence. But as another detailed InsideClimate investigation shows, Exxon wasn’t alone. In fact, scientists from numerous…

The Problem With Mast Brothers Chocolate Is a Problem For the Entire Industry

America’s favorite hipster chocolate brand was thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight last week, when several detailed investigations cast doubt on pretty much every aspect of the Mast Brothers’ Brooklyn-flavored, ingenuity-fueled origin story. But for chocolate lovers, the allegation that matters most is this one: the Mast Brothers sold $10 craft chocolate bars under the pretense…

These Are the Winners of the 2015 Comedy Wildlife Awards

Traditionally, wildlife photographers try to capture the majesty of their feral subjects. But even the most dignified wild animals get caught doing something downright silly every now and again. Tanzania-based wildlife photographer Paul Joynson-Hicks felt that the goofier moments in wildlife photography weren’t getting enough appreciation. So this year, he organized the first annual Comedy…

Watch 60 Years of Space Junk Accumulate Around Earth

You think the trash problem in your city is bad? Try outer space. We humans have been littering our cosmic backyard with spent satellites, rocket hulls, and other discarded debris fragments for as long as we’ve had the technological know-how. And as a new, data-driven animation that takes us from the dawn of spaceflight through…

What China’s Yutu Rover Learned on the Moon

A team of scientists has finished analyzing rocks collected by the Chinese lunar rover Yutu in 2013 — the first geologic sampling effort to hit the Moon in forty years. The regolith is unlike any we’ve seen before, and it suggests that the Moon’s history is far more complex than we realized. The 1970s were…

SpaceX Finally Manages to Land an Orbital Rocket Back on Earth

Right on schedule, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster made a beautiful soft landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station moments ago. It’s a huge moment in the history of spaceflight, marking the first time a rocket has ascended into orbit and landed back on Earth. The prospects for the reusable rocket system SpaceX has been chasing…

Tonight, SpaceX Will Attempt to Land a Rocket on Solid Ground

Are you ready to watch SpaceX try to make history with a bold attempt to send its souped-up rocket all the way into space and back to Earth in a spectacular nighttime launch? Of course you are! After several delays, the much-anticipated launch of SpaceX’s new and improved Falcon 9 rocket is set to take…

Watch California Transform Through Time With This Incredible Satellite Dataset

If you have’t taken a moment to appreciate the fact that hundreds of Earth-orbiting satellites are photographing our planet right now, and that this is a goddamn technological wonder, here’s your opportunity. Meet Open California: a new project unveiled this month by Planet Labs, a team of ex-NASA scientists dedicated to imaging the entire world…

This Physicist Makes Dazzling Snowflakes in his Laboratory

You might say Ken Libbrecht is into snowflakes. In fact, he’s made a career of studying them in his lab at Caltech. He’s even got a high-tech snowflake machine, which he uses to grow dazzling designer flakes of all shapes and sizes. No two snowflakes are precisely alike, and Libbrecht is trying to figure out…

Watch a Robot Tamer Control Industrial Machines With Simple Gestures

In factories, many simple, repetitive tasks have already been taken over by machines. But as we bring industrial robots into unpredictable, interactive environments, we’re going to need better ways to communicate with them. That’s why engineer and designer Madeline Gannon developed Quipt, a gesture-based control software that helps industrial robots interact more fluidly with their…

There Are Twelve Different Kinds of Rainbows

The science of rainbows: it’s something we’re all taught in grade school. Airborne water droplets act like little prisms, bending and splitting light. Mix enough water and sunshine, and you get a brilliant bow of color. The reality is quite a bit more complicated. Some rainbows have a second, inverted bow, caused by the reflection…

After a successful static fire engine test yesterday, SpaceX is now planning to launch its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday. The launch from Cape Canaveral is timed for 8:29 p.m. EST. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

We’ve Never Heard Whales Make This Haunting Sound Before

You’ve probably watched enough Animal Planet to know that humpback whales communicate using clicks and whistles. But put on a pair of headphones and listen to the video above. Beneath the shrill chatter we’ve all heard before, there’s a much lower-pitched tone, eerily reminiscent of a human heartbeat. A touch above the limit of human…

A Cybersecurity Bill Loathed By Tech Companies Is Now Law

If you thought the US government’s ability to spy on its citizens had languished of late, think again. Yesterday, Congress and President Obama approved the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a measure that lets private companies turn over consumers’ personal data to Homeland Security, as long as that data meets some broad and vague criteria…

Mongolia Is Getting Its Stolen Tyrannosaurus Skull Back

It’s always a good day when you get your stolen, $230,000 Tyrannosaurus skull back. That was Mongolia’s lucky break this week, after US attorney Preet Bharara filed a civil forfeiture complaint regarding a certain Tyrannosaurus bataar skull that entered the United States unlawfully in 2006 and was sold for $230,000 (plus a buyer’s premium of…

The clever engineers at Google have littered the Internet with Star Wars Easter Eggs this week. My personal favorite? Googling “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away” brings up a text crawl page of results. Let us know what other Star Wars goodies you’ve discovered!

Boeing Gets a Second Order to Ferry Astronauts to the ISS

In its ongoing effort to bring America back into the crewed spaceflight game, NASA announced today that Boeing has received a second commercial crew order to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. This marks the third in a series of four crew orders NASA will make under the the Commercial Crew Program, a $6.8…

SpaceX Will Soon Launch Its Most Powerful Rocket Yet

Six months after a rocket exploded in June, SpaceX is on the verge of taking to the sky again—with a souped up Falcon 9 booster more powerful than anything the commercial spaceflight company has ever launched. On Sunday, SpaceX is tentatively scheduled to launch a new Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.…

Everything You Need to Know About Cassini’s Final Enceladus Flyby

An important chapter in our exploration of the solar system concludes tomorrow, when NASA’s Cassini probe makes its final close flyby of Enceladus, an icy moon orbiting Saturn with a global ocean beneath its surface. Cassini has already collected samples to determine if Enceladus’ seawater might be habitable—but we still have some unfinished business with…