Robbie Gonzalez, Author at Gizmodo

Chunks of Mars have crashed down in Africa

You’re looking at a once-in-a-lifetime scientific discovery. A team of experts announced today that these fragments of space rock, discovered last month near Foumzgit, Morocco, are in fact meteorites from Mars. Martian meteorites are incredibly rare; taken together, all the Mars rocks on Earth add up to less than 240 pounds. But rarer still are…

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Scientists prepare to capture the first-ever picture of a black hole

Tomorrow, astronomers and physicists from around the word will convene in Tucson, Arizona to discuss the Event Horizon Telescope Project — a global network of 50 radio telescopes that together could soon enable us to photograph the black hole at the center of our galaxy. “What is great about the [black hole] in the center…

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The world’s greatest explanations, as chosen by Brian Eno, Richard Dawkins, and others

Every year, Edge.org poses a question to a hand-picked group of the world’s “most complex and sophisticated minds.” Then they publish the responses. This year’s question — What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation? — has been answered by close to 200 contributors, ranging from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to musician and producer…

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Beautiful (but inaccurate) 18th Century French map depicts Alaska like you’ve never seen it

If you’re looking for the outline of the Alaska you know and love, you might as well give up now. This bizarre map, which appeared in the third volume of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, dates all the way back to 1772 — and it’s a total hodgepodge of misinformation. Here’s his [hi-res version. While some geographical features…

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Meet 55 Cancri e — the “oozing” exoplanet

When you combine a compound like water with intense heat, said water evaporates. No mystery there. But when you throw extreme pressure into the mix, something funny happens. The compound can actually achieve what is called a “supercritical” fluid state, taking on properties of liquid and gas alike. Now, astronomers at MIT have revealed that…

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Please, please be careful when mixing liquid nitrogen and plastic bottles

WARNING: turn your volume down before watching this video. And while you’re at it, go read this post, paying close attention to the parts that address the pitfalls of liquid nitrogen bomb assembly. Read the line about only setting off liquid nitrogen bombs when you have plenty of space at your disposal. Understand that you…

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These textbook doodles are absolutely beautiful

Few people can resist the urge to doodle in the margins when confronted with a long-drawn presentation, lecture, or meeting — but few of us can make a page of scientific instruction look as stunning as Paula Swisher, the artist behind the captivating pieces seen here. Using leaves of paper from old engineering and science…

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10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs

Is intelligence related to an increased likelihood of recreational drug use? It’s an interesting hypothesis, and one that’s been gaining momentum in recent years. If a definitive link between intellectual capacity and drug use does exist, it will likely be some time before anyone establishes one. Having said that, this much is for certain: history…

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The atomic bomb, Fat Man, before Nagasaki

When we reflect on iconic images of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and their nuclear devastation, one of the first to come to mind is inevitably a mushroom cloud. Few people, by comparison, will stop to reflect on what the bombs responsible for razing these cities to the ground — codenamed Little Boy and Fat Man, respectively —…

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Until 2009, the human clitoris was an absolute mystery

Humans have been studying one another sexually for thousands upon thousands of years. Yet for all that time spent diligently exploring one another’s anatomies, there remain many features of the human form that, until very recently, have gone uncharted — chief among them being the clitoris. How recently are we talking? Try 2009. Yeah. Get…

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This snow-sledding crow will remind you what it means to make your own fun

It’s widely acknowledged that crows are remarkably intelligent animals (did you know that they’re commonly referred to as feathered apes?), but seeing one engage in a pastime as distinctly human as snow-sledding is a sight to behold. The description for this clip describes this particular corvid’s antics as “snowboarding,” but to me, the activity is…

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Meet Iapetus, Saturn’s mysterious “yin-yang” moon

More than 60 moons are known to orbit Saturn, but few of them are as visually striking as Iapetus. Named formally after the Greek mythological Titan, Iapetus is sometimes referred to as the “painted,” or “yin-yang” moon, due to puzzling variations in its surface composition. The moon’s trailing hemisphere, shown here, is so bright and…

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That ostrich over there? It is totally into you.

No, seriously. The next time you find yourself at an ostrich ranch (yes, they exist, and yes, they are everything you ever dreamed they could be and more), there’s a pretty decent chance of you getting hit on by an ostrich. Evidently, being raised entirely by humans (as is standard operating procedure on ostrich farms)…

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Falling to Earth this weekend: Russia’s ill-fated Phobos-Grunt spacecraft

Phobos-Grunt was the chosen one. It was said that it would bring an end to Russia’s Martian curse, not extend it. But now, Russia’s once-promising spacecraft — the country’s first bid at interplanetary exploration in 15 years — is coming home earlier than planned. Phobos-Grunt — the spacecraft designed to put a lander on the…

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Here are 160 billion reasons to be excited about the search for habitable planets

We used to think our planet was unique, but discoveries by planet-hunting missions like Kepler continue to indicate that the the odds of Earth being one-of-a-kind are incredibly slim. Now, findings published in today’s issue of Nature suggest that there are far more planets in our galaxy that we ever imagined: Recently, a population of…

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Now you can have the latest photos of Mars sent directly to your phone

NASA’s Opportunity rover has been sending images of Mars back to Earth since 2004. Now, computer scientist Mark Powell, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has developed a free app for iPhone and Android that wires these photos directly to your phone. The app is called called, quite simply, “Mars Images.” Mars Images automatically updates with…

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Astronomers have deduced the true color of the Milky Way Galaxy

You can learn a lot about a galaxy based solely on its color. How old it is, whether it’s still producing stars, the age of the stars themselves — these are all questions that a galaxy’s color can help answer. But our position relative to the Milky Way (i.e. the fact that we’re actually inside…

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And now, a chicken grown in a Petri dish

A fertilized, incubated chicken egg takes about 21 days to hatch; and while most of us have seen what chicks look like at either end of the developmental spectrum (either sunny-side-up in a frying pan or newly hatched in a nature documentary), the fact that egg shells aren’t see-through means that not many people have…

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Six Daleks are en route to NASA’s Stennis Space Center disguised as “space shuttle engines”

NASA says they’re “Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne engines” from space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis… but we think they look an awful lot like incognito Dalek shipping containers. The agency says the “engines” are being shipped from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where they will be repurposed for use on NASA’s next…

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This is HiRISE, the most powerful camera we’ve ever sent to another planet

The University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is an incredible piece of equipment. Currently circling the Red Planet aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the instrument is capable of capturing photographs of the Martian surface at unprecedented resolution, averaging about 25 centimeters per pixel. In the five and a half years that…

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Robbie Gonzalez

Chunks of Mars have crashed down in Africa

Scientists prepare to capture the first-ever picture of a black hole

The world’s greatest explanations, as chosen by Brian Eno, Richard Dawkins, and others

Beautiful (but inaccurate) 18th Century French map depicts Alaska like you’ve never seen it

Meet 55 Cancri e — the “oozing” exoplanet

Please, please be careful when mixing liquid nitrogen and plastic bottles

These textbook doodles are absolutely beautiful

10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs

The atomic bomb, Fat Man, before Nagasaki

Until 2009, the human clitoris was an absolute mystery

This snow-sledding crow will remind you what it means to make your own fun

Meet Iapetus, Saturn’s mysterious “yin-yang” moon

That ostrich over there? It is totally into you.

Falling to Earth this weekend: Russia’s ill-fated Phobos-Grunt spacecraft

Here are 160 billion reasons to be excited about the search for habitable planets

Now you can have the latest photos of Mars sent directly to your phone

Astronomers have deduced the true color of the Milky Way Galaxy

And now, a chicken grown in a Petri dish

Six Daleks are en route to NASA’s Stennis Space Center disguised as “space shuttle engines”

This is HiRISE, the most powerful camera we’ve ever sent to another planet

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

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Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

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‘Supergirl’ Will Feature David Corenswet’s Superman in a Sort of Big Brother Role

Report: FDA Set to Unban RFK Jr.’s Favorite Peptides

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SpaceX Starlink Satellite Malfunctions, Breaks Apart in Orbit

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