Robbie Gonzalez, Author at Gizmodo

Fresalina Limoneta is the scariest slice of lab-grown cake you’ve ever seen

Let’s get one thing right out in the open: I’m all for lab-grown food. I think that lab-grown meat and burgers, for example, could soon become a great way to circumvent a lot of the environmental and ethical problems of today’s meat industry. But I think we can all agree that if our foodstuffs were…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Watch NASA’s new astronaut recruitment video

Looking for work? Have a math, science, or engineering degree? NASA’s posted a job listing you should really have a look at. Oh, and I almost forgot: you should also be open to the idea of space travel. Every 2-4 years, NASA recruits a new crop of astronauts to add to its corps of highly…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The EU has banned X-ray body scanners in airports — for medical reasons

What price will the United States pay in the name of security? A PBS NewsHour investigation published earlier this month reported that as many as 100 Americans could develop cancer each year due to radiation emitted by full-body X-ray scanners, which continue to pop up en masse at airports across the US. And while 100…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

20% of Americans suffer from a condition associated with dementia

Hearing loss is the kind of ailment that sneaks up on you over time — many people don’t even recognize that it’s happening). New research shows that its long-term consequences could include dementia. And now, it turns out that hearing loss is far more pervasive than anyone realized. According to a study published in yesterday’s…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The National Science Foundation is slated to receive a 2.5% increase in its 2012 budget!

Congress is expected to approve three spending bills by week’s end that would grant the National Science Foundation a 2.5% bump in it’s 2012 budget. It might not sound like a lot, but a 2.5% budget boost translates to a 173-million dollar increase over this year’s funds; that’s 173-million dollars that the NSF can put…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Feast your eyes on a rare lunar rainbow — against the Northern Lights!

If ever there existed some sort of critical threshold of awesome that nature photos were required to abide by, I’m pretty sure this picture would blow it right out of the sky. (Click here for a hi-res version.) In the foreground flows Iceland’s 200-foot-tall Skógafoss waterfall — but the spray from the falls has become…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The world’s first lab-grown hamburger could be created by August of 2012

There’s no two ways about it: humans love meat. By 2030, it’s estimated that the world’s annual meat production will reach 376 million tons, up from 218 million tons in 1999. But conventional meat production is notoriously wasteful, and it’s becoming more and more unsustainable by the day. Many scientists believe that meat grown in…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Exploring the ethical implications of chimpanzee research

The battle over the future of chimpanzees in research has reached a critical point. Chimps are humans’ closest extant relatives — and as such, they are arguably one of the best animal models available for biomedical investigations that have the potential to save countless human lives. But for many, the similarities chimps share with humans…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The ongoing mystery of the magnetosensing cows

Back in 2008, a team of German researchers published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that claimed to demonstrate that cattle, when resting or grazing, actually align their bodies along the Earth’s magnetic fields. The team’s results — which were based on satellite imagery of over 8,500 cattle from different regions…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What makes the past different from the future?

We all know that time has direction, because we’ve all experienced it; you will never again be as young, for example, as you are at this very second. Or this second. Or this second. The directionality of time prohibits it. But according to the laws of physics, there is no intrinsic difference between the past…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

North America has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to renewable energy

We tend to hear a lot about the importance of pushing to seek out sources of renewable energy, but how many people know what the biggest sources of this energy actually are — let alone what regions of the globe are working to incorporate them? For example, where do you think North America stands, relative…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Sex in the Animal Kingdom

Sex is probably the most popular pastime in the history of life on Earth — which makes it all the more ridiculous that so many of us have such a mealy-mouthed way of talking about it. Take the expression “the birds and the bees,” which we use to avoid speaking more explicitly about courtship and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why doesn’t the field of psychology have a unifying theory — and where can it get one?

Biology has the theory of evolution. Physics has the theory of special relativity. Psychology has…? Psychologists Andrew Wilson and Sabrina Golonka have written an excellent piece on the present state of their own field of study, its lack of a core theory, and why it’s high time it got one. No matter your personal opinion…

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Watch the largest polar bear gathering in the world live via HD webcam

Every autumn, around 1,000 of the world’s estimated 20,000 polar bears make their way to Churchill, Manitoba, a small town situated on the shore of northeastern Canada’s Hudson Bay. There, the polar bears wait for the bay to freeze over so that they can hunt for seals and other marine mammals, and accumulate fat stores…

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The neuroscience behind Rick Perry’s big oops

By now you’ve almost definitely heard about Rick Perry’s painfully awkward, potentially campaign-ending gaffe during Wednesday night’s Republican debate. (You haven’t? Here, have a few helpings of sympathetic embarrassment.) http://gawker.com/5858109/watch-rick-perrys-campaign-explode-in-an-excruciating-brain-fart?tag=rickperry What you probably haven’t read, however, is a scientific take on why it happened. Fortunately, The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach has published such a piece,…

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These tiny galaxies are among the most prolific star factories NASA has ever seen

Billions of years ago, when the universe was still in its infancy, the formation of stars is believed to have occurred at a much faster rate than it does today. Now, a recent discovery by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) suggests that the universe’s earliest galaxies may have been pumping out stars even faster than…

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Now you can control plants with your iPhone

Has your fast-paced, technology-driven life got you feeling out of touch with nature? There could soon be an app for that. Created by London-based designer Samuel Wilkinson, “Biome” is a futuristic-looking flora terrarium whose climate conditions, water level, and nutrients are all controlled via an application that runs on tablets and smartphones; it’s sort of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Africa’s Western black rhino has been declared extinct

In 2006, researchers undertook an extensive search for Western black rhinos in Cameroon, the place where the species was last sighted. No rhinos were found. Researchers failed to turn up any evidence of their dung, tracks, or signs of feeding. Had the rare subspecies of black rhinoceros gone the way of the dodo? Sadly, yes.…

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This Hillis plot will humble you with its representation of humanity’s true place in nature

You’re looking at an artistic representation of what is known as a Hillis plot — a visual snapshot of the evolutionary relationships connecting Earth’s various life forms. Evolutionary biologists would call this a big, circular phylogenetic tree. The Hillis Plot featured here was transposed onto a cross-sectional image of an English oak tree by artist…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why do you cringe at the sound of nails on a chalkboard?

Just the thought of nails raking across a chalkboard is enough to send shivers down many people’s spines — but the reasoning behind this reaction has remained a mystery for decades. Scientists have attributed it to everything from the visual stimuli associated with the sound to an inborn reaction that helps preserve one’s hearing —…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Robbie Gonzalez

Fresalina Limoneta is the scariest slice of lab-grown cake you’ve ever seen

Watch NASA’s new astronaut recruitment video

The EU has banned X-ray body scanners in airports — for medical reasons

20% of Americans suffer from a condition associated with dementia

The National Science Foundation is slated to receive a 2.5% increase in its 2012 budget!

Feast your eyes on a rare lunar rainbow — against the Northern Lights!

The world’s first lab-grown hamburger could be created by August of 2012

Exploring the ethical implications of chimpanzee research

The ongoing mystery of the magnetosensing cows

What makes the past different from the future?

North America has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to renewable energy

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Sex in the Animal Kingdom

Why doesn’t the field of psychology have a unifying theory — and where can it get one?

Watch the largest polar bear gathering in the world live via HD webcam

The neuroscience behind Rick Perry’s big oops

These tiny galaxies are among the most prolific star factories NASA has ever seen

Now you can control plants with your iPhone

Africa’s Western black rhino has been declared extinct

This Hillis plot will humble you with its representation of humanity’s true place in nature

Why do you cringe at the sound of nails on a chalkboard?

‘Scream 4’ Is Back, and on Tape

Iran Threatens to Attack U.S. Tech Companies Starting April 1

Amazon Clears Out Netflix-Licensed Nebula Capsule 3 Mini Projector at 32% Off, Dolby Audio Home Theater for Less

Anker 160W Laptop Charger Briefly Returns to Black Friday Pricing in a Last-Minute Amazon Spring Sale Deal

The New ‘Backrooms’ Trailer Is Packed Full of Endless Dread

Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo Falls Under $25, a Budget Bundle Deal in the Final Hours of Spring Sale

Liquids Crack With an Audible Snap, Study Finds

Dyson V15 Detect Plus Cordless Vacuum Is a Late Spring Sale Deal at a Record Low on Amazon

The New ‘Supergirl’ Trailer Is Filled With Krypto, Lobo, and ’60s Soul

Vaping Comes With a Cancer Risk, Review Finds

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

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