Robbie Gonzalez, Author at Gizmodo

Jawbone fragment suggests humans settled Europe thousands of years earlier than we once thought

Sometimes it really pays to take a second look at old findings. The fragment of jaw bone pictured above, believed to have belonged to an anatomically modern human, was first discovered over 80 years ago in Kents Cavern, an archaeologically rich cave system located in South England. For decades scientists believed the specimen to be…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Humpback whales like to remind humans how tiny we are

The gaping maw of a humpback whale can open to a width of several meters when engaging in a predatory technique known as lunge feeding. And even though humpbacks feed primarily on small fish and crustaceans, I like to imagine that they enjoy reminding us that they could just as easily fit a few humans…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Massive new sunspot is three times as wide as the Earth

It might not look like much relative to the rest of the sun’s surface, but the sunspot pictured up top (dubbed AR1339 by the folks at NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory) is positively massive — the biggest astronomers have observed in years. According to SpaceWeather.com, AR1339 is about 50,000 miles long and 25,000 miles wide. As…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Who needs genetic engineering? Turn your brown eyes blue with lasers, instead.

Are you sick and tired of your brown eyes? Wish you could swap them out for some blue ones, instead? For a paltry five grand, Laguna Beach doctor Gregg Homer thinks he can help you out. He claims to have developed a 20-second procedure that can permanently change your eyes from brown to blue. Best…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why the Mars500 mission doesn’t prove we’re psychologically capable of a trip to Mars

Space travel is a cramped and isolating endeavor, one that can weigh heavily on the mind of a spacefarer. How well we handle conditions like these over long periods of time is something we must consider more seriously in the years ahead, as humanity looks to venture deeper into space than we’ve ever been. For…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Watch this: thousands of starlings take wing in the form of a swirling “murmuration”

Check out this jaw-dropping video of a natural phenomenon known as a “murmuration.” The collective noun is used to describe vast numbers of starlings as they whirl through the air like billowing clouds of black, biological smoke. This footage comes to you courtesy of Sophie Windsor Clive, who recently encountered the birds by chance while…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

NASA says we’ve been looking for Martian life in all the wrong places

Don’t worry—if we do find evidence of Martians, it will still be on Mars, we’ll probably just have to dig a little deeper to find it. A new NASA study has concluded that if life ever thrived on the Red Planet, it probably did so underground, just below the planet’s surface. In other words, life…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Found: The Earliest Known Evidence of a Prank Phone Call

We now know that it took no more than eight years following the invention of the telephone for people to realize the comedic potential of playing practical jokes via landline. Paul Collins, aka “The Literary Detective,” claims to have discovered what he believes to be the first recorded evidence of a prank phone call in…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Psychologist admits to faking dozens of scientific studies

Every branch of science has its share of “sexy” studies—so called for their supposed tendency to provoke media attention, even in the absence of strong or conclusive findings—but investigations in the field of social psychology are often especially popular targets of the “sexy” label. Now, prominent social psychologist Diederik Stapel has been outed as one…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This wall-climbing robot is half tank, half gecko

The ranks of wall-climbing robots are increasing in number. A team of Canadian engineers from Simon Fraser University have combined what they describe as gecko-inspired “fibrillar dry adhesives” with track wheels, to create a modular, tank-like robot that can scale walls and even transfer from horizontal to vertical surfaces with ease. https://gizmodo.com/come-the-robot-uprising-paraswift-will-climb-the-walls-5838415 Whether it’s glass,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The First Ever Star With Spiral Arms

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of interesting looking stars here on io9, but you’ve never seen one quite like this. According to NASA, it’s the first star we’ve ever seen with spiral-arm-like structures. The name of the star is SAO 206462. It’s a young star more than four hundred light years from Earth…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

In 1971, Apollo astronauts went to the moon to double check Galileo’s experimental findings

The equivalence principle is one of the fundamental concepts behind gravitational theory and general relativity, and holds that gravity exerts the same force on objects of different mass. Around the turn of the 16th Century, Galileo famously demonstrated this principle experimentally by noting that two heavy balls of different mass, when dropped at the same…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What do ancient penis decorations say about us?

At what point does sex cease to function as a purely practical means of reproduction? In other words, by what process does sex become something more than just a biological imperative; when do things like eroticism and sexuality emerge in an anthropological context? Sex and sexuality have obviously been well-established cornerstones of humanity’s collective social…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Gorgeous Victorian infographic shows Earth’s mountains and rivers as we knew them over 150 years ago

This stunning depiction of some of the world’s most impressive geographical features is from a copy of General Atlas of the World (do yourself a favor and click here for the uncropped, hi-res version. Seriously, do it now.) The volume was published in 1854 by A & C Black Publishing Company (known in its day…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Manukua, everyone’s favorite white kiwi, is on the mend

Manukua—the first white Kiwi ever hatched in captivity, and currently the only one known to exist in the world—underwent surgery last week to remove stones from her gizzard. Now it would seem that she’s on the road to recovery. New Scientist’s Charles Harvey writes: Staff at Pukaha Mount Bruce wildlife centre on New Zealand’s North…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

China moves closer to having the world’s only space station

When China was denied membership in the multinational partnership that operates the International Space Station, the country decided to build a manned space station of its own. Now, China is one step closer to achieving its goal: late last night, the China National Space Administration successfully launched its unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft into low-earth orbit.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

DARPA is one step closer to its flying Humvee

When you or I ask for a flying car, we get “Terrafugia’s Transition,” a roadable aircraft. When DARPA asks for a flying car, they get a Hummer like the one pictured up top — a Hummer that is capable of taking off and landing vertically; traversing off-road terrain with ease; and withstanding small-arms fire, all…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What do spiders have to do with internet porn?

Some of the most commonly encountered spiders on Earth belong to the the family Linyphiidae. Yet much about the family’s estimated 4,400 species remains a mystery, due in no small part to the fact that many of these species look almost identical, even under a microscope. The similarities between female members of the Linyphiidae subfamily…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Behold the Pacman Nebula—now with teeth!

The nebula NGC 281 was first identified over 100 years ago by American astronomer E. E. Barnard, but today, many scientists know this massive cloud of dust and gas not as “NGC 281” but as “The Pacman Nebula,” owing to its resemblance to Pac-Man, the iconic dot-scarfing character first featured in Namco’s eponymous arcade game.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This logic puzzle will make your brain hate you

How’s your Monday coming along? Pretty rough? Well it’s about to get a little hairier. If I’m not mistaken, this self-referential brain teaser is a play on the age-old Liar’s paradox, (or, for those of you familiar with set theory, Russell’s paradox), reframed in the form of a multiple-choice question. Without clicking the Wikipedia pages…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Robbie Gonzalez

Jawbone fragment suggests humans settled Europe thousands of years earlier than we once thought

Humpback whales like to remind humans how tiny we are

Massive new sunspot is three times as wide as the Earth

Who needs genetic engineering? Turn your brown eyes blue with lasers, instead.

Why the Mars500 mission doesn’t prove we’re psychologically capable of a trip to Mars

Watch this: thousands of starlings take wing in the form of a swirling “murmuration”

NASA says we’ve been looking for Martian life in all the wrong places

Found: The Earliest Known Evidence of a Prank Phone Call

Psychologist admits to faking dozens of scientific studies

This wall-climbing robot is half tank, half gecko

The First Ever Star With Spiral Arms

In 1971, Apollo astronauts went to the moon to double check Galileo’s experimental findings

What do ancient penis decorations say about us?

Gorgeous Victorian infographic shows Earth’s mountains and rivers as we knew them over 150 years ago

Manukua, everyone’s favorite white kiwi, is on the mend

China moves closer to having the world’s only space station

DARPA is one step closer to its flying Humvee

What do spiders have to do with internet porn?

Behold the Pacman Nebula—now with teeth!

This logic puzzle will make your brain hate you

KitchenAid 4.5-Quart Stand Mixer Is Back at Its Lowest Price, a Last-Minute Spring Sale Deal Outside Amazon Prime Day

‘Pizza Movie’ Has a Hilariously Grisly New Way to Say ‘This Is Your Brain on Drugs’ (Exclusive)

Amazon Makes a Last Push for Govee LED Strip Light at a Black Friday Low as the Spring Sale Winds Down, Works with Alexa and Google Assistant

Forget Shokz, Anker Pushes Soundcore AeroClip Open-Ear Earbuds to an All-Time Low in the Final Hours of Amazon’s Spring Sale

Google Pixel 10 Pro Gets Cleared Out at a Record Low, Now Even Cheaper Than AirPods Pro With Trade-In

Meta’s Two New Smart Glasses Are Slimmer and More Like Regular Glasses

JBL Boombox 3 Speaker at 40% Off Is Now Even Cheaper Than Renewed Units on Amazon

Elizabeth Olsen Promises She Knows Nothing About Her Marvel Future

NASA Rover Finds Glowing, Ruby-Like Crystals on Mars for the First Time

Anker Prime Docking Station Hits Its Lowest Price as Amazon’s Spring Sale Winds Down (14 Ports With 160W Output)

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