Robbie Gonzalez, Author at Gizmodo

Is your surgeon a gamer? He probably should be.

For years, the US Department of Health and Human Services has distributed brochures like this one to people who are considering surgery. The packets are full of things you need to know and questions you should ask your surgeon before going under the knife. And while these pamphlets are certainly thorough and informative, you’ll notice…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Beautiful new NASA photo captures the diversity of Saturn’s many moons

Since 2004, NASA’s Cassini orbiter has been collecting data on Saturn, its rings and its moons, capturing breathtaking images of them all as it courses through space. The photo you’re looking at is among the latest of Saturn and its satellites to be captured by Cassini, one that reveals through stunning composition the difference in…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

That guy eating an obnoxiously large burger is probably just overcompensating for something

Humans are notoriously awful at monitoring what scientists refer to as “size-to-status” relationships. It’s why we associate bigger cars, bigger houses, and bigger televisions with greater social position, and why we’ll shell out the extra cash (which is sometimes more than we can actually afford) to snatch up some of that precious, precious status for…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

High-speed videography reveals how mosquitoes fly in the rain

Mosquitoes tend to thrive in humid environments where rain is common, but they aren’t exactly the hardiest of creatures. The typical raindrop weighs in at a mass about fifty times that of your average mosquito—so how do the little buggers manage to survive on a rainy day? To find out, engineer David Hu and his…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why Economic Inequality is Killing Us

Even in decidedly “wealthy” countries, human health is not always guaranteed. In fact, studies show that the best indicator of a country’s health is not its overall wealth, but how that wealth is distributed. Time Magazine’s Maia Szalavitz reports: Imagine there was one changeable factor that affected virtually every measure of a country’s health- including…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Dreams

If we’re to believe some of the latest scientific research on sleep (or even just viral YouTube videos), the effects of dreams have likely bewildered Earth’s creatures for hundreds of millions of years. But humankind, in particular, has fostered a unique and lasting fascination with dreaming. Yet for all our interest, there remains much about…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The robots are now building other robots

Is this the first sign of the robot uprising? Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Modular Robotics Lab have created a “foam synthesizer cart” that can build and repair a variety of different robots using modular components (called CKBot modules) and spray foam. Wired’s Olivia Solon writes: Robots tend to be designed with a specific…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Good news, everyone: here’s a study that says your phone isn’t giving you brain cancer

It’s being described as the largest study of cell phone use ever conducted. The investigation, led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, followed upwards of 350,000 cell phone users for close to two decades. When all was said and done, the team found no link between mobile phone ownership and tumors of either…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Must Watch: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space

I’ll come right out and say it: you need to watch this video. It’s quite a bit longer than a lot of what we feature here on io9, but the weekend is almost here, and you owe it to yourself to set aside 53 minutes to watch a veritable scientific dream team talk about humanity’s…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Otherworldly Spanish House is Half Skatepark, Half Moonbase

Feast your eyes on “The 1001 Nights House,” the latest work by A-cero architect Joaquin Torres. The 2100-square-meter military stronghold single-family home is tucked away in a development somewhere along the outskirts of Madrid, in what Dave over at Contemporist describes as “the suburbs” of Spain. A description of the house, provided by the architects:…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Scientists unlock the genetic basis for weed’s high

Not all weed is created equal. Some members of the Cannabis genus pump out tetrahydrocannabinol (aka THC, the plant’s main psychoactive chemical) like nobody’s business, while others produce very little of the mind-altering molecule. But the genetic basis for why some plants excel at getting you high while others are best suited for, say, their…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Beautiful Archaeopteryx fossil discovered in Germany

The sprawling frame of Archaeopteryx is one of the most widely-recognized images from the world of paleontology, yet fewer than a dozen specimens of the iconic “first bird” have been unearthed since the the species was first discovered in 1861. But yesterday, researchers announced the discovery of a brand new Archaeopteryx specimen — and it’s…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Check out the winners of this year’s Dance Your PhD Competition!

For the last four years, scientists from around the world have been participating in Science’s Dance Your PhD contest. The rules of the competition are simple: convey your graduate work in the form of interpretive dance. Creativity will win you points, as will scientific merit; but only by combining the two do you stand to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Teenagers’ IQ scores can change dramatically throughout adolescence

Ah, the intelligence quotient—the number everyone pretends not to care about but secretly does. For years, we’ve assumed that a person’s IQ score—commonly used to assess one’s general intellectual capacity and make predictions on everything from educational achievement to employment prospects—remained relatively constant over his or her lifetime. But now, a study that examined the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Watch this drop of water have an orgasm

I’m kidding, of course; everyone knows inanimate objects can’t achieve sexual climax. OR CAN THEY? Honestly, after watching this clip I don’t know what to believe. The video up top was created by Bojan Vukasinovic, a research engineer at Georgia Tech. Vukasinovic claims that this clip is meant to demonstrate a process known as “vibration-induced…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How scholars revealed the hidden text in a 1,000-year-old book

Over 100 years ago, a 10th-century copy of ancient writings by the famed Greek mathematician Archimedes was discovered in an Istanbul convent. But the handwritten copy had been scraped from the parchment, its mathematical theories scribbled over with prayers and illustrations. But, thanks to modern technology, the record of Archimedes’ writings had not been effaced…

Books & Comics Robbie Gonzalez

Meet the Melting Vitruvian Man

How do you draw attention to the Earth’s dwindling supply of Arctic Sea ice? Simple: slap a gigantic naked man on it. What you’re looking at is an enormous art installation piece, created by Greenpeace-funded artist John Quigley. But you won’t find it in any museum; this massive reproduction of Leonardo DaVinci’s iconic “Vitruvian Man”…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Scientists at MIT have developed a device that allows you to see through concrete walls

Believe it or not, radar systems that can see through walls (aka “wall-through” radar systems) aren’t exactly unheard of, it’s just that most of them are burdened by limitations that make their use in real world settings pretty impractical. But if the video up top is any indication, that could soon change in a big…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

An introductory guide to studies in kitty physics

The falling cat problem, which seeks to explain the physics behind a cat’s ability to seemingly always land on its feet, was first tackled by Stanford physicists TR Kane and MP Scher back in 1969. According to Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research and the mastermind behind the Ig Nobel prizes: https://gizmodo.com/and-now-the-winners-of-the-2011-ig-nobel-prizes-5845543…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Virgin birth has been discovered in pit vipers

Chalk another one up to Jeff Goldblum — researchers say that female pit vipers, like the copperhead snake pictured up top, have joined the growing ranks of animals known to be capable of reproducing asexually, i.e. without mating with a member of the opposite sex. Back in 2009, a female copperhead gave birth to a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Robbie Gonzalez

Is your surgeon a gamer? He probably should be.

Beautiful new NASA photo captures the diversity of Saturn’s many moons

That guy eating an obnoxiously large burger is probably just overcompensating for something

High-speed videography reveals how mosquitoes fly in the rain

Why Economic Inequality is Killing Us

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Dreams

The robots are now building other robots

Good news, everyone: here’s a study that says your phone isn’t giving you brain cancer

Must Watch: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space

Otherworldly Spanish House is Half Skatepark, Half Moonbase

Scientists unlock the genetic basis for weed’s high

Beautiful Archaeopteryx fossil discovered in Germany

Check out the winners of this year’s Dance Your PhD Competition!

Teenagers’ IQ scores can change dramatically throughout adolescence

Watch this drop of water have an orgasm

How scholars revealed the hidden text in a 1,000-year-old book

Meet the Melting Vitruvian Man

Scientists at MIT have developed a device that allows you to see through concrete walls

An introductory guide to studies in kitty physics

Virgin birth has been discovered in pit vipers

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