Robbie Gonzalez, Author at Gizmodo

One of the smallest brown dwarf stars we’ve ever seen

Too large to be considered planets, but too small to spark the internal nuclear reactions necessary to become full-blown stars, brown dwarfs — aka “failed stars” — are of particular interest to astronomers because of what they can teach us about planetary and star formation. Now, astronomers have discovered more than two dozen previously unknown…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How scientists discovered the “fear center” of the brain

Fear is one of the most universally understood human emotions. Every one of us is familiar with the feelings, behaviors, and symptoms engendered by fear — so familiar, in fact, that we can sense it in the voices and actions of our friends and loved ones, and even recognize it in the facial expressions of…

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A sobering reminder on what breast cancer is (and isn’t)

It’s national breast cancer awareness month, which means you’ll be hearing plenty of reminders about the importance of early detection, and what you can do to catch the disease before it takes your life. And while regular breast exams are obviously valuable, it’s important to remember that the facts behind breast cancer don’t always gel…

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How Nobel Laureate Ralph Steinman used his own discoveries to treat his cancer (and drive progress in the field of immunology)

Last week, scientist Ralph Steinman became the first person in history be be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine posthumously; just three days prior to the award announcement, Steinman passed away following an extended bout with pancreatic cancer. What many people don’t realize, however, is the intimate tie between Steinman’s Nobel Prize-winning work…

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How to solve “Jewish” math problems

Back in the seventies, the mathematics department at the Soviet Union’s Moscow State University (one of the most prestigious departments in the USSR at the time) used a special collection of math problems, informally referred to as “Jewish” problems or “coffins” (“coffin” problems translating roughly to “killer” problems in English), to keep Jewish students and…

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Vitamins have been linked with a higher risk of death in older women

We sure are seeing an awful lot of correlative findings today, aren’t we? Scientists at the University of Minnesota recently revealed that the use of multivitamins and supplements — like folic acid, vitamin B6, magnesium, zinc, copper and iron — are linked to higher death rates among older women. https://gizmodo.com/the-more-feminine-you-look-the-more-children-you-want-5848614 Does that mean your daily…

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The more feminine you look, the more children you want. Wait, what?

Does not wanting a baby make you less feminine? Or does being less feminine (be it in the way you look, or in your hormone levels) make you less likely to want children? A study published in the latest issue of Hormones and Behavior concluded that women’s facial features and estrogen levels correlate with their…

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Watch Mars Rover Opportunity’s three-year trip from Victoria Crater to Endeavour Crater…in under three minutes

NASA’s robotic Mars Rover Opportunity has been trekking around the surface of Mars for close to eight years now, over 30 times longer than its planned mission duration. While on Mars, the hardy Opportunity moves at a pretty leisurely pace. It took this Energizer-bunny of a rover just short of three years to span the…

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Genetically-modified salmon are closer than ever to a dinner plate near you

The super salmon are (almost) here. The Food and Drug Administration has reportedly finished its evaluation of the environmental impacts of the first fish genetically engineered (GE) for human consumption. The GE fish under review is AquaBounty Technologies’ AquAdvantage Salmon, pictured in the background up top (the salmon in the foreground is an unmodified Atlantic…

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Commemorating 50 Years of The Phantom Tollbooth

The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik has written an excellent retrospective on Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, in recognition of the iconic book’s fiftieth anniversary. The article is a must-read for anyone, young or old, who looks back fondly on their travels with Milo to the punny world of the Lands Beyond. Gopnik writes: Our cult…

Books & Comics Robbie Gonzalez

Future Moon colonies could be powered by titanium

Scientists examining Hubble Telescope images of the Moon recently noticed what looked like titanium deposits all around the 1972 Apollo 17 landing site. When they inspected samples of moon rock from the site that were brought back to Earth by the Apollo team, scientists discovered that they were, in fact, chock full of titanium —…

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10 Awesome Online Classes You Can Take For Free

Back in August, we told you about a free course on artificial intelligence being offered by Stanford University, and co-taught by two world-renowned AI experts. The class officially started today, so if you managed to register for it on time, then good on you. https://gizmodo.com/enroll-in-a-free-course-on-artificial-intelligence-tau-5834891 But if you didn’t manage to register for the course…

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Japanese company “REAL-f” makes really f-ing accurate 3-D copies of your face

If Silence of the Lambs gave you nightmares, you should probably just navigate away from this page right now. Otherwise, prepare to be impressed, intrigued, and deeply disturbed — all at the same time. You’re looking at the work of Japanese company REAL-f. REAL-f specializes in the production of “3-Dimensional Photo Forms,” i.e. freakishly realistic…

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A beautiful reminder that physics is everywhere, even in soap

You’re looking at a figure from a paper titled “Visualization of flow patterns past various objects in two-dimensional flow using soap film,” published in the latest issue of Physics of Fluids. ([Very] hi-res version available here.) The authors write: Although many advanced experimental ﬂow visualizations, such as particle image velocimetry or laser Doppler velocimetry, have…

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Watch this team of scientists make a lion roar. Oh, and did I mention the lion is dead?

This is so incredible I can hardly stand it. Check out this clip from Channel 4’s Inside Nature’s Giants, wherein researchers pass compressed air through the larynx of a dead lion to demonstrate how it modulates the tone of its roar. You’ll want to fast forward to 11:36 (the lazy among you can just click…

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Meet the only known reptile with a true placenta

When many of us think of reptiles we immediately envision them as egg-laying creatures, but there are some reptiles that actually give birth to live young. All of the reptiles in this second category possess a rudimentary placenta (the vascular tissue which, in mammals, nourishes unborn offspring), but until recenty, not one of them was…

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The blackboards in classroom porn — just how accurate are they? (SFW)

This is truly inspired work. The blog Blackboards in Porn collects examples from the student/teacher porn genre that actually feature chemical formulae, mathematical equations, etc. on the chalk boards located on-set…and then, on behalf of nerds everywhere who just can’t help themselves, evaluates them based on their degree of academic difficulty, clarity, and overall accuracy.…

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Chlamydia infects your cells with a Trojan Horse

Chlamydia trachomatis is a frighteningly accomplished human pathogen. It’s the most frequently reported bacterial STD in the United States, the number one cause of acquired blindness in developing countries, and the leading cause of infertility in the Western world. And yet, many of the molecular mechanisms by which chlamydia spreads remain poorly understood. Now, a…

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A gorgeous map of the many twisting paths taken by the Mississippi River

Feast your eyes on this stunning map of the Lower Mississippi’s evolving floodplains, lifted from cartographer Harold Fisk’s 1944 report, Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River. You can download the report in its entirety, including numerous maps like this one, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers web site (if…

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One of the most intensively studied objects in space has been identified as an impossibly powerful neutron star

Pulsars are the lighthouses of the universe; from here on Earth, the waves of electromagnetic radiation emitted by these incredibly dense neutron stars as they whirl rapidly about their axes resemble rhythmic pulses of light. The frequency of these pulses, and the intensity of their emission, varies from pulsar to pulsar. Now, more than 40…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Robbie Gonzalez

One of the smallest brown dwarf stars we’ve ever seen

How scientists discovered the “fear center” of the brain

A sobering reminder on what breast cancer is (and isn’t)

How Nobel Laureate Ralph Steinman used his own discoveries to treat his cancer (and drive progress in the field of immunology)

How to solve “Jewish” math problems

Vitamins have been linked with a higher risk of death in older women

The more feminine you look, the more children you want. Wait, what?

Watch Mars Rover Opportunity’s three-year trip from Victoria Crater to Endeavour Crater…in under three minutes

Genetically-modified salmon are closer than ever to a dinner plate near you

Commemorating 50 Years of The Phantom Tollbooth

Future Moon colonies could be powered by titanium

10 Awesome Online Classes You Can Take For Free

Japanese company “REAL-f” makes really f-ing accurate 3-D copies of your face

A beautiful reminder that physics is everywhere, even in soap

Watch this team of scientists make a lion roar. Oh, and did I mention the lion is dead?

Meet the only known reptile with a true placenta

The blackboards in classroom porn — just how accurate are they? (SFW)

Chlamydia infects your cells with a Trojan Horse

A gorgeous map of the many twisting paths taken by the Mississippi River

One of the most intensively studied objects in space has been identified as an impossibly powerful neutron star

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