Robbie Gonzalez

The Western Black Rhino is extinct (again), and it’s okay to be angry

Yesterday, thanks to an updated CNN article, the Western Black Rhino was declared extinct. Again. The first time was in 2011. But then, says Boxplot’s Maki Naro, “in this fast-paced world, it’s easy to forget when an animal quietly sulks off into the night. Only that wasn’t the case here at all.” https://gizmodo.com/africas-western-black-rhino-has-been-declared-extinct-5858564 Above: The…

What created such enormous craters on the Moon’s nearside?

Earth’s moon has been blasted by a lot of space rocks in its 4.5-billion-year history. While these impacts have left a near-uniform distribution of craters across our satellite’s surface, planetary scientists have shown that one of its sides – the side that faces Earth – bears significantly larger scars than the other. How can this…

The FDA wants to ban trans fats from food, save us from ourselves

The FDA today took steps to dramatically reduce the use of trans fat in processed foods. Which, sure, partially hydrogenated carbon chains are are kind of evil, but they’re also kind of super delicious. Then again, they’re probably why the average American male looks a little doughy compared to his international peers. https://gizmodo.com/trans-fats-and-the-chemistry-of-evil-5934335 https://gizmodo.com/the-bodies-of-average-men-from-around-the-world-1444801101 Top…

No, science has not discovered a new body part

“Surgeons discover new ligament in human knee,” reads one headline. “The Anterolateral ligament, scientists discover a new body part in the KNEE,” reads another. The internet’s been awash with headlines like these the last few days. They’re all crap. The “previously unknown” ligament in question was discovered in 1879. According to the new paper describing…

Watch this man fly around Mt. Fuji in a homemade jetpack

Looking to reclaim a little sense of wonder? Check out this breathtaking new footage of Swiss pilot Yves “Jetman” Rossy zooming around Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji with an eight-foot-wide, rocket-powered, carbon-fiber wing of his own invention strapped to his back. “It’s really impressive,” said Rossy of Japan’s highest mountain, though, let’s face it, he really…

The newly named Lythronax argestes (aka “the king of gore”) walked the Earth 12-million years before Tyrannosaurus rex, and at much lower latitudes – yet the two bear a striking resemblance. In his latest for NatGeo, Brian Switek explores how Lythronax adds a new twist to the origin story of the famed tyrant king. Above:…

All the planets discovered by Kepler to date

On Monday, NASA’s Kepler mission added 833 worlds to its growing list of candidate planets, bringing the total tally to 3,538. Now, two recently released visualizations depict every. Single. One of them. The first, featured up top, is the most recent installment in Kepler scientist Daniel Fabrycky’s Kepler Orrery videos. Fabrycky writes: This shows the…

This Rembrandt depicts the first Asian elephant described by science!

Scientists recently made the somewhat embarrassing discovery that one of the oldest, most widely referenced Asian elephant specimens on Earth is, in fact, an African elephant. But embarrassment gave way to intrigue when the researchers, in searching for a replacement specimen, encountered one whose likeness had been captured by Rembrandt. Image: Andrew Howe/Getty Via New…

One of the most fascinating museums on Earth is in a fetid LA warehouse

Inside an unassuming L.A. warehouse, a bearded man in rubber gloves and a bloodstained t-shirt is pulling bodies apart. The stench is powerful, but conveniently masked by the fleshy funk of a nearby meatpacking plant. He removes a glistening lump of muscle and plops it on a table. “There’s the heart” he says cooly. “It’s…

“[Evolution by natural selection] was a theory that was discovered by two people, and we’ve blithely forgotten one of them.” This fantastic paper-puppet animation celebrates the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, the massively overlooked (and massively modest) scientist co-credited with Darwin for the theory of natural selection. [NYT Op-Docs]

Guess which of these identical twins is the smoker

Smoking: It’ll wreck your face. Recently, researchers at Case Western University’s Departments of Plastic Surgery and Otolaryngology set out to identify the effects of cigarette smoking on facial aging. To do so, they compared standardized photos of identical twins with different smoking histories. Their results reveal subtle but noticeable differences in the faces of smoking…

Designing a “Simple” Nuclear-Fusion Rocket for Quick Trips to Mars

Researchers are developing a new propulsion technology that could reduce the travel time to Mars from eight or nine months to less than three. The secret? Nuclear fusion, of course. https://gizmodo.com/breakthrough-the-worlds-first-net-positive-nuclear-fu-1442537401 https://gizmodo.com/nuclear-slapshots-could-propel-a-spacecraft-to-mars-i-5921673 Top image: Artist’s conception of a fusion-driven spacecraft. In this image, the crew would reside in the forward-most chamber. Solar panels would harvest…

Syphilis may not have come from the New World after all

Some say Christopher Columbus brought syphilis back with him from the Americas. But was the so-called “French Disease” already in Europe by the time of his return? Biology PhD candidate Katherine Wright cracks open this epidemiological cold case in a short but captivating piece currently featured at The Guardian. The article was selected from more…

Astounding Footage of Yesterday’s Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse

Yesterday, skygazers around the world were treated to a hybrid eclipse – a phenomenon so rare, just seven of the 21st Century’s 224 eclipses will meet the part-annular-part-total criteria. Photos and videos of the event have been spilling in from around the world since yesterday morning. Here are a few of our favorites. https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-to-catch-sundays-rare-hybr-1456683039 The…

The Aztec word for avocado, ahuacatl, means “testicle” (probably because the fruit typically grows in pairs). But that’s only the the second-most interesting thing you’ll learn about avocados today. The first? Wild avocados are sort of an evolutionary anachronism; as Smithsonian’s K. Annabelle Smith points out, they really should have gone the way of the…

Everything you need to know to catch Sunday’s rare hybrid solar eclipse

The last solar eclipse of the year is happening on Sunday, and it’s a weird one. Here’s where, when, and how to catch Sunday’s rare hybrid solar eclipse. Top photo by Abel Pardo López What is a Hybrid Solar Eclipse? A hybrid solar eclipse is really two kinds of solar eclipse in one. Over the…

Watch the first trailer for James Cameron’s global warming documentary

The Avatar-director has teamed up with producer Jerry Weintraub and a cadre of celebrity correspondents to create Years of Living Dangerously – an eight-part documentary series on the human impact of global warming, to air on Showtime in 2014. “Everybody thinks that this is about melting glaciers and polar bears,” says Cameron about half-way through…

Doctor Who’s mode of spacetime travel described in new physics paper

The title of the paper? “Traversable Achronal Retrograde Domains In Spacetime.” Yes, it is real science, and yes, the paper’s figures are excellent. Top image: Joe Roberts via Deviant Art Co-authored by physicists Ben Tippett* and David Tsang (non-fictional physicists at the fictional Gallifrey Polytechnic Institute and Gallifrey Institute of Technology, respectively), the paper –…

The effects of global warming have reached even the ocean deep. New analyses – published in the latest issue of Science – reveal that water temperatures a kilometer below the surface of the Pacific Ocean have warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years than at any time in the last 10,000. [New Scientist]

For All Hallows’ Eve: Some of Our Very Favorite Space Porn

Part of the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Veil Nebula, “The Witch’s Broom Nebula” (aka NGC 6960) comprises the glowing, gaseous remains of a supernova explosion dating to somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago. It’s also one of our all-time favorite astrophotographic subjects. Click here to see it in high-res. Photo by Martin Pugh – check out…