Robbie Gonzalez

Africa’s true size will blow you away

We’ve seen this comparison made before, albeit never as lucidly as this. Behold: major countries of the world, overlaid atop an outline of the positively giant African continent. If this is your first time seeing this comparison (click here to see it in hi-res), you might be surprised by Africa’s immensity. If that’s the case,…

The deadliest events in history, ranked by deaths per day

Via the Fall 2013 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly (the theme of which is “Death”) comes a morbidly fascinating way of measuring the loss of life. What happens if we re-order these according to number of deaths per fixed unit time? For the purposes of our reorganization, we’ve gone with a temporal unit of one day;…

What would happen if you stood in the way of the LHC’s proton beams?

Goddamn awfulness, that’s what. Above: Anatoli Bugorski, Russian scientist and victim of a particle accelerator accident Oh you want specifics? Alright, so technically nobody has ever been so unlucky as to find themselves in the path of either of the Large Hadron Collider’s proton beams while they were actually turned on, so the real answer…

A minimalist animation puts our solar system into stunning perspective

Loving this fantastic introduction to our local star system, created by the folks at Kurzgesagt. It’s clear, clean, concise – and beautifully animated, to boot. The solar system – well known from countless documentaries. 3D animation on black background. This infographic videos tries something different. Animated infographics and a focus on minimalistic design puts the…

Newly-Discovered Phenomenon Turns Water Droplets into Energy

This deceptively simple animation reveals a surprising new discovery out of MIT. Researchers say it could lead to more efficient power plants and new techniques for energy-harvesting. Scientists have known for some time that when water droplets form on a highly water-repellant surface, they tend to catapult from that surface, propelled by excess energy. Now,…

Synthetic cannabinoids, while legal, have been shown to have much more harmful effects than actual marijuana – but those effects can vary dramatically from person to person. Now, researchers led by University of Arkansas toxicologist Jeff Moran are working to understand the dangers of fake pot by studying how the body metabolizes two popular forms…

Consumer genetics firm 23andMe was awarded a patent last week for a method for predicting offspring traits like height and eye color. It sounds an awful lot like a Designer Baby System, but the company claims it has no intention of using the tool to this end.

You cannot handle Chris Hadfield as David Bowie

Earlier this year, astronaut Chris Hadfield blew our minds with the most epic cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” ever performed. Now, he’s gone and done himself up Bowie-style for the cover of Maclean’s, and it is the definition of perfection. Via Maclean’s: Taking inspiration from Hadfield’s world-uniting rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, photographer…

Why is there so little scientific research about porn?

People sure worry a lot about porn. Are we watching too much? Is it creatingsex-addicts? What would a Game of Thrones porn parody even look like? But for all the hand-wringing and proselytizing and pontificating that goes on, the fact remains that there is VERY little scientific research on porn and its effects. Why is…

This massive repository of space porn will devour your afternoon

NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory is famous for retrieving some truly remarkable images of the Universe. Now, the observatory has launched an interactive, all-sky visualization that puts 14 years’ worth of imagery of the cosmos right at your fingertips. Above: “RCW 86: All Eyes on Oldest Recorded Supernova,” released October 26, 2011 You’ll need to head…

These are all the colors emitted by the Sun. Notice anything missing?

The Sun emits an impressive range of visible light. Some colors, however, are more strongly represented than others – while others are missing entirely. The data depicted here was acquired by the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the National Solar Observatory atop Kitt Peak, near Tucson, AZ. That data was originally translated into an awesomely named…

Vincent van Gogh’s never-before-seen sketchbooks

Did you know Vincent van Gogh kept a sketchbook? Several of them, in fact. For years, seven of them were kept at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, hidden away in the institution’s archives. Now, they’ve been unveiled for all the world to see in Molly Oldfield’s The Secret Museum. The first sketch in the Van Gogh…

Do you like insects? Of course you like insects. Well today’s your lucky day. Gwen Pearson aka “Bug Girl” aka the professional bug dork who revealed that an anatomically correct Spider-Man would not sling webbing from his wrists, but semen, has launched a new blog over at Wired! It’s called Charismatic Minifauna and it looks…

Deadly lake lures animals to their deaths and petrifies them

Tanzania’s Lake Natron is the most caustic body of water on Earth – and that makes it a terrifying, if eerily beautiful, place. Photographs by Nick Brandt via New Scientist The ominously colored pool takes its name from the naturally occurring salt-mixture that saturates its depths. Natron (the mineral) was once used by the ancient…

Can you really be allergic to exercise? Yes – and it sounds awful.

Does your skin get really itchy when you run, bike, or lift weights? If it does, you could suffer from a physical allergy that causes you to itch when you exercise. Greatest allergy ever? Sure, maybe – unless you’ve got the version that makes it miserable to even climb stairs. Top photo by Ed Yourdon…

How is the Government Shutdown affecting NASA?

As of 12:00 am this morning, the American Government is offline. Federal employees, besides those deemed absolutely necessary to the essential operations of cabinet-level departments and federal agencies, have been furloughed indefinitely. Among the federal divisions deemed unessential during the shutdown is NASA. Here’s a breakdown of how the Agency is weathering this governmental sh*tstorm…

How to make chocolate out of nothing

How do you make chocolate out of nothing? Mariano Tomatis demonstrates in this delicious twist on the missing square puzzle, aka Curry’s Triangle Paradox. https://gizmodo.com/how-do-you-get-nothing-from-something-with-currys-tria-5898961 [ht boingboing]

Academic fraud in China is getting out of hand

In a few short years, China has metamorphosed from a middling contributor to scientific knowledge into one of the most prolific research entities on the planet. But the country’s meteoric ascent to scientific prominence – widely attributed to a flawed incentive system – has given unintentional rise to a lucrative industry of academic fakery. The…

This NASA wind tunnel test is absolutely gorgeous

Say hello to your new desktop wallpaper. In the psychedelic scene shown here, researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center have used fluorescent oil to assess airflow over a novel wing design. Click here for hi-res [4752 × 3168] Via NASA: Researchers at [Langley] use all sorts of tools and techniques to learn more during the development of…

SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 Rocket

SpaceX saw another major milestone this weekend with the first flight of its upgraded Falcon-9 rocket. The next-generation, 22-story-high launch vehicle was used to catapult the Canadian Space Agency’s Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (a.k.a. CASSIOPE) into orbit Sunday afternoon. https://gizmodo.com/dammit-grasshopper-stop-being-so-amazing-already-1138743614 https://gizmodo.com/aaaaand-spacex-just-scored-its-very-first-military-cont-5966198 Top photo by Matt Hartman via LAT Via SPACE.com: [CASSIOPE] will keep…