15% of the American public has doubts about the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines; 51% question the validity of the Big Bang theory. These are among the most noteworthy findings from a newly-published survey that asked people to rate their confidence in several statements about science and medicine.

Powdered Alcohol Is Officially A Thing In The United States

Alcohol is primarily known as a liquid, but it can also be whipped, solidified, and practically vaporized. But now it’s available in powdered form — a product called “Palcohol” that was just approved by the U.S. government. Alcohol powder is a molecular encapsulated alcohol that produces an alcoholic drink or meal when mixed with water.…

New Paper Explains How To Make Supermaterial Graphene In A Blender

Supermaterial graphene is among the world’s strongest, thinnest, and most flexible substances, and, according to a newly published scientific paper, it can now be made using a standard kitchen blender. The paper was published by Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College in Nature Materials and details his efforts to mix up graphene using a variety of…

Did Game Of Thrones Finally Go Too Far?

You might have thought the question of Game of Thrones going too far would have been moot a long time ago. This is the show that gave us “sexposition” and Joffrey brutalizing sex workers, after all. But a lot of people seem to feel as though one moment in last night’s episode was, finally, too…

First Footage From True Blood’s Final Season Channels Hurricane Katrina

What social issue will True Blood tackle during the final season of its vampire sex show? We guess it’s Hurricane Katrina, because the first trailer with footage from the new season begs for help from FEMA, while the people from Bon Temps die in an infected vampire siege. Oh dear. Remember when this show was…

How Are These Crisscrossing Waves Even Possible?

This remarkable image was captured just off the western point of France’s Isle of Rhé. It’s a beautiful demonstration of a natural phenomenon known as a cross sea — one that can be explained by a little bit of physics and math. A cross sea is a marine state with two wave systems traveling at…

First Look At The Adventure Time Episode Made Exclusively In Japan

For one of season 6’s episode, the Adventure Time crew handed off an entire episode to anime director Masaaki Yuasa, who helmed his own episode without any creative input from the normal creative team. The results are insane, which, for AT, is saying something. Yuasa, who is currently directing the Ping Pong anime, wrote, storyboarded…

The Periodic Table Of Storytelling Breaks Story Tropes Into Elements

The periodic table of the elements breaks down the elements that make up our world into their base chemical components. This periodic table of storytelling does the same thing, except for the elements that make up our stories. Image: Periodic Table of Storytelling / clickable version James Harris (poster version DawnPaladin). It’s the work of…

What If Other Planets Orbited Earth At The Same Distance As The Moon?

There are many ways that I could convey the size of Neptune relative to Earth. I could tell you that Neptune is 3.9 times larger. Or, that you could fit about 57 Earths inside of Neptune. Or, best of all, I could show you how Neptune would appear if it were orbiting our planet. Fortunately,…

Massive Spoilers For Godzilla And Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes!

The original Boba Fett might be returning Star Wars. Patrick Stewart hints at another new X-Men project. And Dennis O’Hare gives some American Horror Story details. Check out the first set videos from The Flash. Plus Hayden Panettiere reacts to the return of Heroes. Spoilers now! Top image: Godzilla Star Wars At the the Salt…

Explore the World of Game of Thrones as if It Were on Google Maps

If you’re desperate to understand the world from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, here’s you chance. The lands of Westeros and Essos have been given a full Google Maps-style treatment, so you can explore them in detail. It’s not the first Game of Thrones map we’ve seen,…

Feast Your Eyes On This Never-Before-Seen Star Wars: Rebels Concept Art

The Star Wars: Rebels panel at WonderCon this weekend unveiled not only the first footage from the show, but a stockpile of previously unreleased concept art. All images © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. Executive producer Dave Filoni has said that the show’s look and feel will rely heavily on the legendary vision of Ralph McQuarrie, whose…

The Farscape Movie is Officially Happening

Back in February we brought you news that a Farscape movie was supposedly in the works. Now Rockne O’Bannon, creator and showrunner of the original series, has confirmed that the movie is, in fact, happening. Confirmation comes by way of TV.com: Just a little bit of, maybe interesting, information to report. ;-p Texting me from…

These Posters Invite You to Middle Earth’s Greatest Vacation Resorts

The Green Dragon Inn has tapped into an opportunity that Middle Earth has been missing up until now: the need for quality spas, malls, and golf courses. These posters are available at the Green Dragon Inn on etsy. While Mount Doom’s spa is great (although I feel it misses an opportunity to not use “hobbitses”…

Prepare to Have Your Mind Blown by a Balloon and a Minivan

If you don’t already know why a helium balloon tethered to the floor of a minivan has the power to make your jaw drop, you’re going to want to see this. Seriously – set aside five minutes of your time, have a seat and watch. You won’t regret it. In this, the latest installment of…

The New England Aquarium Has Some Great Advertising

Over on its website, the New England Aquarium has archived all of its ad campaigns from the past six years. And some of them are truly great. Among the standouts are the 80 Penguins posters and the “See Turtles” campaign. But for my money, last year’s “Let your imagination run wild” series is perfect. Mixing…

The Doctored Results of the Concord Prison Study

Between 1961 and 1963 a group of inmates at the Concord Prison were treated with a combination of therapy and psilocybin – a drug derived from psychedelic mushrooms. They had a much lower recidivism rate. Or so we thought. One of the more famous studies in psychiatry is the one done on inmates of the…

The Most Astounding Cosplay From WonderCon: Day 2!

And the hits just keep on coming. Comic-Con may have Tom Hiddleston playing Loki live on stage, but WonderCon has some of the best cosplay we’ve ever seen. Saturday’s cosplay focused on gender-swapped characters, clever puns, and some pretty deep cuts. See for yourself! Once again, big props to our friend Davann Srey for letting…

Pure Auditory Nostalgia: Over 40 Minutes of Cartoon Sound Effects

Here now for your aural pleasure are 42 minutes and 29 seconds of sound effects from vintage Warner Bros. cartoons. This is highly concentrated auditory nostalgia, delivered right to your ear-holes. It’s surprising how many of the screeches, bleats, booms, bangs, clatters, whooshes, whizzes and instrumental clangs in this SFX reel are instantly recognizable. Like…

Orphan Black Just Threw Us Deeper Down The Cloning Rabbit Hole

Orphan Black isn’t kidding around. The first episode of the new season raises the stakes for our Clone Club members while giving us a better look at the dangerous forces that are battling over them—plus unveils a major surprise. Spoilers ahead. First off, I want to say how hard it was to write a spoiler-free…