Two fans broke onto Star Trek: TNG sets to film their own documentary

In 1988, two fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation broke onto the Paramount lot and wandered through the Enterprise sets, filming a homemade documentary as they went along. They also caused a little accidental mayhem along the way. These Stage 9 Interlopers certainly don’t seem prepared for their unauthorized behind-the-scenes look at the Enterprise,…

What would the perfect planet be like?

When it comes to habitability, Earth may not provide the best example. Indeed, astrobiologists are saying we should look for planets that are more hospitable to life than ours — a new class of objects they’re calling superhabitable worlds. They even know where we should look. In the search for extraterrestrial life, astrobiologists are increasingly…

An experiment that tested a man’s tolerance for isolation to the limit

In 1962 a 23-year-old geologist lived alone in a cave for two months. He had no problem with it. In 1972, he tried it again, and nearly lost his mind. Naturally, there are people who choose to isolate themselves, but what would happen to someone whose primary goal in life wasn’t enforced solitude? Michel Siffre,…

How did dinosaurs fight? Brian Switek explains over at National Geographic, highlighting work by researchers who are recreating dinosaur battles — with science! No, Dinobots are not involved.

Things get creepy in the first real Penny Dreadful trailer

There have been plenty of teasers, but this new video — with nearly a minute of actual footage, including actual monsters, Timothy Dalton, and a contortionist — is the best look yet at Showtime’s somewhat literary, vaguely historical supernatural horror series Penny Dreadful. Thoughts? [Via Geeks of Doom]

The “bizarre experiment” that became a flying jellyfish robot

Small flying robots often take design cues from the flapping wings of insects and birds. But this robot prototype, pictured above, doesn’t move like any wind-loving creature here on Earth — instead, it flies like the jellyfish swims. And the story of its invention is pretty weird. https://gizmodo.com/watch-a-spherical-robot-drone-fly-around-the-room-5855803 https://gizmodo.com/roboticists-discover-the-secret-of-insect-flight-and-i-476242076 The “flying jellyfish” wasn’t actually designed…

New Survey Supports the Theory that the Universe Is Infinite

New measurements from the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) study have charted the shape and size of our universe to within 1% accuracy. Above, David Schlegl, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and research team member, describes the flat, and probably infinite, Universe that the findings suggest. https://gizmodo.com/what-shape-is-the-universe-949025028 https://gizmodo.com/what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-the-universe-is-curved-1293595079 Via Brookhaven National Laboratory: The…

Chaosmos board game keeps you on the edge of cosmic catastrophe

In the board game Chaosmos, the Chaos Clock counts down to the complete collapse of the universe. Hidden on some desolate planet protected by traps and trickery is an artifact that can save the cosmos — but you’re not the only one after it. Chaosmos is an original board game in which players play aliens…

It’s so smoggy in Beijing, the only way to see the sunrise is on a screen. An LED screen that displays advertisements in Tiananmen Square broadcast the sunrise yesterday, treating residents to the only view of the sun they’d see all day. New York Times correspondent Edward Wong tweeted the scene: Update: Our sister blog…

Come on in, GIFs! We’re having a party

It’s time for our weekly GIF Party, and you’re all invited, along with all your GIF friends! What did you do this week? Did you start a new project, finish something up, or maybe just found a new favorite GIF? Tell us about it, or just send out your favorite GIFs to mingle in the…

Student Rickrolls his teacher in this ingenious quantum physics essay

We’ve seen creative Rickrolls before, but this one takes the cake. Physics student Sairam Gudiseva Rickrolled his teacher by surreptitiously inserting every word of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” into — of all things — a quantum physics essay that still makes perfect sense. This had to have been tedious work. I can’t…

Tom Hiddleston is an extremely naked vampire in Only Lovers Left Alive

The sound you hear? It’s the internet exploding, thanks to the first trailer for Jim Jarmusch’s new horror film Only Lovers Left Alive. It’s about a centuries-long love affair between two gorgeous vampires, played by Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, who connect when Hiddleston plans to commit suicide. Like folks didn’t carnally love Hiddleston enough without…

Will the first Amazing Spider-Man spin-off star a semi-reformed baddie?

Max Landis wants to add a little Cthulhu to a Houdini biopic. True Blood has recast James. The movie based on Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life has a director. Learn how The Purge 2 will turn the first movie’s premise on its head. Plus watch brand new trailers for The CW’s The 100 and…

Actually, You Don’t Always Need to Be More Precise Than Everyone Else

Whether it’s a comment thread on a blog or a conversation in a bar, we’re all guilty of interjecting with our own, more precise, more accurate—hell, plain better—take on pretty much any topic. But maybe we should all quit that habit, every now and then. Like Randall Munroe explains in the mouse over of today’s…

I dare you to watch this Batkid film and not cheer, cry or applaud

We’ve told you plenty about Miles, a.k.a. Batkid, the amazing 5-year-old who, despite battling cancer since he was only two, saved San Francisco last November. Now you can watch his superheroic exploits in this 10-minute video, which will not only yank violently on your heartstring, but probably renew your faith in humanity. Admittedly, Batkid did…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Creating a God

High above the planet’s atmosphere looms a mysterious fleet carrying a giant fetus waiting to be born. Is it a captured Star Child? A human fetus nurtured by a race of miniature aliens? A biologically engineered behemoth? It’s up to you to decide. This image by Santiago Vecino is, in fact, titled “Creating a God”…

Why is this bee wearing a tiny surveillance device?

Glued to the back of this Australian bee is an RFID chip that can track where it goes, what it eats, and when. But this bug won’t be tracking you — instead, it just might save the planet. One of the most pressing environmental issues right now is food security, or our ability to feed…

The world’s first action figure of Paul Reiser, courtesy of Aliens

Actually, I think this toy of Weyland-Yutani corporate sleaze Carter Burke might be the first figure of Paul Reiser, period. So if you’re looking to begin your collection of Beverly Hills Cop, Mad About You or My Two Dads toys, you need to be on the look-out for Diamond Select’s upcoming Aliens Mini-Mates set. The…

How do you know when it’s time to stop watching a show?

Sometimes a TV starts out strong, with a compelling plot, crackling writing, and intriguing characters, and then…well, slowly unravels. So how do you make the decision to just stop watching? It’s not always so easy to stop watching once you’ve sunk some time interest into a story and characters. But, in response to this post,…

How to power a starship with an artificial black hole

According to theory, it may be possible to create an advanced propulsion system that would harness the available energy from an evaporating black hole, a so-called Schwarzschild Kugelblitz drive. Here’s how it would work. Above: Artist’s rendition of a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz Starship. Adrian Mann, Bisbos.com. Interstellar flight certainly ranks among the most daunting challenges ever…