Breakthrough: The world’s first net-positive nuclear fusion reaction

In order for fusion power plants to be feasible, they have to produce more energy than they consume. It’s a challenge that’s confounded scientists for years. But researchers at the National Ignition Facility just made it happen. Nuclear fusion is the process of making a single heavy nucleus from two lighter nuclei. The change in…

Scientists reveal chicken nuggets are less than 50% chicken meat

A recently published study reveals that striated muscle is “not the predominate component” in the nuggets from two national fast food chains. In other words: chicken nuggets are less than 50% chicken meat. But… then… what “components” make up the other 50+ percent? Top photo by Stéfan via flickr “Fat was present in equal or…

Hunger Games: Catching Fire director promises NO SHAKY CAM

Francis Lawrence, director of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire revealed that he’s ditching the much-dreaded shaky cam from the first movie. Thank goodness. In an interview New York Magazine Lawrence admitted that he nixed the bouncy filming (and also said he’d be focusing more on the love triangle): Will you be using the shaky cam,…

Beauty and the Beast Season 2: Reset, Reboot, Rinse, Repeat

Beauty and the Beast leaned on the reset button pretty hard in last night’s episode, choosing a whole new mythology to drive the show forward. As a result, Cat (Kristin Kreuk) is now the world’s worst cop… and we’ve doubled down on government conspiracies. Spoilers below… The new season begins with a time jump from…

Can turbulence actually shake your plane out of the sky?

When your plane feels like it’s being thrown around the sky by an angry thunder god, should you be nervous? Actually, yes. But not for the reasons you might think. Let’s take a look at what turbulence is, and the real reasons why it can be dangerous. Some scientific stories are reassuring compared to the…

Must Watch: The BBC’s hard-hitting interview with Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster has been getting around lately. First he engaged in a battle of wits with Loki, and now he’s gone on the BBC’s Newsnight as their “last word,” discussing his decision to come appear on a new show on CBBC. Watch as Cookie Monster has the perfect answer to everything. [Thanks, Tony!]

Watch pill-popping prodigies every week? Relativity Television is developing Limitless, the Bradley Cooper film about a smart drug with a major downside, into a weekly TV series.

The Queer Comics Anthology We’ve Been Waiting For!

LGBT characters have made great strides in comics lately — we even had a same-sex wedding in the X-Men — but it’s about time there were more stories focusing on queer protagoninsts. Enter Beyond, a brand new anthology of comics about LBGT heroes who save the day. With an amazing set of contributors… possibly including…

Medieval armor goes high fashion — and looks fantastic

It’s a dream come true for anyone who has ever spent an evening at the Renaissance Faire wishing that they could wear the pretty dresses AND the awesome armor. We utterly love this fashion spread from designer Pinkabsinthe. Whether you’re a Society for Creative Anachronism crafter or a Game of Thrones fan, these outfits are…

Sleepy Hollow Thanks You For Calling NorthStar

This week, Sleepy Hollow got a Viewer Discretion Advised: big talk for a show with exploding sand eyeballs. But besides some modern-dance goop full of demons, “The Lesser Key of Solomon” barely had time for monsters, because it was too busy with sisterly love, a cult, and a car-assistance request for the ages. Ichabod’s biggest…

Rocket-wielding rebels attack Disney in new Banksy video

Street Artist Banksy has just released a short film in the middle of his month-long, guerilla-style art residency in New York City. In response to the film Banksy wrote on his website,“I’m not posting any pictures today. Not after this shocking footage has emerged.” Thoughts?

The 12 Best Cops of Science Fiction

They are the peacekeepers. They uphold the law. They protect us from those who would do us harm. And they do it all with nothing more than a badge… and a robot… or perhaps a spaceship… or maybe even superpowers. These are the dozen best fictional police officers in the universe, and we appreciate them…

It’s official: A “number of” previously missing Doctor Who episodes have been “returned to the BBC,” and we’ll find out how many, and which ones, later this week.

Oh good, there’s a Salmonella outbreak while the government’s shut down

With many of America’s federally employed food-safety personnel on furlough (thanks, government shutdown), it’s a good thing there isn’t a major foodborne-illness outbreak unfolding across the country! Oh, wait. Above: Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium. The strain implicated in the current outbreak is Salmonella Heidelberg, the nation’s third most common strain of the…

Our very first glimpse of the Moon’s far side

Exactly 54 years ago, the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 Probe opened its camera shutter and snapped the first pictures of the lunar far side — a sight that had eluded human eyes since the beginning of time. Top image: The first photo of the lunar far side taken by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 on…

The Pacific Rim Gag Reel Is Insanely Charming

Not that we had ANY doubt that working on a big-budget monster movie with Guillermo del Toro would be the most charming and amazing experience ever, but this gag reel just sealed the deal. Watch GDT’s favorites flubbed lines, the cast muggings for the camera and everyone being generally adorable. This is presumably from the…

This mammal is dying to have sex. Literally.

Some animals, like certain insects, spiders, and plants, die immediately after mating. But what about mammals? A new paper shows that the males of certain mouse-like marsupials face imminent death after having sex — an evolved trait that arose on account of extreme promiscuity. Photo by Mel Williams. Biologists call it suicidal reproduction, or semelparity…

Bong Joon-ho has seen the U.S. edit of Snowpiercer and he hates it

Remember how everybody said Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer was great? And remember how Harvey Weinstein wanted to re-edit it for stupid Americans? And then remember how Bong said Weinstein’s cuts were light? Well, screw all that, because now the director is pissed about the U.S. version of Snowpiercer. Bong Joon-Ho recently presented his original version of…

Where Would You Like to Time Travel To?

Time marches on in one direction at a steady rate, but today, we want to know where in time you would travel to if given the choice. Would you go back into the past or move forwards into the future? Or maybe you’re already living in exactly the right moment in history and would choose…

The He-Man movie gets a new writer and a new director

The Hollywood Reporter reports from Hollywood that the long-in-development Masters of the Universe has a new scriptwriter — namely Terry Rossio, the co-writer of big-budget movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lone Ranger and the Zorro films — but G.I. Joe 2’s Jon M. Chu is no longer attached to direct. After the surprise…