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A male contraceptive pill that doesn’t use hormones

The creation of an effective and reversible male contraceptive method (that isn’t the condom) is currently a hot research topic, as various institutes attempt to come up with a way of stopping sperm without doing any permanent harm. None of these attempts has yet resulted in a male pill, but now scientists have discovered a…

Motion-Activated Electric Screwdriver Anticipates Your Movements Before You Make Them

The screwdriver is maybe the last thing in the world that needs a reboot, but the new Black & Decker Max Gyro is the kind of non-essential evolution we can get behind. The little 4-volt handheld tool mimics improves upon the function of ye olde analog screwdriver with a built-in gyroscope that anticipates your movements.…

Trans fats and the chemistry of evil

Trans fats are a four letter word in nutrition circles — the boogeyman that corrupts your baked goods and tasty fried foods. But what makes these nutritional fats different from all the others? And why are they the bane of medicine? Trans fats differ from other unsaturated fats from a structural perspective, but only a…

Hands On Instagram 3: The Single Coolest Way to Browse Your Friends’ Photos

There’s a new Instagram out today—and because the Instagram team is smart, they’re keeping the app simple. But there’s one major change: you can see where all your friends have taken their pictures, all across the world. Awesome. https://gizmodo.com/instagram-3-0-brings-photo-maps-and-faster-browsing-5935374 The (entirely optional, opt-in) photo map feature is pretty much perfect—graphically subtle while still giving you…

The Revolutionary Technology that Turned Rebecca Romijn into X-Men‘s Mystique

The original X-Men trilogy featured a ton of special effects makeup, including special prosthetics that created the characters of Mystique, Wolverine, Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth, Toad and Nightcrawler. This weekend sees the opening of a brand new exhibition that showcases the work of Gordon Smith, who devised the prosthetics and makeup for the first two X-Men…

Canon DSLR Video Compared: 1DX vs 5D Mark III vs T4i

Canon DSLRs are popular for video shooting, and you can pull beautiful footage from the low end Rebel series to the high end 1D series. But what is the difference in image quality in a price range from $1000-$7000? We’ve had a Rebel T4i, 5D Mark III, and 1DX all in ou possession, so we…

Instagram 3.0 Brings Photo Maps and Faster Browsing

Instagram just launched a huge update for all its apps today. Version 3.0 can plot all your images on a map based on the location in which you snapped each one. The result? A totally different way to browse through photos. Here’s what’s new: Photo map: Everyone’s pics are now organized on a map, coordinated…

The best ever abandoned computer manufacturing plant turned Satanic temple

In Casa Grande, Arizona, there’s a mouldering set of futuristic domes and saucers that were once destined to be computer manufacturing plants in the 1970s. According to urban legend, they were never used. And now the Domes, as they are called, are the site of Satanic rituals. And if you look at these pictures, you…

Fukushima Explosion Was Concealed by Japanese Government Until Right Before It Happened

Newly released evidence from Japanese utility company TEPCO shows that the Japanese government ordered it not to tell anyone that Fukushima reactor 3 was about to explode until right before it happened. Could better procedure have made this disaster less catastrophic? According to TEPCO teleconference footage obtained by the Japan Times, the utility was forced…

eBay bans the sale of all magic, including potions, hexes, and curses

Online savvy sorcerers, you’re out of luck. Online auction giant eBay has recently exiled magical wares from their site. No longer will you be able to purchase Haunted Money Spells or a curse for your incredibly loud neighbor who smokes skunk weed while jamming out to Pink at 3:38 AM. According to the official eBay’s…

Scientists Invent Revolutionary Device that Could Help Stop Cancer (and Detect Faint Alien Signals Too!)

Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London have found a simple way to make masers. According to team leader Dr. Mark Oxborrow, this “new type of electronic device” could revolutionize the world in the same way lasers did—and even beyond that. How revolutionary, you ask? What about detecting a tiny tumor way…

The strictly non-medical history of laughing gas

People have always used laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, recreationally. Whether they’re casual whippet users or have access to a steady supply of the medical-grade stuff, people have enjoyed the drug since its discovery over 200 years ago. In fact, there was a time when doctors would have been horrified at the idea of using…

This Restaurant Will Pay You Not to Use Your Phone at Dinner

Sometimes it’s nice to have your smartphone at dinner, staring at the screen the entire time and avoiding the human travails of conversation and eye contact. But one LA eatery has had enough, and is offering discounts for phone surrender. https://gizmodo.com/is-foursquare-ruining-eating-out-5638118 The idea, Southern California Public Radio reports, comes from Eva’s owner and chef Mark…

Kennedy Space Center’s Going to Host the Nerdiest Triathlon Ever

Have you ever thought about running a triathlon? And are you a big nerd? Well, you’re reading Gizmodo so chances are you’re at least half way there. Next year, for the first time ever, the Kennedy Space Center is going to open their gates for an awesome sporting event. The Rocketman Triathlon, which wins for…

The real-life My Little Ponies were creepy and magnificent beasts

Most My Little Pony dolls — save the limited edition commemorative Alien 3 models — boast lustrous, improbably long manes. And back in the late 1800s, Linus the Wonder Horse and his hirsute progeny wowed carnival-goers across America. But who was this “Samson among equines?” In 1910, the biology book Experimental Zoölogy profiled Linus —…

Like Rdio? It just added 3 million new songs to the service (now 18 million songs total). [Billboard]

Why ParaNorman is Not Your Typical Tim Burton Spookfest

At first glance, ParaNorman sounds like one of Tim Burton’s gothic horror movies. It’s a stop-motion animated film about ghosts and zombies, after all. The main character is a weird little kid who’s ostracized because of his supernatural gifts. The film’s writer and co-director, Chris Butler, even worked on Burton’s Corpse Bride. But when you…

Eureka: 9 Stunning Lightbulb Designs

Without light, we’d spend 10-12 hours a day unable to function (by modern standards at least). And sure, we’ve always had fire and candles, but it wasn’t until the advent of electricity, and then the lightbulb, that man conquered the dark once and for all. That’s we went and dug up nine of our favorite…

Facebook Is Finally Deleting Your Photos When You Want Them To

It doesn’t change the fact that you should be careful what pics you post online, but Facebook is no longer saving your photos on its servers after you’ve deleted them. Finally! While Twitter, for example, would remove a pic from its content delivery network (CDN) pretty much as soon as you did, Facebook was holding…

Want to prevent senility and keep your blood pressure down? Drink cocoa.

Did you know that chocolate could save your life? Two new studies are adding fuel to the claims that chocolate will make your life incredibly better. The first study looked at how flavanol-packed cocoa affected elderly patients experiencing mild cognitive impairment. Flavanol is a chemical in some chocolate that acts as an antioxidant. Subjects were…