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The Latest Images From Ceres Show Off A Stunningly Beautiful Cratered Surface

The Dawn spacecraft has been hard at work orbiting Ceres, and over the last week, it’s sent back some stunning images of our closest dwarf planet. This view of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows Tupo Crater (22 miles, 36 kilometers wide), at upper left, with its sharp rim and prominent central peak. This image…

Bears: Faster Than a Speeding Deer?!

Bears are deadly fuzzballs, pairing a bumblingly awkward appearance with terrifyingly mighty claws. Before we always consoled ourselves with their clumsy slowness. But now we’ve seen a bear chase down an iconically nimble deer, it’s game over. We concede, and welcome our new fluffy overlords. Bears can climb as daringly as a mountain goat, and…

Don’t Hold Your Breath For A The Force Awakens Extended Cut

There’s clearly been some material cut from of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: and J.J. Abrams was asked if that means that there’ll be an extended cut of the film when the DVDs hit. According to Abrams? There’ll be some deleted scenes on the DVD, but there’s no plans for an alternative cut: “There will…

El Chapo and Sean Penn Just Gave BlackBerry Its Best Press in Years 

When it comes to clandestine meet-ups with drug lords, fuck WhatsApp. Turns out BBM is indispensable for interviewing the most wanted fugitive in the world. Rolling Stone published Sean Penn’s account of visiting notorious drug kingpin and tunnel expert Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera tonight, giving BlackBerry some fine press clippings. The 55-year-old Madonna bondage…

Zach Snyder Just Dropped A New Batman v. Superman Teaser On Twitter

Zach Snyder just dropped a new teaser for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice on Twitter, showing off a bit of new footage that we’ve seen hinted at in earlier teasers. Bottom line? Don’t try and hit Supes with your car.

Ever wanted to see Turkish Star Wars? Are you in Seattle? Do you have plans tonight? Head over to Grand Illusion in Seattle to check it out.

Travel Back To The 1960s With James Franco In The Trailer For 11.22.63

Hulu just dropped the first trailer for their adaptation of Stephen King’s novel 11.22.63, and it looks like it’ll be quite a bit of fun. The show stars James Franco as Jake Epping, a teacher who accidentally travels back to 1963 and becomes embroiled in an attempt to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy. Here’s…

These 3D Printed Trilobites Are Absolutely Stunning

Trilobites are everywhere: you’ve probably seen them in museums, or if you’re lucky, in the rocks near where you live. While we’re used to seeing the fossils, one scientist has turned to 3D printing to get a sense of what these creatures were like in life. Dr. Allan Drummond is a professor of biochemistry at…

Math Says: Play the UK Lottery Today

Statistically speaking, the lottery is an exciting way of separating you from your money. Except today in the United Kingdom. For the first time ever, playing the lottery is the mathematically sensible choice. Lottery tickets in the UK are £2 per play. Usually the expected payoff on a ticket is 95p. In the long term,…

These TFA-Style Trailers For The Original Star Wars Films Makes Us Wish They Were In Theaters Again

There’s something undeniably awesome about that first Force Awakens trailer that lends itself really well to remixes. Youtube user Tom F has gone an recut the trailers for the Original Trilogy in the style of the new trailers, and the result is awesome. Of the three, I think the Empire Strikes Back works the best,…

Things Go Wrong When A Group Of Friends Create A Teleporting Rocket Ship In Traveler

This is a cool short film: Traveler. In it, a team of friends create a jet-powered vehicle that can teleport. Once they succeed, however, the problems begin. The synopsis has a little more by the way of explanation, which makes me think that there’s more planned for this short: When a group of friends discover…

MesoGlue Hopes To Eliminate Electronics Soldering

Soldering has been around for thousands of years: it’s an essential component to electronics around the world. But, there’s some limitations: high temperatures can damage delicate components. Now, some researchers think that they’ve come up with a solution: a room temperature, conductive glue. Writing in the January issue of Advanced Materials and Processes, scientists from…

Giuseppe Penone’s Hidden Life Within Shows Off A Tree Within A Tree

Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is renown for his art that incorporates nature and humanity, and his 2012 exhibition, The Hidden Life Within, excavates a massive tree’s early form. The Hidden Life Within was originally shown off at the Art Gallery of Ontario. To come up with the piece, he took a massive tree trunk and…

Kim Petersen’s Jaw-Dropping Images Take Us To New Worlds

We love some fantastic concept art, and one artist who we came across recently is Kim Petersen, who’s put together some jaw-dropping images that transport us to some fantastic worlds. Peterson hails from Stockholm, Sweden, where he’s been inspired by the local arts community. Some of the fellow artists from “Sweden that create great art…

Help Support The Launchpad Astronomy Workshop!

A couple of years ago, I got to attend a really magnificent writer’s workshop: the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop, held each year in Wyoming. One of its supporters has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help support the program. Doug Farren is an author and long-time attendee, and he’s launched an IndieGoGo campaign to keep the program…

Let’s Talk About Whatever You Want Right Now

So… first week of 2016 was pretty sweet, right? Supposedly there was some big convention this week in Vegas that got busted by the feds. Heard of any cool new apps? Many of us just returned from CES where we were blinded by TVs and saw the future of tech in turntables. Now everyone’s talking…

This Kinetic Sculpture Was Inspired by the Flocking of a Murmuration

Murmurations are large flocks of birds, most notably starlings, that zip through the sky at high speeds without ever breaking formation. And those formations can be pretty spectacular. Small wonder they’ve inspired the design of a striking kinetic structure: the Murmuration Chandelier. It’s the creation of designers Richard Harvey and Keivor John, who built it…

The Abandoned Has Yet Another Horror Protagonist Who Is Too Dumb to Live

Horror movies have plenty of annoying habits—remaking sacred classics with gobs of CG, for instance. But the most annoying thing in horror has got to be when the protagonist is so utterly dumb that he or she makes decisions that everyone in the audience knows are a bad idea. Case in point: The Abandoned. The…

Here’s Why Seashells Don’t Have the Consistency of Chalk

Chalk and seashells are made of the same thing: calcium carbonate. Shells are stronger because they have trapped proteins inside, and scientist had thought that these proteins were trapped like flies in amber. It turns out it’s way more organized than that. Scientists know that it’s the little proteins trapped inside that makes the difference…

J.J. Abrams Explains Why The Force Awakens Isn’t Just a Carbon Copy of A New Hope

A droid carrying important information is jettisoned on a remote desert planet. A mechanically inclined loner with a mysterious past finds it, setting them off on an adventure that will see the destruction of a huge weapon and more. Yes, The Force Awakens mirrors the original Star Wars, and J.J. Abrams thinks it had to.…