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Last-Minute Stockpiling Only Makes Disasters Worse

When a hurricane takes aim at the coast or a blizzard looms in the forecast, something strange comes over us. We swarm into grocery stores, stripping the shelves bare of canned goods and staple foods. Lines stretch all the way around the supermarket, and it’s like Black Friday on the produce aisle, with people arguing…

A Brief History of the Brutal and Bizarre World of Fraternity Hazing

In theory, the tradition of hazing has vanished from the college campuses of America. National fraternal organizations have banned it. At least 38 states have outlawed it. From coast to coast, university officials smugly assure worried parents that their campus is free of hazing. But shielded by vows of secrecy, many chapters carry on this…

Samsung just announced prices for its Gear S2 smartwatch, the twisty-turny circular bezel one running the company’s own Tizen wearable software. If interested, you’ll be parting with $300-$350 for the S2 and the S2 Classic. They’ll be available in stores and online on October 2.

Here’s Why The First Patient To Receive Penicillin Didn’t Survive

Antibiotics are something that, today, are taken for granted. This wasn’t always the case. The first patient to get antibiotics shows us how an incredibly minor injury can go bad, and how the road to antibiotic use wasn’t smooth even when scientists knew it worked. The first person to get penicillin wasn’t the first patient…

The New Version of OS X Arrives Today, and You Should Probably Update

OS X El Capitan is officially arriving on the interwebs today, complete with a pretty new background picture, and a boatload of new features. If you’ve got a compatible Apple computer (which you probably do), you should get ready to download. https://gizmodo.com/hands-on-with-apples-os-x-el-capitan-tiny-tweaks-make-1714635091 The best news about El Cap is that it’s free, and your MacBook…

11 Things You Can Do in OS X 10.11 El Capitan That You Couldn’t Do in Yosemite

Apple’s latest OS X 10.11 software is out of beta and available as a free upgrade for your Mac later today. To help you find your way around the latest release from the coders in Cupertino, we’ve compiled a guide to the key features that are new this time around (besides some speed and performance…

A 6-Feet Tall Inflatable Jabba Is the Perfect Lawn Decor For Any Holiday

You might look at this six-feet tall inflatable Jabba the Hutt and see the perfect way to decorate your front yard for Halloween. But look harder and you’ll see it’s actually perfect for any holiday or celebration—be it Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, a wedding, or the arrival of a new baby. $170 might sound a…

How The Blade Runner Sequels Will Hand Off From Harrison Ford to Ryan Gosling

Two new Flash videos reveal a major new villain, and a major new ally. Drew Goddard further talks up where Sinister Six could go. Chloe Bennett discusses transforming from Skye into Daisy on Agents of SHIELD. Plus what’s to come on Arrow, more on Alien: Paradise Lost, and clips from The Martian. Spoilers Get! Blade…

To Make Robot Hands More Like Ours, MIT Built These Softer, Smarter Fingers

It’s easy to forget how amazing the dexterity and anatomy of our own hands are–until you learn how difficult they are to replicate for machines. MIT has made big strides in robotic hands this year, and now it’s published a new one. This week at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Bianca Homberg,…

Disappearing Graphene Circuits Could Make Temporary Electrical Devices

Imagine electrical circuits that you could print off and use for a few hours before they melted away and stop functioning or changed their function. A spy’s best friend, they could become reality thanks to a new kind of electric circuitry printed on graphene. The idea of electrical components that self-destruct is nothing new. We’ve…

Those All-Nighters You Pull May Not Be as Harmless as You Think

As you put the finishing touches on your paper, you notice the sun rising and fantasize about crawling in bed. Your vision and hearing are beginning to distort and the words staring back at you from the monitor have lost their meaning. Your brain … well, feels like mush. We’ve all been there. That debilitating…

These Are the Year’s Best Examples of Art in a Petri Dish

Who says scientists can’t be creative? The American Society for Microbiology organizes an Agar Art competition, where researchers battle it out by creating artwork in a Petri dish—and these are this year’s winners. The image above, called Neurons, snatched first place. Mehmet Berkmen, the researcher from New England Biolabs who submitted the entry, explains what…

This Map Helps Predict Which Homes Need a Fire Alarm

The lack of a working fire alarm can very literally be the difference between life and death. This map uses data visualization to highlight regions where there may be a lack of smoke detectors, to help cities ensure their citizens remain safe. The project builds on an earlier project that from 2014, which tried to…

This 3D Printer Creates Structures in Gel and Could Help Build Organs

3D printing is changing the way we build things—but what if the end-product can’t support its own weight until it’s finished? Scientists have developed a way to overcome that problem, by surrounding the whole thing with gel. This new 3D printing technique, developed by researchers from University of Florida in Gainesville, prints objects in an…

A New Botnet Hits Servers With 150 Gbps DDoS Attacks

Just yesterday, Akamai’s Security Intelligence Response Team announced that it’s discovered a new botnet that uses a 150 Gbps onslaught to bring servers and websites to their knees. The Linux-based botnet spreads aboard a Trojan that’s called XOR DDoS. That wriggles its way into Linux systems by attacking embedded devices — things like routers —…

Logi Circle Will Show You an Entire Day in 30 Seconds, Looks Like HAL

It seems like everybody’s making home security cameras these days. Features that once seemed futuristic—like watching a live feed from your house on your phone—now seem standard. The Logi Circle aims to set itself apart. It’s not a home security camera, it’s a “home connection camera.” This novel approach to home cams has less to…

After the Supermoon, Comes the Supertide

Many locations along the UK, US and Australian coasts will experience their highest tides for tens of years around September 29 or 30. Coastal roads in Miami, for instance, have already been closed in anticipation of exceptional tides. These high tides may bring water levels uncomfortably close to the tops of harbour walks and flood…

Tesla’s Model X Is Finally Here: The Stuff We Didn’t Already Know (UPDATED)

Tease much? We’ve known Tesla’s SUV was coming since 2012, back before the Mayan apocalypse. Today, though, it has finally arrived, and I’m at the grand unveiling outside of the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA. A lot of information has already been released in the lead-up, but I am here to find out the things…

Can the New Bolt DVR Box Make TiVo King of TV Again?

When TiVo and ReplayTV launched in 1998, you had only one other real choice when it came to set top boxes. It was called a VCR. Now there’s Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Nexus Player, Fire TV, and all sorts of others. But first, there was TiVo. Now, the company is leveraging that pedigree with Bolt.…

The LA School System’s $1.3 Billion iPad Fiasco Comes to a Sad End 

An iPad for every kid! It sounded like a good idea in 2013, but a $1.3 billion plan to supply Los Angeles schools with Apple tablets turned into a failure quagmire, with the school district asking for a refund. The end of the saga: LA’s Unified School System will receive a $6.4 million settlement from…