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Who Cares How Painful a Lego-Compatible Pen Would Be to Write With

In an ideal world every product would perfectly balance form and function. But in that ideal world this Lego-compatible ballpoint pen from ThinkGeek wouldn’t exist. Who cares if it’s the least ergonomic writing tool you can buy, you get to customize it with Lego! But not just Lego. According to ThinkGeek, this pen also happens…

New Imaging Technique Shows How Complex Molecules Buck and Twist

It’s becoming gradually easier to see what molecules look like up close, but seeing how their shape changes in real-time is still incredibly hard. Now, a new technique allows scientists to see how molecules change their shape over the course just trillionths of a second. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and…

A Childish Christmas Picture Is Actually a 5-Nanometer Chemical Catalyst

What happens if you take 1680 titanium atoms and 180 platinum atoms, then add a Christmas-spirited team of scientists? A nanoscale catalyst to help split water into hydrogen, with more than a passing resemblance to a snowman, is what. This piece of festive art may look like a child’s drawing, but it was in fact…

This Will Be Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Stadium

Japan’s Sport Council has had a turbulent few years deciding on a design for its Olympics stadium, but it’s finally chosen one. This sympathetic structure will be the focal point of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Just last week, the country’s Sport Council released two new proposals for the stadium, which were designed to be smaller…

Apple Formally Objects to the UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill

Apple has spoken out officially in objection to a proposed UK bill that seeks to change the investigatory powers of the British government. The bill, which has been mulled since the start of the year, was presented to the House of Commons in November. It seeks to give British authorities access to the internet use…

Watch Google’s Interactive Rear Window-Style Christmas Thriller

There’s little better than a bit of mystery at Christmas, and Google’s fun new interactive thriller has it in spades. Made by the creators of Wallace and Gromit, you can explore the interactive scene on your Android device (and a less exciting version on iOS or the web). Called Special Delivery, the video follows a…

Why 30-Year-Old Computer Hacking Methods Still Work

A system is only as secure as the end user, as any grey-haired sysadmin will happily tell you. As a result, all the alphanumeric passwords in the world can’t protect a system if a user is tricked into running malware, something against which there’s very little defense—or so people think. Tom Scott has an interesting…

The Most Badass Photos from the SpaceX Rocket Landing

Not only did SpaceX land their Falcon 9 rocket, but they looked damn good while doing it. This is how to do a return-to-flight with style! Launch, reentry, and landing of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Image credit: SpaceX What did the next stage do? Why, deploy 11 Orbcomm relay…

Thanks to conflicts with Google’s own voice recognition, Microsoft has yanked the always-on ‘Hey Cortana’ feature from the Cortana Android app. [WinBeta]

Despite Landing In Once Piece, SpaceX’s Reusable Rocket Won’t Fly Again

Tonight, SpaceX successfully sent a first-stage booster to space, and then landed it vertically minutes later. It’s a proof of concept that is supposed to make space cheaper by reusing components, but this booster is destined to never fly again. On a press call earlier tonight, Musk said “I think we’ll probably keep this one…

Tesla Model S Owners Now Get Free In-Car Spotify

Looking for some way to justify that $70,000 Tesla Model S? Well, how about this: starting today, Model S owners in some countries will have free in-car access to Spotify Premium. At $10 saved per month, that’s only 583 years until you break even! The move to Spotify isn’t random: Tesla previously offered in-car streaming…

Amazing Ash vs Evil Dead Gingerbread House Is the Grooviest Reason for the Season

Huge props to io9 readers Johnny Larocque and Nicole Cooper, who crafted this adorably spooky yet undeniably festive gingerbread house inspired by the TV show Ash vs Evil Dead and the Evil Dead movies. Ash vs Gingerdead? Check out more photos below! Cooper gets the cabin’s porch just right, complete with chocolate wafers serving as…

SpaceX Finally Manages to Land an Orbital Rocket Back on Earth

Right on schedule, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster made a beautiful soft landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station moments ago. It’s a huge moment in the history of spaceflight, marking the first time a rocket has ascended into orbit and landed back on Earth. The prospects for the reusable rocket system SpaceX has been chasing…

Obviously There Are a Bunch of Trekkies Designing USA Today

What’s that sound? Like millions of nerds suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced? You had one job, USA Today! But oh no no nononono, this tweet simply does not tell the whole story. The designers at USA Today are much smarter than that. But if you unfold the front page of today’s…

Watch a Drone Violently Chop the Hell Out of Different Kinds of Food

Watching this drone play the part of a blender is loads of fun because you get to see foods explode and get chopped up in beautiful slow motion. The propellers of the drone act as the blades of a blender and all kinds of different foods are dropped in—eggs, bananas, sausages, blackberries, and so on—and…

Tonight, SpaceX Will Attempt to Land a Rocket on Solid Ground

Are you ready to watch SpaceX try to make history with a bold attempt to send its souped-up rocket all the way into space and back to Earth in a spectacular nighttime launch? Of course you are! After several delays, the much-anticipated launch of SpaceX’s new and improved Falcon 9 rocket is set to take…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Robert Hewitt Wolfe Is Writing a Book Trilogy!

Robert Hewitt Wolfe wasn’t just one of the MVPs of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also was the developer of Andromeda and a writer on a ton of other shows, including Alphas and Elementary. So it’s great news that he’s writing a middle-grade fantasy book trilogy. Wolfe announced on Twitter earlier today: This is…

RIP Gerard Quinn, One of the Pioneers of British Science Fiction Art

Gerard Quinn was one of the great British science fiction artists of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, working for magazines like New Worlds and Science Fantasy. And even though he left genre art in the mid-60s to go work in advertising, his impact on the genre remained strong. According to the…

Aww, Norway Wants to Gift a Mountain to Finland

This story takes place far inside the Arctic Circle but, no, it’s not about Santa Claus. What it is about is truly embracing the Christmas spirit—the part where you give of yourself. Finland celebrates its centennial on December 6, 2017. 100 years! Such a milestone! How do you possibly commemorate such an event? To properly…

Game of Thrones‘ Season 5 Blu-Ray Will Feature A 20 Minute Animated Movie Packed With Dragons

One of the biggest events in Game of Thrones history before the events of the show is the “Dance of Dragons”—an epic two-year-long battle that saw Daenerys’ ancestors in House Targaryen nearly rip themselves apart in civil war. Scratching your head in confusion? Have no fear, HBO is here! As part of the now-traditional yearly…