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Drones Stress Out Bears Just As Much As Humans

Flying RC drones is hugely fun, but also endlessly stressful: at any time you’re liable to chop someone’s hand open, or crash your $1000 toy into a power line. As it turns out, humans aren’t the only ones who get stressed by nearby UAVs. According to research published in Current Biology, black bears have a…

Want to try Microsoft’s (surprisingly OK) new Edge browser, with committing yourself to Windows 10? Well, Microsoft has new Virtual Machine builds of Windows 10 available for free, complete with Edge — probably easier than having to downgrade an entire computer. [Microsoft] Contact the author at [email protected].

Farewell, Dione: Cassini Makes Final Flyby of Saturn’s Fourth Largest Moon

Cassini’s epic mission to Saturn is coming to a close with a spectacular finale of daring flybys and swooping encounters. The beginning of the end happened today with the last targeted flyby of Dione, the icy moon of towering cliffs and dizzying canyons. Dione against the backdrop of Saturn in blue, green, and infrared light…

Google Hangouts Has a Gorgeous New Home On the Web

Google Hangouts has been a depressingly central part of my life for years now, but the web interface has always felt a little hacked-together. Today, all that changes, with a redesigned interface, and a dedicated homepage for Hangouts. The new URL follows Google’s normal naming convention: hangouts.google.com. The new homepage works like an expanded version…

This Carpenter Bee Can’t Sting You, But He’s Certainly Giving You the Eye

He looks like a bumble bee, but this is Xylocopa virginica, the Virginia Carpenter Bee. While females have a stinger, the males don’t, but they do step to other males who invade their turf, watching over females and young. “Carpenter” comes from the bees’ nesting habits: they tunnel into wood to lay eggs. Photo credit:…

What the Oval Office Looks Like Empty

The Oval Office has a very pretty floor! You’d never know it based on most photos of the White House’s most famous non-square-shaped room, but the president spends his days walking on a Reagan-era design. It’s a heck of an improvement over the wood-grain linoleum of the Johnson years. The rare photo above was taken…

The Incredible DiY Cabins of the Tisza River in Hungary

One of the strangest places in Hungary lies beside the Tisza River in a village called Gergelyiugornya. Hugged by a bend in the river, it’s a relatively narrow, woody flood basin area packed with small cottages that show an incredibly wide variety of architectural designs and creativity. Walk with me in the shade of the…

Solving an “Unsolvable” Math Problem

Until recently, there were just 14 known convex pentagons (nonregular, five-sided shapes with outward-pointing angles) that could “tile the plane” (be arranged with flush sides on a flat surface, with no gaps or overlaps). But last month, some thirty years since the 14th was discovered, a 15th was identified. The convex pentagon in question and…

How Did the Bicycle Evolve?

The quest for a human powered, stable, fast and energy efficient vehicle has taken us a long way. Let’s see how it all started. 1790s – The beginning The first reference to a two-wheeled vehicle driven by one rider was a toy-like simple machine, with just two wheels attached to a rigid wooden frame. The…

The Bologna Stone Was a Glowing Mystery for 400 Years

The Bologna Stone was discovered in 1603, at the base of a dead volcano near Bologna. When treated with heat, and exposed to sunlight, it would glow for hours—sometimes days. It took 400 years to figure out why. In 1603, Vincenzo Cascariolo was digging in the volcanic rock near Bologna, Italy. The man was a…

Bezos-Owned Newspaper Not So Sure That Working For Bezos Could Be That Bad

The Washington Post, a newspaper and online media outlet owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is really skeptical of claims that working at Amazon could be so bad. “Is it really that hard to work at Amazon?” the paper asks. After the New York Times’ withering story about terrible working conditions at Amazon was published…

The Heart-Eating Hippie Who Admitted “I Am a Cannibal” When He Was Arrested

“I have a problem. I’m a cannibal.” These matter-of-fact words, uttered by 22-year-old “Satan cultist” Stanley Dean Baker, chilled the California Highway Patrol officer who arrested him in July 1970. And it wasn’t long before that horrifying statement was proven to be completely true. The particulars of Baker’s crime, which was discovered just as the…

The Dumbest Pro-Russia Hoax on the Internet

David L. Stern is a freelance writer based in Kiev, Ukraine. He’s also, if you believe several Russian media outlets, a covert CIA agent who helped orchestrate a conspiracy to shoot down an airplane and blame Russia. What a busy fellow! The accusation is a whopper: When Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 went down over eastern…

The Secret Project to Turn the Internet into an Anti-Soviet Spy Network

In 1973, Norway became the first nation outside the US to get online through DARPA’s packet-switched network, the ARPANET. Americans had decided to connect the proto-internet to such a distant country for one reason. They were trying to keep tabs on Soviet nuclear tests. People often forget that the US defense and intelligence communities helped…

Have You Ever Worked At a Cutthroat Company Like Amazon?

Following a damning report on Amazon’s workplace culture, many people are questioning whether it’s ethical to keep buying from the mega-retailer. But in comments on our article about Amazon, some Gizmodians don’t sound surprised about the conditions — they’d experienced the same. Tell us about your workplace horrors. I was struck by reader responses today…

Gray Goo Scenarios and How to Avoid Them

The prospect of self-replicating nanobots devouring the Earth is a frightening one, indeed. But as Idea Couture foresight strategist Jayar LaFontaine explains, there are some practical things we can do to prevent such nightmares from happening. In a lecture delivered in 1948, mathematician John Von Neumann first described the potential for machines to build perfect…

The crazy simulator where pilots learn how to fly the F-35

How do pilots learn how to fly a fighter jet that cost a trillion dollars to develop (or a $100 million a pop to make)? By hopping in a total bad ass simulator that mimics everything about the F-35 in basically the sickest video game ever. The pilots in the simulator look like they’re flying…

Are Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Really “Saving” an Industry?

What is Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre? They’re having quite a couple of months. They’ve manufactured a seriously potent moment of cultural synergy. Let’s review some facts about how Jimmy and Dre are doing right now: In its first six weeks, Apple Music attracted 11 million users for its free trial. It’s on its way…

What Is the Most Baffling Decision a Scientist Has Made in a Science Fiction Movie?

Scientists in science fiction movies are often brimming with esoteric knowledge and incredible skills, but some of them… some of them are very poor decision makers. What is the most perplexing choice made by a fictional movie scientist? There are certainly a lot to choose from. (Hell, Prometheus could be subtitled “Scientists Doing Dumb Things.”)…

This is What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Exercising

It takes a lot of hard work to stay in shape, which is why it’s important to exercise on a regular basis. But it’s not always possible to remain active, and sometimes a few days off can turn into a more… extended hiatus. Here’s what happens to your body when you suddenly stop exercising. Measuring…