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You Probably Can’t Tell Your Toes Apart Without Looking at Them

You may think you know your body well—but you likely don’t know your toes as well as you may hope. A new study reveals that most people can’t tell their toes apart without looking at them. Researchers at the University of Oxford had people close their eyes while testers gently prodded at their toes. While…

Health Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

Simple Collections of Gold Nanoparticles Can Develop Computational Abilities

We’re used to thinking of silicon as being the go-to material in computer architecture. But now a team of scientists has shown that a random assembly of cold nanoparticles can evolve to perform computational tasks too. A team of researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands has been experimenting with tiny gold particles…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

You Can Now Order Starbucks via Mobile, Anywhere in the U.S.

For a while now, Starbucks has been trialling a service that allows you to order from an app and then skip the line when you pick up your purchase. Now, that service is being rolled out across the U.S.. Spiced pumpkin lattes all round! The coffee chain has announced that, from today, anyone can use…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

4 Billion People Are Still Without Internet

The United Nations’ Broadband Commission has published a new report whose headline finding is that 57 percent of the human population — or around 4.2 billion people — will still not have access to the internet by the end of 2015. Geographical location obviously plays a huge role in the prevalence of internet access. In…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

Stephen Colbert on Hillary Clinton’s Social Media Campaign

Many of the presidential candidates are doing the best they can to interact with millennials, especially on Twitter — but none of them seems to be working as hard on it as Hilary Clinton. This clip from the Late Show takes a look at her social media strategy, which mainly seems to involve… emoji. “Can…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

New Coating Radiates Heat to Keep Solar Cells Cool—and More Efficient

Solar cells suffer a strange problem: the hotter they get as the sun pours down on them, the less efficient they become at converting light into electricity. But now a team of Stanford researchers have developed a new transparent coating that can help them keep a little cooler—and more efficient. The new coating is based…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 22 '15

How Low-Tech Farming Innovation Can Make African Farmers Climate-Resilient

Scientists, politicians and the Pope are not the only ones calling for action on climate change these days. Farmers are observing changes in rainfall, temperature and other patterns in weather that have spurred them into shifting their farming methods. In fact, while climate change is not a source of scientific contention, how to farm in…

Tech News Rachel Bezner Kerr - The Conversation Sep 22 '15

9 Things You Can Now Do With Apple Watch That You Couldn’t Before

With today’s launch of watchOS 2, Apple has brought a whole new lease of life to its pretty little wrist ‘puter. Here’s the most interesting things you can now do with your $800 wearable square of technology. Use Apps Apple Didn’t Make With watchOS 2, Apple is hoping to do what it did for the…

Tech News Chris Mills Sep 22 '15

The New Google Wallet App is an Absurdly Easy Way to Send People Your Money

Previously, Google Wallet was some kind of hybrid payment system that few people understood, and fewer used. The newly revamped Wallet — now available on iOS — is meant to do just one thing: send money to other people with minimal hassle. Download the new Wallet app on iOS or Android, add a debit card…

Tech News Chris Mills Sep 21 '15

10 awesome bloopers that actually made it into the final cut of the movie

There is so much preparation that goes into a movie and so many takes captured of any given scene and so much work that goes into the camera work and so much practice for the performances but yet, things don’t always go as planned. Mistakes happen, lines are forgotten, and bloopers are created. But sometimes…

Sploid Casey Chan Sep 21 '15

This Is What a Road Bike Might Look Like, If There Were No Design Rules

People don’t often realize it, but the design of every high-end bicycle is shaped, one way or another, by the governing body of bike racing, the Union Cycliste Internationale. This is what bikes might look like if their rulebook didn’t exist. The UCI has a famously stringent set of rules about the design of bikes…

Tech News Chris Mills Sep 21 '15

What happens to your body one hour after eating a Big Mac?

When you first bite into a Big Mac, it is absolutely glorious. The two patties sandwiching the chewy bread in the middle with the lovely thousand island sauce mixing in with the pickles and lettuce, the taste is iconic. Add in fries and a sip of Coke in between bites and you have reached Fast…

Sploid Casey Chan Sep 21 '15

Nuclear Sausage Dog Demands Belly Rubs … Or Else

Melbourne, Australia held its first-ever “Running of the Wieners” dachshund race in honor of Oktoberfest this weekend. There was also a costume contest, and while we don’t know where li’l Xena placed, we will say this is the first time we’ve ever seen a dog dressed as a Cold War-era nuclear missile. Photo by Scott…

io9 Cheryl Eddy Sep 21 '15

How many gun shots and what caliber of bullet does it take to actually bust open a lock?

We see it in movies all the time, somebody needs to get passed a locked door? Shoot up that pad lock with your gun and boom, you’re clear on the other side. But does that actually work in real life? Demolition Ranch attempted to find out with different guns and different bullet calibers and a…

Sploid Casey Chan Sep 21 '15

Poster Art Has Never Looked As Slick As in These Eye-Popping Images

Even if you don’t know the name “Craig Drake,” odds are you recognize his style. The artist spent a good chunk of his early career at Lucasfilm and the company still uses his designs today. Now, Drake has a book of his posters on the way and we’ve got an exclusive first look. The Hero…

Books & Comics Germain Lussier Sep 21 '15

Symantec Issues Rogue EV Certificate for Google.com

On Friday, Google reported on its online security blog the faulty issuance of a certificate for google.com and www.google.com by Symantec, a prominent Certificate Authority. This misissuance is significant not only because it represents a breach in the core Internet trust mechanism; it was also the first of its kind with regards to the type…

Privacy & Security Bill Budington -- EFF Sep 21 '15

Discovery the Melancholy Chemistry of the Salt Print

Salt prints are one of the earliest photographic processes. The good news is you can still make them at home with a few chemicals. The bad news is they won’t be around for that long. People have been able to make “photos” for a surprisingly long time. All the way back in 1727, physicist Johann…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 21 '15

An Explanation for the Paradox of How We “See” Black Holes—Even Though They’re Invisible

One of the trickiest black hole concepts to grasp is also one of their most basic: Black holes don’t give off any light, so how do we still manage to “see” something that is functionally invisible? Here’s a tidy explanation of how that paradox works. Top image: Black hole artist’s concept / NASA It’s a…

io9 Ria Misra Sep 21 '15

This Short Film Offers a Delightfully Evil Spin on the Classic Disney-Style Love Story

In Cursed, a dialogue-free student short by Merel van den Broek and Nicole Derksen, a Disney-esque villain doesn’t quite know what to do with herself when she starts crushing on a dashing hero. Because even when you have magic powers, love doesn’t always go as planned… [Via Geek Art Gallery]

io9 Cheryl Eddy Sep 21 '15

At Scotland’s Crawick Multiverse Garden, You Can Look into the Void

Have you ever wanted to meander between two spiral galaxies, or follow in the footsteps of a comet? Now visitors to southwest Scotland’s Nith Valley can do just that. Welcome to the “Crawick Multiverse,” a massive installation created by renowned landscape architect Charles Jencks that gives symbolic physical form to some of our most abstract…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Sep 21 '15

You Probably Can’t Tell Your Toes Apart Without Looking at Them

Simple Collections of Gold Nanoparticles Can Develop Computational Abilities

You Can Now Order Starbucks via Mobile, Anywhere in the U.S.

4 Billion People Are Still Without Internet

Stephen Colbert on Hillary Clinton’s Social Media Campaign

New Coating Radiates Heat to Keep Solar Cells Cool—and More Efficient

How Low-Tech Farming Innovation Can Make African Farmers Climate-Resilient

9 Things You Can Now Do With Apple Watch That You Couldn’t Before

The New Google Wallet App is an Absurdly Easy Way to Send People Your Money

10 awesome bloopers that actually made it into the final cut of the movie

This Is What a Road Bike Might Look Like, If There Were No Design Rules

What happens to your body one hour after eating a Big Mac?

Nuclear Sausage Dog Demands Belly Rubs … Or Else

How many gun shots and what caliber of bullet does it take to actually bust open a lock?

Poster Art Has Never Looked As Slick As in These Eye-Popping Images

Symantec Issues Rogue EV Certificate for Google.com

Discovery the Melancholy Chemistry of the Salt Print

An Explanation for the Paradox of How We “See” Black Holes—Even Though They’re Invisible

This Short Film Offers a Delightfully Evil Spin on the Classic Disney-Style Love Story

At Scotland’s Crawick Multiverse Garden, You Can Look into the Void

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