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People Are So Damn Blasé About the Vampire Apocalypse on The Strain

So New York City is flooded with vampires who wander the streets at night, murdering hundreds of people. As the only people capable of stopping this insanity, you hold the fate of several million survivors in your hands. What do you do? If you answered “Take swimming lessons”, congratulations! You’re a character on The Strain.…

Costco and Sam’s Club Shut Down Photo Sites After Hackers Break In

Last week, hackers breached CVS’s photo site, so the company shut down its photo service to deal with potential credit card theft. But CVS wasn’t the only company affected. Now, Costco, Sam’s Club, Rite Aid, and dozens of other retailers that used the same photo service hosting company as CVS are temporarily shutting down photo…

NASA’s Incredible Expedition to Explore the Arctic Ice Sheets

Every spring, the scientists and flight crew of Operation Ice Bridge fly low over the Arctic, studying the Greenland ice sheet and nearby sea ice with high-resolution digital and thermal imaging cameras, a sophisticated radar suite, a laser altimeter, and other instruments. The team just returned from its seventh Arctic mission: 10 weeks in Greenland…

This Tiny iPhone Charger Has 128GB of Extra Storage Built Right In

Leaving home without your smartphone’s charging cable is as disastrous as forgetting the device itself. That’s why ultra-compact charging cables are suddenly so popular, and with 128GB of extra storage onboard, PhotoFast’s new MemoriesCable might be the only one iPhone users will want to consider. The iPhone and iPad are notorious for their lack of…

Hackers Have the Power to Remotely Hijack Half a Million Chrysler Cars

An ongoing investigation into the security of Chrysler vehicles bears some pretty startling conclusions. In a couple of weeks, security researchers will reveal the details of a zero-day exploit that affects some 471,000 cars. Put bluntly: Hackers can take complete control of the cars from thousands of miles away. Longtime car hackers Charlie Miller and…

How The Walking Dead uses special effects to fake gory zombie kills

The Walking Dead is probably one of the goriest and grossest shows on television because all they do is kill zombies. And though zombies are not real (yet, at least), the blood and gore look real because of all the amazing special effects on the show. Here’s a reel from Stargate Studios showing their best…

About one out of every 20,000 people born with male genitalia has two X chromosomes. One X holds an SRY gene, which induces male development in mammalian embryos and is normally found on the Y chromosome. In a fascinating article at Smithsonian, Viviane Callier explains how SRY can make the jump from Y to X.…

Even DC’s Comic Book Figures Are Getting On The Batman v Superman Trend

Next year will be a pretty big year for DC, as Batman v Superman marks their first tentative foray into a new cinematic universe. That means merchandise out the wazoo—and not just movie stuff. DC collectibles would like to remind you where the movie all started, with two figures from The Dark Knight Returns. Revealed…

Which Book From Today Is Destined to Become a Classic?

Some books are timeless—but even timeless books have to get their start somewhere. Today we want to know about the books that you believe are new classics. Tell us in the comments what the book is and who wrote it. Be sure to include what about it makes it so likely to stand the test…

How Much Radiation Does the Human Body Emit?

How much of a dose of radiation do you get by snuggling up against your significant other for a year? Unless they’re glowing green, it’s a small dose, but it’s not nothing. We’ll tell you how much radiation you, and the people around you, emit. Radiation isn’t only made by humans. Naturally-occurring radioactive particles are…

Welcome to Mcity: The Fake Town Built for Testing Driverless Cars

It’s been a tough road for driverless cars: We recently learned, for example, that all of the crashes involving Google’s test-phase autonomous vehicles have been caused by humans. Which is one of the reasons experts have just opened up a testing center in Michigan that’s trying to recreate the chaos of the human-built street in…

How to Protect Your Android Phone Before You Lend It Out

Your nephew wants to play Boom Beach, or your best friend needs to use Facebook, or a stranger in the street needs to make a phone call. How do you make sure your Android handset is going to come back in one piece? Android Lollipop includes a couple of useful features to keep your device…

Martin Freeman Teases His Role In Captain America: Civil War!

When will an iconic superheroine show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Lucy Lawless has bad news about that Xena revival. Peter Capaldi teases his favorite moment from Doctor Who’s next season. Plus, brief teasers for The Bastard Executioner, and a new look at The Flash’s new costume. To me, my spoilers! Captain America: Civil…

Build a Custom Multi-Functional USB-C Hub With These Modular Bricks

USB-C promises to be the all-in-one cable we’ve all dreamed about, but the first companies to adopt it are being stingy about how many ports they give us. It means USB expansion hubs are en vogue again, and the Cusby is the first to let you custom build one for your specific needs. Available through…

What’s It Like Being a Private Eye? The Star of Cry Wolfe Tells All

Private investigator Brian Wolfe may be based in Southern California, but his New England roots are unmistakable, thanks to his pronounced Boston accent. In the detective biz since 1990, his colorful career now provides material for his Investigation Discovery TV show, Cry Wolfe. Each episode dramatically reenacts a case from Wolfe’s files, with names and…

Why Does This Rhino Have a Camera in Its Horn?

This rhino is loaded with technology: it has a camera embedded in its horn, a GPS transmitter around its neck and a heartrate monitor tracking its pulse. But it’s not just some weird wearables experiment—it’s an attempt to stop poaching. The new slew of rhino technology is known as RAPID—Real-time Anti-Poaching Intelligence Device—and it was…

Inside Secret British Tunnels Where WW2 Radar Precursors Were Tested

This long, dark tunnel may look old, but back in the 1940s it was home to something more modern: the precursors of radar technology that were being used by the British Army. The facility, situated beneath the White Cliffs of Dover on the UK’s south coast, have recently been opened to the public by the…

Stephen Hawking Backs $100m Search for Aliens

The Breakthrough Listen project is our latest attempt to see if any other civilisations have made it through the Great Filter without destroying themselves in radioactive fires, investing $100m in the neverending hunt for aliens clever enough to have invented telly and satellites. The mission will use two of the largest radio telescopes on earth…

Toshiba’s CEO Has Quit Over a $1.2 Billion Profit Scandal

Toshiba has announced that its CEO, Hisao Tanaka, is resigning because the company exaggerated its operating profits by a staggering $1.2 billion over the past six years. A team of financial investigators has discovered an environment of intimidation which led to the massive accounting lapses. The BBC reports that the investigators wrote: “Within Toshiba, there…

The Case for Unlimited Tablet Time for Toddlers

This sounds extreme, but first let me ask: how many parents do you think actually keep track of their kids’ screen time? If the TV is on but one of the children wanders out of the room, does that count? What if they’re following along to a yoga video? What if the kid borrows Mom’s…