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Shooting Challenge: Blood

You probably don’t know this, but June 14th is the World Health Organization’s worldwide day for blood donation. In observance, let’s take this opportunity to photograph an unlikely subject: blood. The Challenge Photograph blood. It can be real or fake. Human or hamburger or plant or a body of water during a red sunset or…

Why Needle And Thread Is Still Some Of The World’s Most Incredible Tech

If you’re compiling a list of the most important technologies of our age, you may start with the personal computer, phones, maybe a nod towards the highway system. But, hey, how about a needle and thread? Should that be in there, too? Yes, it should. Here’s why. io9’s comment of the day comes from commenter…

The Jurassic Park Science to Bring Back Dinosaurs Is Almost Here

Twenty five years ago, Michael Crichton captured our imaginations with the crazy idea that scientists might one day resurrect dinosaurs. But on the eve of Jurassic World’s release a quarter century later, the prospect of bringing back extinct creatures is looking a lot less science fictional. We’ll probably never bring back Tyrannosaurus rex. (Mosquitos with…

Twitter Just Made A Bulk Troll-Banishing Tool That’s Actually Useful

Twitter has a troll problem that’s never going to go away, but its most recent tool is the smartest thing Twitter has done to help users deal with abuse. You can now share lists of users you’ve blocked with other people getting harassed. By allowing people to import and export their lists of blocked users,…

Is That A Massive Stripe Streaking Across Pluto’s Surface?

The latest image of Pluto taken by the New Horizons spacecraft may have yielded the dwarf planet’s first prominent surface feature — a dark diagonal stripe that stretches from one side to the other. New Horizons took these two images 15 seconds apart on June 6 at a distance of 45.8 million kilometers. The images…

First Exclusive Look At The Mortification In My Brother Is A Superhero!

Imagine if your older brother was a superhero. Sounds cool, right? But not if said older brother was a total dork, who had no notion that with great power comes great style. Check out an exclusive excerpt from the new book My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons! Here’s the official synopsis for My…

The Typographer Whose Elegant Work Shaped Your Emoji

When we think of the people who shaped early computing history, we think of inventors, engineers, CEOs. We might not think of Hermann Zapf, the German type designer who died this week at 96. But we should. Zapf’s name might sound familiar to you. Maybe because it’s eponymous with several typefaces on your computer right…

What Would the American Version of Hogwarts Be Like?

Yesterday, author J.K. Rowling let it slip that there’s a U.S. school for wizards and witches in the world of Harry Potter, and it will be featured in the upcoming movies Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This has us wondering: Given American’s various educational issues, what will it be like? Have the students’…

The interesting science of how your blender works

If you think your blender is just a crazy powerful tornado smasher of things, you’re not wrong! But there’s also some other fascinating things going on inside of that do it all wonder device. And one of the secret weapons of a blender is the tiny little bubbles it creates. It’s called cavitation, when those…

Dewalt’s Bluetooth Batteries Can Be Shut Down To Deter Tool Thieves

To make it easier to manage the mountain of tools you’ll usually find on a construction site, and to help deter theft, Dewalt is introducing a new line of Bluetooth rechargeable batteries that can be connected to a smartphone app for checking their charge status—or remotely disabling them. The brand’s new 20V MAX 2.0 Amp…

Sony’s New 4K Cameras: Supercharged Guts For a Supercharged Price

Sony builds some of the world’s best camera technology—so good that even competitors like Apple and Nikon buy their sensors. Now, Sony’s cramming some never-before-seen, next-generation guts into three of its hottest cameras. The new A7R II, RX10 II, and RX100 IV are promising unheard of levels of performance. A7R II From the outside, it…

The New Batman Has Another, More Batman-y Costume

The identity of DC’s new Batman, making his official debut in today’s Batman #41, isn’t his most controversial aspect: It’s the hulking new “BatMech” outfit, which is a little less Dark Knight, and a little more Iron Avenger. But it turns out he has an alternate costume out of the suit that’s much more like…

Former BlackBerry Leader Tells Weird Lie About the Storm’s Return Rate

Intrigue! Mystery! Really shitty phones from 2008! We have a strange situation on our hands: The former co-CEO of BlackBerry recently broke his years-long silence on the company to reminisce about one of its worst failures, the BlackBerry Storm, but he told a weird lie that made the Storm sound like an even bigger trashcan…

Even Penny Dreadful Is Getting Excellent Action Figures These Days

And that’s not a knock against Penny Dreadful — I just never expected to see any merchandise for it, let alone some pretty dang fabulous action figures of Ethan and Vanessa. Need a period-dressed Eva Green action figure in your life? Look no further. The two figures are the latest in the multitude of San…

Ackbar’s 11 Is The Ocean’s 11/Star Wars Mashup We Didn’t Know We Needed

It’s been 18 years since Kevin Rubio combined combined Star Wars and COPS to give us the classic Internet video TROOPS. Now he’s back in the Star Wars mashup game, this time replacing the audio from the plot to destroy the Death Star with dialogue from the 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven — and it’s…

Fox Issues WARNING About Wearable Technology and Scary Hackers

Repairmen Show Up At A Mad Science Lab The Night The Experiments Escape

Tessa Stone’s violently funny webcomic really does have the perfect title: Not Drunk Enough. Because that’s certainly how repairman Logan feels when he and a coworker show up to a corporate lab for what should be a simple job — and find the place overrun by nightmarish monsters. In fairness, Logan’s night wasn’t going well…

Japan Plans to Explore Martian Moons With Asteroid-Probing Tech

Countries are scrambling to get to Mars in a good ol’ fashioned space race. But focus might be shifting to the red planet’s two moons. According to reports, Japan announced plans yesterday to bring its asteroid-probing technology to the tiny Martian satellites. JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, says it wants to scope out Phobos…

Alec Guinness Stars In The Best Science Fiction Movie You’ve Never Seen

No, not Star Wars. A full quarter century before he played Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alec Guinness starred in one of the purest, most science-focused science fiction films ever made. The Man in the White Suit is about scientific progress, and the law of unintended consequences, and it’s brilliant. The Man in the White Suit is an…

The Synchronous Fireflies Of The Smokies Are A Sight Unlike Any Other

Earlier this month, I visited the Smoky Mountain National Park in hopes of capturing the annual firefly “light show” on camera — but it took some seriously creative thinking to make it happen. Above: At the lower left-hand corner of my image, a female firefly seems to be rhythmically flashing while walking around a single…