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MIT’s Flatpack Furniture Assembles Itself In Seconds

The last time we checked in with MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, it was showing off video proof of a chair that assembles itself in water. Now, the team has uploaded video of its latest project: A flatpack table that does the assembly itself. The lab calls it “programmable” furniture, and while that implies that this table…

Some Of The Most Amazing Dirt Cheap Homemade Robots Ever Built

Robots have come a long way in the past few decades — but some of the coolest advances in robotics haven’t come from huge companies or massive university labs. Makers, inventors, tinkerers and builders have been creating some to-die-for robots for years now. Check out some videos of the very best DIY cheap robots. PET,…

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Newly discovered frog species looks a lot like Kermit the Frog

We’ve found Kermit the Frog in real life and it’s a species of glassfrog just recently discovered called Hyalinobatrachium dianae in Costa Rica. It’s bright green just like Kermit, has big white adorable eyeballs just like Kermit and the males have a very unique mating call… just like Kermit, I guess? Anyway, the resemblance is…

Crickets Alone Will Not Save You, Futurist Foodies

“Eating bugs is a great idea!” shout future-minded gourmets, the kinds of people who eat waxworm tacos willingly and feed bug cookies to their coworkers. But are insects like crickets and grasshoppers really the solution to our environmental and food-security woes? Well… maybe not. Not entirely, at least. https://gizmodo.com/i-ate-fried-caterpillars-and-so-can-you-512202482 https://gizmodo.com/bug-eating-is-a-great-idea-and-we-should-all-be-doing-m-1494525087 https://gizmodo.com/should-you-really-start-eating-insects-509900937 At Real Future, Alexis…

Twitter’s Inexplicable New Settings Highlight Problems with Abuse

So Twitter created a rather obscure new setting in its privacy menu called “Receive Direct Messages from Anyone.” Now, people you don’t follow can send you a direct message, or DM, in private. Here’s why this setting got people’s knickers in a bunch — for some pretty good reasons. First of all, the whole point…

This Thesis Defense Was Livestreamed From In The Pacific Ocean

Today, Mike Irvine defended his thesis in a pinstripe suit and scuba gear underwater from a dive site in the Pacific Ocean. With his committee connected by a livestreamed teleconference, the first submarine defense was a proof-of-concept for his research on how marine web cameras are impacting ocean education. Irvine defended his thesis from a…

The Best Of Star Wars Celebration In One Video 

Here is a comprehensive look at almost everything from this past weekend’s Star Wars Celebration including clips of panels, cosplay and video straight from the floor. Here’s our personal point of view from inside the belly of the Sarlacc Sidenote: the tattoo in the footage is from artist Mike Bianco. Video by Meredith Woerner and…

There’s A Strange Paradox In The Premise Of Jurassic World

For as long as the scientists in Jurassic Park has been brewing up in wingless dragons in its labs, the results of their experiments have all had one thing in common: none of them were real dinosaurs. So what makes their latest monstrosity so different? In response to the newest Jurassic World trailer — which…

How To Live The Cabin Dream Without Giving Up Netflix

Editor’s Note: Contrary to Gawker Media editorial policy, Gizmodo briefly deleted this post after the subjects claimed that they had been portrayed without their consent. It has been republished with the names of all but one of the subjects, the name of a company they work for, and one photograph of one of the subjects…

Here’s What The World’s Tallest Residential Building Will Look Like

The supertall race in Midtown Manhattan is marching skyward at an astonishing rate, with at least four towers on West 57th Street destined to be among the world’s tallest. Now we have some official-official images of the Nordstrom Tower, which, at 1,775 feet, will at some point be the tallest residential building on the planet.…

It’s The 174th Birthday Of The Detective Story, So Read The Very First!

Or re-read, more likely. Take a coffee break and enjoy Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in 1841 in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentlemen’s Magazine (and written before the word “detective” was in use). Read it via the Poe Museum’s website, among other short-story selections, here. Image via Biography.com

Dawn Is Arriving At Ceres, And The View Is Getting Pretty Sweet

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is settling into its first orbit around dwarf planet Ceres. And as you can see from this newly released animation, the view is getting to be quite spectacular. These images were taken by Dawn on April 14 and 15 from a distance of 14,000 miles (22,000 km). Each pixel represents about 1.3…

Silicon Valley’s Sendup of Kickstarter Culture Is Perfect 

The line between satire and just accurately portraying The Way We Tech Now is very, very thin on Silicon Valley. “Runway Devaluation” has a plot that manages to be utterly silly and completely plausible. The writers have the slick, rampant techno-corpo-speak down cold, and this episode’s send-up of dumb novelty apps and Kickstarter culture is…

US Marines leaving a Super Stallion helicopter looks like a movie scene

Yup, real life is cooler than the movies. Especially when that life is of a US Marine. Here are five Marines walking away from a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in the desert in a training exercise. It looks more badass and perfectly picturesque than any still from a Hollywood military movie. The US Marines write:…

The Last Issue Of Hawkeye Has Been Delayed… Again

Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye series was one of Marvel’s biggest surprise hits when it began in 2012, but fans are still waiting for the last issue — and they’ll be waiting a little while longer. Hawkeye #22 has been pushed back again until June 10th. Hawkeye #22 was originally due for release in…

FBI Admits Flawed Forensics May Have Led To Wrongful Convictions 

The FBI and the Justice Department admitted that flawed forensic testimony over more than 20 years — particularly pertaining to hair analysis — may have led to wrongful convictions in hundreds of cases, including 14 instances where a possibly innocent defendant was executed or died in prison. The Washington Post, which broke the story in…

7 Endangered Examples of the Most Hated Architectural Style Ever

It’s hard to find a more polarizing architecture—even among scholars it’s most likely to be described as “ugly,” “unloved,” or even “hated.” I’m talking about Brutalism, the blocky unfinished concrete style which used to be very common in cities around the world, but is now being demolished at an astounding rate. Although you may rightly…

The Chemistry Of Fraudulent Photographs

In the 1970s, newly-discovered pictures of “Victorian waifs” were a hit with both historians and art collectors. The chemistry seemed right. The context . . . not so much. But people only learned that too late. In 1974, the work of Francis Hetling delighted the academic world. Hetling was a diarist and amateur photographer. He’d…

Stunning elevator ride up One World Trade Center shows 515 years of NYC

Beautiful. Breathtaking. Tragic. Saddening. Historic. The new One World Trade Center’s observatory has elevators that display a 515-year visual timeline of New York City’s skyline and it’s an incredible view. Like if you were in a glass elevator and watching history unfold right before your eyes. As the elevator climbs the 102 stories, you get…