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“Motion Magnification” Reveals Vibrations Invisible to the Naked Eye

A crane towering over a construction site might look rock solid to the naked eye, but new video processing software developed by researchers at MIT is able to accentuate and reveal its subtle motions as it sways back and forth in the wind. And it promises to have a devastating effect on enrollment at crane…

Recover Memories Of Monsters Only You Can See To Survive Apocrypha

In the Apocrypha Adventure Card Game, the world is beset by monsters only some people can see and a looming apocalypse only some people know about. We talked to creator Mike Selinker about Apocrypha’s connection to Pathfinder, how it can be both a card game and an RPG, and what The Cure’s Disintegration album has…

Scientists Make History By Genetically Modifying Human Embryos

After weeks of speculation, it can finally be confirmed that geneticists in China have modified the DNA of human embryos. It’s a watershed moment in biotech history, but the experiment may ultimately serve as a major setback in the effort to responsibly develop beneficial interventions involving the human germline. Rumors about the experiment had been…

The IRS Hung Up on 8 Million People This Tax Season

Thanks, Obama! Wait, no, seriously—that’s who Republicans really are blaming for the massive shortage in customer service help from the IRS this season, during which hang-ups on the IRS’s tax helpline rose from 360,000 last year to 8 million in 2015. Image: AP Photo/J. David Ake The AP details a new report on these “courtesy…

A Touch-Sensitive Belt Lets You Subtly Control a Wearable Display

The first time around, Google Glass wasn’t exactly a runaway hit. But the technology behind it will certainly be improved to the point where it can eventually be integrated into a regular pair of glasses. And for when that day gets here, there’s now a novel and subtle way to navigate your wearable display using…

Who wins when a fire hose and a flamethrower shoot at each other?

Rock, paper, scissors. Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissor beats paper. How do those holiest of rules apply to fire and water? Well, let’s blast a water hose at a flame thrower while the flame thrower is firing off at the water hose to find out. Guess who’s the winner? Duh, it was water.…

Get the Best Apple Watch Features on Android Wear

The long wait for the Apple Watch is almost over, but wait one second—you don’t necessarily have to rush out and spend $349 (or more) to get some of its most useful features on your wrist. You can add these tweaks and third-party apps to Android Wear to get a more Apple Watch-like experience from…

What Invention Would Finally Make You Feel Like You Live In The Future?

Whether you’re stuck on a jetpack, looking out for a superhighway of flying cars, or just waiting for a battalion of homicidal robots to do battle with in the depths of a megacity, we want to know about the technology that would make you feel like the future had finally arrived. Tell us in the…

Want to Be a Player in Your Own Video Game?

Last year, we got the chance to try playing a video game with an avatar of ourselves, thanks to a camera system which creates a complete 3D model of your person. Since most of us don’t have 90 spare cameras and a supercomptuer lying around, it’s a hard-to-repeat experience. That’s why designer Alexx Henry is…

Tesla’s New Battery Could Solve One of Solar Power’s Biggest Problems

So far, specific details are thin on the new battery designed for home use that Tesla’s announcing next week. But just based on what we do know, it’s a pretty big deal. The quest for a good battery that can store home-generated power is kind of like the holy grail for a renewable energy future.…

Brewing Booze And Animal Husbandry Have More In Common Than You Think

Brewers of alcoholic beverages aren’t just making drinks — they’re managing, and sometimes even breeding, specialized herds of tiny lifeforms which perform specific functions: yeasts. One function that yeast can be bred for is flocculation, which means “grouping together in clumps.” Different strains of brewers yeast do it at different times. This isn’t just a…

New E Ink Whiteboards Work Like Grownup Magna Doodles

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have dusted off some E Ink technology originally developed back in the 1970s to create a new kind of easily erasable whiteboard technology that can be written on using magnetic pens instead of dry-erase markers. If you’re unfamiliar with how the black and white E Ink displays in devices…

Henry Cavill Explains Why Batman v. Superman Isn’t Man Of Steel 2

Witness the Birth of the Vision and Scott Lang stealing the Ant-Man suit, in new clips from Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. Simon Pegg discusses Idris Elba’s role in the next Star Trek film. Will everyone make it out out alive at the end of Gotham’s first season? Plus more Doctor Who monster glimpses. Spoilers…

We’re Getting Some Amazing Ghostbusters Action Figures Soon

Diamond Select have had the Ghostbusters license for ages, but for the first time, they’re actually going to make a line of figures based on the franchise — and they’re looking pretty damn awesome. The planned line of 12 figures begins with Stanz, Zeddemore and Louis Tully (of course they’re gonna drag out the individual…

“Are We Alone?” NASA Just Got Serious About the Search for Alien Life

NASA ups its alien-searching game, LG’s got a stylus-focused smartphone to show off, and tablets get even thinner (can you believe it?). BitStream is the news and rumors you missed in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, NASA launched NExSS. No, this isn’t some fancy satellite, an extraterrestrial rover, or a NASA/Google smartphone. Instead, it’s a…

It is almost unbelievable that the B-2 is more than 25 years old—they still look like they’re from the future. In this photo, a B-2 is refueled by a KC-10A during a training mission near Whiteman Air Force Base on April 11th. [Staff Sgt. Brian Kelly/U.S. Air Force]

Anime Film The Boy and the Beast Gets a Glorious Action-Filled Trailer

It’s a fighting and training montage of a young human boy learning from his supernatural bear master. It looks so awesome. This English-subtitle version of the trailer was released by the Australian distributor of The Boy and the Beast, Madman Entertainment. The film was written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through…

Shock Diamonds Are a Pilot’s Best Friend

This recently published photo of an F-35B going supersonic during twilight testing is stunning. The blue-hour moment, the burning colors of the setting sun, the ragged high altitude clouds—and the afterburner, with about ten shock diamonds. Magical. [Lockheed Martin]

Why Not Try This Newly Discovered 1,900-Year-Old Hangover Cure?

Most people like a drink—even the ancient Egyptians, it seems. While sifting through ancient texts, researchers have found a reference to a “drunken headache cure” that was used 1,900 years ago. The suggested cure was found amongst 500,000 texts originally found during archaeological investigations of Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, back in 1915. The scraps of papyrus…

Solitaire Is Making a Comeback on Windows 10

Following user feedback, Microsoft decided to reinstate the Start Menu in Windows 10. Now, it seems Solitaire is being brought back to life, too. As The Verge points out, while modern version of everyone’s favorite Windows games—Minesweeper! Hearts!—have been available on the Windows Store all the while, they’ve been conspicuously absent since Windows 8. Now,…