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The Secret Meaning Of Jurassic World: “Hey, Let’s All Fall In Love”

Now that you’ve seen Jurassic World, now’s a great time to check out our in-depth, revealing interview with director Colin Trevorrow. He talks about the themes of the movie, how to make the “monster movie” action fresh in the age of Sharktopus… and why Bryce Dallas Howard never takes her heels off.

Elon Musk: The Tech Maverick Making Tony Stark Look Dull

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa, just as the Space Race was drawing to a close. It seems as though he had missed the best bits – so perhaps that is what inspired by the man who would later spend his billions on doing his damndest to kickstart humanity back into the…

Uber’s Raising a Billion Dollars to Make China its Largest Global Market

China’s gobbling Uber up. And it’s about to see a lot more of the black cab ride-hailing service, according to a letter leaked to The Financial Times last Thursday, in which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick revealed his intentions to raise over a billion dollars to expand UberChina. Uber is still dwarfed in China by competitor…

Here’s The Final Oculus Rift, Coming In Early 2016

This is it: the final consumer version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. It’s coming Q1 2016, and it looks just like the version that leaked two days ago! We went to see Oculus’s announcement live in San Francisco. Here’s the scoop. We’re not getting raw specs or a price point today, but Oculus…

Saturn’s Ghostly Outer Ring is Mind Blowingly Massive

Almost every time we have a look, Saturn seems to become even more incredible. Space rain falls from icy rings into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Two of its moons, Titan and Enceladus, are among the best candidates in our solar system for finding alien life. The latest revelation? Saturn’s faint, outermost ring is an absolute…

Orphan Black Answers The Question We’ve Been Asking Since The Pilot

Orphan Black sent a few of its characters abroad this week in search of answers — and boy, did they find a big, weird one. But the best storyline of the week happens at home, when one of our Leda clones makes a very deep — and violent — familial connection. From the moment that…

In the beginning, Little Golden Books were either based on classic fairy tales or featured wholly original stories and characters. But that all changed in 1944, when the publishers signed a licensing agreement with Disney, which has been in place ever since. via Mentalfloss

Jurassic World Conquers The Weekend Box Office With Record Debut

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World has pulled in an astonishing $204.6 million debut in North America, and $511.8 million worldwide. The film has overtaken Avengers: Age of Ultron’s record take in the United States (although it hasn’t quite overtaken the original Avengers film from 2012), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the…

Student Calls For Eradication Of Graphic Novels From English Course

A student enrolled at Crafton Hills College has protested the inclusion of a number of graphic novels in the curriculum for her English 250 course. Tara Shultz, along with her parents and friends have called for the “eradic[ation] [of the books] from the system,” and have complained to the College’s administrators over their inclusion. The…

Academic Publishing Giant Fights to Keep Science Paywalled

One of the world’s largest academic publishing companies wants to scrub the internet of pirated science. That’d be Elsevier, which recently filed a complaint at a New York district court against Library Genesis and SciHub.org, two massive online hubs for scientific research articles. The sites, which are both popular in developing countries like India and…

Afghanistan’s Destroyed Buddhas Given New Life As Holograms

In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a pair of giant statues dating to the 6th century in the Bamyan valley in central Afghanistan. Now, the statues have been resurrected with 3D light projection technology. A Chinese couple, Janson Yu and Liyan Hu worked to develop a projector at the cost of…

I Want This Insanely Customizable Keyboard to Exist Now

Think about how many keyboard shortcuts you’ve memorized. Now think about how much better your life would be if you knew a hundred, or a thousand, more. Why force ourselves to memorize shortcuts anyway, when we now have the technology to build infinitely customizable screens? Why, indeed? With its new keyboard concept, Sonder is offering…

Peeno Noir Meets Game Of Thrones In Jaqen H’ghar 

Titus Andromedon’s song ‘Peeno Noir’ from Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was a catchy earworm, and now, comedy group Practical Folks take the tune to Westeros. Disclaimer: we bear no responsibility this getting stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You clicked that button, not us.

Watch This 10 Thousand Dollar Apple Gold Watch Get Crushed By Magnets

There’s destruction porn, and then there’s destroying the most absurd luxury item you can get your hands on, just because. Of course, I’m talking about Apple’s 18k, 10 thousand dollar gold timepiece. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought of it. Most of us would never have the balls or spare chunk change to actually do…

The World in 2100, According to NASA’s New Big Dataset

The image you’re looking at is a glimpse into our future. Welcome to July 2099, according to 21 different climate models. CO2 concentrations have topped 900 parts per million, comprising nearly 0.1 percent of our atmosphere. (In early 2015, we hit 400). The predictions shown in this daily max temperature map come from a new…

The Philae Lander Has Woken Up!

This morning, the Philae Lander has re-awoken from its hibernation on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, according to a blog post from the European Space Agency. Rosetta’s lander Philae wakes up from hibernation The lander has been in hibernation mode since November, after coming to rest in a shady part of the comet’s surface. Now, with the comet…

MIT Scientists Can Now 3D Print Optically Transparent Glass

3D printing has become a cheap and versatile way of creating new solid objects — but some materials have so far refused to be shaped using the manufacturing technology. Now, researchers at MIT have finally developed a way to 3D print optically transparent glass. While it’s easy enough to 3D print using all kinds of…

Tracing Lines Across The Sky

This spectacular image comes from photographer Constantine Emmanouilidi. Taken from the top of Mount Athos, Greece, it shows just how busy the night sky can be. Photography credit: Constantine Emmanouilidi, via Earth Science Picture of the Day.

Glorious Night Sky Captured With Nikon’s New Astrophotography DSLR

If you’ve never seen the night sky shimmer and glow like this one does, don’t feel bad: your human eyes simply aren’t good enough. But with technology, skilled astrophotographers are able to pull back the veil and reveal the unseen glory of the cosmos. The starry sky above was captured by Adam Woodworth late last…

[F]or Noor Hashem, a Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Humanities, [G. Willow] Wilson’s Alif is a prime example of how a growing number of Muslim fiction writers are turning to genres like science fiction, fantasy, and comics to navigate Muslim identity and aesthetics in a post-Sept. 11 world.