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Why Do Radio Signals Travel Farther at Night Than in the Day?

Not all radio waves travel farther at night than during the day, but some, short and medium wave, which AM radio signals fall under, definitely can given the right conditions. The main reason this is the case has to do with the signal interacting with a particular layer of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere,…

Good morning, Berlin

Berlin is not only one of the most vibrant cities in Europe—thanks to its food, clubs, cultural life, and the other thousand things you can do there. The city itself is unique. Its architecture is stunning and full of contrasts, a constant reminder of the clash between communism and capitalism—and their imperialism. Take a virtual…

We finally know who is writing the next draft of Gareth Edwards’ standalone film: Chris Weitz, writer-director of The Golden Compass and director of Twilight: New Moon. Weitz, whose writing credits include About a Boy and this year’s live-action Cinderella, will follow Gary Whitta, who left after completing a first draft of the Star Wars…

This Twitter Bot Creates Beautifully Abstract Images Out of Your Tweets

You should tweet Lowpoly Bot a picture. Because when you do, you’ll get a wonderfully abstracted version sent right back to you. Created by artist Mario Klingemann, the Twitter bot uses algorithms to automatically convert photos into polygonal images. They’re beautiful, and anyone can use the service—as long as you don’t mind waiting in line…

Watch This Reflected Laser Pulse’s Entire Flight Path at 20bn FPS

The technology available to image light as it moves through space continues to advance. Recently, we saw a new high-speed camera capture a small pulse reflected from a mirror; now, it’s possible to image the entire flight path of a laser as it bounces around a laboratory. This footage shows a new experimental set-up developed…

Star Wars and Jurassic Park trailers animated in cool neon lights

Digital illustrator Neonardo created these neat videos showing the trailers of Star Wars The Force Awakens and Jurassic Park as if they were made with neon lights. Someone should give this guy money to make an entire movie like that. Star Wars The Force Awakens teaser trailer Jurassic Park You can follow Neonardo on Twitter…

Ten Years of Research Has Produced the Piano of the Future

How long has it been since there’s been a revolutionary new piano? The piano we’re all used to seeing became the standard in the late 1800s, and now Hungarian pianist Gergely Bogányi has designed one that looks like it could be on a spaceship. The new design, produced by Bogányi and an assortment of engineers,…

How Radical 70s Scientists Tried to Change the World

In the 1970s, radical scientists thought they could change the world – if they could change science first. As told to Alice Bell. There’s a smell in Battersea, south-west London. Today, there are streams of the internet devoted to a whiff of toast commuters notice on the train over the river. It’s something to do…

Lifetime’s Clan of the Cave Bear Has Its Star

Millie Brady, model and actress soon to be seen in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mary, will play the lead in Lifetime’s adaptation of Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear. The TV show, written by Linda Woolverton (Maleficent), is based on only the first book in the series. Brady will play Ayla,…

Judge the Depth of Snow By Looking at Passing Dogs 

Overnight, three feet of snow is set to blanket the east coast. Or, if you don’t have a tape measure to gauge the fall, approximately one dog’s worth. This slightly off-the-wall visualization by the BBC shows you how passing dogs should measure up to the scheduled snow fall, shown as the dashed line. If you…

This Is What a Blood Clot Looks Like Close-Up

This image looks like it could the a colorful underwater coral reef or a child’s breakfast cereal strewn across the floor. But it is, in fact, what a blood clot looks like if you zoom right in. The image, called The Clot Thickens, is the winner of The British Heart Foundation’s annual Reflections of Research…

Jon Pertwee’s TARDIS Is Looking Much The Worse For Wear

Apparently this is the actual TARDIS prop used by Doctor Who back in the Jon Pertwee era — which seems believable, since it was pretty battered-looking back in 1971 and the intervening decades probably haven’t been kind. Makes me kind of nostalgic for the days when the TARDIS was less imposing and shiny. Photo via…

Lizard Squad Claims to Take Down Facebook, Instagram (Update: No They Didn’t)

Overnight, reports circulated about Facebook and Instagram going dark. Now, Lizard Squad is claiming to have taken down a large handful of sites—albeit briefly. Reports suggest that Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, MySapce, AIM and Hipchat at the very least were affected by the alleged attack. All those sites are definitely now back up and running properly,…

With the Blizzard Comes These Star-Shaped Snowflakes

The northeast of the United States is in the midst of a blizzard, which could bring a potentially historic amount of snow to New York City. But earlier today, before temperatures drop and the snow covers everything, these large, star-shaped snowflakes were spotted all over the city. Weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce explained that all of…

Here’s a super fun video of the best sword fights in film history

Maybe because the idea of fighting with swords today seems so impossibly dangerous and probably because seeing steel on steel clang and cut flesh is just so damn viscerally satisfying but there’s few things more riveting to see on screen than watching two or more actors try to kill each other with a sword. Here…

First Glimpse Of Fantastic Four Costumes Reveals A “Cronenberg-ian” Look

Just how different will the new Fantastic Four movie be from the versions we’ve seen before? Very different, it seems. Collider has a new interview with director Josh Trank. And this first look at this version of the Fantastic Four’s outfits. And, well… it’s bluer when you expand it to full-size and look closely? Trank…

This Star Model Is Based On Nothing But Shadows

Saturn’s rings are already mind-blowingly large — about 70,000 kilometres across — but astronomers at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have found a much more extensive ring system. At least, they think they have — all they can actually see are shadows. The discovery of the rings came about during observation of star j1407,…

A Brief History Of Emergency Alerts On Your Phone

As I sit here, in my calm, non-snowpocalpysed city reading Twitter, there’s one definite theme emerging from blizzard-bound New Yorkers: alcohol is a good coping mechanism! But also, everyone is getting unsolicited alerts about the weather on their phones. Here’s why. Although it might seem natural in a post-Yo world that your phone will tell…

Best Iain M. Banks tribute ever. Elon Musk tweeted thathe’s naming two SpaceX droneships after Culture ships in Banks’ The Player of Games. One drone ship will be called Just Read The Instructions, and the other will be Of Course I Still Love You. [via Tor.com]

Keanu Reeves couldn’t kick in The Matrix–and six other factoids

CineFix sums up Keanu Reeves in The Matrix hilariously: he gets his ass kicked, learns to kick ass and then promptly kicks everyone’s ass. The problem that you maybe didn’t know? Keanu actually couldn’t kick in the movie’s epic fight scenes. He had spinal surgery before filming which prevented him from kicking so fight scenes…