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This Fleet Of Micro-Satellites Will Use GPS To Predict The Weather

Weather forecasting is one of those sciences that never seems to be quite as good as we want it to be. But what if it had more data? That’s the idea behind Spire, a tech startup which wants to use a huge fleet of tiny, cheap satellites to tell you when it’s going to rain.…

Incredibly Rare And Mysterious Deep-Sea Megamouth Shark Washes Ashore 

There have been fewer than 100 confirmed sightings of the megamouth shark, an elusive deep-sea species that uses its huge maw to trap tiny bits of plankton and krill. So when a 15-foot specimen washed ashore in the Philippines this week, scientists were more than overjoyed. Reports the Washington Post, “We know so little about…

Science is currently running a special issue on “The End of Privacy.” Topics range from drones the hackability of pacemakers to Facebook’s freakishly accurate facial-recognition algorithm to the challenges faced by NSA recruiters looking to recruit mathematicians in a post-Snowden era. Check it out.

These Balloonists Just Broke A Decades-Old Distance Record

In the surprisingly competitive world of long-distance ballooning, the world distance record is the holy grail — more or less the equivalent of the marathon record. Somewhere just off the San Fransisco coastline, two guys just broke that record — and they’re still flying. The US-Russian duo of Troy Bradley and Leonid Tiukhtyaev left Japan…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Fish Among The Trees

In this week’s writing prompt, twisting tree trunks and girls in dresses coexist with giant, luminous fish. Tell us what kind of world this happens in and what is going on in this illustration. “Dance in the Forest” is by artist kakotomirai, who has both a portfolio site and a deviantART gallery. As always, we…

Inside the Bunker Where Soviets Kept Their Secret Stash of Nukes 

During the Cold War, Hungary was one of the westernmost allies of the Soviet Union. As a member of the Warsaw Pact, Hungary had to station a significant number of Soviet troops and military equipment on its territory. Now we’ve gone inside one of their most classified bases, and taken pictures. Hungarians got used to…

Vibrating Wand Makes Your Guitar Sound Like a Different Instrument 

Inventor Paul Vo‘s latest crazy musical innovation is a hand-held wand that changes the sound of guitars like magic. Hold it up to a guitar string, and it’ll vibrate forever. Depending how you use the wand, it can sound like a perpetual flute or maybe a harp. With more advanced practice, you can make your…

The Dark Time Travel Paradox At The Heart Of Back To The Future

Time travel, as presented to us by Back To The Future, is basically a good deal: You get a hoverboard! You get to teach a gang of ’50s teenagers how to rock! You get to drink sodas at completely un-ironic diners! But while a DeLorean ride through time may seem all fun and games, there’s…

The FAA’s Drone Ban at the Super Bowl Is Absurd

You may have heard about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) quietly declaring that this year’s Super Bowl will be a “no drone zone.” You may not have heard just how big that no drone zone will be. It’s 60 miles wide. The no drone zone is larger than the city of Phoenix. Seems a little…

Hunting Ducks from a Folding Kayak

The folding Oru Kayak goes from flatpack to floating in just minutes. Tough enough for the real world? We took it down the Colorado River, armed with a shotgun, to find out. https://gizmodo.com/hunting-ducks-from-a-folding-kayak-1682584159

Hunting Ducks from a Folding Kayak

The folding Oru Kayak goes from flatpack to floating in just minutes. Tough enough for the real world? We took it down the Colorado River, armed with a shotgun, to find out. We all grew up hunting ducks. For most, it was in the form of 8-bit ducks on the original Nintendo. But, for the…

America Likes Science. It Does Not Like Scientists’ Findings.

Survey results published Thursday by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the American Academy for the Advancement of Science indicate most Americans hold science in high esteem, while revealing huge opinion gaps between scientists and the general public over issues like GMOs and anthropogenic climate change. The surveys’ key findings are highlighted in a…

Have We Hit Peak Food? 

Better question: what are we doing about peak food? The world hit peak wheat in 2004, peak eggs in 1993, and peak dairy way back 1989—all according to a recent study in Ecology and Society that leads to the worrisome conclusion we could be running out of food. The study looked at how the production…

The Gorgeous View From a Delivery Drone Over Hong Kong 

Drone delivery is inherently dangerous—regardless of how excited companies like Amazon are getting about the idea, the thought of airborne robots weaving in between skyscrapers and over cars is downright unnerving. That’s why it took months of preparation for a group of hobbyists to stage Hong Kong’s first drone delivery. The mission was to send…

Bill Gates has joined the growing chorus of concern over the potential risks of artificial superintelligence. He shared his thoughts in a recent Reddit AMA, writing: “I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.” He has now added his name to an open letter…

A Near-Collision Stretched This Galaxy Like A “Taffy Pull”

Why does this galaxy have such a long curvy tail coming off it? That river of sunlike stars, going into deep space, was pulled away from NGC 7714 due to the gravitational pull of a galaxy passing by. This galaxy was spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope in four separate exposures. NASA writes: Though the…

Suddenly, The 100 Turns Into Planet Of The Apes

There were a lot of great things going on in last night’s The 100, but one of the most memorable aspects of the episode was pretty darn weird. While the Grounders and the Sky People prepare for a massive battle, their two girl leaders need to bond — over a very large, very hairy enemy.…

We’ve already ogled Mondo‘s fantastic new poster for Alien by Tyler Stout. But upon closer inspection the poster ALSO says, “Soundtrack Available On Mondo Records.” Could we be getting a vinyl re-release of Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien score? God, we hope so. [via Bloody Disgusting]

​Tell Us About Your First Internet Community

The first thing I did when my family finally broke down and purchased internet service was disobey my mother. I’m sorry, Mom, but I made a ton of internet friends. It was the late 90s, and parent groups were convinced the internet super highway was nothing short of a pedophile’s gateway to fast and convenient…

Jurassic World and Avengers Lego games announced

Warner Brothers made the announcement today that we will be getting a few new Lego games in 2015. We are getting Lego: Jurassic World, Lego: Marvel’s Avengers and Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin. There are no release dates yet other than sometime this year for Jurassic World and Avengers, Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin releases…