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The 2014 Nobel Prize In Physics Goes To The Inventors Of The Blue LED

Congratulations goes out to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura. Some 20 years ago, they invented the blue light-emitting diode, an energy-efficient and environmentally efficient light source with revolutionary implications. This particular prize fits in well with Alfred Nobel’s mandate of rewarding scientists for inventions that conferred the greatest benefit to humanity. With the…

io9 George Dvorsky

This Historian Has Created the Greatest Medieval Costume Ever

There’s no shortage of medieval-ish costumes, like knights, monks, peasants and royalty. But, if you’re a hardcore historian and you want to flaunt your credentials, nothing quite says “medievalist” like dressing as an illuminated manuscript. Blogger and graduate student Amanda King describes how she designed a costume based on the Book of Kells, the famous…

Books & Comics Mark Strauss

Report: Facebook Is Going to Release an Anonymous Chat App

Facebook’s stance on real names drew criticism recently, and it looks like the social network is leaping vigorously in the other direction. Sources within the companytold the New York Times that Facebook plans to release an app that would let people talk anonymously. The company is working on a stand-alone mobile application that allows users…

Social Media Kate Knibbs

Inside the Booming Business of Kickstarter Coaches

Here’s a staggering statistic: Kickstarter backers pledge roughly $1.5 millionevery day. Crowdfunding is a big business, despite its image as a folksy, grassroots-style approach to money. It’s so big, in fact, that it’s spawning a cottage industry of professionals who can help you cash in on your idea. For a fee. Kickstarter turned five this…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

I can’t have enough of these metal milling videos

I think I want one of these German Datron M8Cube High-Speed Machining Center in my house. It would replace my TV. I would just turn it on to make random 3D models out of blocks of aluminum to watch it while I eat pizza all day long. Like this mold for a radio controlled quadrocopter.…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

OLED Wallpaper Could Be the Future of Lighting

It’s the Star Trek-inspired future we were promised—walls that glow and change color, perhaps with just a gentle voice command. And it’s finally (almost) possible thanks to a series of advances in OLED sheets. This new lighting solution also uses half as much energy than existing fluorescent lights. It is, however, pretty expensive. New OLED…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Upgrade Your Kitchen Gear, Cheaper Subscribe & Save, and More Deals

If you’ve never used Amazon Subscribe & Save before, you can get 50% off your first subscription right now. The catch is that you have to be an Amazon Prime member, and you can’t have had an “active subscription shipment for 6 months or more.” Unfortunately, anyone on a Prime free trial isn’t eligible, but…

Tech News Shep McAllister

John Noble Builds an Evil Diorama Because Sleepy Hollow Is Amazing

This week Sleepy Hollow takes a break from being The X-Files to hit a metaphorically-apt beat right out of Buffy: When an evil coin goes missing, Ichabod and Abbie must find it before it can unleash a wave of repressed hate. THRILL as sister turns against sister! GASP as Ichabod and the new guy smash…

Television Genevieve Valentine

Tuesday Game Room: Aliens that go Bump in the Night Edition

The first week of October is kicking off in a truly spooktacular style with the release of Alien Isolation to scare the living bejesus out of us – but that’s not all this week has to offer. Come talk video games in this week’s edition of Tuesday Game Room! What have you been playing this…

Tech News James Whitbrook

A Doctor Split Corpses’ Skin With An Ice Pick and It Was Really Useful

Karl Langer spent the 1800s doing some relatively gruesome experiments on cadavers. What he discovered is still of use to surgeons today. Karl Langer spent most of the 1850s attacking people with spikes. In his defense, those people were dead. Langer was interested in the underlying structure of the skin. The skin gets its semi-elastic…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

How To Turn Star Trek Into The Next Marvel Movie Universe

For anyone who has followed the film and television business in the last few years, they know one thing is true: mega-franchises are king. Right now, every studio is looking for its own version of Marvel’s universe. But Paramount has one sitting right under its nose, and it’s called Star Trek. Top image: Tobias Richter/The…

Movies Mark A. Altman

Book: The Lego Neighborhood Book–Build Your Own Town

Brian and Jason Lyles have released a new book, available on Amazon, that should be on the coffee table of every AFOL. This 200 page paperback, The Lego Neighborhood Book, will train you in the fundamentals of recreating popular architectural styles in Lego. I am a huge fan of the work that Brian does on…

Tech News Michael Schulte

You Are Not Who Your Browser History Says You Are

I’m a 26 year-old from Montreal, a 27 year-old in Vegas, and a retiree with a penchant for photography. Mostly I’m unemployed. I’m a gamer, a fashionista, an occasional beer drinker, and a dog owner. I graduated from a community college, I like to travel, and I wear glasses. Also, I might be Jewish. Last…

Privacy & Security Jer Thorp

This Origami Cardboard Shelf Makes Starting Campfires A Little Easier

Unless you’re on some reality show trying to prove your chops at wilderness survival, it’s not a crime to bring along tools that make camping a little easier. Like this simple fold-up cardboard shelf that makes it easy to get a campfire started if you’re too tired to scrounge for kindling. Part of Unikia’s Happy…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Inventors of the Blue LED Inside Nearly Every Device You Own Win Nobel

There’s pretty good chance you have a piece of this year’s physics Nobel prize-winning invention in your pocket. The blue light-emitting diode (LED) is found in the screens of millions of phones as well as our bright, new energy-efficient LED lightbulbs. Today, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded tothe three scientistswho made this revolutionary…

Physics & Chemistry Sarah Zhang

Hear Gillian Anderson Read From Her New Novel A Vision Of Fire!

X-Files star Gillian Anderson has co-written her first novel, A Vision of Fire, and we’ve got an exclusive taste of the audiobook, read by Anderson. Plus glimpses of some early cover concepts that were more X-Files-oriented. That’s just one of the books from Simon & Schuster’s new imprint Simon451. We talked to senior editor Sarah…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

This woman has one of the best, most badass jobs in the world

Liz Kaszynski has one of the best jobs in the world: She is one of the ten aerial photographers working at Lockheed Martin, taking pictures from the back of fighter jets and hanging from helicopter doors all over the world. Watch her talking about it here and be jealous (I am. Very.) SPLOID is a…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

From AIDS to Ebola, Why Is Global Health Security Failing?

Amid news that the number of Ebola cases had reached more than 6,000 in West Africa, public health and international security experts from around the world gathered in Washington, DC last week for a candid discussion of how the global community failed to contain the disease—and what lessons still needed to be learned. Science writer…

io9 Mark Strauss

Morgan Freeman Becomes E.T. and Other Age-Prediction Software Horrors

Yesterday, we got a look ata fun (if creepy) little bit of techthat claims to give us a peek at our grizzled, age-stricken faces in 20 years’ time. What we got wascertainly… something. So we decided to put the Future Self software to the real test, by inputting celebrities as they were 20 years ago…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Why Does Orange Juice Taste Terrible After Brushing Your Teeth?

Orange juice is many things: A fine source of Vitamin C, easy to get ahold of, and a pretty decent accompaniment to most items in the pantheon of great breakfast foods. What it is not at all, however, is a good thing to drink right after brushing your teeth. The American Chemical Society’s Reactions series…

io9 Ria Misra

The 2014 Nobel Prize In Physics Goes To The Inventors Of The Blue LED

This Historian Has Created the Greatest Medieval Costume Ever

Report: Facebook Is Going to Release an Anonymous Chat App

Inside the Booming Business of Kickstarter Coaches

I can’t have enough of these metal milling videos

OLED Wallpaper Could Be the Future of Lighting

Upgrade Your Kitchen Gear, Cheaper Subscribe & Save, and More Deals

John Noble Builds an Evil Diorama Because Sleepy Hollow Is Amazing

Tuesday Game Room: Aliens that go Bump in the Night Edition

A Doctor Split Corpses’ Skin With An Ice Pick and It Was Really Useful

How To Turn Star Trek Into The Next Marvel Movie Universe

Book: The Lego Neighborhood Book–Build Your Own Town

You Are Not Who Your Browser History Says You Are

This Origami Cardboard Shelf Makes Starting Campfires A Little Easier

Inventors of the Blue LED Inside Nearly Every Device You Own Win Nobel

Hear Gillian Anderson Read From Her New Novel A Vision Of Fire!

This woman has one of the best, most badass jobs in the world

From AIDS to Ebola, Why Is Global Health Security Failing?

Morgan Freeman Becomes E.T. and Other Age-Prediction Software Horrors

Why Does Orange Juice Taste Terrible After Brushing Your Teeth?

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