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Samsung Galaxy Alpha Review: Beautiful, Comfortable, Flawed

Technology obsession can border on the pornographic. Extreme close-ups capture every detail, gush over every curve. People describe soulless bits of plastic and metal as “attractive” and “stunning.” (We draw the line at “sexy.”) For a premium smartphone to make it in this vain consumer world, it needs to look the part. That’s what Samsung’s…

Report: Google Is Working On Huge, Lego-Like Modular Displays

The Wall Street Journal says that a crack team of Google researchers is trying to build a modular super-screen, one that snaps together from a whole bunch of smaller displays to create a seamless image. A screen made of dozens of screens! The report, based on info from three anonymous people familiar with the project,…

The World’s Biggest and Best Gas Turbine Can Power 400,000 Homes

If you thought theGE90 aircraft engine was a masterpiece of modern engineering, just get a load of this beauty. General Electric’s 9HA is the most advanced and efficient gas turbine available today and though it may not be able to lift a 787 off the ground, this potent electricity producer can easily power a mid-size…

Did You Know Meth Has Its Origins In Traditional Eastern Medicine?

Meth’s pop cultural relevance, and its prevalent use, might lead you to believe that it is a relatively modern creation. But the notoriously addictive stimulant was first synthesized in the late 1800s, from a plant commonly used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicines. The drug was first synthesized by Japanese researcher Nagai Nagayoshi, who, following…

Photographer chases the sun in a plane to shoot 24 sunsets in one day

Photographer Simon Roberts took to the skies above the North Pole to shoot the sunset in each of the Earth’s 24 time zones over the course of 24 hours. Above you see a composite of 24 of the photographs spliced together. The whole Chasing Horizons project is really an advertisement for Citizen watches. Head over…

Anti-trolling animation left me speechless

Canadian poet Shane Koyczan—the creator of the famous anti-bullying video To This Day Project, with more than 14 millions views on YouTube—strikes again with this powerful animation where he rants against trolling. Worth watching: Shanetold Buzzfeed: After the release of the To This Day video I got a lot of letters from people asking me…

The Supervillain’s Guide To Fashion (And World Domination)

Being a supervillain is hard. You’ve got to have a plan for ultimate power, gather an army/cabal of geniuses, and find time to taunt your goody-goody nemesis. Plus, it is imperative that your outfit accurately telegraph your power. We’ve put together an easy-to-follow guide for the supervillain fashion victim. A note: If you’re uncertain if…

In 2003, half the mercury in U.S. wastewater came from your dentist

Despite how often mercury is commercially employed throughout the U.S., the primary source of mercury pollution in our water supply comes not from heavy industry but rather from a far more dreaded source: your dentist. And the EPA is finally about to do something about it. According to a scathing report published on September 25,…

OK people, this guy just won the best little planet photo ever contest

Photographers, you all can give up because astrophotographer Göran Strand just won the best little planet photo ever contest with this amazing photo featured in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: The equinox night on the above Lake Storsjön in Jämtland, Sweden, with auroras and all. Of course, the scene is really the northern hemisphere’s…

What Would Happen If The Zombie Virus Only Infected Children?

That’s the premise of The Rage, a French comic written by Pierre Boisserie with art by Malo Kerfriden in which a new, virulent form of rabies turns children — and only children — into mindless killers. It’s a disturbing, but genuinely interesting twist on the genre, and you can see a trailer for the comic…

Someone Figured Out How To Make a More Recyclable Plastic Aerosol Can

We’ve long since found a replacement for the ozone-depleting propellants originally used in aluminum aerosol cans, but they’re still not as eco-friendly or recyclable as plastic containers. The folks at Method, though, have managed tomake a pressurized container from plastic. If you’ve ever purchased a bottle of pop you know that handling pressurization isn’t an…

A fascinating new theory proposed by two renowned cosmologists suggests an evolutionary role for cancer. According to Paul Davies and Charles Lineweaver, cancer may be our cells’ way of running in ‘safe mode’ — much like a damaged operating system trying to preserve itself. It’s a controversial idea, but it could lead to a number…

This weekend, San Francisco is hosting some striking Anime art

Starting from tomorrow,Spoke Gallery in San Francisco is hosting an exhibition featuring Joshua Budich’s tribute to Anime – and it’s home to some awesome pieces inspired by the likes of Akira, Cowboy Bebop and more. Otaku Obscura is Budich’s first solo show, and features 28 prints by the artist inspired by six notable pieces of…

iOS App Flic Is Basically Tinder For Your Photo Library

Scrolling through your phone’s camera roll can often feel more like a messy filing cabinet than a beautiful gallery of life’s moments. Flic is a new app for iOS that lets you easily and rapidly get rid of those bum shots for a well-kept photographic record. Flic uses an ultra-simple interface to confront you with…

Here’s What the Higgs Boson Sounds Like When Scientist-Musicians Play It

Data can translate to music, too. So for CERN’s 60th birthday, a group of physicists got together to play music based on sonification data taken from the Swiss lab’s for detectors. And it’s beautiful! We’ve seen the Higgs Boson in musical form before, but it’s even better when played by a full chamber. CERN says…

Ingest A Fairy Tale With Disney’s Projection Mapping Wedding Cake

Now you can gain the power and strength of Disney’s happily ever after by ingesting your very own living fairy tale on your wedding day. Disney’s video projection wedding cake is just so damn magical. Presented in all its splendor at the Fairy Tail Weddings Expo, this video cake will put you back a pretty…

io9 Newsstand: Best Stories of the Week for October 1 – 5

New month, new issues! And not just your regular set of new issues, but new special issues. Remember the special Women Destroy Science Fiction issue of Lightspeed Magazine from earlier this year? Now women are destroying horror and fantasy (run!). These Women Destroy Fantasy and Women Destroy Horror collections are coming out as special issues…

This Cheap, New Solar Cell Doubles As a Battery

Solar power has an efficiency problem. When the electrons move from the solar panel to the battery that stores them, about 20 percent of the energy is lost. But now, thanks to new type of solar cell, nearly 100 percent of the energy is stored. That’s because the solar cell itself is the battery. Researchers…

Hackers Are Using Reddit to Connect 17,000 Macs to a Botnet

Bad news for Mac users: You’re at risk for an insidious malware that will connect your computer to a botnet. Hackers have developed a backdoor entry called “Mac.BackDoor.iWorm” that gains access to Macs and uses Reddit to connect the hacked computer with a command server. Once the computer is infected, the iWorm uses Reddit’s search…

The Stinky Science Behind Your Skunked Beer

The phrase “skunked beer” is no misnomer: As the American Chemical Society tells us, the molecule that gives skunky beer its stankitudinous flavor is almost identical to the one found in skunk spray. But how does it get in your beer? And how on earth do you keep it out? Hops can be so cruel,…