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Self-Assembling Robots Are Here, And They Are Awesome

Researchers from Harvard, MIT, and Cornell have collaborated to create what is arguagly the first real-world Transformer. Inspired by the Japanese art of origami, the team’s folding robot can rearrange in minutes from a flat-packed sheet into a strong, motile, structurally complex body plan – without any help from human hands. “Getting a robot to…

Grapefruit Could Cause You to Overdose on Prescription Drugs

I always thought the saying that grapefruit was as bitter as death was just a metaphor. Turns out, it’s a warning. If you’re on medication, grapefruit can be surprisingly dangerous. It can force your body to overdose. In 1998, a group of researchers decided to do a study on the interaction between felodipine, a drug…

Making the poster of The Shining was as intense as the movie itself

It’s quite interesting to see the back and forth between two creative geniuses like Stanley Kubrick and Saul Bass working on the movie poster of The Shining. It wasn’t an easy one for Bass, thanks to Kubrick’s infamous obsessive perfectionism. The poster went through 300 versions before getting final approval. These are five of the…

If only our phones had these options as standard. [Truth Facts]

The Truth About Cholesterol

For years conventional medicine has told us that high cholesterol levels contribute to heart disease, and as a result, doctors have instructed patients to keep cholesterol levels low – at nearly any cost. Recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that this all-or-nothing approach to cholesterol and heart disease is short-sighted, and could result in some unintended…

A Truly Outrageous Gif Party!

It’s been a hard week, relax at our Gif Party. You’ve earned it. (via perez) Adorable Chris Pratt being adorable via chrisprattawesomesource. And if you’ve had a week, this one’s for you, via ooblue.

How Your Hotel Room Price and Wi-Fi Speed Are Linked

Ever wondered if you’re paying for the bed linen or the Wi-Fi? The network-analyzing super-wonks at OpenSignal have crunchedthrough some data about public Wi-Fi, and analyzed in detail the network performance in different hotel rooms. Here’s how your room price and download speed are linked. By probing its database of large hotel chain Wi-Fi results…

Why We Need To Stop Saying Cyberattacks Are An “Existential” Threat

Leaders from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the FBI and other government agencies warn that the U.S. is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could threaten the country’s very existence. But one adviser to the White House argues that such statements exaggerate the danger and distract the government from the actual risks. In an interview with Inside Cybersecurity,…

Who’s Flying The Millennium Falcon In Star Wars Episode VII?

Plus important beard speculation for Luke Skywalker! The Hunger Games continues its viral world building through a website for the rebels. The barest of details for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special. Plus, Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent of SHIELD character revealed! Spoilers now! Top image: Hunger Games: Catching Fire Star Wars The latest rumors claim that…

What would happen if Mad Men’s Joan Harris worked in a modern office?

It would be hard for Joan Harris—Christina Hendricks’ character in Mad Men—to adapt to the rules of today’s corporate America. She wouldn’t be able drink or smoke at work and new technologies would blow her mind. But sadly, apart from that, some things haven’t changed that much. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff.Join…

Facebook Has Banned Likes-For-Content

Yesterday, Facebook tweaked its Platform Policies, and while some of the changes are subtle, there’s one which is very welcome: from now, the concept of offering access to apps or content in return for Likes is banned. Straight outta the mouth of Zuckerberg & Co., the new rule reads like this: You must not incentivize…

Everything You Need to Know About Ebola in Four Minutes

Ebola has been hitting the headlines hard recently, so now is the best moment to learn more about it. This video tells you everything you need to know about the deadly virus in just four minutes. Once you’ve digested that, why not go read about the experimental new serum to treat ebola, that’s being grown…

Verizon has added its push-to-talk service to Android phones, so now for $5 a month you can use (one of a range of selected) Android handsets as a walkie-talkie. If you sign up right now, you can try it for free for 6 months.

Just How Many LEGO Movies Is Warner Bros. Making?

The rumor is at least two more, not including the already-announced LEGO Movie 2 and the LEGO Ninjago spinoff. Between this and the nineother Warner Bros./DC epics hitting between 2016 and 2020, it looks like the company is leaning hard on its franchises. The studio has staked out release dates for two animated films: May…

Yahoo and Google Working Together on Unified Encrypted Email For 2015

Google hasbeen working towards offering end-to-end encryption for Gmail. But now, it’s teaming up with Yahoo to make both webmail services encrypted in such a way that they both work together. Yahoo has been a little slower to the encryption party than Google. But yesterday Alex Stamos, Yahoo’s chief information officer, announced at the Black…

Everything You Need to Know About the New USA FREEDOM Act

Ever since the Snowden revelations, honest (and some dishonest) efforts have been made in Congress to try to scale back at least some of the NSA’s spying. It’s a complex problem, since the NSA has overstepped reasonable bounds in so many different directions and there is intense secrecy surrounding the NSA’s activities and legal analysis.…

10 Alternates That Should Have Replaced Their Originals Permanently

Science fiction loves itself some doppelgangers: Clones, alternate universes, robot replacements, possession… It’s hard to come up with anything that hasn’t resulted in new versions of familiar characters. Sometimes, they’re a little too interesting, and they leave us wanting more. Here are the ten that should have stayed. Now, as we’re discussing replacements and what…

Hybrid rocket test looks like dimensional portal sucking reality itself

The first time I saw this image I thought of an inter-dimensional portal of evil sucking in reality. It’s actually the test of the Nammo hybrid rocket engine that will power the Bloodhound. If everything goes as planned, the Bloodhound will be the first supersonic car to reach 1000mph (1,609.34 km/h). In the car there…

Watch solid flat metal sheets being inflated like water balloons

That crazy nutter of Colin Furze is at it again with more garage tinkering, this time making 3D shapes out of completely flat metal sheets, using water pressure to inflate them like water balloons—a process called hydroforming. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Take the Staircase Down to the Clouds to Fetch a Pail of Water

When the wells go dry and the only source of clean water is in the sky, there’s one solution. A daily trek up and down a single staircase to get what’s needed. This is “down to the clouds and collect sky from a well” by Tiesei, an Escher-like work that flips sky and ground, leaving…