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5 Inspiring Science Projects Designed by Teens

The amazing thing about the Google Science Fair isn’t so much the ambitious projects that spring from it, but who creates them: teenagers worldwide between 13 and 18 years. Google has announced the 15 global finalists for this year’s competition. They’re all spectacular, but here are five that stood out. The final three winners will…

10 Alternate Versions Of Characters That Were Better Than The Originals

Sometimes a TV show, movie or comic rolls out a wildly different version of a familiar character — just to show us a different path they could have taken. And then this other version is put back in the box forever. But here are 10 alternate versions that we wish could have replaced the originals.

Speedo’s Crazy Nemesis Fins Borrow Their Design From Humpback Whales

When you’re designing a product that helps someone race through the water, it only makes sense to draw your inspiration from the ocean’s resident experts. So you might be surprised to hear that Speedo closely based the design for its new Nemesis fins on humpback whales instead of sharks or dolphins. Either way, it’s a…

Watch music turn vapor into a living and dancing beast

This video shows how powerful low frequency sounds—blasting at full volume through the insanely powerful speakers of car—can affect vapor clouds. The movement is so unreal and seemingly unnatural that it feels like someone edited a series of jump cuts following the rhythm of the music. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff.Join us…

Our ancestors may have left Africa even earlier than previously believed. The prevailing view maintains modern humans left the continent 60,000 years ago, but fossils recovered in Asia have given rise to the theory that a human exodus may have reached China as early as 100,000 years ago.

A Flippable Frame Lets This Bike Grow With Your Kids

As your child transitions from a balance bike—where they use their feet against the ground for propulsion—to a larger pedal version, it usually means it’s time for an upgrade. But not with Andreas Bhend’s clever Miilo. The bike’s frame is reversible, allowing it to be easily disassembled and flipped, elevating the seat and making room…

This Is How We’ll Grow Salad on Mars

Dining on alien planets might be a way off, but at least when we do there will be salad—because we’ve already developed the means to grow lettuce on other worlds. This image shows the set-up used by researchers at the German Aerospace Center, who have been pioneering the techniques required to grow “space lettuce.” Bathed…

The Extraordinary Evolution of Scissors

Since the ancient Egyptians who supposedly invented them, scissors have been a constant in human civilization. After knives, they’re likely the most common household object the average person owns. Just look around your house: You have them for your nails, your paperwork, your kitchen, sewing—even kids have their own safer versions. So it’s odd that…

The New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Fails In Every Possible Way

It’s not enough to say that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is kind of a lousy movie. You want to be able to draw some kind of lesson from its crapness, or at least pick through the debris for some hint of what it could have been. To that end, here are all the…

Orphan Black Creators Reveal [Redacted]’s Injury’s Worse Than It Looked

This was a whirlwind season for Orphan Black, and when we caught up with co-creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, we had questions. Why did they decide to unveil the [redacted]? What’s going to happen now that [redacted] has been [redacted] in the [redacted]? Obviously, spoilers for Season Two ahead. So it finally happened in…

The Ebola Outbreak Is Now an ‘International Public Health Emergency’

The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency—though it is currently not recommending bans on travel or trade. The international organization points out that the outbreak—the longest and largest in recorded history—is affecting countries whose health systems are “fragile with significant deficits in human, financial and material resources.” That,…

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…