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Flower-Shaped Buildings Turn Cities Into Artificial Gardens

Amidst the more conventional towers soaring over city skylines, these flower-shaped buildings blossom, adding a bit of nature-inspired grace to their urban surroundings. The Lotus Temple (A Bahá’í House of Worship), New Delhi, India, opened in 1986, designed by Fariborz Sahba, composed of 27 free-standing marble clad petals. (via Wikimedia Commons, Dinudey Baidya andJoy Banerjee)…

io9 Vincze Miklós Aug 7 '14

Samsung’s Robo Vac Chases Lasers Like a Cat To Clean Any Spots It Missed

The Roomba paved—or cleaned—the way for a long list of robot vacuum copycats to hit the market, but very few offer a compelling reason to not just buy the original autonomous floor cleaner. However, what Samsung’s new VR9000H robo vac lacks in eye-catching product naming, it makes up for with a neat feature that lets…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Aug 7 '14

Images of Charon Orbiting Pluto Guide A Spacecraft To Its Destination

An animation of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was created using a series of images captured by the New Horizons spacecraft as it continues its long journey to the distant planetoid. Taken from a distance of 422-429 million km, the images are not for scientific study, but for optical navigation between worlds. Think of…

io9 Mark Strauss Aug 7 '14

How the Experimental Ebola Serum Is Being Grown Inside Tobacco Plants

For years, scientists have been looking for cheaper and faster ways to make vaccines, including tinkering with what sounds like an unlikely source: Tobacco plants. In fact, the highly experimental serum given to the two American Ebola patients was created using this novel technique. Here’s how it works. Whether for vaccines or serums, the basic…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Aug 7 '14

American sitcoms with all jokes removed

You would think that, if you take out all the jokes and leave just the plot in American sitcoms, you would end up with something that is not funny at all. And you would be completely right—although the edits of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm still had some solid funny moments. Seinfeld Friends The Office…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Aug 7 '14

New Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Cover Is Horrifying

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Penguin decided to create a new cover for the Roald Dahl work. What resulted was both confusing and terrifying. Run, kids, run. Penguin’s website called the edition part of their New Modern Classic series and justified the new Valley of the Dolls meets actual…

io9 Meredith Woerner Aug 7 '14

IBM’s New Brain-Like Chip Squeezes One Million Neurons Onto a Stamp

Cognitive computing has been one of our most exciting frontiers for years. It’s enticing to think that we can someday build a computer that’s as powerful and as efficient as a brain. IBM’s latest miraclechip just got us closer than ever. Big Blue has married neuroscience and supercomputing to create a new computer chip that’s…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Aug 7 '14

What Is The Worst Change A Film Adaptation Has Ever Made?

Movie adaptations always require a few changes from their source material. Sometimes those changes can result in a totally new and wonderful experience—and sometimes they’re just plain terrible. Which alteration is the very worst? Include the title of the film (and the source material, if it has a different title), the change the filmmakers made,…

io9 Lauren Davis Aug 7 '14

Every City Should Give Seniors a Card That Extends the Crosswalk Time

We’ve all seen what happens when someone can’t cross the street in the allotted signal time—the pedestrian gets frustrated and drivers get mad. A program in Singapore lets seniors swipe a card at an intersection so the signal will give them extra time to cross. It’s a smart solution to a problem that’s increasingly going…

Tech News Alissa Walker Aug 7 '14

And Now, A Giant Turtle Made Of Metal

Not since stegobeetle has a massive metal animal this breathtaking graced our screens. Photo Credit: Gina Sanderson | More here Indonesian artist Ono Gaf crafted this massive sculpture by welding together springs, cogs, coils, rotos and various other bits of metallic junk. The level of detail here is really something else. Check out more photos…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 7 '14

The Chemistry Of Fake Tan Lotion Could Ruin Your Appetite For Bacon

Have you ever wondered how fake tan lotion manages to turn people’s skin brown without subjecting them to UV radiation exposure? Actually, it’s a chemical reaction that you observe all the time…whenever someone is cooking meat. Writing over at his blog, Compound Interest [rimshot], British chemistry teacher Andy Brunning has put together this nifty infographic…

io9 Mark Strauss Aug 7 '14

Keep Dangerous Animals At Bay With This 950,000V Hiking Stick Stun Gun

If you’re on a hike and come across a predator that’s determined to protect its young or its turf, you’re not going to have much luck scaring it off with whistles or loud noises. You need a deterrent that’s a little more convincing, like a 950,000-volt stun gun on the end of a 56-inch hiking…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 7 '14

Deals: Fox Searchlight Film Set, LED Bulbs, MacBook Storage Expansion

The Fox Searchlight 20th Anniversary Collection packs in 20 critically acclaimed movies in one pretty package. All Blu-ray, a few special editions, and an Amazon-exclusive inclusion of Once. It’s also $170 off MSRP today with your preorder, bringing the set down to $130, or $6.50 a movie. [Fox Searchlight 20th Anniversary Collection] 127 Hours 28…

Tech News Shep McAllister Aug 7 '14

New Apple Patent Shows Off Smartypants “Siri for Mac”

Given the gradual blurring of linesbetween iOS and OS X, Siri for Mac is a pretty safe bet. Now, a new patent filing details what the desktop version of the voice assistant might look like. As previous patents have also suggested, it’s going to be a lot more extensive than on mobile. The patent for…

Tech News Leslie Horn Aug 7 '14

You Can Compress This Water Bottle Into a Tiny Puck When It’s Empty

Most of your travel accessories can be compacted for easy storage when they’re empty: your duffel bag, your toiletries case, even your sleeping bag. So why does your water bottle waste so much space after you’ve drained it? It shouldn’t, and with Hydrapak’s new collapsible Stash bottle, it never will again. The 750 ML bottles…

Health Andrew Liszewski Aug 7 '14

How Pigeon Bones Forced Us To Rethink Neanderthal Cognition

We may think of pigeons as “flying rats,” but research published today in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that their wild counterparts were an important source of nutrition for some Neanderthals. Header photo: Ashik Musicroom/Wikimedia Commons

io9 Jason G. Goldman Aug 7 '14

Swimming From Alcatraz to Shore With a GoPro on My Head

On July 20th, I rode in a cab from my apartment to San Francisco’s Aquatic Park; struggled into a wetsuit; took a ferry to Alcatraz; jumped off the boat into the Bay; and swam the mile-and-a-half back to shore. I also wore a GoPro on my head for good measure. Here’s what it was like.…

Tech News Jordan Kushins Aug 7 '14

Clickhole or Die: The Fight Over ‘Sponsored Content’ Is 150 Years Old

Sponsored content, native advertising, advertorials. Maybe better to call it what it is: media content, paid for by advertisers, produced to look like news. Whether you think it’s ethical or not, we need to first acknowledge one important fact. The fight over this kind of advertising is about 150 years old. This past Sunday, John…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 7 '14

Vizio Just Recalled 245,000 TVs at Risk for “Tipping Over”

Do you own a 39- or 42-inch E-Series Vizio flat screen? Does your flat screen keep falling on its face? Then we have some good news for you, friends: Vizio just recalled about 245,000 of its TVs due to a “risk of tip over.” According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Vizio has already had…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Aug 7 '14

An Oscar-Nominated Short Film About The World’s Unluckiest Undertakers

This Way Up was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but if you haven’t yet gotten a chance to see this fun short, give it a watch. A pair of undertakers try to deliver a body to a graveyard, but everything goes wrong along the way. This Way Up was directed…

io9 Lauren Davis Aug 7 '14

Flower-Shaped Buildings Turn Cities Into Artificial Gardens

Samsung’s Robo Vac Chases Lasers Like a Cat To Clean Any Spots It Missed

Images of Charon Orbiting Pluto Guide A Spacecraft To Its Destination

How the Experimental Ebola Serum Is Being Grown Inside Tobacco Plants

American sitcoms with all jokes removed

New Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Cover Is Horrifying

IBM’s New Brain-Like Chip Squeezes One Million Neurons Onto a Stamp

What Is The Worst Change A Film Adaptation Has Ever Made?

Every City Should Give Seniors a Card That Extends the Crosswalk Time

And Now, A Giant Turtle Made Of Metal

The Chemistry Of Fake Tan Lotion Could Ruin Your Appetite For Bacon

Keep Dangerous Animals At Bay With This 950,000V Hiking Stick Stun Gun

Deals: Fox Searchlight Film Set, LED Bulbs, MacBook Storage Expansion

New Apple Patent Shows Off Smartypants “Siri for Mac”

You Can Compress This Water Bottle Into a Tiny Puck When It’s Empty

How Pigeon Bones Forced Us To Rethink Neanderthal Cognition

Swimming From Alcatraz to Shore With a GoPro on My Head

Clickhole or Die: The Fight Over ‘Sponsored Content’ Is 150 Years Old

Vizio Just Recalled 245,000 TVs at Risk for “Tipping Over”

An Oscar-Nominated Short Film About The World’s Unluckiest Undertakers

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