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Magic material is both a reflecting mirror and a see through window

No, it’s not a one way mirror. It’s much cooler than that. MIT scientists have invented a new invisible mirror that can show reflections like a typical mirror but also be see through like a window. The magic is in the alternating 84 ultra thin layers typical glass and tantalum oxide. It’s a mirror but…

Sploid Casey Chan

When Having Each Other Isn’t Enough

How dysfunctional does your relationship have to be when getting carried off by a raptor—its talons cleaving into your skull—is such a decidedly better option than staying in for the night? You’ll find out in kokooma‘s beautifully abstract animation, Each Other.

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

In Case You’d Forgotten How Awesome The Faculty Was…

…there are a bunch of clips on Youtube. Like this one, where the plucky high school students shoot the Principal in the head and then cause her to melt into a puddle of fizzy goop. There’s also Jon Stewart’s “eye sore,” and the head on tentacles. And more! I had to subscribe to HBO this…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Scientifically accurate SpongeBob is hilariously disgusting

After getting sucked on and eaten by his best friend Patrick Star, scientifically accurate SpongeBob Squarepants as imagined by ADHD is destined for a life of cleaning dishes. That caps a hilariously sad life of basically being immobile at the bottom of the ocean with “friends” who are killer creatures. Real life sure sucks for…

Sploid Casey Chan

The Abandoned Pyramid of North Dakota

It looks like the remains of some futuristic cult. This slowly-eroding cement pyramid in Nekoma, North Dakota is all that’s left of a $6 billion nuclear launch facility created as part of the Safeguard Program. The pyramid itself was a radar system for tracking any incoming Soviet missiles that might be coming in over Canada.…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Watch a super genius honey badger break out of all kinds of cages

No matter what you do, you can’t keep this honey badger locked up. It’s a master jail breaker. Lock the gate? It’ll find out how to slide it open. Put it in a deep pit with high walls, it’ll build a rock ramp. Take away the rocks? It’ll use mud or trees to climb out.…

Sploid Casey Chan

Researchers Clone Stem Cells From Human Adults

Scientists from South Korea have devised a technique for cloning adult stem cells that doesn’t involve the destruction of human embryos. The resulting stem cells, which are highly personalized, could be used to treat illnesses such as heart disease and blindness — but the technique could also be used to clone adults. It’s a process…

io9 George Dvorsky

Most Beautiful Items: April 11 – 18, 2014

Tiny homes, classic cars, and mesmerizing cityscapes—those, among other wonders, are the treasures we’re working with in this round of the most beautiful items of the week. Check out what we discovered for you below: Driving the Past, For the Future of Car Design This week the Ford Mustang, perhaps America’s most culturally influential car,…

Tech News Leslie Horn

Studio Behind Robot Chicken Is Going Beyond Stop Motion Animation

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the creative force behind Robot Chicken, is typically known for its stop-motion animation and pretty much only its stop motion animation. That’s what makes the news of their upcoming 15 animated shorts such a shock — so far all have utilized animation styles other than stop motion. Granted there are only two…

Tech News Jason Krell

Lost Horizon Introduced The World To Shangri-La

“In these days of wars and rumors of wars—haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight?” Good question, easy answer: Duh. Yes. Yes now, in 2014, and yes in 1937, when those words opened up Lost Horizon, Frank Capra’s big…

Tech News Jordan Kushins

Report: Nike Is Killing the FuelBand

Nike has fired the majority of the team responsible for its FuelBand fitness tracker according to a report from CNET today, which also claims that the company is jettisoning wearable hardware for good. An anonymous source says that roughly 55 employees were let go from Nike’s Digital Sport hardware team, which covers industrial design and…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

What’s Your Favorite David Attenborough Moment?

The BBC will celebrate the life and work of Sir David Attenborough all next week, with its creatively titled #AttenboroughWeek. To help kick things off, the folks at EarthUnplugged asked a bunch of YouTubers to share and discuss their favorite Attenborough moments. My personal favorite Attenborough moment? It’s a four-way tie between the entire Planet…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Outkast – B.O.B.

Last Friday Outkast reunited at Coachella for their first performance since 2002, opening with the 154 bpm banger “B.O.B.” Their reception was mixed at best, but the performance was undoubtedly historic. And of all songs to lead with, they chose one of the fastest and most aggressive. Tonight, the Atlanta duo will do it all…

Tech News Leslie Horn

San Francisco, 1906, Just Before the Water Gave Out

108 years ago today, San Francisco was a hellish mix of smoke and flame. After the famous earthquake shook the city, broken gas mains fueled a fire that set downtown ablaze. In this picture, you can see what it looked like just before the city’s water ran dry. A combination of poor planning and ill-fated…

io9 Annalee Newitz

108 Years Since the Great Quake

The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco spawned fires that nearly destroyed the city, and defied all scientific theories of the day. You know the broad story; now here’s the science to fill in the details. Blended image of 1906 post-quake damage, and present-day San Francisco. Photography credit: Shawn Clover The 1906 earthquake isn’t one of…

Tech News Mika McKinnon

84 year science experiment finally sees results after years of nothing

Since 1930, there has been a science experiment that basically does nothing. Seriously. Scientists watch as a solid—that’s actually a liquid 230 billion times more viscous than water—drips down a glass container. But that takes time. A lot of time with a whole lot of nothing. For the past 84 years, the blob of tar…

Sploid Casey Chan

Lewis Carroll Hated Fame So Much, He Sometimes Regretted Writing Alice

Charles Dodgson, the author and mathematician better known as Lewis Carroll, wrote about a young girl lost in surreal dreamscapes. But Dodgson had trouble navigating treacherous landscape of his own: literary fame. The author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass wrote in 1891 letter to one Mrs. Symonds, explaining his particular discomfort…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Sorry, Laser Zeppelin, This German Light Show Is Way Cooler Than You

Whoa. It’s happened. Laser-Zeppelin has met its match. The crazy creative folks at Urbanscreen have transformed the cavernous interior of the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, into a wild light show that looks all kinds of trippy. So long, Stairway. The sights and sounds here run in a continuous 22-minute loop and appear to completely change…

Tech News Jordan Kushins

Karen Russell’s Imaginary Nonprofit Saves The World But Costs Your Soul

There’s been a wave of fiction about an insomnia epidemic, as if some collective anxiety is bubbling up. Most recently, Kenneth Calhoun’s Black Moon freaked us out. But Karen Russell’s new novella “Sleep Donation” is still something pretty unique: a look at people in the nonprofit sector, struggling with insoluble ethics. Very minor spoilers ahead……

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

In Defense Of Low-Stakes Storytelling

Just when did saving the world get so boring? We’re living through an age of big movies with big plots, that throw the fate of the world into the mix about as regularly as most people mop their floors — and sometimes it seems just as dull. After reading our review of Transcendence, a suggestion…

io9 Ria Misra

Magic material is both a reflecting mirror and a see through window

When Having Each Other Isn’t Enough

In Case You’d Forgotten How Awesome The Faculty Was…

Scientifically accurate SpongeBob is hilariously disgusting

The Abandoned Pyramid of North Dakota

Watch a super genius honey badger break out of all kinds of cages

Researchers Clone Stem Cells From Human Adults

Most Beautiful Items: April 11 – 18, 2014

Studio Behind Robot Chicken Is Going Beyond Stop Motion Animation

Lost Horizon Introduced The World To Shangri-La

Report: Nike Is Killing the FuelBand

What’s Your Favorite David Attenborough Moment?

Outkast – B.O.B.

San Francisco, 1906, Just Before the Water Gave Out

108 Years Since the Great Quake

84 year science experiment finally sees results after years of nothing

Lewis Carroll Hated Fame So Much, He Sometimes Regretted Writing Alice

Sorry, Laser Zeppelin, This German Light Show Is Way Cooler Than You

Karen Russell’s Imaginary Nonprofit Saves The World But Costs Your Soul

In Defense Of Low-Stakes Storytelling

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