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How We Could Save the World From Global Warming Before Our Time Is Up

We’ve blown our chances of fully counteracting the effects of climate change; recently-released reports from the International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) provide plenty of evidence. But all hope is not yet lost, we’ve still got a small chance to keep from irreversibly poisoning our atmosphere. Here’s what the world’s governments must…

Is NASA Spoiled by Success?

The down-side of the robotic explorers that keep working far longer than anticipated is that they also make demands on the budget for longer than anticipated. While Mars Opportunity and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter still function, they aren’t in the 2014 budget. LRO and Opportunity are happy to keep taking new observations, but are we…

What Is Science’s Most Intriguing Unanswered Question?

Part of the appeal of science is finding the answers to some of our most long-standing questions, but just as motivating are the questions it hasn’t yet answered. Today we want to know what is the most fascinating unanswered question in science. Tell us in the comments what single unanswered question from any scientific field…

The First Instagram From Space Is Of An Astronaut In A Firefly T-Shirt

Last week, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson sent the first Instagram from space. It was a selfie, naturally, taken before the ISS cupola. But what caught our eye wasn’t Swanson’s handsome mug or the view of Earth. It was Swanson’s shirt, which features a familiar spacecraft and the words: “Shipping & Logistics: Everything’s Shiny.” This isn’t…

Forget On/Off Switches, These Force Lamps Only Shine Under Pressure

Your average human will buckle under too much pressure, but the more weight you pile on these force-sensing lamps, the brighter they’ll shine. Designed and built by Kebei Li, a pressure sensor inside the lamps works like a bathroom scale. But instead of displaying pounds, they cause a ring of LEDs to burn bright depending…

Tornadoes Are 100x More Likely Than We Thought, But That’s Good News

New research suggests that tornado outbreaks aren’t independent of each other, which in turn means they’re a staggering 100 times more likely than we thought—but that stormy grey cloud may just have a silver lining. Tornadoes are usually assumed to be independent, which is to say that their formation doesn’t influence the formation of others.…

The Strain Teaser Shows How Guillermo del Toro’s Vampire Virus Spreads

Guillermo del Toro’s vampire series The Strain is mere months from premiering and so far we’ve only seen glimpses into this horror show. But this latest teaser trailer is a whole lot more than a graphic eye-torture shot. You see, in The Strain the vampires are explored from a loose science angle. It’s the perfect…

That Time Google Tried To Design A Space Elevator

It may be a while before space elevators become a reality, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start trying. Recently, the head of Google X’s Rapid Evaluation team confirmed that its secretive R&D lab actually tried to design one — but fell short on account of one major technological hurdle. It actually shouldn’t…

Spectacular aerial view of Manhattan in 1944

An incredible aerial view of the East River side of Manhattan, taken in July 1944. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Project Tango Teardown: Google’s Crazy Camera System (Oh, And a Phone)

Google’s Project Tango isn’t coming to stores near you any time soon. You wouldn’t even know what to do with it if it did. Still, the folks at iFixit got their hands on one and tore it apart. What’s inside? Mostly a ton of crazy cameras, with a phone almost as an afterthought. Project Tango…

Ford Built A Mustang On Top Of The Empire State Building Last Night

It’s been 50 years since Ford built the world-renowned 1965 Mustang and placed it high above Manhattan on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Last night, Ford came back with a bigger, yellower, all around more complicated car from 2015 and decided to recreate the famous stunt as a 50-year homage—only this time,…

How Soon Is Agent Carter Coming to TV? Plus Tons of Arrow News!

The cast and crew of Transcendence talk the science of their dowloaded-brain movie. There are wild rumors from the set of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. And Agents of SHIELD is still reeling from last week’s revelations. Plus, news about what new shows we’ll be seeing in the fall. Spoilers now! Top image: Arrow Interstellar The only…

The High-Tech Soldiers of the Future Are Here

Those troops you saw in science fiction movies as a child are now real. A few years ago, many countries recognized a need to upgrade the individual infantryman and thus started their own “future soldier” programs. Most of them completed more or less the main priority objectives, applying them to some of their elite troops…

Full X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer finally lets mutants loose

Enough teases. Enough hints. We’ve been waiting months for some real, honest-to-Blob mutant action from X-Men: Days of Future Past. Finally, in the last trailer before the movie finally comes out, we get more than we ever could have hoped for. Snikt! There’s almost too much to keep track of here, and it’s probably more…

No, this is not a deleted scene or an abandoned set from a science fiction movie. But you’re not far off. Actually, this colorful structure is the 50m tall, 1000-ton mobile launch gantry for ESA’s Vega launcher in French Guiana, as seen from the bottom looking up, captured by photographer Edgar Martins. [ESA]

Swine Flu Is Jumping Into More Species Than Ever

Remember the H1N1 flu that spread across the planet in 2009? It was the same flu strain that was predominant during this winter’s flu season. Now it’s turned up in sea otters living off the coast of Washington state, and researchers don’t know how it got there. During the summer of 2011, scientists from the…

Is Moore’s Law Dying?

Moore’s Law—the observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years—had held true for 40 years. But can engineers keep up that rate of progress? In this video, Professor Derek McAuley ponders whether chip designers can compete with the laws of physics and win. We won’t run the surprise. [Computerphile]

Google’s Modular Ara Phones Will Go on Sale January 2015

Google has gone into more detail about its Project Ara modular mobile system, using a specific developers conference for the hardware format to update us on its plans for self-assembling our dream phones out of various components. The two key dates as far as Google are concerned are this December—when an Android update will prepare…

Google X’s Crazy Failures: Space Elevators, Hoverboards, Teleportation

We’ve all wondered excitedly about exactly what Google might be cooking up in its X lab. But now, Fast Company has taken a peek inside its workshops to found out what happens to the ideas that don’t make it off the drawing board. In a lovely feature about what Google X does—and perhaps more importantly,…

10 Amazing Discoveries That Remain Unexplained By Science

Science is our route to understanding the world around us—but sometimes, even the sharpest minds need a while to explain the weirdest discoveries. Here are ten amazing findings that remain unexplained by science. From mysterious noises from the deep, through strange contraptions designed to model the movement of the planets, to the well-known but poorly…