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This Cross-Section of the Universe Magnifies the Night Sky by a Billion

This cross-section of the universe, snapped by the Hubble, takes us about halfway to the universe’s observable end — showing us things that you could only see with your eyes if your eyesight’s power was magnified by a billion. Part of this incredibly far view is due to the one of nature’s most delightful phenomenon,…

Mind-blowing Hubble photo lets you fly through the Universe

Hubble’s latest videos are a stunning zoom and pan of a cross-section of the cosmos that goes as deep as half of the observable Universe. Look at all those galaxies filled with hundreds of billions of stars each. Some even have trillions of stars, most with their own set of planets. Mind-blowing. I just wish…

These Shiny Foil Screenprints Of Space History Are Fantastic

The UK designers at Astronomika have launched a limited edition screenprint series that they describe as their attempt to draw everything humans have sent into space. They call it “a growing compendium of beautifully crafted screenprints celebrating the past, present and future of spaceflight.” The results so far—printed with aluminum and bronze foils by Dan…

The Blooming Sea

Summer is rapidly approaching, and with that comes the annual blooming of plants big and small. In the ocean, this means phytoplankton blooms. These microscopic floating plants are the basis of the marine food-chain, feeding everything from krill to whales. This natural-colour satellite image is from the southern summer in January 2011, when Antarctica basks…

First Trailer For Robert Pattinson’s Post-Apocalypse Ordeal The Rover

David Michod, the director behind the very well received Animal Kingdom, has helmed a brutal post-apocalyptic moviecalled The Rover, starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce. The premise is simple: Pattinson’s brother steals Pearce’s car and leaves Pattinson for dead. He’s not — road trip! The brutal landscape is composed of dust, dirt and nothingness. It…

100 Years Of Solitude Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez Was Irreplaceable

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died today aged 87, did not invent the genre of magical realism — but he helped to popularize it and advance it with novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Autumn of the Patriarch. Speculative fiction still hasn’t risen fully to the challenge of Marquez’s work. Marquez first rose to…

Watch a Metric Crapton of Peeps Get Blasted With a .50 Cal Weapon

Peep. Guns. America. There is something strangely satisfying about watching a boatload of seasonal candy getting blasted to smithereens by some heavy weaponry. Jesus is back. With a vengeance. Happy Easter weekend, everyone. [YouTube]

When Churchill And Hitler Fought Against Each Other In The Great War

During the Second World War, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler were mortal enemies. Before that, however, the two future leaders fought a mere ten miles away from one another on the Great War’s Western Front. And along with their guns, they also brought their paint brushes. Though they found themselves at the Western Front during…

Sunshades Bloom to Protect These Towers from the Brutal Desert Sun

When the sun comes up, the flowers come out. Inspired by the design of Arabic windows known as mashrabiya, these 45-foot wide, flower-shaped sunshades “blossom” in minutes to cover the facades of these twin towers designed for two (anonymous!) Middle Eastern media companies. New York-based architecture firm REX drew up these plans for the conjoined…

Amazon just announced that its amazing but limited Voice Search function on FireTV is now integrating Hulu Plus, Crackle, and Showtime Anytime into its search results. Hopefully that means other apps like Netflix will join the fold soon!

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin is becoming an e-book at last! Celebrate by reading an excerpt over at Slate.

I Wish I Could Read Wikipedia Like This

I love Wikipedia, but too often the articles are just not that easy to read. It’s not that my English isn’t good enough. My English good. There is Simple English Wikipedia, but it doesn’t cover as many topics and it’s not as thorough. No, what bothers me about reading Wikipedia isn’t the language, it’s the…

Why True Detective Is A Supernatural Show After All

Despite its heavy references to a 19th century work of horror, True Detective does not appear on its surface to be supernatural show. But the show’s controversial ending is particularly brilliant if you read the entire season as a battle between two men and a powerful supernatural entity. Spoilers below. True Detective has been a…

Pull This Cute Portable Radiator Around The Room Like a Warm-Bodied Pet

Okay, so it’s not quite the right season, but I’ve fallen in love with this adorable Kangeri “nomadic radiator.” Guide the little guy around the room and let him gently warm up your personal space, kind of like the puppy you can’t have because your apartment building won’t allow pets. Dutch designer Satyendra Pakhalé formed…

It’s Batman vs. Terry In A Clip From Darwyn Cooke’s Batman Beyond Short

First Bruce Timm brought back The Animated Series’ version of Batman, and now Terry McGinnis is back in his cartoon Batsuit in this clip from Darwyn Cooke’s upcoming Batman Beyond animated short. In honor of Batman’s 75th anniversary, DC has declared this “Bat Month” and giving us all sorts of Bat-goodies. We can’t wait to…

Scientists Discover the Gynosome, a New Kind of Sexual Organ

It’s a first in the animal kingdom. Among a group of cave-dwelling Brazilian insects, the females use a specialized sex organ to penetrate the males. Scientists say that their lives challenge everything we thought we knew about sexual selection. The insects are all members of the genus Neotrogla, whose four species all measure around a…

Q Stops By J.J. Abrams’ New Star Trek Universe To Make Trouble

No, your eyes do not deceive you — that’s Picard’s fan favorite nemesis Q, holding the new crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in his omnipotent hands! Q takes a trip to visit the new movie-verse in IDW’s Star Trek’s comic’s next adventure, and we have the exclusive details! Besides the premiere of Star Trek #35’s…

The Plan to Keep People From Jumping Off the Golden Gate Bridge

More people have committed suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge than on any other structure in the world—someone jumps from the bridge to their death about every two weeks. But those figures could be dramatically reduced if a proposed suicide-prevention barrier is installed later this year, as advocates hope. If you’ve walked over the bridge,…

Google Clone Makes It Easy to Search for Drugs and Guns on the Dark Web

It can be hard to find good smack without leaving the comfort of your own home. At least it used to be. A new search engine for black markets is making it easier than ever to find anything from high quality heroin to assault rifles. The site even looks just like Google. It’s called Grams,…

Astronomers Have Found the First Earth-Sized, Habitable Zone Planet

Scientists today announced the discovery of Kepler-186f, a faraway planet that’s perhaps the most Earth-like yet discovered. It’s the same size as our home world, and at the right distance from its parent star to have liquid water. So, have we at last discovered Earth 2? Above: An artist’s conception of Kepler-186f Credit: NASA Ames/SETI…