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Did a Case of Scientific Misconduct Win the Nobel Prize for Physics?

The test meant to measure the electron might be one of the world’s most perfect experiments, or it might be the most successful case of scientific misconduct in history. It all depends on how you interpret the scandal surrounding Robert Millikan and the oil-drop experiment. The Charge of the Electron Around the turn of the…

This Swarm Of Insect-Inspired Microbots Is Unsettlingly Clever

They’re incredibly fast, can run directly up the wall, and coordinate easily among themselves. This swarm of insect-inspired microbots in action is both useful, and a little bit alarming. The magnetically-activated microbots from SRI International move quickly (you can see them moving in the video at realtime speeds of up to 35 cm/ second) and…

Esquire editor Ryan D’Agostino will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief at Popular Mechanics in a few weeks. Godspeed Ryan, we can’t wait to see what you do with it!

This Insane Interactive Album Shows You Every Single Note

Electronic music duo George and Jonathan dropped their new record, III, overnight in the form of an interactive website that shows you a visualization of every single note that’s played on the record. It’s hypnotic. Most of the record plays as a 3D viz of what seems to be the entire timeline of each song…

These Eavesdropping Drone Tanks Have Something to Tell You

If you want to get an up close and personal feel for what it means to live in a surveillance society, then pay a visit to the Berlinische Galerie, where, in a cavernous gallery, German artist Nik Nowak has set loose a pair of drones to snoop on museum-goers. Nowak has made a career out…

Fan TV’s Slick Cable Box Replacement Is Coming to Time Warner Cable

It’s been nearly a year since Fan TV told us about its plan to to revolutionize the way we watch live TV with a set-top-box. Today, Time Warner customers become the first to get access to the platform. It turns out that making your cable work better comes at a hefty price. The interface your…

First-person stuntman videos make me want to jump off a crane

It’d be fun to be a stuntman if you had the stones to put your body on the line and jump off of stuff all day. Even if you don’t, these GoPro videos of real stuntman dives will give you a taste of what it’s like. (Spoilers: It’s awesome.) Each little clip features Canadian gymnast…

Withings’ New Pulse Adds an O2 Monitor So You Can Breathe Easy

Last year, Withings’ Pulse fitness monitor impressed us with the plethora of data it collects—including, as the name suggests, your pulse. This year’s update adds yet one more handy feature: a blood oxygen monitor. Mountain climbers, now you can breathe easy. The newly-released Pulse O2 uses a nifty rear-mounted lens and light to monitor your…

The now Google-owned Nest thermostat is now available for purchase in the hardware section of the Google Play Store for its regular price of $250. Now where are those Boston Dynamics robots?

A Smarter Scale, Charge Everything At Once, Titanfall Price-Fall

This five-port USB charger has enough juice to charge up a few tablets and several phones simultaneously, making it perfect for your desk at work, traveling, or any gadget-lover’s night stand. Mpow 5-Port Smart USB Wall Charger | $18 | Promo Code MPOW36UG This Qi charger is off-brand, and not particularly beautiful, but it’s only…

This Moody Fan Film Goes Inside The Mind Of Harley Quinn

When Harley Quinn finds herself comatose with guilt, she retreats into her own mind, where she must confront her original persona and a Joker-like manifestation of her subconscious. Sheridyn Fisher, who stars as Harley Quinn, co-wrote Red Queen, which is apparently just the first episode in the adventures of this symbolically liberated Harley. The film…

The Starship Enterprise Looks Great Decked Out In Midcentury Design

Subterranean captains’ chairs, rounded counters for flight monitoring, perfect pastels in the crew’s uniforms: Midcentury Herman Miller and Eames furnishings look awesome on the Starship Enterprise. Take a minute to check out these throwback posters and you’ll be daydreaming of Captain Kirk shaking you an out-of-this-world gin martini. [MattWileyArt via Retroist]

10 Science Fiction And Fantasy Stories That Editors Are Tired Of Seeing

To you, your short story is unique and perfect. To editors, it’s “the third steampunk time-travel story we’ve seen this week.” But which trends should you try to avoid? To find out, we asked some of the top editors in the field which type of science fiction and fantasy stories they’re tired of seeing. Here’s…

Why Are There 60 Minutes In An Hour? 60 seconds in a minute? The sectioning off of time may seem arbitrary (and has only been used, practically, for about 400 years), but it was actually hugely important to the advent of modern science, as Robert Coolman explains in an engrossing piece over at LiveScience.

How This Crazy Three Minute Sequence Was Shot In a Single Take

The three minute video above is all one single shot created by DJI Innovations to showcase the company’s new sub-$5000 Ronin gimbal stabilization system for cameras. OK maybe the content is a little cheesy, but the behind-the-scenes video shows just how impressive the take really is. The recently announced three-axis, gimbal system can be used…

A Beer Lollipop Is the Epitome of Human Innovation

Candy company Lollyphile has given us quite a few less-than-appetizing suckables in the past (blue cheese or breast milk lollipop, anyone?), but their newest creation comes at the request of the masses. Your beer flavored lollipop has arrived. The same confectionary-concocting madmen who gave us the Sriracha lollipop are releasing their newest offering in three…

Canada is Really Big, but Not Empty

The maps showing how much of the United States is empty is visually interesting, but mostly demonstrates the importance of the data-aggregation area. A similar map for Canada is flawed by mistaking “no data available” for “no one is there.” Michael Chung‘s map follows the same colour scheme as Freeman’s and Sherwood’s: white are populated…

Where are all these awesome spaceliners of the future?

The other day a friend saw that cool reusable Falcon 9R rocket video and he wondered where the hell are the spaceliners of the future—the epitome of them all being Pan Am’s space clipper Orion, from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. I think about that myself many times. Why haven’t we advanced in propulsion technology? We are…

AT&T is teaming up with an investment company called The Chernin Group to launch a Netflix competitor. The firms are spending $500 million collectively to build the streaming service. Maybe that amount of money will buy better things to watch than Netflix offers.

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meeting 5/6 to Discuss Life After Life

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. We’ll be meeting May 6 to talk about it. Join us! We’re hoping Atkinson will join us later that week to talk about the book. What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book…