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If you’ve been waiting for a compelling reason to start backing up your mobile photos with Google’s Auto Backup, it’s finally here: Gmail now has an “insert photo” button, giving emails one step access to your photo gallery. Sharing photos privately just got a lot easier. [gmailblog]

How Native Americans were crucial to defeat the Nazis and Japan in WW2

This is Chester Nez, the last of the original Navajo 29, being honored at an April 4th ceremony. If it weren’t for him and the other 28 Native Americans who created the secret code language used in the Pacific theater during World War II, America would have probably never won the war against Japan. Their…

Fossil Rock Anthem

Dancing paleontologists, colourful graphics, and unashamed catchiness make Fossil Rock Anthem one of my favourite scientific parody songs. Even better, it’s educational effectiveness is backed by research into the developing field of using music to engage students in learning science. Fossil Rock Anthem covers key points in the California grade 7 science curriculum, touching on…

BitTorrent Sync Now Works With Network Storage

BitTorrent Sync is basically explicitly designed for people who need to move huge amounts of data back and forth between different devices. Now the service is getting support for the network attached storage these types are likely to use. Cloud-based syncing services like Dropbox, MediaFire, and Google Drive are incredibly useful for most most people…

Don’t Expect A Dark Ending To Warehouse 13‘s Saga

We didn’t realize how much we’d missed Warehouse 13 until it came back. And then we remembered: the previous season ended by hinting at some really dark stuff, leaving us expecting a season opener with some sharp edges. Instead, we got a return to the show’s usual warm fuzzy tone. Which is what we should…

This Drone Footage of NYC Makes You Feel Like Spiderman

You’ve never seen New York City like this. Well, you have if you’ve seen the Spiderman movies, but this footage captured by photographer Randy Scott Slavin is no CGI fantasy. It’s Gotham at its grandest. Known for his mind-bending panoramas, Slavin used a DJI Phantom to zoom between the skyscrapers in Manhattan and around the…

These Sweet 3D Fitness Landscapes Show Evolution At Work

Fitness landscapes are an effective way of showing how well organisms are doing at reproducing. Traditionally, however, these models are static snapshots of processes that often take millennia to unfold. Now, computational biologists have created a video that visualizes these adaptive landscapes over time. Evolutionary biologist Sewall Wright came up with the idea of fitness…

​Extract Money From People Using the Ambiguity Effect

Are you comfortable with uncertainty? Are you willing to take money from those who aren’t comfortable with it? Then I have just the rigged game for you! Make money from people’s uncertainties with the Ambiguity Effect. Here’s a quick game. I have a jar full of ninety marbles. There are thirty red marbles for sure,…

This building vaguely shaped like a jack is actually a proposed transportation hub and residential complex for the New York borough of Queens. Perched above the 7 subway line, the spiky structure would combine a spiraling internal concourse with conveniently shaded yet sunlit apartments. [designboom]

Wow, scientists reveal a new moon forming on the edge of Saturn’s rings

For the first time in history, scientists are witnessing the formation of a new moon in our solar system. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected a new moon forming in the edge of Saturn’s rings. Astronomers around the world are amazed about this incredible find, which they have named Peggy.* It’s really exciting to see this…

Watch the Five Very Best Vines of the Year

Not even a year-and-a-half old, Vines are enjoying their very own category in the Tribeca Film Festival for the second year in a row. And even though last year’s winners were pretty incredible in their own right, this year’s take it to a whole other level. Apparently, an extra year of six-second shooting practice does…

Space Battleship Yamato, Frozen For $13, Destiny, iTunes Credit

Space Battleship Yamato hits blu-ray April 29th, and you can pre-order for just $10. For those not keeping score, that’s really, really cheap for a new release blu-ray. [Amazon] Frozen | $13! Whatever platform you plan to play Destiny on, you can snag $10 Newegg credit by per-ordering today. | PS4 | One | PS3…

We Rank Every Insane Moment in Dancing with the Stars‘ Disney Special!

Last night, Dancing With the Stars went full Disney. Unfortunately there was no Fox and the Hound contemporary dance, but they did make time for Ariel to shake her mermaid-shell bra around for the kiddies. So we’ve ranked all the Disney dances from best to worst! Beauty and the Beast – “Be Our Guest” During…

OSIRIS-REx Wants to Lasso an Asteroid to Explain Life on Earth

NASA has a plan to better explore how our own local star system, and life within it, got started. It wants to intercept, study, and sample a passing asteroid. The only thing more impressive than this mission’s astronomical level of precision is how the space agency somehow shoehorned “Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith…

Channing Tatum Is Definitely Talking With Fox To Play X-Men’s Gambit

Only last week, X-Men movie producer Lauren Schuler Donner mentioned that she’d like to make a solo Gambit movie, among others. Now we have confirmation that Channing Tatum has already meet with Fox for the role. Here’s what Tatum told MTV at their Music Awards ceremony: I met with Lauren Shuler Donner. And I would…

For the Most Enjoyable Weight Loss Ever, Head to the Equator

Ever wonder what the easiest way to lose weight is? Here’s the one simple trick you need. Go to the equator. There, the planet is trying to throw you into space so much that you weigh less than you do anywhere else. If you need confirmation that you are on a big, whirling space rock…

Pouring Saltwater Over Graphene Generates Electricity

A team of Chinese scientists did an impossible-sounding thing. They created electricity simply by dragging a droplet of saltwater across a layer of graphene. No big fires, no greenhouse gases, no fuss. They created energy with just a miracle material and one of the most plentiful substances on Earth. The science behind the effect is…

New Evidence Suggests Pluto Has An Ocean Beneath Its Surface

Astronomers believe that Pluto and its moon were the result of two massive objects slamming into each other. The resulting gravitational dynamic may have warmed the interior of Pluto, creating an ocean comprised of liquid water. Remarkably, this underground sea could still be there. The idea that Pluto has an ocean underneath its icy surface…

A Rainbow Film of Evaporation

Evaporation drives convection within a thin film of soap, where the combination of iridescence and fluid dynamics exemplify the beauty of physics. It’s a mini drama in three parts, tidy layers tangling into a Rorschach test of chaotic squiggles. All three images were submitted to the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics image gallery…

Holy Crap, This Stop-Motion Film Was Made By Animating Drops Of Water

Stop-motion animation already requires saintly amounts of patience, but it’s especially tricky when you’re working with a medium as messy as water. In the making-of video below (folks who don’t speak Portuguese should turn on the translation captions), animator Rodrigo EBA! explains how he put Cachoeira together—and it wasn’t easy. He was hoping to use…