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How Librarians Are Helping People Navigate the New Healthcare System

Lupie Leyva has answered questions about immigration issues, taught people how to use email, and once even helped a person make an appointment to see a family member who was incarcerated. “I’ve worked in public libraries for 10 years,” she says. “Nothing surprises me anymore.” None of those things are technically in her job description…

The Absolute Best Cosplay of 2013

This was an amazing year for creative costumes and clever tributes — so it was a lot of work to do all of it justice. We looked through a whole year of costuming at every convention, Halloween outing or simply talented people messing around online and we found a massive collection of exceptionally talented costumers.…

In the December issue of New Space, planetary scientist Christopher McKay rallies for a permanent, inhabited NASA research base on the Moon. National Geographic has distilled McKay’s argument into a six-point list. Complement with io9’s 185-point argument for a NASA lunar base.

On Site at the Machine Olympics of DARPA’s Robotics Challenge

The DARPA Robotics Challenge, or DRC, kicked off today at the Homestead-Miami Speedway about 30 miles south of Miami. A total of sixteen teams from around the world are here to challenge each other today and tomorrow in timed trials, and to compete for funding from DARPA, the Pentagon’s mad science arm. A seventeenth team,…

Plant Cells “Talk” With Electric Signals, Too

A particular detail has always stuck with me from The BFG, Roald Dahl’s dark-as-hell children’s book that’s actually about giants snatching kids from their bedrooms. The one good, non-kid-eating giant tells his friend about superhuman hearing: “if I is twisting the stem of the flower till it breaks, then the plant is screaming. I can…

Our Best Explainers of 2013

From death by micrometeorite to living without gluten, Gizmodo has explored more than 50 everyday scientific mysteries throughout this year. Here are our ten best. Why You Might Want to Rethink Going Gluten-Free Going gluten-free is all the rage these days. It’s the diet of choice for Hollywood starlets and health nuts alike; supermarket aisles…

This is how the most famous photo of all time was taken

Today is the 45th anniversary of Earthrise. We take it for granted now but, along with Blue Marble, it’s the most important and famous photo ever taken. In a world saturated with fakery and cynicism, it’s easy to ignore the magnitude of its impact. But in 1968, this photo changed everything. To commemorate its anniversary,…

Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2013

From intergalactic neutrinos and invisible brains, to the creation of miniature human “organoids,” 2013 was a remarkable year for scientific discovery. Here are 17 of the biggest scientific breakthroughs, innovations and advances of 2013. Voyager I Leaves the Solar System Escaping the solar system is no mean feat. For 36 years, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft…

A Popcorn Popper that Roasts Coffee, Gaming Laptop, iOS Apps [Deals]

If you’ve been looking to pick up a new gaming laptop, TigerDirect has a great deal today on an Acer Aspire V3. $700 gets you a 17″ screen, 2.2Ghz Core i7, 12GB of RAM, and a GTX 760M for graphics. It won’t stand toe to toe with the best gaming laptops around, but it’s a…

These are National Geographic‘s favorite images of the year

After sorting through 7,000 images taken by photographers from over 150 countries, National Geographic has chosen the cream of the crop for it’s annual photo contest. As always, the year’s best are simply sensational. All photos and captions via National Geographic. Above: Julie Fletcher gets honorable mention in the places category for this photo taken…

The Gadgets We Really Want This Year

We see a lot of gadgets here at Gizmodo. And as the holidays come barreling towards us, we like to offer some of them up as ideas for gifts you can give to the special folks in your life. But this isn’t that; this is the stuff we want. Oh and we want it so…

Project Management Do’s and Don’t’s from Science Fiction Movies

Over at The Fast Track, Carol Pinchefsky has some hilarious lessons for project managers from science fiction films: both things to copy, and things to avoid at all costs. Best part: Why Darth Vader is not a good motivator of his underlings. [via Slashdot]

Static Cling Sticky Notes That Stick Without the Sticky

Your standard Post-it note is a one-sided, single-use affair. You’re free to flip it over and write on the back, of course, but then you can’t actually stick it anywhere. The folks at EcoStatic Inc. figured they could do better, and they have, with a sticky note that relies on static electricity instead of adhesive…

The Biggest Science Stories of 2013

The wonderful thing about science is that researchers are always pushing to produce the latest, greatest and most wonderful findings they can. They never let up. And 2013 was no exception. From synthetic hearts that beat of their own accord, through treatments for HIV and amazing developments in fusion, to finding out why hot water…

Who needs RoboCop when you can have cops in robots?

The first trailer for the live-action Patlabor movie has arrived, and boy howdy am I excited. Based on the classic anime series by Mamoru Oshii (director of Ghost in the Shell), Patlabor is about Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, which handles Tokyo’s giant robot-related crimes — with their own giant robots. The movie…

The A.I. uprising will be romantic, according to Spike Jonze’s Her

Spike Jonze has built his career on unsettling journeys into the uncanny, from Being John Malkovich to Where The Wild Things Are. But his latest film, Her, is unsettling for a different reason — because it’s so sweet and moving in depicting a romance between a human and a computer. Spoilers ahead… Films ranging from…

Search for life is top priority in NASA’s 30-year astrophysics plan

NASA has published its 30-year plan for astrophysics, and its first priority is to look for habitable planets and life on other worlds. It will also focus on learning more about the origins of life and the structure of the universe. Image via ESA/NASA You can read the entire document online. It’s full of gorgeous…

Google Just OKed a Phone That Runs Modded Android Out of the Box

You like to mess with your phone? Unlock that bootloader and flash some ROMs? Soon there’ll be another option for would-be tinkers who want to run mods. Google just approved the first ever Android phone to run the ever-popular Cyanogenmod right out of the box. The hardware’s not new. It’s literally just the Oppo N1—a…

Scientists finally solve the mystery of these rainforest structures

A few months ago, eye-grabbing images of tiny web-like structures baffled etymologists everywhere because they had no idea who made them. However, Wired recently followed a team of scientists down to the Amazonian rainforest, and the mystery is finally solved. Sort of. The research team observed these tiny structures for days before three eggs hatched…

Handicapping the 2013 DARPA Robotics Challenge

Today kicks off the two-day mechanolympics of the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials at Homestead Miami Speedway. With teams from around the world competing in eight tasks, only one will take home the purse. Just a few hours in—watch live here—it’s still any robot’s game. We’ve got your odds right here, so you can bet on…