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Ice cream made with jellyfish protein glows when you lick it

Artisanal ice cream sometimes contains unusual ingredients, like foie gras, blue cheese, or horseradish, but Lick Me I’m Delicious’ latest ice cream innovation contains jellyfish protein, not for its flavor, but for its luminescent properties. Food tinkerer and Bristol-based Lick Me I’m Delicious founder Charlie Harry Francis decided to play with the synthesized protein, which…

It’s Thorin vs. Everyone Else in the new Desolation of Smaug trailer

The latest trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is jam-packed with scenes that take us everywhere from Mirkwood to Lake-town to Lonely Mountain. But Thorin stands at the center, facing each perceived challenge to his throne. There are a ton of details in this trailer, including, apparently, Bilbo feeling something like the pull…

Start your holiday shopping now with the giftsets of This Week’s DVDs

It’s November, and the holiday season has officially begun. If your local stores aren’t blaring Christmas carols yet, then you can still tell by the plethora of high-end collectors DVD and Blu-rays arriving on November 5th. Might as well start going down your shopping list — and maybe adding a few idea for yourself. •…

These Rolling Bookmobiles Are Cooler Than Your Local Libraries

Okay, so there are few things that can match the pleasure of walking into a building filled with books. But these bookmobiles, book boats, and beasts of book burden have brought the joys of reading to people who couldn’t easily access brick and mortar libraries. Top image: The Book Caravan, one of the first traveling…

The High Tech Movie Magic Behind Ender’s Game’s Zero-G Battle Room

The on-screen adaptation of Ender’s Game is already filled with enough gorgeous cinematography to get space nuts drooling, but no scene hits that space envy button quite as hard Ender’s Zero-G stint in the battle school war room. Design FX for Wired talked to the film’s graphic team to see what it took to make…

Scientists Think They Can Cure Alzheimer’s with Lasers

Finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease has defied medical researchers for decades now, but a team of scientists just gave us new reason to hope. They’ve discovered a way to zap away the bad proteins that cause diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (a.k.a. mad cow) disease—with lasers. https://gizmodo.com/goddammit-we-still-cant-cure-alzheimers-disease-496899123 It’s so simple, it’s incredible. The…

One in Five Sun-Like Stars Has Earth-Size Planets in Habitable Zone

The odds of finding a habitable planet elsewhere in the universe just get better and better. A new study claims that one in five Sun-like stars has an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone. That adds up to about 20 billion Earth-size planets in the Milky Way alone. Now, here’s the really fun part. If…

Benedict Cumberbatch is astonishingly good at Chewbacca impressions

King of the Internet’s affections Benedict Cumberbatch solidified his rule by appearing on The Graham Norton Show recently and doing a damn fine Chewbacca impression. The best part? He does it in front of Harrison Ford, whose reaction to hearing his former co-pilot is, in a word, priceless. [Via Uproxx]

This morphing table can create a virtual version of you in realtime

Keiichi Matsuda is excited about this invention and I can’t blame him: A solid table that reproduces a virtual version of anything that you put under its sensors—in realtime. You can see how it reproduces the hands moving in the clip above, but there’s more: Created by Professor Hiroshi Ishii and his students at the…

Which science fiction or fantasy school do you wish you could attend?

Tons of genre stories take place in schools, where students learn to command superpowers and magical abilities, or learn advanced skills in sciences and warfare. Which school do you feel offers the best education—and the best odds for survival? Give us your best argument for the school of your choice—the academics, the faculty, the amenities,…

Attractive Sunglasses Snap Together With Magnets, Not Screws

Sick of all those times when a screw comes loose on your favorite frames and there’s not an itty-bitty repair kit in sight? Feast your eyes on the Alessi’s new Kompas collection, a series of stylish glasses that hinge with no-fuss magnetic inserts, eliminating the need for spare parts or tightening over time. Though it’s…

Blue skies in China can only appear on screens because of the smog

In China, the air is so filthy and the smog is so crushing that beautiful blue skies can only exist when they’re shown on giant video screens. The picture was taken at Tiananmen Square by Feng Li for Getty and the fake blue sky against the backdrop of the real toxic air makes this so…

The Doctor Who docudrama will premiere in America on November 22nd

An Adventure in Time in Time and Space, the docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who, will air on BBC America at 9:00 p.m. on November 22nd. this is one day after its British premiere on November 21st, and just a few days before the world-wide premiere of the 50th anniversary special on November 25th.…

Two Billion Reasons Why We’re About to Find Earth 2

Planet-hunting scientists announced today that 22% of sunlike stars in the Milky Way are orbited by potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds. This remarkable finding indicates that there may be as many as two billion planets in our galaxy suitable for life — and that the nearest such planet may be only 12 light-years away. Top photo:…

A Cool Contraption Generates Earthenware Using a Catenary Arch

The craft of making ceramics is often thought of as a hands-on affair (thanks Demi and Patrick). But this device puts a new spin—or pour, really—on the process. Great Things to People, a Santiago, Chile-based creative studio, developed the Catenary Pottery Printer (CPP) to produce earthenware using an organic process. Its wooden frame supports a…

If only every fantasy novel was as smart as Coldest Girl in Coldtown

I am not a vampire person. It’s not that I don’t get the allure of the vampire story — I’ve just always found the metaphors for sexuality, power and old money’s exploitation of youth too obvious and overblown. So I was pleasantly shocked that I pretty much loved Holly Black’s newest YA novel, The Coldest…

Today’s NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is gorgeous:the Empire State Building against this morning’s partial lunar eclipse. Stunning photo by Chris Cook.

PETA protests cyborgs

A new DiY science kit, “Backyard Brains,” teaches kids about neuroscience and biotech by helping them dissect cockroaches — and then use simple electronic components to control the bugs’ brains and movements. Now PETA is protesting the kits, saying they are cruel. https://gizmodo.com/now-you-can-control-living-cockroaches-with-a-mobile-ap-1442243456 According to Cindy Clayton in the Virginian Pilot: PETA has written to…

NYC’s First Inflatable Tunnel Plug Will Stop Floods, Smoke, and Gas

After Hurricane Sandy decimated the subway system last year, officials pledged to install new devices to help halt the rising tides—including flood gates and, more intriguingly, a device called a “tunnel plug.” https://gizmodo.com/this-giant-tube-stopper-will-plug-flooded-subways-and-c-5897003 During a “Sandy Resilience Tour” last week, the MTA unveiled a working prototype of the plug, which was installed over the summer…

Why 47 Ronin Could Be “Kurosawa on Meth”

Originally slated for a release in November of 2012, then pushed back to February of 2013 — and finally shoved even further back to December 2013 — 47 Ronin has been a long time coming. But will it work? We visited this fantasy movie’s set, and here’s all of the Japanese madness we witnessed. Back…