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Art Wars: 12 Stormtrooper Helmets Get Hilarious High-Art Makeovers

In a film packed with great costume and set design (Leia’s buns! The AT-ATs! Tauntaun guts!), the Stormtroopers’ glistening white exoskeletons are among the most memorable details from Star Wars. Which is what makes Art Wars a lot of fun: As part of a show at London mega-gallery Saatchi, 19 artists were given a trooper…

This Amazing Image Shows How Atoms In Glass Move When You Bend It

When you bend anything, you stretch the bonds between atoms and force the little fellas to move about against their will. This image shows exactly that happening, inside a sheet of glass. Just last month, scientists announced that they’d created the thinnest ever sheet of glass which was just two atoms thick. At the time…

This crosswalk is the result of scientific testing

Here’s a story about how a little coat of paint save thousands of lives (and probably many more). Before World War II, there weren’t too many automobiles in Britain. But after the war, when cars started taking over the world, things started getting unacceptably fatal. Scientists had to invent a new kind of crosswalk. In…

Astronomers Find Water on the Remnants of a Destroyed Planet

For the first time ever, scientists have found actual chemical evidence of water on a rocky object outside of our solar system. The water wasn’t found on a planet, but rather the remains of one shredded to bits by its dying parent star. Top illustration: Mark A. Garlick/space-art.co.uk/University of Warwick/University of Cambridge). The sopping wet…

Watch These Giant Bubbles Exploding in Slow Motion

There are few better sentences than one that includes the words “giant”, “bubbles”, “exploding” and “slow motion”. Well, there’s one thing better: a video that fits that sentence. Put together by Joey Shanks of Shanks FX, this video contains some mesmerizing footage of…giant bubbles exploding in slow motion! It also explains how you can create…

Helium balloons don’t float all the time

If you’d like to make a point about the physics of helium balloons, just stick one in a vacuum. One of the earliest physics demonstrations that I ever witnessed was a simple one explaining the motion of a helium balloon in Earth’s atmosphere. It involved a clear plastic bucket full of unpopped popcorn kernels –…

The BBC has made eleven lost episodes of Doctor Who—nine of which haven’t been viewed in 46 years — available for purchase exclusively on iTunes. Go get ’em!

The Tomorrow People sizzle reel teases the entire mutant-filled season

Last night New York Comic-Con screened the pilot for the masses, and afterwards they debuted a little sizzle reel that teases what’s going to happen in farther on down the road. So far so good. The first episode premiered just a few days ago, but now you can look ahead into the future of this…

What Kind of Robot is the Best Robot?

MIT Tech Review reported on a study from Georgia Tech which showed that older people prefer a more humanoid look to their robots, while younger ones prefer robots that look more, well, robotic. Today, we want to know what style of robot you prefer. Are you most comfortable with the anthropomorphic imitations of Data? Or…

The U.S. Military Once Proposed a “Gay” Bomb

One doesn’t commonly associate the slogan “make love not war” with the U.S. military. Indeed, the United States military is feared and formidable precisely because it has proven so effective at conceptualizing clever and innovative ways to search, find and destroy, often with the simple push of a button. However, in a departure from these…

The math problem that had Einstein asking for help from his assistant

There’s an apocryphal story that still occasionally surfaces about how Albert Einstein flunked math in the fourth grade. That’s not true. But he did occasionally need help with his math. One time, famously, from his own assistant. The story of Einstein’s search for Avogadro’s Number has become famous over the years. Supposedly it proves that…

Bridesmaids‘ Paul Feig wanted to make a wacky Wonder Woman movie

I give Warner Bros. a lot of shit for being unable to capitalize on 99% of DC superheroes, but occasionally even they do something right — such as when they passed on director Paul Feig’s pitch for a Wonder Woman comedy flick where Batman and Superman would have been super-chauvinists. Here’s the details according to…

The Size of Earthly Surfaces Directly Under Different Space Objects

If you’ve ever wondered how much of the Earths surface actually sits directly beneath the Sun at any given moment, then you probably also gave up on the math pretty quickly. Luckily, Randall Munroe didn’t. If you draw lines from the edge of an object in space straight to the center of Earth, there’s an…

Could we be seeing a Rick-Michonne romance on Walking Dead?

Michael B. Jordan comments on rumors that he’s been cast in Star Wars, Independence Day 2, and Fantastic Four. Daniel Radcliffe discusses the possibility of a Harry Potter cameo in J.K. Rowling’s new Potterverse movie. Plus find out how long we’ll wait to see Laurel Lance suit up as Black Canary. Spoilers now! Fantastic Beasts…

Does Your iPhone 5S Crash With a Blue Screen of Death?

If internet chatter is to be believed, Apple has taken a rather unfortunate leaf out of Microsoft’s book: its iPhone 5S seems to be crashing in glorious style with a Blue Screen of Death. A number of iPhone 5S users—on threads on support forums—are reporting random reboots, which occur after the phone’s screen flashes up…

These Images Show the Brutal Scars on Mars’s Surface

These images show the incredibly striking, scarred surface of Mars. Formed by huge tectonic forces, its canyons are an enduring reminder of stress and strain the red planet has undergone. Hebes Chasma—shown in the image immediately above and the detail images that accompany this post—was formed by huge tectonic stresses, as were a number of…

Report: Valve’s Steam Machines Will Be Powered By AMD Too

Earlier this month, Valve released specs of its prototype Steam Box units and holy hell they were impressive. The eagle-eyed would have noticed that it was a purely Intel party—turns out it won’t be that way for long. Speaking to Forbes, Doug Lombardi, from Valve, has explained: “Last week, we posted some technical specs of…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tongiht: Orgesticulanismus

When animator Benoît Labaye’s father passed away from multiple sclerosis at the age of 55, he had spent nearly two decades confined to a wheelchair. In this touching tribute, the younger Labaye gives his father one last taste of freedom—both in form and in spirit. This is what Benoît Labaye is speaking in French during…

Can ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Bring Back Erotic Filmmaking?

Whatever happened to erotic cinema? Rourke & Bassinger raiding the fridge for a late-night “snack”…Brando and that stick of butter…and of course Deneuve, the original “Desperate Housewife.” With the ridiculous success of “Fifty Shades of Grey” some are speculating that erotic cinema is about to make a very big comeback.

Learn the Chemical Secrets of Fire in Glorious Slow Motion

There’s nothing quite like the destructive beauty of fire. And that crimson chemical reaction is even better in slow motion. If you’re just been playing with fire instead of learning about it, the folks at Distort have a quick 101 class on what makes up that wonderful, dangerous quirk of nature. You’d be hard-pressed to…