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Strange Snapshots Of Police and Emergency Services From the Past

Over the past century, our methods for fighting crime and responding to emergencies have changed dramatically. These photographs of early police and emergency responder forces capture another age, whose sometimes absurd and sometimes amazing practices are long gone. An early method of measuring the feet of criminals, which was part of the Bertillon method of…

When a lightning storm rains down upon the Grand Canyon

Photographer Rolf Maeder recently traveled to the Grand Canyon in hopes of taking some pictures of the sunset, but an incoming lightning storm required a change of plans. This astonishing photo of multiple lightning bolts and brilliantly illuminated canyon sky is the result. Image: Rolf Maeder. Check out his website. Maeder writes: On the Moran…

The First Carbon Nanotube Computer: The Hyper-Efficient Future Is Here

Coming just a year after the creation of the first carbon nanotube computer chip, scientists have just built the very first actual computer with a central processor centered entirely around carbon nanotubes. Which means the future of electronics just got tinier, more efficient, and a whole lot faster. https://gizmodo.com/scientists-are-making-computer-chips-of-the-future-out-5955734 Built by a group of engineers…

Scientists discover a way to make real life lightsabers

It’s no science fiction anymore: clumping photons into molecules, scientists have discovered a completely new form of matter that works just like the lightsabers in Star Wars. “The physics of what’s happening is similar to what we see in the movies,” said one of the researchers. Don’t expect actual lightsabers in your nearer Wal-Mart anytime…

On Person of Interest, we meet the new Machine Gang

On last night’s season opener for Person of Interest, the focus was entirely on the expanded Machine Gang for this season. Root (Amy Acker) and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) have joined the series as regulars, and in this episode we got a taste of what that would look like. Plus, we saw a new side of…

Yes, free will is real — and it exists for a reason

Does free will actually exist? Or are we all just puppets to physics or biochemistry or some other form of determinism? A great essay over in Slate argues that free will is real, and that it evolved for a reason. Image via Guy Incognito. Writes Roy F. Baumeister: There is no need to insist that…

Corkscrewing Lasers Could Be the Key to Unlimited Bandwidth

Conventional data transmission techniques rely on two-dimensional signals to carry the information down a pipeline, but there’s only so much potential bandwidth to go around. There are only so many signals you can pack into a given plane before they begin to overlap and interfere with another. But if we were to add an additional…

Shooting Challenge: Fall Leaves 2013

This week marks the end of summer and the first days of fall. It also marks the start of fourth annual Fall Shooting Challenge. Don’t worry if things are still green by you—the results aren’t due next week—but you can enter starting…NOW! The Challenge Take a photo that features the beautiful yellows, oranges, and browns…

How Software Enables an Artist With Cerebral Palsy to Paint Hands-Free

Astro Saulter is an incredibly talented artist from Jamaica. He was also born with cerebral palsy, which has confined him to a wheelchair for his entire life. But thanks to some special software, he can exercise his uncanny ability to create art. Saulter paints using a computer that’s operated through software called EZ-Keys, the same…

Stephen Hawking’s ideas are easy to understand in this wonderful cartoon

Do you have a young one you’d like to introduce to the teachings of noted theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, or did A Brief History of Time just make your brain hurt? Then this short, educational and adorable animation from The Guardian is for you! The brief cartoon explains black holes, singularities, the Big Bang and…

US military journal predicted Kenya’s mall terrorist attack scenario

Two retired U.S. Lieutenant Colonels predicted the Nairobi mall terrorist attack scenario in the September/October 2003 edition of Military Review. The worst thing is that a) their solutions are appalling and b) they say it’s bound to happen again, perhaps in a stadium or a mall in the United States. Photo by AP Images https://gizmodo.com/what-kenyas-mall-siege-reveals-about-the-urban-future-1379625024

Trade Your Swiss Army Knife For This Multi-Function iPhone Case

Your smartphone has already replaced everything from your digital camera to your alarm clock, so why not the pocket knife clipped to your keyring too? The creators of the IN1 feel you should demand more from your iPhone case than just a way to protect it from falls, and so have packed theirs with a…

You won’t believe this amazing video is just an optical illusion

These boxes aren’t real. They’re made of light, created with a technique called projection mapping, which uses projectors and perspective-corrected graphics to create the illusion of alternate dimensions in real life. The best example I’ve ever seen, by far. https://gizmodo.com/this-short-film-just-took-projection-mapping-to-the-nex-1383033085

Add Some Lift to Your Living Room with These Balloon-Shaped Lights

Finding the right lighting for your home can be a tough challenge these days. You can get ceiling-mounted lights, recessed lights, track lights, wall lights—you can even get fancy with a chandelier or a floor lamp! But what about something fun? Look no further than these “Memory lights”. Designed by Boris Klimek and inspired by…

Who’s your favorite fictional deity or demon?

Literature and films are full of fictional versions of gods, devils and demons. Whether people are meeting the Supreme Being or selling their souls to Satan, religious icons turn up a lot in fiction. But who’s the greatest God or Devil (or angel or demon) in fiction? Please include a picture or clip of your…

Popular Science has turned off comments. Here’s why that’s a bad idea.

Citing research on the general awfulness of internet commenters, Popular Science has decided to do away with its comments. Over at Boundary Vision, University of Calgary science education researcher Marie-Claire Shanahan offers clear, compelling reasons why she disagrees with this decision. https://gizmodo.com/the-science-of-comment-trolls-5976374 Writes Shanahan: In addition to being on shaky justification grounds, I also see…

Food Truck Uses Sensory Trickery So You Can Enjoy Endangered Eats

A new GhostFood truck traveling the northeast in October will offer you the experience of eating some wonderful, albeit endangered, delicacies. That’s right: the experience. You won’t actually get to eat the food, but if the proprietors’ trickery works, your brain—and your tastebuds—won’t know the difference. To replicate what it’s like to eat a food…

Google Hangouts is finally finally finally getting proper status indicators (on Android) so you can tell if you’re bugging someone who’s actually online! It’s no SMS support, but this is one hell of a welcome update.

What Kenya’s Mall Siege Reveals About the Urban Future of War

A 2003 article in the Military Review has proven darkly prescient with last weekend’s terrorist siege of an indoor shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Written by two retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonels, the piece outlines the emergence of modern-day siege warfare tactics, or the invasion of large architectural structures. In the magazine’s September/October 2003 issue,…

A Most Unusual Weapon in the Fight Against HIV: Foot Cream

Ever heard of Ciclopirox? A commonly prescribed treatment for nail fungus, you could have a tube of the stuff in your medicine cabinet right now. Now, in a study recounted in the latest issue of PLOS ONE, researchers demonstrate that the antifungal agent can reactivate the same cell-death pathways that HIV turns off, thereby eliminating…