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An Audi Masterpiece That Belongs On Your Mantle, Not Your Driveway

Taking inspiration from Porsche’s decision to break out into designing everything from sleds to cellphones, Audi’s decided that it now wants to apply its design chops to beautiful objects without four wheels. And the car maker’s first creation is a stunning see-through table clock that leaves its complex engine completely exposed and visible—not hidden beneath…

That Time Thomas Edison Almost Invented the Radio Telescope

In 1890, Arthur Kennelly, an electrical engineer working for Thomas Edison, wrote a letter to the director of the Lick Observatory. He described an interesting experiment being undertaken by the great inventor that may have been the first radio telescope — forty years before its official invention. Photo of early radio telescope model via NAAPO…

The United Nations Gets a Revamp, Just in Time For the General Assembly

This week, as delegates descend on the United Nations for the 68th General Assembly, they just might be spending their free time in a brand-new lounge area. The renovation, officially opening on Wednesday, is an official gift from the Netherlands to the UN, so it’s only appropriate that it was masterminded by two of the…

Microsoft’s Surface Accessories: All-Day Juice, Brand-New Colors

Microsoft’s big Surface reveal today is packed with plenty of spec bumps, but its most important improvements might come from its accessories. Especially its new battery-packed Power Cover. Power Cover Battery life was a huge focus for Microsoft in general at today’s announcement, given that the previous generation hovered around three hours in the previous…

The threat displays of non-threatening animals are kind of adorable

Or they are, at least, in the hands of nature cartoonist Rosemary Mosco, creator of Bird and Moon Comics. To the animals that wield them, however, warning coloration, aggressive poses, and intimidating anatomical features can mean the difference between death and a last-minute escape – even (or, perhaps, especially) when those animal are bluffing. See…

Microsoft’s New Surface Tablets: The Upgrade Is on the Inside

About this time last year, Microsoft made some major promises about ushering in the future of computing. One year and two Surface tablets, later the future Microsoft’s been dreaming of isn’t quite here. Maybe the second time’s the charm. Microsoft is rolling out the next two versions of its Surface devices, the Surface 2 (the…

New Under the Skin trailer makes sex w/ Scarlett Johansson terrifying

There’s a new extended trailer for Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, in which sexy alien Scarlett Johansson looks for men to have sex with in order to send them back to her home planet (for food, maybe?), and I’m dead certain sex with Scarlett Johansson has never looked so scary. Here’s the thing about Under…

Dentists May Start Covering Teeth in Growth-Stimulating Diamond Dust

Looks like there’s a new candidate for most awesome supermaterial in town. Dentists may soon start fighting bone loss by covering our teeth in itty bitty nanodiamonds, making repairing teeth quicker, cheaper, and much less painful. https://gizmodo.com/9-incredible-uses-for-graphene-5988977 During jaw and tooth repair operations, doctors are normally forced to use invasive surgery to stick a sponge…

Video: $400,000 Lamborghini gets cut in half in violent accident

When the $400,000 Lamborghini Aventador experiences a violent accident, the front part—called the safety cell—separates from the rest of the car to try to save the driver’s life. This is what happened in Brooklyn, after some idiot in a sedan decided to turn left at the wrong time. https://jalopnik.com/watch-a-boring-sedan-rip-a-400k-lamborghini-aventador-1370314736

A Watch Winder That Possibly Sends Your Timepiece Through a Worm Hole

Unless you wear it every single day, that fancy kinetically powered watch of yours is going to stop running if left sitting on your dresser. So instead of having to constantly reset the time, you can drop a small fortune on this mesmerizing 360 degree watch winder which may or may not also open a…

What Kind of Transportation Will We Use in the Future?

Whether by plane, by train, or by a laced-up pair of sneakers, we have to get where we going. But just how we do that changes constantly. Today, we want to know what you think the future of transportation will look like. Will teleportation move beyond the silver screen? Will the space day-tour shuttle idea…

Slow-Motion iPhone Destruction, Shot With iPhone Slow-Motion

Best way to show off the iPhone 5S’s slow motion video capture? By using it to shoot Apple’s new smartphone being destroyed at 120 fps. How delightfully meta. https://gizmodo.com/the-new-iphone-caneras-flash-illuminates-photos-withou-1278459315 Between lighting the thing on fire and letting a dog lick peanut butter off the device, this is some very creative iPhone annihilation. Destruction is fun…

The most inventive beards and mustaches you will ever see

Photographer Greg Anderson recently returned from the National Beard and Mustache Championships held in New Orleans. You’re not going to believe the things that some guys can do with their facial hair. Anderson, who has compiled a photo essay for PetaPixel, plans on making a short picture book out of about 25 of his favorite…

Apple sold more than nine million iPhone 5Cs and iPhone 5S’s over the weekend, making for the biggest launch ever. Impressive, but it’s worth pointing out that this is the first time the iPhone has been available in China at launch.

Just why does The Amazing Spider-Man 2 need so many villains?

According to co-writer Alex Kurtzman, it’s all building on a crucial idea from the first film. The latest Star Wars rumor suggests a Chronicle star could head to a galaxy far away. Joss Whedon drops tons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spoilers. Plus new videos for Gravity, Divergent, and tons of upcoming shows. Spoilers! Top image…

13 of the World’s Oldest (and Most Beautiful) Typewriters

Some people collect baseball cards and others collect coins. Martin Howard, however, collects century-old typewriters. And boy is he good at it. The Toronto-based enthusiast has typewriters that looks like navigation instruments and typewriters that look like scales. But they all have one thing in common: They’re beautiful. The Martin Howard Collection includes dozens of…

A Robot Bartender That Knows Who’s Subtly Signaling for a Drink

Designing a robot that can mix and pour the perfect martini isn’t terribly difficult—once you get the portions and motions nailed down, it’s good to go. But designing a robot bartender that’s also able to discern who at a noisy crowded bar is looking for a drink—based on subtle gestures or posture—is a whole other…

Project Mkultra: One of the Most Shocking CIA Programs of All Time

When the extent of the U.S. government’s domestic spying program was revealed this past summer, many were surprised and outraged: how could a government which so prizes liberty of its citizens covertly collect data on its own people? Yet, sadly, this is not the first time Uncle Sam, without permission or notice, secretly gathered information…

This Multi-Million Degree Gas Cloud Spans Half a Million Light Years

This glowing purple cloud may look stunning, but you wouldn’t want to get too close—because it’s actually a multi-million degree celsius gas cluster. This composite images, stitched together from data acquired by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton, shows enormous arms of hot gas in the Coma cluster of galaxies. Spanning at least half…

The US Tylenol Problem, Visualized

In the last 10 years, 1,500 Americans died after taking too much of one of—nominally—the world’s safest drugs: acetaminophen or, as you might know it, Tylenol. This viz goes a long way to explaining why that’s the case. ProPublica has a wonderfully detailed feature about the overuse of acetaminophen. One of the most compelling points…