Latest

Meet the NCAA’s First Openly Transgender Athlete

Kyle Allums has been a fighter for most of his life. Fighting to excel at the sport he loved and fighting to find acceptance for who he is. Growing up transgendered led him into a suicidal depression, but basketball was his salvation. This is his incredible story.

Britain’s Colorful Burglar Alarms Are Oddly Mesmerizing

When you think of iconic graphic design, you might think of magazine ads or highway signs or even design-centric companies like American Airlines. You almost certainly don’t think of burglar alarms. But maybe you should. Victoria McDonald does. This former editor of Art World magazine became fascinated by the design of burglar alarms a few…

These Geometric Water-Wicking Beach Towels Make Drying Off a Breeze

Sunny summer days have all but disappeared to make way for the crisper autumn afternoons here in the northern hemisphere; give it another six or seven months, however, and we’ll all spending lovely lazy afternoons in bikinis and boardshorts, not a care in the world—except the fact that our damn towels aren’t drying fast enough.…

David Byrne: Great Musician, Terrible Futurist

Despite being one of the greatest musicians of all time, David Byrne is a really awful futurist. The legendary frontman for the Talking Heads wrote today in the Guardian that the internet, “will suck the creative content out of the whole world until nothing is left.” But this isn’t the first time that Byrne has…

The Government Shutdown Is Killing Your New Favorite Beer

The government shutdown is killing dozens of beloved science programs? Whatever. Now it’s causing a massive outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella? Who cares? Wait, what’s that? It’s standing between you and the delicious beer you would be drinking? ALARM! PROTEST! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week, and it’s…

Van Parks, Bubble Emerges, Man Inside

You know what they say about people who live in glass houses—but what about plastic bubbles? For the next ten days, a American artist named Alex Schweder is occupying this teensy inflatable home—that attaches to a van via scissor lift—at the site of Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House in the name of art. For over…

Searching for life in our galaxy may have just gotten a little harder

Let’s say you’re a planetary scientist searching for signs of life on other worlds, and you happen upon an exoplanet whose atmosphere contains a large proportion of oxygen. Jackpot, right? Not exactly. New research shows planets orbiting red dwarf stars may harbor signatures of life (like oxygen) that are actually generated by non-biological processes. Top…

Why a Clock Radio Is the Best Way To Wake Up

I recently invested in an AM/FM clock radio, and I will never look back. Why? Because radio in the morning is the best way to wake up. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use your smartphone alarm clock. That’s just a fine solution. But it was killing me. Every time I heard that harp sing sweetly…

This Week in Time Capsules: Ronald McDonald Gets Roughed Up

Our weekly round-up of time capsule news includes a McDonald’s capsule from 1970 that hasn’t aged well, a Vietnam War-era capsule in Virginia Beach that “smells like rotten eggs,” and more church time capsules than you can shake a hymnal at. McDonald’s in Phoenix Opens A Soggy Mess of Early ’80s Nostalgia Thirty years ago…

New Model Photos Show Off Apple’s Awesome Spaceship-Like Campus

Over at Mercury News, new photos of an actual, physical model of Apple’s soon-to-be corporate headquarters make the mothership-like campus seem more real than ever (and just as beautiful). Up until now, we’ve only had renderings to go off, and while great, it was hard to get a real sense of what we’d be dealing…

Qualcomm Is Developing Mobile Processors That Learn Like Human Brains

Qualcomm is developing a new line of Zeroth processors designed to help devices think and sense just like human brains and bodies. This isn’t just an attempt at mimicking the behavior of human intelligence, but rather, an attempt at replicating the underlying biology that drives behavior. Oh, and Qualcomm wants to stuff all that complex…

The Galaxy Slashed a Hole in Space

Spiral galaxy NGC 891 is immense. At approximately 100,000 light-years across, it’s about equal in breadth to our own Milky Way. But from here on Earth, NGC 891 is seen from almost exactly edge-on, causing the vast cosmic disc to resemble a thin slice in the fabric of space. Via NASA: At first glance, [NGC…

Starting October 25th, new AT&T customers have an option between shared data plans and…shared data plans. Existing users will be able to keep whatever plan they currently have; AT&T won’t shunt you off. But anybody who’s switching over now is going to have pick a share plan. No ifs ands or buts. [Engadget]

Norway Is Overrun With Plastic-Covered Corpses That Refuse to Rot

Norway’s got a major corpse problem that isn’t going away anytime soon. Literally—they won’t rot. What’s the culprit behind this profusion of bodies that refuse to take their place in the circle of life? The same thing that’s also working to keep your sandwich fresh: plastic wrap. For three decades following World War II, Norway’s…

Awesome Photos of NASA Equipment Tests

There’s no hardware as cool as space hardware. And there’s nothing cooler than watching astronauts and scientists testing out equipment to take us off-world — even equipment that was never used. Here are our favorite images of NASA testing its equipment on Earth. Top image: Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator, located at the Lunar Landing Facility…

That’s not Cosplay. That’s the REAL Cally from Battlestar Galactica

We caught actor Nicki Clyne at New York Comic-Con in her FULL Callandra Tyrol uniform. Yes, people, that is the actual suit she wore for Ron D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica. Word has it, she’s filming a new short online series for Syfy. So happy to have you back, Cally!

Comet-Chasing Rosetta’s Interplanetary Travel Diary Is Awesome

European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft will be woken up from deep-space hibernation on 20 January 2014 to reach its final destination, reported ESA today. “Comets are the primitive building blocks of the Solar System and the likely source of much of Earth’s water, perhaps even delivering to Earth the ingredients that helped life evolve. By…

Here’s the First Footage of Valve’s Wacky Steam Controller In Use

When we first saw Valve’s thumbstick-free controller specially made for use with Steam, we had some questions about how it would really work in action. Now, we at least know what it looks like. There are still a lot of questions to be answered about how it feels, and a select few have had the…

A sneak peak inside Google and NASA’s new quantum AI lab

Wanna see what a super-futuristic quantum computer lab looks like? Press play and sit back. Back in May, Google and NASA launched the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. The uber-sleek facility uses two Canadian-built Quantum D-Wave computers which currently crunch at 512-qubits. Admittedly that’s not much, but the potential for quantum computers is enormous. It’s a…

Real-Life Architectural Puzzles Made for Escaping

You’re alone in a room, or perhaps with a small group of friends, looking for a way out, searching all the walls and surfaces around you—even the furniture and objects—for clues. There is no apparent way out. There are no immediately visible doors. But you haven’t been kidnapped, and this isn’t Saw; it is one…