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Giant CT Scanners Reveal All the Gory Details of a Mangled Car Wreck

CT, or computed tomography, scans are to x-rays what 3D movies are to classic 2D flicks. But instead of being just some gimmick to lure patrons into a theater, CT scans result in 3D models that let doctors study internal medical conditions in amazing detail. But why stop there? Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have…

Top 10 Most Gorgeous Space Movies Ever Filmed

Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity heralds the return of the glorious space porn movie. The swoon-worthy visuals make you feel as though you’re actually in space, on a unique adventure. But there’s a proud tradition of breathtaking space movies. Here are the 10 most lovely space films, before Gravity. Note: these are in no particular order. 1.…

The Sound of Gravity: Total Realism

Gravity is a stunner of a movie in large measure because of what it doesn’t do—it’s restrained and elegant in the way that most big space epics aren’t. Here’s a great behind-the-scenes look at how the film makes the vacuum of space sound terrifying—even at times when sound is impossible. The SoundWorks collection documentary features…

A biological street lamp that cleans carbon out of the air

One day, dark city streets could be illuminated with biotechnology like this glowing green lamp, which is made with fluorescent algae. The algae naturally emits a soft glow, and at the same time it draws harmful carbon out of the atmosphere. So this street light is naturally good for the environment. It also looks beautiful.…

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Review: Robust, Utilitarian, and Wonderful

It was only a year and a half ago when Olympus showed that a small, stylish camera with no mirror and a little sensor could hang in the big leagues. Many photographers instantly fell in love with the OM-D E-M5. Now, with the E-M1, nearly every bar has been raised for even the most demanding…

This Piano Projector Makes Playing Keyboards as Easy as Rock Band

Learning to play a new instrument is an exciting endeavour until you get caught up in the hours of mind-numbing practice required to get proficient. But if learning the piano is up next on your bucket list, you’ll be desperate to get your hands on this clever projection system that makes learning the ivories easier—and…

Brain scans show that dogs are as conscious as human children

By specially training dogs to lie motionless in an fMRI scanner, neuroscientists have finally taken a look inside the mind of our favorite companion animal. And to no dog lover’s surprise, they exhibit a level of awareness that will force us to reconsider the ways in which they’re treated. There’s a provocative and fascinating opinion…

Every GPS App Should Make You Follow an Adorable Pack of Penguins

For a while, novelty celebrity voiceovers were all the rage when it came to GPS navigation units. But the Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo has come up with a far more adorable way to get to your destination: by following a muster of virtual waddling penguins. Penguin NAVI allows tourists to find their way from anywhere…

This Week’s TV: American Horror Story, Walking Dead, and 7 More Shows!

This week, American Horror Story makes a bid to out-crazy its first two seasons. Really. The Walking Dead features its biggest zombie set piece yet. But there are also a ton of other premieres this week, including super-mutants, Wonderland, and superhero craziness. Check out clips and details for all this week’s TV! Top image: American…

8 Incredible Images That Make Mars Look Like A Petri Dish

Though NASA sadly spent its recent 55th birthday furloughing employees thanks to the government shutdown, the discovery of water in Martian soil just a week earlier made for a pretty thrilling development at the agency. Ironically, there couldn’t be a better time for the release of This is Mars, which offers all the photographic evidence…

Monitoring Gene Activity Across Thousands of Cells Sure Is Pretty

Scientists have developed a new technique which allows them to visualize gene activity in thousands of cell, simultaneously. That will allow them to understand how our cells function like never before—and it looks damn pretty, too. While scientists have been able to measure gene activity in cells for a long ol’ time, until now the…

Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Cellular-Transport Researchers

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells”. Above, from left to right: Rothman, Schekman and Südhof, winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine or…

This vending machine only gives you coffee when you yawn

Douwe Egberts is a Dutch producer of coffeemakers. Direct is a very clever South African advertising agency. Combine the two, and what do you get? An awesome vending machine in Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport that distributes free cups of coffee to the people it sees yawn. As the video explains, there’s some rather impressive…

This Is Why Einstein’s Brain Was Better Than Yours

Neuroscientists, along with pretty much everyone else, have long suspected that Albert Einstein’s brain was somehow unique. A new study now affirms these suspicions, showing that his genius may have arisen from the way the hemispheres of his brain were so freakishly well connected. The new study is the first to detail Einstein’s corpus callosum…

This Is How NASA Made Composite Images Before Photoshop Existed

You might think that this image looks a little bodged together, and you’d be right to. After all, it’s literally a collage of photographs obtained by Voyager I—all the way back in 1979. Collected when the spacecraft passed Jupiter’s moon Io for the first time, the images were assembled by hand at NASA, revealing for…

The Hobbit‘s Beorn is revealed in all his muttonchopped glory

We had a small, blurry pic of The Hobbit’s shapechanger Beorn from the back, but now we have a large blurry pic of Beorn from the front, and he looks like… huh. Looks like actor Mikael Persbrandt got his sideburns on. Okay, to be honest, I think he looks more than a little like Wolverine’s…

What Was the Most Life-Changing Invention of the Last Century?

There are two kinds of inventions: the natural steps up from existing tech and then there are the ones that are so transformative we don’t even realize how much we need them until they already exist. Today, we want to know your nominee for the most life-changing innovation of the last 100 years. Perhaps it’s…

The First Man To Walk In Space Almost Got Stuck Out There

Today I found out that the first man to walk in space almost got stuck out there. That lucky individual was Alexei Leonov, who was born in the Soviet Union on May 30, 1934. He was one of the twenty Soviet Air Force Pilots to be chosen for the first cosmonaut group. Originally, his historic…

LG has confirmed that rumors about a new curved smartphone are accurate—and it’ll appear in November.

This freaky looking lizard was thought to be extinct for 50 years

Check out Anolis proboscis, also known as the Pinocchio lizard, for obvious reasons. This animal hadn’t been seen from the 1960s through to 2005. Now, a team of photographers has finally caught up with the elusive reptile, capturing these remarkable images. All photos: Alejandro Arteaga & Lucas Bustamante / Tropical Herping. Also known as the…