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Iran’s Suicide Combat Drone Is Held Together with Packing Tape

While Iran’s been busy bragging about mass producing the American ScanEagle drone that crash landed there last year—and giving the Russians a copy—some less than intimidating footage is trickling out of Tehran. It looks like Iran’s newest drones are pretty rickety. This video from Iran TV showcases the country’s killer Ra’ad-85 suicide drone all dressed…

Cover Your Android’s Lockscreen in Just the Apps You Really Need

Your phone is probably full of apps. And that’s great! Apps are fun! But having a million of ’em is less fun when you need to get to a specific one, and right quick. A new Android app called Cover’s got your back though, and can turn your lockscreen into a simple menu of only…

Yes, there is such a thing as a “unit” of death

Back in 1970, when risk assessment became widely-known, people needed to understand risk — but without getting panicked. Assessors wanted to invent a non-scary term to communicate a very small risk of death. And thus the “micromort” was born. Often, people are confused by the fact that everything, even the most innocuous stuff, is risky.…

The Last Supersonic Flight of the Concorde Was 10 Years Ago Today

We were promised supersonic flights. Today, we stay well below the speed of sound. We were promised transatlantic flights from New York to London in 3 and a half hours. Today, that flight takes us 7 hours. We were promised the future of flying. That future hasn’t existed for 10 years. The last flight of…

NASA is bringing broadband connectivity to the Moon – with lasers

Using a pulsed laser beam from aboard its recently launched Lunar and Atmospheric Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), NASA has transmitted data over the 239,000 miles between the Moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second. Say goodbye to the glacial transmission speeds of RF communication! Above: An artist’s conception of…

Vine just added two pretty crucial updates today: Sessions, which lets you save up to 10 Vines-in-progress, and Time Travel, which lets you edit or delete clips. [Vine blog]

The first Captain America 2 trailer is star-spangled awesomeness

Captain America throws his mighty shield several times in this amazing first trailer for The Winter Soldier, but what you’ll want to be on the lookout for is Cap’s new foe in action, Black Widow being awesome, Robert Redford’s mysterious military man, The Falcon in flight and the world’s worst Helicarrier parking job. Watch it…

Captain America’s Back in the Badass First Winter Soldier Trailer

Captain America’s first outing was a great summer popcorn flick, and we loved seeing the wholesome hero leading the attack in The Avengers. And now that Steve Rogers gets to team up with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow once again, damned if we’re not incredibly excited to see at least one-third of the Avengers kicking ass…

Allergic Reactions to Bee Stings Could Actually Be Protecting Us

Food allergies are common, but so too are adverse reactions to insect stings. But while allergic reactions to bee stings can be damaging or even deadly, new evidence shows that it’s our body’s way of trying to protect us — a reaction that for some people goes way too far. Bee stings are a serious…

Explore Your Lobes And Cortices With This Interactive Brain Map

Cramming for a test can make even the brightest minds feel like a pile of mush: Words start blending together, and after scanning pages and pages, it can be tough to tell when concentration falters and thoughts begin to drift. But the good folks at Open Colleges have managed to make neurology engaging and easy-to-process…

Chemists show life on Earth was not a fluke

How life came about from inanimate sets of chemicals is still a mystery. While we may never be certain which chemicals existed on prebiotic Earth, we can study the biomolecules we have today to give us clues about what happened three billion years ago. Now scientists have used a set of these biomolecules to show…

Three coffee cups per day reduce the risk of liver cancer by 50 percent

According to Sci-News, “consumption of coffee reduces risk of hepatocellular carcinoma—the most common type of liver cancer–by 40 percent.” The researchers also found that three cups a day will “reduce the risk by more than 50 percent.” The research analyzed 16 previous case studies from 1996 to 2012, to reach arrive to this conclusion: From…

These Gargantuan Gates Keep Europe’s Largest Port from Drowning

Spanning more than 25 miles of shoreline and covering 41 square miles, the Port of Rotterdam is largest shipping berth in all of Europe, the fifth-busiest in the world, and a major interchange for the region’s energy supplies. But keeping the North Sea’s fury in check is no easy feat. So to keep the port…

Someone actually made these leggings out of a dead person’s skin

Buried in this io9 post about some Halloweenesque fashion is one of the most horrible images I’ve seen in my entire life: a photo of leggings made out of a real dead male, full with penis skin, which you can see at Strandagaldur, The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft. Not safe for work or…

This Fleet-Footed New Robot Walks Exactly Like You Do

One of the biggest challenges that engineers have faced in their quest to build a humanoid robot is one of the simplest tasks for humans: walking. More specifically, they’ve had a hard time engineering a robot to take strides and roll each foot heel-to-toe, like we do. Until now, that is. A team from Texas…

New Thor 2 clip shows off the sequel’s surprising sense of humor

Thor: The Dark World is a lot of things, but more than anything it’s funny. Really funny. Like, wipe away tears funny. And we’ve got a clip to prove it. Granted this whole scene is out of context, so there’s no set-up at all. But it’s a great demonstration of the new level of playfulness…

Your Next Hyundai or Kia Will Come With Android Baked In

Looks like mobile OS allegiance will soon become part of the car buying decision: Hyundai and Kia will use Android to power in-car entertainment and navigation systems in all new models, starting with the new Kia Soul and Hyundai Genesis coming at the end of the year. While other manufacturers have touted in-car iOS compatibility…

Another publisher steps in. Simon & Schuster is launching its own science fiction imprint, overseen by Children’s Publishing EVP Jon Anderson and Young Readers VP Justin Chandra. But the imprint, edited by current literary agent Joe Monti, will publish “YA and above.”

What’s Keeping Self-Driving Cars Off the Road?

It’s easy to see how self-driving cars would benefit society. Traffic jams gone. Accidents reduced. Leisure time increased! These are all good things. But there are a number of bad things that are keeping self-driving cars from taking over. What’s the hold up? https://gizmodo.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-too-quick-to-cheer-self-driving-car-5974608 Before diving into the details of the challenges facing self-driving cars,…

All the ways to screw up a cat’s eyesight using science

After last week’s blind kittens in carousels, I thought I was done with creepy kitten vision experiments. It turns out, there’s a whole genre of them, and most of them deal in stripes. https://gizmodo.com/the-seriously-creepy-two-kitten-experiment-1442107174 Exactly how much the brain is preprogrammed, and how much can be reprogrammed, has always been a matter of debate. Insight…