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16-foot dinosaur tail unearthed in Mexico is in perfect condition

For the first time in the country’s history, paleontologists in Mexico have discovered a fully articulated dinosaur tail – and it’s a doozy. Believed to have belonged to a hadrosaur living 72-million years ago, the tail’s 50 intact vertebrae extend a whopping 16-feet in length, and are in pristine condition. That a fully articulated tail…

These nerds in costume look even better than the real superheroes

San Diego Comic-Con 2013—the Big Bang of everything nerd, sci-fi and fantastic—may be over, but its power is still rippling through the Spacetime continuum. Take a look at these incredible nerds dressed as their favorite heroes. Impressive.

The State Department’s Cybersecurity Office Sounds Like an Awful Mess

There are governments that finish projects on time, use technology to improve performance and protect Americans from imminent harm. Then there’s the State Department’s cybersecurity office. It seems to have a hard time just keeping the lights on. A damning new report by the State Department’s inspector general casts this anti-hacking office in a pretty…

How Star Wars Just Inspired a Real-Life Scientific Discovery

The real-life Tatooine may not have two suns—but it has unlocked the secrets of a geomorphic mystery. Close to Tozeur, Tunisia—George Lucas’s stand-in for the barren planet—there’s a wilderness of sand that’s permanently changing. When wind whistles across the dunes, it pushes that sand into huge, crescent-shaped structures known as barchans. These things are huge,…

Intriguing art created by crazed electrons seeking escape

Todd Johnson is a scientist at the famed physics research facility Fermilab, where he works on laser systems. And in his off-hours, he turns his knowledge into art, producing incredible lightning-like patterns in chunks of clear acrylic using nothing but the power of frustrated electrons. Using a commercial linear accelerator similar to the ones he…

“Born to Die” Electronics Dissolve When Wet

Planned obsolescence is a dirty word for most tech consumers. But for scientists developing a new breed of circuitry that vanishes on command, it’s the ultimate goal. Christened “transient” or “dissolving” electronics, these devices are poised to change how electronics decay, how wounds heal, and how war is fought. Leading the pack is a University…

11 X-Men Movie Spinoffs We’d Like to See

This weekend, Wolverine slashes his way into movie theaters. But he’s not the only X-Men character who deserves a separate movie. In fact, at Comic Con, Bryan Singer suggested the X-Men universe could spawn as many movie franchises as the rest of the Marvel universe. Here are 11 X-Men spin-offs that would make awesome films.…

The Real Reason Google Killed Reader

Much has been said about the demise of Google Reader and whether a decline in users ultimately killed off the much-loved product. But according to a new report from Buzzfeed, Larry Page and other higher-ups at Google simply didn’t care for the product, so it was taken behind the barn. More specifically, Page’s disinterest in…

A ‘submarine graveyard’ has been found off the coast of England

British archaeologists have discovered more than 40 German U-boats sunk during the first World War. Located just off England’s southern and eastern coast, the subs have been disintegrating for nearly a hundred years. It’s now a race against time to examine the wrecks before they vanish forever. Top image: A German minelaying submarine lies on…

Watch the Fiery Crash After Southwest’s Landing Gear Collapse

This has not been a great month for commercial airlines—or anything that’s supposed to stay in the sky without crashing down amidst flames, really. The most recent mark against flying contraptions occurred yesterday evening at LaGuardia, when the front landing gear of a Boeing 737 collapsed and sent the plane skidding across the runway. Passengers…

Adding iodine to salt may have helped boost America’s I.Q.

A new working study published at the National Bureau of Economic Research concludes the iodization of salt in the United States in the early 1900s raised the I.Q. scores of some populations by as much as 15 points – a full standard deviation – in the span of just 10 years. Photo by Marcos Ojeda,…

Best Buy Will Give You $200 to Trade in Your Old iPad

If that ageing iPad 2 is proving too slow for you, or your iPad 3 is ounces too heavy, good news: Best Buy isre-launching its $200 iPad trade-in program. From July 23rd, Best Buy will take your iPad 2 or 3—as long as it’s not water damaged or sporting a cracked display—when you buy a…

Inside the Boeing Capsule That Could Be NASA’s Next Space Taxi

Boeing is gunning for the contract to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, and yesterday it showed off its latest design for the insides of its intergalactic ferry, the CST-100 Space Capsule. The gumdrop-shaped module is 14.8 feet-wide and can fit up to seven astronauts. Bigelow Airspace constructed most of the exterior and…

Those lovely, custom Flipboard magazines you’re creating? You can now view them on the web, as well as editions others in the Flipboard community have made.

The Biggest and Best Comics News of Comic-Con

Sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions, actual comic books are discussed at Comic-Con. Heck sometimes comic news is announced, although you can barely hear it over the movie and TV panels. Here’s the biggest actual comic news that managed to come out of this year’s Comic-con. Marvel • Marvel’s next event is the Jonathan Hickman-penned “Infinity,”…

You Won’t Believe These Images Are Just Renders

It can be difficult to know what’s real and what’s fake when it comes to digital art these days. But don’t torture yourself worrying about it now: Here are some of the most photorealistic 3D renderings on the web. Each one is completely synthetic; every single detail generated by madly talented 3D artists. Enjoy. Airbus…

Smurfs are even more horrifying on the inside: Papa Smurf Dissected

And we thought Smurfs were creepy looking on the outside. Artist Jason Freeny has ripped off Papa Smurf’s skin to show you what these little monsters look like on the inside, and it’s pretty creepy. “Papa Smurf Dissected” created by Freeny gives us the chills, especially the tiny little warped Smurf skull. Prints are available…

Swedish researchers create ‘an impossible material’ by mistake

In yet another example of scientific serendipity, Uppsala University researchers have created an unprecedented material with record-breaking properties. And most remarkable of all, this new material — which was thought impossible to make for over a century — was the result of an accident in the lab. And indeed, the new magnesium carbonate material exhibits…

Are Hasbro’s dropping toy sales a leading indicator?

We’ve been wondering for a while when the superhero movie boom would start to slow down, and maybe we’re seeing our first sign. Weak sales of superhero toys helped Hasbro’s overall sales to decline 35 percent, and its net income to drop to $26.5 million (from $43.4 million a year earlier.) Hasbro’s biggest rival, Mattel,…

These Portraits Are Made from Hubble Images (And Yours Can Be, Too)

These striking images might only just look like faces—but that’s OK, because they’re made up of images acquired by the Hubble space telescope. Put together by Spanish visual artist Sergio Albiac, they’re part of his Stardust project, which he explains is “an experiment in generative portraiture.” In fact, as part of that experiment, he’s willing…