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Bionic Eyes Are Totally a Thing Come 2013

The Google Glasses may be the big news in optics, but the real tech to watch might be the Australian cyber-eye that’s set to begin clinical trials next year. The Bionic Eye is the work of Bionic Vision Australia (BVA), a national consortium of researchers founded in 2009 with a $42 million ARC grant. One…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Jun 8

This could be our best view yet of the earliest objects in the Universe

NASA researchers have detected the faint glow of what they believe to be the first stars and galaxies to form in the aftermath of the Big Bang — and it’s positively stunning. If the team’s findings are correct, they could offer valuable insight into the nature of the Universe’s very first objects. The observations were…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 8

Could the “Touch of Death” work in real life?

You’ve seen Kill Bill’s five-finger death punch, and watched Spock perform the Vulcan nerve grip a million times. Are these techniques merely fiction — or could someone mysteriously subdue an attacker with a single skilled blow? One martial arts technique has earned the name “Touch of Death” — but is such a maneuver really possible?…

io9 Keith Veronese Jun 8

More People Pirate Game of Thrones Than Watch Game of Thrones on HBO

According to TorrentFreak, Game of Thrones averages around 3.9 million pirated downloads per episode. According to the great Internet resource known as Wikipedia, only 3.8 million people watch Game of Thrones on HBO. That means more people pirate the show than actually watch the show on TV. To no one’s surprise, Game of Thrones is…

Television Casey Chan Jun 8

This deathbed robot is like having GLaDOS for a nurse

We live in an era in which androids are being considered for hospice care, so artist Dan Chen has created a machine that eases the dying into the great beyond — with the brutal efficiency of an ATM. This is the “End of Life Care Machine,” an automated companion who ushers you into the void…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jun 8

First Official Picture from Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim

We’ve known for a while that Guillermo del Toro’s big monster movie Pacific Rim is about giant robots (piloted by humans) fighting giant monsters — but now here’s your first look at one of the robot pilots. Take a look at Idris Elba in his robot pilot suit. He’s playing the character named Stacker Pentecost…

Movies Meredith Woerner Jun 8

Honey bee apocalypse may not be caused by evil corporations after all

We’ve suspected for quite some time now that cutting-edge insecticides were responsible for the catastrophic hive crashes that are inflicting honey bee populations. But recent evidence suggests that this may not be the case — instead, Colony Collapse Disorder is the result of a highly contagious virus that’s being transmitted by parasitic mites. Early last…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 8

Mark Zuckerberg Staring at The Vatican with His Wife

The Summer of Zuck is upon us. Here’s Mark “Secret Wedding” Zuckerberg with his new bride, Priscilla Chan. Their honeymoon was great! They ate McDonalds, failed to use an ATM, and took pictures of… something. Our first privacy-compromising tipster sends us this cute tale of fame and photography in the land of the Pope: This…

Social Media Sam Biddle Jun 8

This Ice Cube Tray Is a Piece of Crap

After our epic ice cube tray Battlemodo, Brent “Stop-a-Mugging-With-His-Face” Rose decided, for some reason, that he had to correct a grievous error. That his personal ice cube tray should be the real winner. So he brought it in and made ice for us. Which was a little weird—I mean, we had a silicone tray in…

Tech News Joe Brown Jun 8

10 Weird Greeting Cards We’ll Need in the Future

As time marches on, a lot of things about society change — but not the need to smooth social interaction with bland, valueless pleasantries. Hence the greeting card industry, which has thrived by printing bland sentiments on folded cardboard, decorated with pictures of kittens hugging. As we go forward into the future, society will need…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jun 8

What Happens When You Inherit George Zimmerman’s Old Phone Number

A 49-year-old wastewater treatment plant worker named Junior Alexander Guy got a cell phone for the first time last month. Immediately he started receiving menacing calls, but the people on the other end weren’t dialing the wrong number. The smarties at T-Mobile had actually given the poor soul the digits that once belonged to George…

Tech News Leslie Horn Jun 8

Europe Wants to Tax Internet Giants for Bandwidth Use

Facebook, Google, and Netflix are all parts of the Internet many of us consider fundamental. And now, a lobby group sponsored by prominent European telecom corporations is pushing for a bandwidth use fee which would force companies like these to pay up for their internet activity on the other side of the Atlantic. Ugh. According…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jun 8

The Science of Ghosts

In this week’s io9 show, we delve into the science of ghosts — and the results may haunt you. We talk to author Mary Roach (Spook) about the environmental factors that could explain ghost sightings. We discuss why so many io9 readers think ghosts might exist. And we show how you can create a real-life…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jun 8

The Only Thing Cooler Than a Laser Is an X-Ray Laser

Lasers are cool, but x-ray lasers are cooler. Until now, the only x-ray lasers to ever exist have required so much power that their infrastructure took up the same amount of space as sports stadiums—but a team of scientists have just made one that fits in your living room. Researchers from the University of Colorado…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Jun 8

The Most Extreme Zipline In the World Is One Hell of a Ride

This is absolutely nuts: watch people riding as fast as 87mph (140km/h) on the ZipFlyer Nepal, the world’s craziest, most extreme zipline. It was just finished on Sarangkot, near the city of Pokhara, Nepal. The zipline has a vertical drop of almost 2,000 feet (600 meters) and a distance of almost 6,000 feet (1.8 kilometers).…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jun 8

The best part of Prometheus isn’t the aliens

You may be one of those amazing people who can watch a movie without any preconceptions, but most of us were expecting Prometheus to be a work of genius. Trailers teased a haunting, galactic epic rich with subtext, a worthy companion to Ridley Scott’s brain-warping 1979 flick Alien. Prometheus is definitely an action-packed space opera,…

Movies Annalee Newitz Jun 8

Guy Gets Double Arm Transplant, Does World’s Best Robot Dance Move to Celebrate

I love sad stories with happy ending. This gentleman is Gabriel Granados Vergara, a 52-year-old man lost both arms below the elbows, charred beyond repair in an electrical accident. But thanks to an unnamed 34-year-old shooting victim, he got them back. The double arm transplant was performed by Dr. Martin Iglesias at the National Institute…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jun 8

Russia says this swirling ball of light is an ICBM, not a UFO

Skygazers from Lebanon to Armenia flooded police hotlines Thursday night with reports that a bright, spiraling UFO was illuminating the night skies. Then came the YouTube videos. Uninformed, ad hoc commentary on whether the lights were a good omen for Syria’s revolution, or a bad one soon followed. Then Russia came along and rained on…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 8

These incredible photos from the International Space Station make Earth look like a video game

Between these amazing shots and his many wacky microgravity experiments, it’s abundantly clear that International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit has perhaps the coolest job on (and off of) this planet. Here’s his collection of long exposure “star trail” photographs that transform the Earth and the cosmic firmament into a pachinko parlor. Behold Pettit’s shots…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jun 8

Approved Mac App Hints at Forthcoming Retina Graphics

While there have been recent suggestions that the new MacBook Pros won’t feature a Retina display, here’s another little clue that suggests at least some of the soon-to-be-announced Macs will: an app has appeared in the Mac App Store that boasts “Retina graphics”. The latest version of Folder Watch, approved by Apple and in the…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jun 8

Bionic Eyes Are Totally a Thing Come 2013

This could be our best view yet of the earliest objects in the Universe

Could the “Touch of Death” work in real life?

More People Pirate Game of Thrones Than Watch Game of Thrones on HBO

This deathbed robot is like having GLaDOS for a nurse

First Official Picture from Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim

Honey bee apocalypse may not be caused by evil corporations after all

Mark Zuckerberg Staring at The Vatican with His Wife

This Ice Cube Tray Is a Piece of Crap

10 Weird Greeting Cards We’ll Need in the Future

What Happens When You Inherit George Zimmerman’s Old Phone Number

Europe Wants to Tax Internet Giants for Bandwidth Use

The Science of Ghosts

The Only Thing Cooler Than a Laser Is an X-Ray Laser

The Most Extreme Zipline In the World Is One Hell of a Ride

The best part of Prometheus isn’t the aliens

Guy Gets Double Arm Transplant, Does World’s Best Robot Dance Move to Celebrate

Russia says this swirling ball of light is an ICBM, not a UFO

These incredible photos from the International Space Station make Earth look like a video game

Approved Mac App Hints at Forthcoming Retina Graphics

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