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New evidence suggests Archaeopteryx dressed in black

Scientists have found a way to uncover feathered dinosaurs’ true colors, and one of the first creatures to come under inspection is none other than Archaeopteryx — an iconic but mysterious theropod believed by many to be the “missing link” between dinosaurs and birds. Now, by examining a single, exceptionally well-preserved feather, one group of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 24 '12

6,000 page book captures the entire empty vastness of our solar system

Astronomical, the latest project by artist Mishka Henner, is an entire scale model of the Sun and the nine traditional planets…and absolutely nothing else. As you can see in the video below, it’s one giant reminder of cosmic emptiness. Each of the 6,000 pages represents a million kilometers. While a black and white image of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 24 '12

Lifebook Design Combines All Your Gadgets into One Modular Laptop and More from TreeHugger.com

This week on TreeHugger, 3D printers go on a road trip, tiny modular gadgets set to revolutionize electronics, watch a bike decompose on a NYC street, and more! 1. 3D Printers In A Prius Prove This Technology is Road Ready With four 3D printers and a Prius, two designers are finding out just what goes…

Tech News Jaymi Heimbuch - Treehugger Jan 24 '12

Report: Steve Jobs Wanted Lytro’s Crazy Camera Guts in the iPhone

Before Steve Jobs passed away in the fall, he apparently had made it known he was interested in meeting with Lytro CEO Ren Ng about the possibilities of light field capture technology in iPhones. And as the story goes, Ng obliged, setting up a meeting as swiftly as is humanly possible. This is the account…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jan 24 '12

In 1900, San Francisco’s Chinatown was quarantined with barbed wire fences

Here are some snapshots from a dark chapter in American history. Throughout the 19th century, San Francisco’s growing Chinese immigrant population had to contend with codified prejudice from legislation like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, segregated communities, and the sentiment that Chinese-Americans were the source of leprous, smallpox, and malarial “vapors.” This racism took a…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 24 '12

Get Ready: Facebook Is Forcing Everyone to Use Timeline

All of you Timeline holdouts: the holding out ends soon. “Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline,” says Facebook. And by “will get,” they mean “must use.” Here we go! Luckily, anyone who hasn’t already switched over to the megascrapbook will have a seven day grace period to ease into it before their…

Social Media Sam Biddle Jan 24 '12

Ex-Stanford Prof Starts a Totally Free Online School

Remember when Stanford offered those college-level Computer Science courses for free? Now the professor who ran them is leaving Stanford to start a project that will offer nothing but free CS online classes. Sebastian Thrun is leaving his post as a researcher and professor at Stanford to start Udacity, which will teach Computer Science college…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Jan 24 '12

Google Is Betraying Itself

From a 2004 Playboy interview with Larry Page, in which the Google co-founder describes a very different company from the one we use now: PLAYBOY: Portals attempt to create what they call sticky content to keep a user as long as possible. PAGE: That’s the problem. Most portals show their own content above content elsewhere…

Tech News Sam Biddle Jan 24 '12

McDonald’s Is Spraying Robbers with an Invisible DNA Mist

Apparently, robbing McDonald’s has become a thing in Australia. McRobbery’s are so rampant down under that McDonald’s locations in Aussieland are taking measures to protect themselves by spraying criminals with an invisible mist of DNA. I repeat, AN INVISIBLE MIST OF DNA. The DNA seeps into the criminal’s skin and is visible under blacklight for…

Tech News Casey Chan Jan 24 '12

What if Mad Max was played by a Panda? It would look a lot like this…

What if Mad Max was played by a Panda? Kung Fu Panda goes Post Apocalyptic in this trailer for Wastelander Panda by Epic Films. It’s a whole lot of ridiculous, with a generous helping of dystopian mayhem. I think we even spotted the Panda in the Thunderdome at the end? For more information on Wastelander…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 24 '12

10 Most Undignified Deaths in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Death comes for everyone — but it doesn’t always come in style. Sometimes instead of a heroic death or a cool death, a fictional character will get kind of a crappy death. (Often literally.) Sometimes a beloved character will die in a totally motifying fashion. Here are 10 of the most undigified deaths in science…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders Jan 24 '12

Here’s the Closest We’ll Get to That Star Wars Animated Chess Set

The company that brought us the iPhone Appgun is back with another augmented reality toy. This time it’s a board game called CheckARz which takes a crack at recreating that awesome battling chess set from Star Wars, with marginal success. Using an iPad 2 running an accompanying app developed with Qualcomm, players can view an…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Jan 24 '12

Avengers fine art covers present The Hulk à la Michelangelo and Al Hirschfeld

Marvel’s gearing up for the release of The Avengers with some curious promotions, but here’s one that’s pretty magnificent. Come April, Marvel will give select comics variant covers depicting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as illustrated by the likes of Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Monet. Here’s what they’ve unveiled so far. I wouldn’t mind having that Georges Seurat…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 24 '12

Clever 1-Minute Video Shows How Airplane Wings Really Work

You probably think that a wing lifts an airplane because the airflow moving over the top has a longer distance to travel and “needs to go faster to have the same transit time as the air travelling along the lower, flat surface.” Well, you are wrong. University of Cambridge’s Professor Holger Babinsky was so frustrated…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jan 24 '12

How Do You Police Cars That Drive Themselves?

Google is already testing its autonomous cars on the roads of California, and plenty of other manufacturers are starting to muscle in on the act, too. But when they hit the roads, how do you go about policing a city full of self-driven cars? The New York Times reports that that very question is causing…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jan 24 '12

Hunger Games’ Capitol Couture clothing line is unsuitable for deathmatches

The Hunger Games is starting its slow, inevitable fall into the Twilight marketing K-hole. This entails slapping “may the odds be ever in your favor” on anything that moves and peddling it to the disposable-cash-heavy demographic. The latest and greatest of the virtual marketing move for Hunger Games is a Capitol Couture line, which shows…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 24 '12

The Science of Cramming

Many of us don’t learn in optimal ways. We know that we forget new material, neglect to review older material, and study in ways that elevate cramming and procrastination to art forms. But there is research about how to be more efficient in these things. For example, dating back to 1885, there is a rich…

Tech News Samuel Arbesman - Wired Jan 24 '12

In this week’s comics, a new Airbender book is on the stands!

What can you look forward to this Wednesday? A new Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novel, Cthulhu versus The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and futuristic teens trapped in video game dystopias. Let’s hop on in! First Issues The debut issue of Infestation 2 — which promises to unite (among several franchises) Transformers, Ninja Turtles, 30…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 24 '12

Hideous G-Shock Phone Is Too Durable to Be Destroyed

Try to drown it, crush it with up to a ton of weight, or give it a ten-foot toss—this prototype G-Shock phone will just laugh its heinous mug at you. Why can’t super-rugged things not look like this? The phone, which appears to be running Android, is only a concept for now—so we hope Casio…

Tech News Sam Biddle Jan 24 '12

Newborn bear cubs sound exactly like humans

This is incredible on so many levels. The video you’re watching is of a black bear named Jewel giving birth to two cubs. The delivery was captured live via webcam just two days ago by scientists at the Wildlife Research Institute (WRI) in Ely, Minnesota. For those who’ve never seen a bear giving birth (I’m…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 24 '12

New evidence suggests Archaeopteryx dressed in black

6,000 page book captures the entire empty vastness of our solar system

Lifebook Design Combines All Your Gadgets into One Modular Laptop and More from TreeHugger.com

Report: Steve Jobs Wanted Lytro’s Crazy Camera Guts in the iPhone

In 1900, San Francisco’s Chinatown was quarantined with barbed wire fences

Get Ready: Facebook Is Forcing Everyone to Use Timeline

Ex-Stanford Prof Starts a Totally Free Online School

Google Is Betraying Itself

McDonald’s Is Spraying Robbers with an Invisible DNA Mist

What if Mad Max was played by a Panda? It would look a lot like this…

10 Most Undignified Deaths in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Here’s the Closest We’ll Get to That Star Wars Animated Chess Set

Avengers fine art covers present The Hulk à la Michelangelo and Al Hirschfeld

Clever 1-Minute Video Shows How Airplane Wings Really Work

How Do You Police Cars That Drive Themselves?

Hunger Games’ Capitol Couture clothing line is unsuitable for deathmatches

The Science of Cramming

In this week’s comics, a new Airbender book is on the stands!

Hideous G-Shock Phone Is Too Durable to Be Destroyed

Newborn bear cubs sound exactly like humans

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