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Watch a Robot Tamer Control Industrial Machines With Simple Gestures

In factories, many simple, repetitive tasks have already been taken over by machines. But as we bring industrial robots into unpredictable, interactive environments, we’re going to need better ways to communicate with them. That’s why engineer and designer Madeline Gannon developed Quipt, a gesture-based control software that helps industrial robots interact more fluidly with their…

African-Inspired Space Opera Yohancé Is Going To Be Our Next Obsession

When it comes to space opera, most people don’t associate the genre with Africa. Not Paul Louise-Julie. He’s creating a space opera comic called Yohancé inspired by African aesthetics, culture and design. Paul noted that he’s long been inspired by Star Wars, drawing comics with his brother since childhood. With parents who collected African art…

These are Our Picks for the Top Science Stories of 2015

From Rosetta’s ongoing love affair with a comet and the discovery of a pentaquark, to controversial breakthroughs like gene-editing of human embryos and a possible new species of homo sapiens, these were the science stories everyone was talking about in 2015. Rosetta and Its Potato-Shaped Comet The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to explore Comet…

There Are Twelve Different Kinds of Rainbows

The science of rainbows: it’s something we’re all taught in grade school. Airborne water droplets act like little prisms, bending and splitting light. Mix enough water and sunshine, and you get a brilliant bow of color. The reality is quite a bit more complicated. Some rainbows have a second, inverted bow, caused by the reflection…

This Is How Ken Burns Would Document Star Wars 

Ken Burns is known for his Civil War documentary, and it’s been copied countless times. The latest version comes from the Washington Post, who have mashed up Burns’ famous style with the Galactic Civil War from Star Wars. Give it a watch here: [Washington Post]

Man At Arms Constructs Thorin’s Sword Orcrist From The Hobbit

We’ve really liked watching Man At Arms construct some epic replica weapons in the past, and now they’ve gone and created Orcrist, from Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy. What’s pretty amazing about this is how they take it from a slug of metal to a really elegant weapon by the end. The process here is incredible,…

Spaceballs: The Search For More Money Is Apparently Happening!

With the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is already demonstrating, Rumors have been swirling of a sequel to 1987’s Spaceballs. Recently, Mel Brooks spoke with Adam Carolla’s ‘Take A Knee’ Podcast and said that he wants to start filming in 2016. Brooks has said in the past that he’d like to direct Spaceballs:…

After a successful static fire engine test yesterday, SpaceX is now planning to launch its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday. The launch from Cape Canaveral is timed for 8:29 p.m. EST. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

We’ve Never Heard Whales Make This Haunting Sound Before

You’ve probably watched enough Animal Planet to know that humpback whales communicate using clicks and whistles. But put on a pair of headphones and listen to the video above. Beneath the shrill chatter we’ve all heard before, there’s a much lower-pitched tone, eerily reminiscent of a human heartbeat. A touch above the limit of human…

A Cybersecurity Bill Loathed By Tech Companies Is Now Law

If you thought the US government’s ability to spy on its citizens had languished of late, think again. Yesterday, Congress and President Obama approved the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a measure that lets private companies turn over consumers’ personal data to Homeland Security, as long as that data meets some broad and vague criteria…

Mongolia Is Getting Its Stolen Tyrannosaurus Skull Back

It’s always a good day when you get your stolen, $230,000 Tyrannosaurus skull back. That was Mongolia’s lucky break this week, after US attorney Preet Bharara filed a civil forfeiture complaint regarding a certain Tyrannosaurus bataar skull that entered the United States unlawfully in 2006 and was sold for $230,000 (plus a buyer’s premium of…

The clever engineers at Google have littered the Internet with Star Wars Easter Eggs this week. My personal favorite? Googling “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away” brings up a text crawl page of results. Let us know what other Star Wars goodies you’ve discovered!

Stuck Cart is Triggering an Unexpected Spacewalk Next Week

Astronauts are quickly throwing together a plan for an unscheduled spacewalk to find out what happened to jam up their external transporter cart. The spacewalk will take place early next week if troubleshooting from inside the station doesn’t work. The Mobile Transporter slides along rails along the truss of the International Space Station to move…

Bud Light’s New Can Is Trying to Distract You From the Real Problem With Beer Today

Earlier this year, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, AB InBev, started snatching up small craft breweries all across the country. In fact, InBev bought another one just yesterday, the same day the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate announced the redesign of its own flagship light beer, Bud Light. Welcome to Happy Hour. Substance abuse for nerds. First, lest…

Black Holes Only Go Truly Black if They’re Really Big

Black holes don’t emit light, but they still shine. They do so because of accretion disks, but those disks don’t appear around black holes of all sizes. There could be incredibly huge black holes out in the universe that we can’t see, because they’ve gone really dark. Astronomers have seen some massive black holes. They’ve…

Fabiola Gianotti Becomes First Woman Physicist to Take the Reins at CERN

Particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti has become the first woman to head CERN, the organization based in Switzerland that is home to the Large Hadron Collider. She succeeds outgoing director-general Rolf Heuer, who oversaw the laboratory’s operations for the last seven years. Previously, Gianotti headed the ATLAS collaboration, one of two teams responsible for the discovery…

My Favorite Martian Is a Seriously Weird TV Show, And You Can Own All of It

Long before Mork and Mindy, ALF or Third Rock from the Sun, one TV show helped to pioneer the idea of an alien sitcom: My Favorite Martian is a surprisingly odd show. It stars Ray Walston and Bill Bixby, two phenomenal actors. And it’s now available as a single DVD box set. My Favorite Martian…

Report: The FAA’s Drone Registry Will Be Public—Including Names and Addresses

On Monday, the FAA will launch its online registry for drone operators with the aim of collecting personal information from the owners of these unmanned aircraft. But according to a report from Forbes, all those names and addresses will eventually be publicly available. Which seems… kinda scary? Over at Forbes, John Goglia says he’s been…

The Awesome Cosplay and Excitement of Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ Opening Night

Yes, it finally happened, somehow: the next Star Wars movie has arrived. We’ve spent the whole week celebrating the new movie and the entire saga, but last night, the Force was with millions of people as they headed to the theaters to see the movie. Here’s some of the coolest cosplay and moments from across…

The Coolest Science Stories You May Have Missed in 2015

Not every scientific advance is heralded as a revolutionary breakthrough, because science mostly progresses incrementally. Sure, certain high-profile stories caught the lion’s share of attention this year. But there’s still plenty of nifty research going on that deserves a nod of appreciation too. Here are ten of our favorite cool science stories that you may…