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After 300 Years Of Evolution, Has The Piano Reached Acoustic Perfection?

The modern piano evolved rapidly in the first 150 years after its invention, but it is now so good, acoustically, that it probably won’t change much more in the future. That’s the conclusion of acoustician Nicholas Giordano, dean of Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics in Alabama. He described his work last month at…

So You Want To Join The Empire: Finishing Touches

We’ve just about reached the end of this build: the end is in sight! This week, we’re finishing up the body work, and will finally get it all ready for a proper test fit. It’s almost done! There’s just a bunch of random things that need to be finished up. Thigh Armor One of the…

Sky Movies Star Wars Commercial Makes Even The Prequels Looks Good

This is a neat commercial advertising the Star Wars films on Sky Movies that runs through the entire saga to date. It even makes the Prequels look interesting. [Reddit]

The Impact Site Of Apollo 16’s Third Stage Booster Has Been Found On The Moon

Shortly after Apollo 16 blasted off from Florida in 1972, the Saturn V Booster was used as an experiment in and of itself, to measure seismic activity within the moon. Now, the crash site has been found. https://gizmodo.com/over-200-new-moonquakes-discovered-in-apollo-16-data-1730211959 Shortly after it was used to bring the mission into Lunar orbit, the S-IVB was to be…

Doctor Who Shows Just How Much Hard Work Goes Into The Doctor’s Easy Victories

Warning: If you haven’t seen tonight’s new episode of Doctor Who, it’s pretty heartbreaking. And kind of grueling. Remember “Midnight,” the scary-weird David Tennant bottle episode? This is sort of Peter Capaldi’s version of that. Goosebumps! Spoilers ahead… And the thing that comes across, after watching “Heaven Sent” a couple times, is how much the…

SpaceX’s Launch Escape System Looks Totally Badass

In two years, SpaceX will begin ferrying astronauts into orbit. But before it can do so, the commercial spaceflight company must prove to NASA that its ride will be safe. A big part of that guarantee comes from the fire-breathing propulsion system pictured above. Arranged in four pairs around the outside of a Crew Dragon…

Polyamorous Love, Fisticuffs, and a Focus on Joan for Elementary

Tonight’s Elementary was a reason to like the show: untangling a ridiculously convoluted mystery where everyone has a motive, exploring a non-traditional lifestyle without it immediately condemning the participants, and Joan kicking ass. The only thing missing? Clyde. You had a whole extra day to catch up on the holiday episode; if you keep reading…

Visualization of Flight Searches Reveals Our True Thanksgiving Travel Plans

The most popular destination this Thanksgiving may not have been mom and pop’s house, but rather Miami Beach or Disney World, according to a telling visualization of airline search data. It’s a well-known fact that air traffic spikes on Thanksgiving weekend. But data journalists at The Upshot were curious to learn whether our flight patterns…

Open Channel: What’s Your Favorite Television Opening Credits? 

Earlier today, we were discussing the new credits for The Shannara Chronicles, and it got me thinking: what opening credits did I really enjoy watching? I have to say that for me? I never skip past the Stargate SG-1 credits. I love the music, the montage, etc. Stargate Atlantis didn’t do half-bad either. I gotta…

This Cambridge Chapel’s Light Display Is a Glorious Ode to Knowledge 

The interior of a Cambridge chapel comes alive with light in an eye-popping immersive project art installation. It’s the creation of artist Miguel Chevalier, and the installation was commissioned by the University of Cambridge for a fundraiser last month — the first time the university has invited an artist to do such a project in…

Maybe We’ll Get That Supergirl / Flash Crossover After All!

Executives for CBS’s Supergirl have said that they’ll never cross the DC heroine over with CW’s The Flash or Arrow, but according to Bleeding Cool, they might be changing their minds. The site has reported that there are rumors brewing that should Supergirl be picked up for the remainder of a full season (the back…

Physicists: Nobody’s Telling the Truth About That Downed Russian Warplane

Russia and Turkey each have their own version of what happened with that downed jet earlier this week, but science may have the last word. According to two Belgian astrophysicists, neither nation is being entirely truthful. Over at Motherboard, Alejandro Tauber describes a new analysis of the crash that occurred Tuesday morning, when two Turkish…

New The Force Awakens Feature Teases Out Rey’s Background

A new short featurette for Star Wars: The Force Awakens focuses on Rey, and what actress Daisey Ridley thinks people will be drawn to in her character. The clip shows off a couple of new clips along with it. 19 days until The Force Awakens.

Got a kid who’s ready to colonize to Mars? NASA has just released a set of Martian survival activities, suitable for grades K-12. From touring the Red Planet’s topography to building rovers and engineering artificial environments, it’s everything a future Martian explorer needs to get a head start.

We Still Don’t Know Why the Heck There Are So Many Blue Tarantulas

A very particular shade of blue hair has evolved independently on eight separate occasions and in at least three different ways in tarantulas, a new study finds. And scientists are having a hell of a time figuring out why. Like most animals with a blue hue, tarantulas don’t get their color from pigments. Rather, that…

This Twitter Fanfic Picks Up The With The Mystery Machine Gang Years Later 

In case you needed a laugh this afternoon, author Susan Jane Bigelow took to Twitter with a short fanfic about the lives of Fred, Velma and Daphne long after they were teenagers. [Susan Jane Bigelow]

Check Out This Stunning Illustration Of The Millennium Falcon

She’s the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, and this illustration of the Millennium Falcon absolutely blows us away. Drawn up by Paul Johnson, it’s part of a series of pictures that he’s drawn up of the Star Wars universe. The image of the Falcon has captivated me from the moment I saw it:…

A Graphene Microphone Could Pick Up Sounds Far Beyond the Limits of Human Hearing

Graphene, everybody’s favorite wonder material, has yet another trick up its sleeve. The ultra-strong, highly conductive carbon lattice is extraordinarily good at detecting faint and high frequency sound waves. That’s according to new research from the University of Belgrade in Serbia, where materials scientists have just built the world’s first graphene-based condenser microphone. It’s roughly…

Here’s The First Episode Of The Expanse: ‘Dulcinea’

The Expanse is set to drop on December 14th on SyFy, but the network has released the pilot episode on a whole bunch of platforms. This is a show that we’re pretty excited for, and this only gets us more excited for December. https://gizmodo.com/our-visit-to-the-mind-blowingly-realistic-spaceship-set-1743284262 In case you missed the episode, here it is:

Looking For A Good Read? Look No Further Than These Award Reading Lists

With the end of the year coming up fast, two awards have started up their annual ‘recommended reading lists’ to look back on the year’s released works. The James Tiptree Jr. award has an open call for recommendations, and you can see what the community is recommending. There’s a great list of novels being generated,…