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 How to Forage for Cocktails

I was traipsing around a conifer forest, looking for the perfect white fir. I wasn’t hunting for a Christmas tree. I had just been taught to see the wilderness as my own personal liquor cabinet, and I was searching for ingredients for my next cocktail. It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week,…

The Story Behind Bhen On The Cover Of The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction

This is a neat little story: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction has produced some fantastic covers over the years, and since the 1970s, they’ve included a little green alien on some of the covers. Over on their blog, they’ve gone back to look at why he was included. But in 1975, when public…

World’s Largest Fusion Reactor is About to Switch On 

If “The Stellarator” sounds like an energy source of comic book legend to you, you’re not that far off. It’s the largest nuclear fusion reactor in the world, and it’s set to turn on later this month. Housed at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator looks more like a psychotic…

Gavin Rothery’s The Last Man Is A Haunting Post Apocalyptic Short Film

In Gavin Rothery’s new short film, The Last Man, an anonymous soldier is awoken from hibernation, only to discover that the world he knew is gone. The film is a haunting, post-apocalyptic look at what will drive him forward. Fans of Duncan Jones’ movie Moon, will recognize some of the set design: Rothery was on…

Share Your Best Parent Technology Fails With Us

Parents: They just don’t get technology, right? It’s probably one of the most common grievances among sons and daughters worldwide. From Mom asking you who this Reddit person is to Dad watching Netflix in silence because he muted the sound on his computer, we’ve all had a moment (in some of our cases, hundreds) where…

In 2014, the King County Library system of Seattle distributed over 21 million items between 48 branches. As library systems grow, they’re increasingly turning to technology to manage the logistics of getting materials to patrons.

Somebody Found Waldo and Put Him on Instagram

Remember Where’s Waldo books? Since the 1980s, kids have spent countless hours scouring their pages for the lonely man in the red and white shirt. But in the internet age, nobody can remain lost for long. In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before someone found the elusive mime and stuck him on…

There’s always been some level of tension between genre and literary fiction, but according to novelist David Mitchell, avoiding genre is a “bizarre act of self-mutilation”.

Imagination Is The Way To Escape Every Day Drudgery In Tokyo Cosmo

Escaping from everyday drudgery is hard, but in Takahiro Miyauchi’s short animated film, Tokyo Cosmo, imagination is key. I really like this short, and I particularly like his attention to detail, such as when he leaves the action running in the kitchen, letting the viewer take in the mundane elements and objects that make up…

Can These Glasses Help the Colorblind? We Put EnChroma to the Test

A company called EnChroma has built a pair of glasses that claims to restore color vision for the colorblind. Predictably, the internet has erupted with excitement. But it’s not the first instance in which a piece of technology has made this bold assertion, and the science behind color perception isn’t straightforward. We decided it was…

Droid Turbo 2 Review: Definitely Shatterproof, But Also an Eyesore

There is no shortage of high performance Android phones out there, and it can be hard to find a good reason to go with one over the other. The Droid Turbo 2 has a couple of features that say hey over here, pick me. pick me!! But a great phone has to feel right in…

Sierra Leone Celebrates The End Of The Ebola Outbreak

After a year and a half since the first case was reported in the West African country, Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola free, 42 days after the last case was cleared. The announcement is one further step forward in the fight against the 2014 outbreak. Since the start of the outbreak, the virus has…

New Evidence Is Challenging What We Know About the Deadliest Mass Extinction in History

The extinction at the end of the Permian period 252 million years ago was one of the darkest chapters in the history of life. Up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial life forms vanished in a geologic blink. But was the Great Dying really as sudden and devastating as its name…

The Construction Of This Halo Gravity Hammer Knocks Our Socks Off

Man at Arms is a reality-style web series where the folks at Baltimore Knife and Sword build some of the weapons you see in games and movies. This week, they’ve constructed one of the massive Gravity Hammers from Halo. As a somewhat competent amateur when it comes to prop building, the work these guys put…

Watson Will Break All The Bones In Your Body While Naming Them In The New Sherlock Teaser

There’s a new teaser out for the upcoming Victorian-era Sherlock special. In it, Watson will break all of the bones in your body while naming them, because he’s a doctor. What I’ve found interesting about these teasers is that this upcoming special, The Abominable Bride, looks like it’s a bit of the origin story between…

Here’s The Winners Of The 2015 Chinese Nebula Awards!

On October 18th, the World Chinese Science Fiction Association held their 6th annual Xingyun Awards ceremony, the highest award for science fiction in China. Liu Cixin, who just earned the 2015 Hugo for best novel, earned a lifetime achievement award. Launched in 2010, The Chinese Nebula Award is akin to the Hugo Awards, and took…

Soon We Will Hunt Like Predator With This New Night-Vision Sensor

Graphene could make it possible to build ultra-thin, flexible thermal sensors for built-in night vision technology — just like that lethal alien in the Predator franchise. Modern night-vision equipment exploits the generation of heat by living bodies by focusing the thermal emissions with a special lens. The signal is then transmitted to IR detectors, which…

This Video Explains Everything That is Wrong With Kickstarter

Kickstarter has made countless dreams come true and changed the way many companies do business. But over the past few years, it’s also become bloated with scams, half-baked product pitches, and brilliant, well-intentioned ideas that somehow never see the light of day no matter how much money we sink into them. There’s a reason most…

This Space Shuttle Test is Serious Science Wrapped in Pure Visual Extravagance

A mahogany wind tunnel for testing spacecraft aerodynamics is just too delightfully steampunk for real life. Or is it a real-life simulation of a 1980s-style overly-exuberant display of photographic superposition? Take a tiny space shuttle, suspend it with magnets, and you have this beautiful low-speed wind test in a transparent hexagonal tunnel wrapped in mahogany.…

Sherlock’s Father Makes Recovery Miserable in Season Premiere of Elementary

Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson are back in the season 4 kickoff of Elementary, and it’s all about mistakes, forgiveness, and recovery. Holmes relapsed on heroin in the finale last season, and now he has to cope with the fallout with his daddy issues on full display. Ready to brave the many, relentless spoilers to…