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Discovery the Melancholy Chemistry of the Salt Print

Salt prints are one of the earliest photographic processes. The good news is you can still make them at home with a few chemicals. The bad news is they won’t be around for that long. People have been able to make “photos” for a surprisingly long time. All the way back in 1727, physicist Johann…

An Explanation for the Paradox of How We “See” Black Holes—Even Though They’re Invisible

One of the trickiest black hole concepts to grasp is also one of their most basic: Black holes don’t give off any light, so how do we still manage to “see” something that is functionally invisible? Here’s a tidy explanation of how that paradox works. Top image: Black hole artist’s concept / NASA It’s a…

This Short Film Offers a Delightfully Evil Spin on the Classic Disney-Style Love Story

In Cursed, a dialogue-free student short by Merel van den Broek and Nicole Derksen, a Disney-esque villain doesn’t quite know what to do with herself when she starts crushing on a dashing hero. Because even when you have magic powers, love doesn’t always go as planned… [Via Geek Art Gallery]

At Scotland’s Crawick Multiverse Garden, You Can Look into the Void

Have you ever wanted to meander between two spiral galaxies, or follow in the footsteps of a comet? Now visitors to southwest Scotland’s Nith Valley can do just that. Welcome to the “Crawick Multiverse,” a massive installation created by renowned landscape architect Charles Jencks that gives symbolic physical form to some of our most abstract…

The Martian has premiered… just not on this planet. The astronauts on the ISS managed to get the first exclusive screening of the upcoming Ridley Scott scifi movie about an astronaut who gets left behind in the vastness of space (Mars, specifically). If you’re wondering, yes, the ISS crew have also screened Gravity, because astronauts…

What’s The Most Useless Piece of Tech That You Own?

It’s probably gathering dust on your shelf or in a nearby drawer. I have an elderly digital video camera stashed in a bin with the winter sweaters. I enjoy taking videos at musician friends’ shows, and there was a time before phone cameras improved when it was essential to have a dedicated photography machine. Now…

Which Character Did You Hate…Until They Became Your Absolute Favorite?

There really is a thin line between love and hate! Sometimes there’s a character on a TV show, or in a movie or book series, who shows all the signs of becoming annoying. Or worse yet, offensive. And then…something magic happens. Which character did you hate until they became your favorite? Please include a picture,…

Apple Created a New Emoji But Nobody Knows Why

The world demands an emoji for every occasion, but soon, lovers of eyeballs and speech bubbles will finally get their day. It appears that Apple is about to release a mysterious new emoji. That’s it above. Weird, huh? It’s actually pretty clever. Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia, just spotted the new emoji character in…

Step Aboard the Enterprise-D in This Amazing Star Trek Virtual Reality Demo

The current VR boom in technology has given us some pretty spectacular moments. Headsets like the Oculus Rift or HTC’s Vive even have entertainment giants planning content using them to create immersive experiences. That’s cool, sure. But none of that lets you wander around the Enterprise-D in awe, does it? This amazing VR demo video…

When Are You Going to Get Your Prescription MDMA?

Not long ago, the idea of walking up to a clerk behind a counter and getting a baggie of weed seemed ludicrous. Now, in states where recreational or medical marijuana is approved and regulated, it’s a routine, mundane part of life. Are psychedelics next? It may seem like a similar scenario isn’t far off for…

The Weissenberg Effect Makes Liquid Climb Like Spaghetti Winding Up a Fork

The Weissenberg Effect happens when a fluid behaves in a very counter-intuitive way. Instead of being driven away from a spinning object, it starts climbing. Take a look at something you may have seen at home—but you’ve probably never noticed. If you’ve cooked at all, you know what happens when you put a spinning electric…

Is the Changing Definition of Autism Narrowing What We Think of as “Normal”?

The definition of autism is getting increasingly broader. As a result, we are building a new reality of the disorder that doesn’t accurately represent the most affected population. I first learned about autism in 1997 in my high school psychology course. It was relegated to a small paragraph in a chapter on childhood disorders. The…

This Terrifying Robotic Dog Has a Built-In Drone That Launches From Its Back

The future of autonomous robots is inching ever-forward–look no further than this combination of drone and autonomous quadruped that has me both freaked out and scratching my head. A new video illustrates a new concept for robo-drones. Remember BigDog, the unnervingly agile quadruped Terminator robot? Well, here we’ve got a smaller version of this type…

Hot Toys’ Army of The Force Awakens Snowtroopers Are Here To Commandeer Your Wallet

It’s been nearly three weeks since Force Friday came along and ravaged the wallets of Star Wars fans (myself included). Hot Toys nearly delivered a killing blow with the announcement of their first Force Awakens figures that day, but now they’re here to finish your wallet off once and for all with some gorgeous new…

Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights Is So Much Freaking Fun It’s Scary

Lots of amusement parks have scary Halloween attractions that feature cameos by popular horror franchises. But very few are actually created with the help and permission of the people who created those franchises. One that is: Halloween Horror Nights. And 2015’s version is absolutely terrifying. Halloween Horror Nights is an annual event that takes place…

This Week’s TV: A Ton of New Shows, But Only One of Them is Worth Your Time

It’s officially the start of fall TV season, and seven new shows are launching. But only one of them has bowled us over. Plus Gotham is back, and nuttier than ever. And how will the Doctor save Clara from the Daleks? Plus, David Tennant as the Fugitoid! All this and more, on This Week’s TV!…

Blue Apron Now Ships Wine to Your House, Making You Even Lazier

It’s the tech industry’s latest ploy to keep you from ever setting foot in a supermarket again: meal delivery service Blue Apron just announced a new program that ships bottles of wine to your home. Blue Apron, which recently achieved unicorn status and is now worth $2 billion, already ships packages of pre-washed seasonal ingredients…

Awesome view of a sunset through the nose of an old B-25 bomber

What. A. View. The nose of the B-25 bomber offers up such a fantastic view that it’s probably the perfect place to be for a sunset because not only do you get to see the entire world in a clear bubble, you get to see the old rickety steering wheel of a plane used since…

Your Sex Education Data Sucks

The way we teach sex education in the United States is such a crazy-quilt of curricula that it’s hard to know what’s being taught to our high school students, or how accurately. And when we lack that kind of data, we can easily make some pretty terrible mistakes. Take, for example, Hannah Smothers’ article in…

France Says Google Must Honor the “Right to Be Forgotten” Around the World

Europe’s “right to be forgotten” rules have been around for a while, but they pretty much just applied to Europeans who wanted to hide embarrassing or incorrect content about them. Now a French court says that Google needs to go a step further and apply the rules to all of its domains. In the past,…