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Has Suicide Squad Cast Two of Batman’s Most Famous Villains Already?

A photo from the Arrow set reveals a change coming for a major character. Set video from Chicago shows Lois Lane with Superman. James Gunn talks Guardians of the Galaxy 2. We’ve got more details for the Minority Report TV series and a mysterious new Flash character. Spoilers now! Top image: Batman v. Superman Suicide…

Ask All Your Questions About Computer Crime And Digital Warfare

Kim Zetter is here to answer all of your questions about computer crimes and security, Stuxnet and digital warfare, online surveillance and privacy, and how living online is changing the world. Zetter is the author of the new book Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon, which tells…

William Gibson On the Apocalypse, America, and The Peripheral’s Ending

William Gibson is laconic. Which isn’t too surprising, given that the author of Neuromancer is famous for his spare, incisive prose style. We sat down with him in late October to discuss his latest novel, The Peripheral, and wound up talking about a lot of things I never expected. I met Gibson in San Francisco’s…

Scientists Discover a Virus That Makes Humans Less Intelligent

U.S. scientists studying throat microbes have inadvertently stumbled upon an algae virus that appears to have a slight but measurable detrimental affect on cognitive functioning in humans, including visual processing and spatial orientation. Disturbingly, millions of us could already be infected. Called Chlorovirus ATCV-1, it’s a large DNA virus known to infect certain green algae.…

​The Terrible Secret Of Eugene’s Mullet Revealed On The Walking Dead

It’s practically impossible to discuss anything about this week’s episode without it being a spoiler, but suffice to say we got the most major revelation since we learned Terminus is A Bad Place. And we also got a crappier, less interesting revelation: Abraham is a crazy asshole. “Self-Help” is the title of tonight’s episode, which…

This CCTV System Actually Edits People Out

You might think that the whole point of surveillance cameras was to, y’know, watch people. But what if we were actually edited out of the street scenes they show? That’s what San Francisco-based Prism Skylabs is doing, reports New Scientist. The idea is fairly simple, though not necessarily reassuring. You see, the company’s tech, used…

Sometimes even giants need a little tenderness. Just look at the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) transiting the Elizabeth River, at Portsmouth, Va., shepherded by four tiny tugboats. The huge vessel was photographed en route to Norfolk Naval Shipyard, on November 5th. [Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Justin R. Pacheco/U.S. Navy]

A time-lapse infographic published by Die Zeit Online depicts the protests across East Germany that preceded the downfall of the Berlin Wall. Watch as what begins as tiny dots of discontent in August 1989 explodes into mass demonstrations by November.

What One Thing Can We Do To Make Science Education Better?

Is it the text books that need revamping? Does the curriculum need a refresh? Should we broaden the slate of experiments? Whatever you think the problem is, tell us what you think we could do to fix science education — and why it would work — in the comments now. Image: Racorn / SHUTTERSTOCK.

The Who Are Making… an Oculus Rift App?

The next g-g-g-eneration of gaming is set to be built around virtual reality, and veteran rockers The Who want to tap into the buzz too. Calling upon the talents of developers at Immersive, you fly around a 3D world themed around the bands history as they approach their 50th year in the music business. Bullseyes,…

You are not as original as you think you are, and that’s ok

We think our vision of the world is unique and original, so we use our cameras (and the Internet) to let everyone know about it. This video—made with 465 photographs each of them taken by different photographers—shows that in reality we are not that unique. We all get fascinated by the same things. And that’s…

Hubble’s Latest Images Reveal a Rich Seam of Galaxies

Hubble’s latest images reveal the detail of a super-rich galaxy cluster called Abell 1413. And isn’t it damn pretty? Nestled between the constellations of Leo (The Lion) and Coma Berenices, this collection of over 300 galaxies is over 2 billion light-years from Earth. This particular image is dominated by a large elliptical galaxy called MCG+04-28-097,…

How To Force People To Act On Beliefs They Know Are Not True

What if you have a fact that is a 100% lie? What if everyone knows? Don’t despair. There are ways to make people act like they believe lies, even if they are explicitly told what the lies are. To accomplish this nefarious act, all we really have to do is make them feel rushed and…

The New Raspberry Pi: Smaller and Somehow Cheaper

Raspberry Pi has just managed to do what every technology manufacturer should strive to achieve: it made its basic product both smaller and cheaper at the same time. The new Model A+ is an overhauled version of the company’s base offering, the Model A. While it packs the same Broadcom BCM2835 System-on-a-Chip and 256MB of…

You Can Make Diamonds Out of Peanut Butter

Diamond’s are beautiful but, sadly, rather expensive. Now, though, Dan Frost of the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany has discovered that you can make them from peanut butter. No, really. BBC Future reports that Frost has been working hard to replicate the complex crystalline structures that can be found in the lower mantle of the Earth.…

Replace All Your Furniture With These Giant Bird Nests For People

WHY DO I EVEN OWN ANY OTHER FURNITURE? I’m sitting on a couch right now, and I’m kind of pissed it’s not a giant nest. That’s the most comfortable looking thing ever. If these weren’t a bit too expensive for me, my (long-suffering) roommate might very well come home one day to discover I’d replaced…

Harvard Is Privately Tracking Student Attendance With Secret Cameras

Everyone’s skipped the occasional class here and there, but clearly Harvard University is taking it seriously. It’s started tracking the attendance of its students using secret cameras—and it didn’t tell them it was doing so. The Harvard Crimson reports that the University has been using surveillance cameras to track attendance. The devices take photographs in…

How a Simple Lick of Paint Can Transform Our Urban Environment

When artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn visited the favelas of Rio De Janeiro, they wondered how they could help the wider community. Turns out, the answer was a simple lick of paint. You may have already seen the neighbourhood-wide artwork that they create, but in this video they explain how their ambitious artworks have…

John Oliver Somehow Improves the Already Awesome Salmon Cannon

Remember the salmon cannon? That supremely overenthusiastic answer to the problem of fish migration being blocked by dams? Well, John Oliver found that single use to be lacking something more… Pythonesque. This video is hilarious in a way that’ll make you feel kind of bad for loving it. It was amusing when Jon Stewart got…

Watch the Futurama intro sequence made with Simpsons characters

Today’s Simpsons-Futurama crossover episode brought us many good things. Some fun gags, some much-needed self-deprecation, evil Bart-gremlin hybrids that taste delicious, lots of Bender (or not enough), and the best of all: The Futurama intro made with Simpsons characters and sung by Homer. Update: A reader asks if this final gag gives a hint that…