Drugs

Navy “Batman Boat” Has Drug Runners Thinking They’re Being Chased By UFOs

The Navy’s 80-foot $6 million “Stiletto” with its Batman-esque twin m-shaped hull has been floating around as a prototype project for several years now, but it has suffered from budget cuts in the Defense Department. However, it appears that the Stiletto is starting to see some action in the war against drugs. Recently a group…

Tech News Sean Fallon Sep 19

Hallucinogenic Eye Candy USB Lollies Take Your Brain to That Special Place, For Real

Mmm, mind-bending USB lollipops, the “delicious new confectionary uses cutting edge Sensory Substitution Technology to transmit vivid emotive images into your mind’s eye.” Wait, what? Tripping via USB? Shockingly, it might actually be legit. It may seem like a total sham (and the “email for availability” link on the “Order Online” page doesn’t help), but…

Tech News John Mahoney Aug 28

Pro Gamers Are Doping Too

Not able to let cyclists and sprinters have all the performance-enhancing fun, pro gamers are apparently equally avid dopers, according to an interview Game Player Australia has with Alex Walker, the director of an upcoming World Cyber Games tournament. They stick him the hard question-what is the WCG doing to combat the growing problem of…

Tech News John Mahoney Aug 28

Binaural Beats Audio Played Through Noise Canceling Headphones Supposedly Gives You a Drug-Like High

The site I-Doser makes the seemingly remarkable claim that playing binaural beats-pulses of two different frequencies that are slightly different into both ears at the same time-can give you a high that’s on par with taking drugs. The Jerusalem Post claims that the concept has been around since the 1830s, but has only been perfected…

Tech News Jason Chen Aug 20

Deprive Yourself of Sleep and Your Neurons Will Get You High

People who are sleep-deprived often report getting a “second wind” where they suddenly wake up and feel great — though they are still too fatigued to do any major problem-solving. A group of researchers have discovered there’s a good reason for this. Sleep deprivation floods your brain with dopamine, the very same hormone that amphetamines…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 20

A Memory-Erasing Chemical That Can Change Your Behavior

Click to viewMemory is one of the main reasons why drug addicts who have gone sober suddenly find themselves jumping off the wagon. Environmental cues like visiting a place where you were high can make you remember the drug and weaken your resistance to taking it again. But now researchers have discovered a way to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 12

Drug Lords Hire Professional Chemists in Afghanistan

It’s a science job of the future: Primary researcher in the lab of a drug lord. Aspiring chemists from Iran, Turkey and Pakistan are immigrating to Afghanistan, where there are jobs for highly-educated scientists willing to oversee heroin production. According to the Financial Times, “Christina Orguz, Afghanistan country director of the UN Office on Drugs…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 30

Now You Have an Even Better Excuse to Snarf Ritalin

It turns out that there’s a valid medical reason for your burning urge to eat huge piles of Ritalin in order to feel speedy, erm I mean, increase your powers of concentration. According to a new study, doctors have increasingly been diagnosing ADHD in young adults over the age of 12, despite the fact that…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 23

Where Is My Hypospray?

Welcome to Ask a Biogeek, a column where you ask UC Berkeley researcher Terry Johnson any question you want — no matter how weird. Reader Mairi proxies the following question: My mom wants to know when we’re going to get needle-less, painless injections. While I personally covet the medical tricorder, I would almost prefer that…

io9 Terry Johnson Jul 17

Johns Hopkins Seeks Volunteers to Take Magic Mushrooms

Click to view A recent study showed that taking psilocybin (magic mushrooms) creates a sense of well-being, and now Johns Hopkins University is following up on that study. Researchers at Johns Hopkins medical school are investigating whether taking psilocybin can help cancer patients who are feeling defeated and unhappy. And they’re looking to recruit people…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 11

I Hate It When I Go On a Date and De-Evolve Into Homo Erectus

Poor William Hurt. Although he looks young and tasty and naked in Altered States (1980), he has a big problem. After chowing down on mega-hallucinogens and sitting in a sensory deprivation tank for hours on end, he starts de-evolving into a more primitive form of homo sapiens after boning some nice student in one of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 12

Ex-Broadcom Chief Accused of Spiking Tech Execs’ Drinks, Having More Blow Than Scarface

Henry Nicholas, co-founder of integrated circuits manufacturer Broadcom, has just been charged with spiking the drinks of other technology execs and maintaining a warehouse full of coke, meth and ecstasy. This is the latest incident for Nicholas, who in July 2007, was accused of constructing a sex cave so he could roll hard on ecstasy…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jun 5

Fountain of Youth Drugs Are Coming, And Soon

If you need proof that anti-aging drugs are going to be serious business, you only have to look at today’s purchase of Sirtris, a pharmaceutical company dedicated to researching the anti-aging benefits of restricted-calorie diets, by GlaxoSmithKline. The price of the purchase? $720 million. And they plan to make all of that money back and…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Jun 2

New Drug Helps People Grow Super-Brains

BrainCells, a new company based in San Diego, is testing several drugs that will give you a super-powerful, enhanced memory (and maybe other cognitive properties too) by growing more neurons in your head. Going simply by the names BCI-540 and BCI-632, the compounds can stimulate 20 percent more brain cells brain to grow than normal.…

io9 Michael Reilly Jun 2

The Most Popular Drug In The Universe

So you’re writing a science fiction story or script about a hot new drug, that all the kids are licking or sticking or smoking. And you want a name for this drug that screams “awesome” and sounds like something the kids would go apeshit over. But all the cool names, like KillKillKill and Pink Robots,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 22

How to Build a Violent World in One Easy Step

That alcohol causes many deaths every year is a fact widely-accepted by scientists and the public. But now a new study conducted at the University of Toronto suggests that there is a direct relationship between amount of alcohol sold in a given region, and the amount of violence in that region — regardless of whether…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 13

Meet McSleepy, the World’s First Robot Anesthesiologist

Anesthesiologists are required to participate in every surgery, standing by to administer drugs and monitor the patient’s vital signs while surgeons do their jobs. But now a group of researchers at Montreal’s McGill University have invented a device that could replace human anesthesiologists with robots in the next five years. An anesthesia bot called McSleepy…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 2

Antibiotics Can Prevent Bacteria From Becoming Drug-Resistant

You’ve probably heard that all the antibiotics we take are breeding new generations of drug-resistant bacteria. In fact, many diseases we once killed easily with Penicillin now require mega-doses of super-antibiotics like Cipro. While researchers have known for a long time that bacteria are developing resistance to drugs, they weren’t sure how the tiny organisms…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 1

Clones Bred to Sniff Drugs

It’s hard to find dogs that have just the right set of attributes to sniff for drugs, which is why South Korean Customs officials got their favorite drug-sniffing dog cloned. The seven clones (four are pictured here) have all grown up to be excellent sniffers — though only one in ten dogs usually passes drug-sniff…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 30

What Happens to Brains Experiencing “One of the Most Potent Hallucinogens Known”

Salvia, also known as salvia divinorum, is a smokable hallucinogen that’s still legal in most parts of the world. People order it via the internet and smoke tiny quantities to experience what many call an experience so intense that many people call it “spiritual.” The high lasts for just a few minutes, and includes intense…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 28

Navy “Batman Boat” Has Drug Runners Thinking They’re Being Chased By UFOs

Hallucinogenic Eye Candy USB Lollies Take Your Brain to That Special Place, For Real

Pro Gamers Are Doping Too

Binaural Beats Audio Played Through Noise Canceling Headphones Supposedly Gives You a Drug-Like High

Deprive Yourself of Sleep and Your Neurons Will Get You High

A Memory-Erasing Chemical That Can Change Your Behavior

Drug Lords Hire Professional Chemists in Afghanistan

Now You Have an Even Better Excuse to Snarf Ritalin

Where Is My Hypospray?

Johns Hopkins Seeks Volunteers to Take Magic Mushrooms

I Hate It When I Go On a Date and De-Evolve Into Homo Erectus

Ex-Broadcom Chief Accused of Spiking Tech Execs’ Drinks, Having More Blow Than Scarface

Fountain of Youth Drugs Are Coming, And Soon

New Drug Helps People Grow Super-Brains

The Most Popular Drug In The Universe

How to Build a Violent World in One Easy Step

Meet McSleepy, the World’s First Robot Anesthesiologist

Antibiotics Can Prevent Bacteria From Becoming Drug-Resistant

Clones Bred to Sniff Drugs

What Happens to Brains Experiencing “One of the Most Potent Hallucinogens Known”

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

If You Make Fart Music, ChatGPT Will Be the Most Supportive Girlfriend You Could Ask For

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

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