Randall Munroe

Open-Source Cybersecurity Is a Ticking Time Bomb

A vast majority of the world's software runs on open-source code. Can it be secured?

11 Science Gifts for Your Favorite Kid or Kid-at-Heart

Fans of physics, chemistry, math, and astronomy will love these educational toys and kits.

Why xkcd Creator Randall Munroe Wrote the World’s Most Extreme ‘How To’ Book

While waiting for your flight to board, you look at your phone and realize its battery is at 1 percent. You look around but can’t find a power outlet. There might be practical solutions to this problem. Or, you could follow Randall Munroe’s instructions and attach a paddle wheel to an escalator in order to…

The Most Extreme Way to Take a Selfie, According to xkcd Creator Randall Munroe

The following is an excerpt from How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, a new book from cartoonist and science communicator Randall Munroe. How To is available on Amazon here. We sometimes think of our eyes as a pair of cameras, but human visual systems are so much more sophisticated than any camera—it’s…

XKCD has always had best takes on astronomy, and took a fun look at the news that we might actually have a 9th planet in our solar system.

Get a Sneak Peek at XKCD Creator Randall Munroe’s New Book

We’re big fans of xkcd here at Gizmodo (who isn’t?), and also of learnin’ about things, so we’re pretty excited for Randall Munroe’s upcoming book of explainer drawings, THING EXPLAINER: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words. We’ve got a sneak peek for you, below. The book is a series of annotated blueprints that explain everything from…

XKCD’s Randall Munroe Is Publishing A Book Inspired by ‘Up-Goer-Five’

In his comic “Up Goer Five,” Randall Munroe labels a blueprint of NASA’s Saturn V Rocket using only the 1,000 most common English words. Today, Munroe announced he’s giving the Up-Goer-Five treatment to a range of interesting objects—like the Mars Curiosity Rover—in a new book called Thing Explainer. Via Houghton Mifflin, here’s a look at…

Today’s XKCD Finally Takes Physics To Task

To be fair, though, physics has had this coming for years. Had this coming. What do I mean by that? Back in 2008, Randall Munroe published “Purity,” a single-panel comic that characterized sociology as applied psychology, psychology as applied biology, biology as applied chemistry, chemistry as applied physics, and physics as applied math. Maybe you’ve…

xkcd Animates The Philae Comet Landing—And It’s Adorable

Today, we celebrated a monumental achievement in human history: For the first time, we landed an object on a comet. And xkcd creator Randall Munroe celebrated by creating this cartoon flipbook starting three hours before Philae’s separation from Rosetta and ending with the landing. “Landing” is a series of 142 frames following the probe’s separation…

If Phone Batteries Were Like Black Holes

…then we really would be screwed. As Randall Munroe points out in today’s xkcd, sometimes we get a little over-dramatic about our phones ‘dying’ — although yes, it would be neat if, when your phone died, it turned into a worn-out Palm Pilot. [xkcd]

What If We Tried to Fly On Alien Worlds?

Could we fly on far-away worlds, or will it forever be a tantalizing fantasy? Randall Munroe of xkcd tackled the practicalities of flight on the 32 largest stars, planets and moons of our solar system as part of his What if? series. Top image: Excerpt of the visual summary of flying on different bodies within…

An Early Look at XKCD’s Upcoming What If? Book

XKCD’s What If—that extra-special corner of the internet that answers all of our nerdiest, most absurd questions in delightfully extensive detail—is finally being made into a book. And fortunately for all those who just can’t wait, Nerdist has the very first look inside. In his new book, the brilliant mind (and ex-NASA roboticist) behind XKCD,…

XKCD Reveals Which Wikipedia Titles You Can Sing To The TMNT Theme Song

This is essential information we never realized we needed to know. Which Wikipedia article titles have the proper syllable count and stress pattern to sing to the tune of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? xkcd has the answer. With this list, Randall Munroe ensures that we’ll have the Ninja Turtles theme song stuck in our heads…

XKCD’s Creator Explains What Would Happen If Earth Stopped Spinning

XKCD’s Randall Munroe is publishing a book of science explainers! What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is due out September 2. To celebrate its imminent arrival, here’s the first chapter from the book – an explainer about global devastation. Fun! GLOBAL WINDSTORM Q. What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial…

A Map Showing All The Solar System’s Solid Surfaces Stitched Together

Via XKCD comes this awesome map of of the solar system’s terrestrial surfaces pieced together as if it were a massive jigsaw puzzle. The illustration reveals the surprising scarcity of solid land in the solar system. Titled “Space Without the Space,” Randall Munroe’s map excludes the surface area of not just the gas giants, but…

Could You Get Drunk By Drinking The Blood Of A Drunk Person?

There’s a common trope in vampire stories where a vampire gets drunk by drinking the blood of someone who is wasted. But could a real human being get drunk in the same way? That’s the latest question that xkcd‘s Randall Munroe tackles in his What If? series. The short answer is no—in part because the…

13 Webcomics That Will Make You Smarter

While some webcomics deliver a quick joke or the latest installment in a long-form story, many comics floating around the Internet have something to teach us about the world. Here are some of our favorite comics that delve into science, history, philosophy, and more. xkcd by Randall Munroe: Probably the most famous of the science-related…

XKCD’s Randall Munroe is publishing a book of science explainers!

XKCD’s Randall Munroe is turning What If? – his fantastic series of “serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions” –into a book, to be published this September by Houghton Mifflin. Writes Munroe on the XKCD blog: As I’ve sifted through the letters submitted to What If every week, I’ve occasionally set aside particularly neat questions…

Hypnotic xkcd animation compares the frequency of various events

Here’s a mesmerizing piece of data porn that is sure to keep you staring at your screen. Randall Munroe of xkcd uses a series of GIFs to compare the frequencies of events from births, deaths, and heartbeats to the eruption of Old Faithful to someone in Denver ordering a pizza. Note: The animation up top…

Google Maps Now Comes with Climate Data

Well this is convenient. The University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit has made its global temperature data available for Google Maps. Dubbed “CRUTEM4,” the data allows Google Maps users to monitor how surface temperatures have changed over time, both globally and locally. Ars Technica’s John Timmer has more info: CRUTEM4 calculates what’s called a…