Science

You’ve Heard of Water Bears, but How About These Ancient Mold Pigs?

An analysis of 30-million-year-old amber has resulted in the discovery of a previously unknown microscopic creature from the Cenozoic period. Bearing a resemblance to tardigrades (aka water bears), these now-extinct “mold pigs,” as they’ve been dubbed, are unlike anything seen before. Introducing Sialomorpha dominicana, a newly discovered microinvertebrate found locked in amber from the Dominican…

Biology George Dvorsky

STDs in America Hit Another Record High in 2018

It’s been a banner half-decade for sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S., according to a new report out Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018 saw yet another record high for STDs in the country, with reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis climbing for the fifth straight year. The report’s findings,…

Health Ed Cara

Ruins of 5,000-Year-Old Megalopolis Uncovered in Israel

Archaeologists working in northern Israel have discovered the remnants of an Early Bronze Age city that boasted some 6,000 inhabitants, in a find that’s dramatically altering conceptions of the region’s ancient past. The lost city, found during the construction of a new highway interchange, is located near the Israeli city of Harish in the Haifa…

Human History George Dvorsky

Photo: Flickr User pollosaurio, M. McCaughrean, Franck Schneider

Physicists Win Nobel Prize for Finding Exoplanet Around a Sun-Like Star and for Helping Develop Theory of the Universe

The 2019 Physics Nobel Prize will be awarded half to James Peebles of Princeton University, and half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, for theoretical work improving our understanding of the universe and for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, respectively. The annual award…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum

E-Cigarette Vapor Linked to Lung Cancer in Mice

A new study out Monday is yet more evidence that vaping isn’t the completely safe alternative to smoking it was once thought to be. The researchers claim to have found evidence, in mice, that e-cigarette vapor is capable of causing certain kinds of cancer. But there’s still a long way to go before we can…

Health Ed Cara

Whoa, Astronomers Just Found 20 News Moons Around Saturn

A survey of Saturn’s outer reaches has resulted in the discovery of no less than 20 new moons. With its 82 natural satellites, Saturn now boasts the most moons of any planet in the solar system, surpassing Jupiter’s 82 moons. It’s always special when astronomers spot new moons, but this is intense—20 new moons confirmed…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

How the Last Woolly Mammoths Met Their Demise on a Remote Arctic Island

The last mammoths to stomp on Earth lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. This isolated population lived for thousands of years after most mammoths were gone, but when extinction finally came, it happened quickly. New evidence may finally explain what happened to these stubborn holdouts. Research published in Quaternary Science Reviews is shedding…

Biology George Dvorsky

2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine Goes to Researchers Who Unraveled How Cells Sense Oxygen

A trio of researchers from the U.S. and the UK has won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the first of five prizes to be announced this week. On Monday in Sweden, the Nobel committee announced that Americans William Kaelin Jr. and Gregg Semenza, along with Peter Ratcliffe, would split the nearly million-dollar prize for…

Health Ed Cara

Deadly Fungus, Fat Bear Week, PS5 Leaks, and Hot Dog Salad: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

No news this week could possibly compare to the “hot dog salad” abomination created by a certain Gizmodo colleague, which has taken our forbidden sandwich out back, choked it to death, and absorbed it into its goopy morass. But reader, we tried. This week, the Gizmodo team covered everything from the Federal Communications Commission’s big…

Tech News Tom McKay

Report: University of Iowa Faculty Told Not to Promote Greta Thunberg Visit on School Social Media

University of Iowa officials have told faculty at the school that they should not promote 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s surprise appearance at a Friday climate strike in Iowa City on its social media channels, according to a report in the Gazette. UI civil and environmental engineering professor Michelle Scherer, who is also the…

Climate Change Tom McKay

State Fair Hot Tubs Probably Spread Deadly Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in North Carolina

State fairs are a mixed bag in the best of times. But for a hundred or so people who attended the North Carolina Mountain State Fair this past September, it was a nightmare. State health officials have traced an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease to the fair, with the most likely source of infection being contaminated…

Health Ed Cara

Here’s More Evidence That Earth Got Hit by Something Huge 12,800 Years Ago

New evidence from South Africa is adding further credence to the idea that a large asteroid or comet struck Earth during the Pleistocene—an event that possibly triggered the extinction of many large animals while also disrupting human populations at a global scale. Along with locations in North and South America, Greenland, Western Europe, and the…

Earth Science George Dvorsky

Image: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray

Simulations Show Black Holes Have Surprisingly Intimate Relationship With Host Galaxies

A new study is shedding light on the way galaxies interact with the incredibly massive black holes at their centers. Astronomers think every galaxy has an incredibly dense region at its center called a supermassive black hole. Many of these black holes, called active galactic nuclei (AGNs) spew jets of radiation. But lots of questions…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Underground Detector in Japan to Join Search for Gravitational Waves

A fourth gravitational wave detector, this one in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, will join the global search for cosmic events that cause ripples in spacetime, beginning this December. The Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector (KAGRA) is in its commissioning phase, according to a press release, and will join the two LIGO detectors in the United States well as…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum

The U.S. Is Officially Free of Measles—for Now

It looks like we can breathe a sigh of relief. Despite two new cases of measles being reported late last week in New York, federal and state health officials are confident the country’s measles-free status will stay in place. But the new cases highlight just how much a challenge lies ahead in controlling the spread…

Health Ed Cara

Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Releases Its Final Probe for Exploring Asteroid Ryugu

The tiny Minerva-II2 probe is now en route to the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, having been deployed by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft on Thursday. It’s the final phase of this wildly successful mission and the last item on the to-do list before the spacecraft makes its journey back to Earth. Hayabusa2 released the Minerva-II2 probe…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Aspirin, Strangely Enough, Might Protect Our Lungs From Air Pollution

A dose of aspirin can do more than just soothe your headache, a new study suggests—it might also protect your lungs from air pollution. Air pollution harms our bodies in all sorts of ways, both short-term and long-term. One of these ways is through irritating and inflaming lung cells. So it makes sense that aspirin…

Health Ed Cara

Mysterious Chilean Fireballs Weren’t Meteorites—So What Were They?

Flashes lit up the sky over Chile last week, some even causing fires on the ground—but a new report has found that the origin of these fireballs is a mystery. The Chilean National Geology and Mining Service released a report last weekend, the result of analysis from visiting seven of the charred sites where the…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Here’s How NASA Might Rescue InSight’s Extremely Stuck Heat Probe

Back in February, the heat probe of NASA’s InSight lander didn’t get very far while trying to tunnel a hole into Mars. It’s been stuck ever since, but NASA has devised a plan in the hopes of getting the probe moving again. NASA’s InSight lander arrived at Elysium Planitia, a plain near the Martian equator,…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

National Academy of Sciences Removes Video Suggesting Gene Editing Could Be Used to Make Designer Babies

The partially U.S. government-funded National Academy of Sciences removed a webpage with a video describing gene editing in ways that conflict with the organization’s own ethical guidelines. The NAS has updated the webpage where the video once resided with a note saying, “We are concerned that the content, including a video, left the misimpression that…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

You’ve Heard of Water Bears, but How About These Ancient Mold Pigs?

STDs in America Hit Another Record High in 2018

Ruins of 5,000-Year-Old Megalopolis Uncovered in Israel

Physicists Win Nobel Prize for Finding Exoplanet Around a Sun-Like Star and for Helping Develop Theory of the Universe

E-Cigarette Vapor Linked to Lung Cancer in Mice

Whoa, Astronomers Just Found 20 News Moons Around Saturn

How the Last Woolly Mammoths Met Their Demise on a Remote Arctic Island

2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine Goes to Researchers Who Unraveled How Cells Sense Oxygen

Deadly Fungus, Fat Bear Week, PS5 Leaks, and Hot Dog Salad: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Report: University of Iowa Faculty Told Not to Promote Greta Thunberg Visit on School Social Media

State Fair Hot Tubs Probably Spread Deadly Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in North Carolina

Here’s More Evidence That Earth Got Hit by Something Huge 12,800 Years Ago

Simulations Show Black Holes Have Surprisingly Intimate Relationship With Host Galaxies

Underground Detector in Japan to Join Search for Gravitational Waves

The U.S. Is Officially Free of Measles—for Now

Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Releases Its Final Probe for Exploring Asteroid Ryugu

Aspirin, Strangely Enough, Might Protect Our Lungs From Air Pollution

Mysterious Chilean Fireballs Weren’t Meteorites—So What Were They?

Here’s How NASA Might Rescue InSight’s Extremely Stuck Heat Probe

National Academy of Sciences Removes Video Suggesting Gene Editing Could Be Used to Make Designer Babies

Artemis 2 Crew Become First Humans to Travel Beyond Earth Orbit Since the 1970s

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Labubus Might Be Labu-Bust After Pop Mart Posts Record Share Loss

Cursor’s New Tool Lets Users Delegate to a Team of Coding Agents

Nvidia Needs to Remind Itself What PC Gamers Actually Want

Iran Says It Hit Oracle Facilities in UAE

‘Invincible’ Season 4 Is Doing Right By Debbie

New Theory Says We’ve Been Overcomplicating the Big Bang

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

Let us help find what you are looking for...