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New Forensics Tool Can Slurp a Phone’s Data via the Cloud

The police don’t even need to touch your phone anymore to know how you’ve been using it. A new off-the-shelf forensics tool lets cops retrieve all the data they want from your iPhone by accessing its contents through iCloud. The software, developed by ElcomSoft, lets investigators retrieve user data associated with iPhones from Apple’s iCloud…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 17

Good Cholesterol Isn’t as Good as We Thought

Over the past few decades, scientists have suggested that high levels of HDL—which has come to be known as “good cholesterol”—can reduce the risk of heart attack. New evidence, however, suggests that might not be the case after all. The study, which appears in the The Lancet, challenges existing assumptions that high levels of HDL…

Health Jamie Condliffe May 17

Coffee Drinkers Live Longer

Millions of us start the morning with a coffee and think nothing of it. But new medical research suggests that it could be helping you live longer—if you drink enough of it. The large-scale study, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that men who drank six cups of coffee or…

Health Jamie Condliffe May 17

The Best Chatbot in the World Is Still Awful (Updated)

If you ever speak to Chip Vivant, you might find his conversation a little stilted. Incoherent, even. Because, despite being crowned the best chatbot in the world, frankly, he still carries a conversation like R2D2 with a head injury. Chip was declared the winner of the 2012 Loebner Prize—a contest loosely based on Alan Turing’s…

Artificial Intelligence Jamie Condliffe May 16

All The World’s Subways Are Converging to a Single Optimal Layout

After decades of urban evolution, the world’s major subway systems appear to be converging on an ideal form. On the surface, these core-and-branch systems – evident in New York City, Tokyo, London or most any large metropolitan subway – may seem intuitively optimal. But in the absence of top-down central planning, their movement over decades…

Tech News Brandon Keim - Wired May 16

Icelandic politician moves 30-ton boulder onto his property so he can hang out with elves

After surviving an automobile accident unscathed in 2010, Icelandic Member of Parliament Árni Johnsen attributed his good fortune to a family of “hidden people” who lived in a boulder near his car wreck. According to Johnsen, some kindly elves used their magical powers to prevent his demise, and he’s repaying their good deed by moving…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 16

Why Women Date Assholes

It’s well known that women find sexy, rebellious rogues attractive. Duh. But until now it’s not really been clear why women choose to turn that attraction into long-term relationships, when they know they stand a high chance of getting burned. New research, however, reveals that the secret lies in the hormones. Sure, a woman might…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 15

The Cheapest Ways to Save the World

Ask a bunch of the world’s best economists—including four Nobel laureates—how to make the world a better place, and they don’t just blurt out an answer. They take their time, weigh up impact-per-dollar and make careful decisions. And this is what they came up with. The best part? We can totally do it. While many,…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 14

The Solar Power Eye Implant Which Restores Sight

Electronic implants which restore sight to the blind aren’t anything new, but one of their major stumbling blocks has been the need for an external power source. Now, that’s about to change, because a team of researchers has built a digital implant out of infrared-slurping photovoltaic pixels—so it can power itself. https://gizmodo.com/electronic-implant-allows-the-blind-to-see-5680086 Digital eye implants…

Health Jamie Condliffe May 14

The Stunt-Double Drugs That Hollywood Actors Take on Camera

While movie stars aren’t drug-free zones, movie sets are at least supposed to be. Which is why, during filming, actors have to make do with stunt-double drugs. An article in Wired neatly summarizes some of the most common stand-ins; here are a few of the best. [Wired] Methamphetamine Taking huge quantities of real meth can…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 14

The genes behind human intelligence also made us vulnerable to autism

The exact genetic roots of autism are still being untangled, but we do know that the most common single-gene causes of the condition is Fragile X syndrome, in which errors on the X chromosome trip up normal neural development. Specifically, Fragile X syndrome prevents the production of a crucial protein known as FMRP. This particular…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 13

Can peeing in a lake really kill fish?

There’s been a story kicking around in the news recently about a fight in Hamburg, Germany, where recreational swimmers have supposedly killed fish by peeing in Eichbaum Lake, making fishermen really (get ready) pissed off. Reading this set off my potential-Internet-baloney alarm bells: short articles, coming from a foreign country, based off one English-language report,…

io9 Julian Whitcrosse May 12

The emotional illusion that makes the future (and the past) look so rosy

“Ah, the good ol’ days.” “They just don’t make [X] like they used to.” “Back in my day…” The wealth of English phrases about how great things used to be might be a tip-off that our quirky ape brains are biased toward looking toward at the past in a happy light. And indeed, many psychologists…

io9 Julian Whitcrosse May 12

How an Oxford Professor Turned Roulette Odds in His Favor

If you’re gonna cheat, cheat smart. Like an Oxford math professor, who has revealed how he used the world’s first wearable computer to beat the roulette tables of Las Vegas back in the 1970s. In an interview with New Scientist, Oxford mathematician Doyne Farmer explains that, as a graduate student, he used a small computer…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe May 10

Obese Mothers Give Birth to Less Intelligent Children

Not all people are born equal. In fact, new research suggests that if a child is born from an obese mother, it is likely to have significantly lower cognitive function compared to a child from a mother of a healthy weight. An observational study, which looked at 3,412 participants, found a strong link between pre-pregnancy…

Health Jamie Condliffe May 10

Dwarf Mammoths Used to Inhabit the Island of Crete

The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed has been confirmed to have lived on the island of Crete—and scientists believe that it was an adult which had evolved into a dwarf species of the giant beasts. A team of palaeontologists from London’s Natural History Museum suggest that the adults of this dwarf mammoth species…

Biology Jamie Condliffe May 9

James Bond Has Dodged 4,662 Bullets During His Fictional Career

James Bond is the kind of man who gets shot at an awful lot. In fact, he’s lucky to even be alive because, during his 22-film Hollywood career, the secret agent has managed to dodge a total of 4,662 bullets. In New Scientist, some context is added to that number by working out the probability…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 9

We Brag Because It Feels as Good as Sex

It often seems like a lot of people sure love talking about themselves. But now scientists are working out why we love to brag, and it turns out it’s not really our fault: talking about yourself provides the exact same sensation as great food, money and sex. The research, which was carried out at Harvard…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 8

Sunscreen Could Be Giving You Skin Cancer

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. While everybody knows that too much time in the sun massively increases the chances of developing skin cancer, new research suggests that a compound found in most sunscreens may also increase the chances of acquiring melanomas. Terrific. We’re screwed either way. The research, carried out at Missouri University…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 8

Did Scientists Really Just Break the Speed of Light?

Today, you might read that scientists have developed a way to produce faster-than-light travel. But steady, there: we’ve been burnt once recently, so let’s not let it happen again. Did scientists really manage to break the speed of light? https://gizmodo.com/ridiculous-a-loose-cable-caused-those-faster-than-ligh-5887398 According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, light traveling in a vacuum is the universal…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe May 7

New Forensics Tool Can Slurp a Phone’s Data via the Cloud

Good Cholesterol Isn’t as Good as We Thought

Coffee Drinkers Live Longer

The Best Chatbot in the World Is Still Awful (Updated)

All The World’s Subways Are Converging to a Single Optimal Layout

Icelandic politician moves 30-ton boulder onto his property so he can hang out with elves

Why Women Date Assholes

The Cheapest Ways to Save the World

The Solar Power Eye Implant Which Restores Sight

The Stunt-Double Drugs That Hollywood Actors Take on Camera

The genes behind human intelligence also made us vulnerable to autism

Can peeing in a lake really kill fish?

The emotional illusion that makes the future (and the past) look so rosy

How an Oxford Professor Turned Roulette Odds in His Favor

Obese Mothers Give Birth to Less Intelligent Children

Dwarf Mammoths Used to Inhabit the Island of Crete

James Bond Has Dodged 4,662 Bullets During His Fictional Career

We Brag Because It Feels as Good as Sex

Sunscreen Could Be Giving You Skin Cancer

Did Scientists Really Just Break the Speed of Light?

‘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

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Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

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