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Slow waves meander westward out in the deep ocean south of Australia. Sometimes they carry with them carry large eddies, whirlpools over 100 miles across. But every so often, these whirlpools combine into double whirlpools and travel across the ocean 10 times faster than the rest of the whirlpools, moving in sync for months and…
Apple has finally recognized that it will have to do more to calm customers’ ire after admitting to, and then apologizing for slowing down their old iPhones. In a letter my mother would have said was “passive aggressive” and “not really apologetic at all” had I written it, Apple wrote: “We know that some of…
Did you for some reason think the grueling endurance march that was 2017 would end without one final ordeal? You fool. Right now the eastern and midwestern parts of the country are enduring record-breaking sub-zero temperatures, with the only silver lining being that it’s cold enough to instantly freeze soap bubbles, which it turns out…
The smallest pieces of the universe are governed by a beautiful and mind-blowing set of rules: the “Standard Model.” The Standard Model explains the behavior of all 17 discovered particles, and it continues to make predictions that have been proven accurate by the largest physics experiments in the world, including the Large Hadron Collider in…
The rush to get in on the cryptocurrency boom has spread around the globe, but nowhere more than in South Korea. That fact hasn’t slipped by the South Korean government’s attention. On Tuesday new regulatory measures, including a real name policy, were announced, and the government warned that it could move forward with a shutdown…
Clouds form when warm, humid air rises into the cooler atmosphere, and all that water vapor condenses into tiny floating water droplets. But sometimes that process can be inverted, like when cold air trapped in the Grand Canyon causes it to fill with clouds as warm air passes over the massive gorge. And sometimes, that…
Three years ago, it seemed like everyone experiencing near-zero temperatures stepped outside with a pot full of boiling water and flung it into the air to make instant snow. Not surprisingly, many of those same people—including a pair of Kentucky meteorologists—scalded themselves in the process! Even on a frigid winter’s morning boiling water is very…
From the annals of bad science reporting comes this latest confusion: Media outlets completely misconstrued the results of a study about a supposed selfie mental disorder—a study that itself was inspired by a hoax that also fooled media outlets three years earlier. Some of the headlines, blared from even reputable outlets like The Guardian, include:…
When two brothers from Naples decided to stop doing fashion design for other companies and start a brand of their own, they went hunting for an attention-grabbing name. They discovered that “Steve Jobs” wasn’t trademarked and decided on that. Now, a protracted legal battle has come to an end, and they have big plans for…
I’m not really into sports, and I’ve never found the energy to care about what happens to characters in most movies and TV shows. But for some reason, watching this little toy train derail and eventually make its way back onto its tracks had me cheering louder than a Patriots fan at the Super Bowl.…
It’s time to gaze into our crystal ball and see what the coming year has in store for science. From powerful new rockets and asteroid-sampling spacecraft to groundbreaking particle physics, there’s plenty to look forward to in 2018. Aeronautics and space exploration A new tool to find exoplanets In March 2018, NASA will launch its…
Much as we love all the new features that roll out with a fresh macOS update every year, we’re also rather partial to those long-standing tools and functions that have been around for longer—and which you might have forgotten about or never used in the first place. Here are a few of our favorites you…
At my fingertips lies the entire internet, filled with a near-infinite number of digital distractions. So why do I keep watching Steve Price’s latest Rube Goldberg machine featuring the adventures of a red ball encountering countless complex contraptions all powered by nothing but gravity? If there’s a startup out there with dreams of becoming the…
Yes, 2017’s biggest tech story was probably about the ways in which social media forced us to rehash old culture wars and question who was guiding our political discourse. Rather than seeing technology facilitate greater communication, economic opportunity, and leisure, it seemed that it was exacerbating our differences, concentrating wealth, and threatening all livelihoods. But…
Want to destroy video evidence of a break-in, prevent ATMs from logging malware attacks, or simply shut down a critical computer system? One possible way to do that might be disrupting hard disk drives with sound waves, either with a specialized device or just by hijacking a nearby speaker. The reason the tactic allegedly works…
Fake comments submitted to a federal agency after a notice of proposed rulemaking is something that, even just a few years ago, no one would’ve really given two shits about. Even typing “notice of proposed rulemaking” just now made me incredibly sleepy. But after 24 million comments were filed in response to the FCC’s Restoring…
In what’s becoming a depressing genre, The Wall Street Journal published a story today profiling the very human moderators who prevent the internet from becoming a completely murder-filled terror and abuse machine. Usually hired as contractors, these workers do the dirty work of reviewing flagged posts for internet giants, spending their days plugged into a…
Apple’s Lisa project might be the most loaded chapter in the company’s lore, and thanks to the Computer History Museum, you’ll soon be able to play around with one of the first graphical user interfaces in history right there on your shiny state of the art screen. And you won’t have to pay $10,000 that…
How do you relax? Maybe with a delicious meal, a trip to the theater, or a good book? If you’re looking for another way to escape your stresses, you’ll be surprised at just how soothing it is to watch a five-minute video of a GoPro camera being lowered deep into a limestone well. This is…
All it takes is a few minutes of scrolling through Twitter to make it nearly impossible to fall asleep at night. But if it’s a genuine, horror-inspired nightmare you’re seeking to end your chances of restful slumber, just watch this video of a kookaburra laughing in extreme slow motion. The birds are known for their…
