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Unless we find a way to travel infinitely faster than the speed of light, there’s no way you’ll ever see the farthest reaches of the galaxy in person. But that harsh reality is made somewhat easier to digest thanks to this short film by Teun van der Zalm, featuring fly-bys of computer-generated nebulae that even…
In the past, the US Food and Drug Administration has closely scrutinized consumer DNA tests that claim to inform customers whether or not they’re are at risk for a certain health condition, and with good reason: An incorrect interpretation could lead to serious health consequences and stress. But a statement on Monday from FDA Commissioner…
Using a new stacking technique she calls soniverse, the eternally patient domino master Hevesh5 (or Lily Hevesh, as she’s known off YouTube) created this mind-melting domino fall that makes it look like the tiny blocks are falling in both directions as they collapse. The technique requires an extra heaping helping of patience during setup, as…
After users noticed last week that the terms “bisexual” and “bisexuality” were turning up no search results on Twitter, the company responded to criticism from LGBTQ advocates on Tuesday, apologizing and blaming a “technical issue” for the error. As it turns out, Twitter used an outdated list of terms associated with porn to determine what…
Humans like naming things. We named a boat Boaty McBoatface. We named a bunch of animals after dicks. But some things already have perfectly good names. Like a distant rock NASA is tasking us with nicknaming. New Horizons, the mission that showed us Pluto’s icy heart, is whizzing into the outer reaches of the Solar…
They will never sit on your desk, and they will most certainly never fit in your pocket. Today, they’re fragile, and need to be kept at temperatures close to absolute zero. Quantum computers aren’t much like the desktop PCs we’re all so familiar with—they’re a whole new kind of machine, capable of calculations so complex,…
In real life, in the natural course of conversation, it is not uncommon to talk about a person you may know. You meet someone and say, “I’m from Sarasota,” and they say, “Oh, I have a grandparent in Sarasota,” and they tell you where they live and their name, and you may or may not…
Joshua Brown was just one of the more than 37,000 people who died in car crashes in the US last year—but his death continues to make headlines. Brown became the first person killed by a semi-autonomous vehicle when his Tesla Model S collided with a truck while in Autopilot mode, and his crash launched a…
Anyone who’s spent any considerable amount of time on Tinder knows that, like any service promising random lonely people quick and easy access to a horde of horned-up singles over the Internet, it kind of sucks. It’s filled with fake profiles, tries to sell you on premium services, and even if you do meet someone,…
The U.S. Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to put information regarding Devin Patrick Kelley, the man authorities say was the perpetrator of a gun massacre at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday which resulted in at least 26 deaths, into a FBI database retailers use to prevent people with…
When a consumer genetic testing company planned to give away free DNA tests to Baltimore Ravens fans in September, the federal government intervened and prompted a last-minute cancellation. Now, a federal agency has found that the startup, Orig3n, does not have the necessary legal certification to sell genetic tests related to health. Orig3n had planned…
“I love the dumb notch! And the face-scanning thing I don’t want! The iPhone X is exactly the kind of absurd luxury good I crave,” you say, having not even scratched the diamond-encrusted surface of true decadence. Sit right there like the tiny, foolish baby you are and I’ll tell you about an even newer,…
Physicists often build experiments looking for a specific something. Maybe that something consists of dark matter, new kinds of particles, or new ways that particles might interact with one another. Other physicists are trying to use these experiments’ old data in new ways, to look for something other than that specific something. Confused? Here’s an…
Cloudflare provides security and domain name services for millions of the most prominent sites on the web. The company has built a solid reputation for its secure encryption and one of the key factors in its system is a wall of 100 lava lamps in the lobby of its San Francisco headquarters. Prolific YouTuber Tom…
The last American nuclear weapons test conducted in the atmosphere was on November 4, 1962. And the website Topic got its hands on some newly declassified photos from that period, which look like exquisitely macabre art. Topic has the absolutely fascinating story behind the newly released photos, some of which are other-worldly. Which I guess…
WeWork has an unsettling vision for disrupting education by prepping kids to become the next Zuckerberg before they start learning their times tables. And while it’s a hell of a lot better than anything Betsy DeVos could dream up, the company’s technocratic, seemingly Shark Tank-inspired take on Montessori makes me fear for my unborn children.…
Was America’s latest mass shooting committed by a member of antifa, the leaderless anti-fascist collective? No. But Google’s autocomplete results are still suggesting that he might be. Americans watched social media in horror yesterday in the aftermath of a familiar sight: A gunman in Sutherland Springs, Texas entered a church and killed 26 people, wounding…
For years, Amy Kono, a 35-year-old project manager from California, has been getting emails from Sprint that aren’t meant for her. She doesn’t get them frequently—she estimates she’s received 30 or 40 over the years—but they contain other customers’ leasing agreements for new phones and cell service agreements, which often include sensitive information like addresses, phone…
Former FBI director and Anchorman enthusiast James Comey just joined Twitter. Well, to be precise, Comey just confirmed that the account that once had the handle @projectexile7 and the name Reinhold Niebuhr indeed belongs to him. It now bears the username @Comey and sports a little blue “verified” checkmark. Oh and also he’s writing a…
Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek was optimistic back in 2012. After all, he’d just won a wager after scientists had just announced their Higgs boson discovery at the Large Hadron Collider particle physics experiment in Switzerland. He made another bet—but he’s doesn’t feel as confident today. Wilczek made his new bet with Swedish physicist Tord…
