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The Mariana Trench is the deepest spot in the ocean—and it’s home to some strange sights, sounds, and creatures. But there’s one thing down there that’s very familiar: a whole bunch of garbage. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen presented their early findings of the first measurements of pollutants in the trench at Shanghai’s deep-sea…
In an impressive display of one-upmanship, UC Davis has created a monster of a chip, called “KiloCore,” which houses 1,000 independent processors. After a bit of math, that comes out to a maximum computation rate of 1.78 trillion instructions per second. Holy shit. But arguably the more impressive feat is how UC Davis was able…
Not treating fireworks—aka unlicensed explosives—with the respect they deserve is one of the most dangerous thing you can do. So after a couple of pranksters in Phoenix, Arizona, thought it would be funny to start a chain reaction on a shelf full of fireworks in a Walmart, humanity has reached a new low. Thankfully the…
You may not realize it as you’re watching a movie, but directors are manipulating how you feel by playing with certain colors in each scene. Here’s a compilation of how the psychology of color works in movies. For example, pink is often used to convey sweetness or femininity, while red is utilized for violence. Green…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to keep venture capitalist Peter Thiel on the company’s board of directors. Zuckerberg’s decision comes after weeks of controversy over whether it was appropriate for billionaire Thiel, who recently admitted to secretly funding a campaign of third-party lawsuits to bankrupt Gawker Media, Gizmodo’s parent company, to remain on the…
A closer examination of the fossilized remains of a 110-million-year-old snake-like creature suggests that snakes evolved in the water, and not on land as previous research suggests. Scientists aren’t sure if snakes evolved on land or in the water, but the recent discovery of a remarkable fossil in Brazil seemed to suggest a terrestrial origin…
At the start of last night’s Silicon Valley, Pied Piper is in a pickle. Although the startup’s new file-compression tool has been well-received, it needs to increase its daily active users to rake in more capital. So Richard Hendrix and the boys try a revolutionary new approach: Pied Piper makes a TV commercial. If it…
Following this morning’s confirmation by the LAPD that the vehicle involved in the crash that killed Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee—the same make that was the subject of recalls due to its involvement with other rollaway crashes—Fiat Chrysler says it will investigate the incident. The probe was first reported…
Fitbits are a great way to track your activity and encourage yourself to get off the couch. Now, popular web service IFTTT (If This Then That) is getting in on the action. Here’s how you can use IFTTT to plug fitness data from any Fitbit into a host of other services and apps. If you’re…
Researchers from the University of Washington are the first to visualize the insidious way that the flu virus latches onto a cell and plows its way inside, causing an infection. Using advanced electron microscopy, a team led by Kelly Lee sequenced the stages of membrane fusion—the process in which two separate biological entities merge to…
I need your help. Yes, you. I can’t figure out who drew this futuristic picture of two astronauts sometime in the 1960s. And it’s driving me nuts. Here’s what I know: I found it on the back page of the first issue of Space Horizons magazine from 1965. There’s no signature or copyright notice of…
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has granted clinical trial approval for an experimental Zika vaccine. The drug, which will be tested on a small sampling of human participants, arrives a mere five months after the World Health Organization declared Zika a public health emergency. The vaccine, named GLS-5700, is a collaborative effort…
Just in time for everyone to freak out about Lin-Manuel Miranda leaving “Hamilton,” New York has criminalized ticket bots to make it a little easier to get tickets. Maybe. The bots work by grabbing thousands of tickets the second they go on sale and then reselling them at massively hiked prices. Cyber scalpers can made…
Drones are already a fantastic tool for capturing footage. But when the cameras are turned on the flying drones themselves, they prove to be equally spectacular performers as part of this Japanese multimedia dance troupe called Elevenplay. They also never miss a performance and don’t need dressing rooms, so how long before their human co-performers…
Despite critical and commercial success and a storied career, the two words that have followed Eminem the longest are “mom’s spaghetti,” from his Academy Award-winning song “Lose Yourself.” Bait-and-switch text memes were built around it. A re-edit of the song replaced just about every noun in “Lose Yourself” with “spaghetti.” Despite being a somewhat old…
Mark Zuckerberg, who made a fortune turning his own social anxieties into a website, is an odd person to fawn over. He’s not a great public speaker. His motivations are questionable. And he copied his fashion sensibilities from a likely sociopath. And yet! Some members of Facebook are enamored with him. So much so that…
Ping Pong-playing robots that can keep up with the likes of Forrest Gump are impressive, sure. But students and professors at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China took on a greater challenge when they built a badminton-playing robot that can quickly cover an entire court and return almost any shot. Using a…
Not that anybody needed a Facebook “it’s summer” reminder to begin with, but Brits are doubly annoyed that they got the greeting when it’s pouring rain outside. Facebook apparently showed everyone the cheery summer graphic (“Hello sun—it’s been a while”) without checking the weather forecast. While the weather in the company’s California offices may merit…
DeepMind beat a world champion of Go, so now it wants to try its hand at a much more popular game. Sorta. Google says it’s used DeepMind to teach an ant to play soccer—that is, if you consider the beige four-legged ball an “ant” and the act of manipulating a black-and-white ball into a red…
It’s not just you. HBO Now, the app that lets people watch HBO shows as soon as they’re live on broadcast TV, isn’t working. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WATCH GAME OF THRONES? About 10 minutes ago my wife and I sat down to watch Game of Thrones on our Apple TV via the HBO…
