Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Losing your job sucks. Losing your job when you live on the Red Planet could really, really suck. This short imagines what it might be like. When graphic designer Jeff loses his job on Mars, he find his wife is spending rather more time doing downward facing dog with her yoga instructor than he might…
John Oliver runs a regular segment called “How Is This Still a Thing?”, but he’s decided to turn it on its head. So “How Is This Not a Thing?” describes the things that Oliver would like see invented—preferably as soon as possible. Amongst others, Oliver would like Ambien for the part of the day that…
Asus has had a busy morning announcing a slew of new products at the Computex 2016 technology expo in Taiwan. Here are some of the highlights—including a super skinny new MacBook rival and an insanely cute house robot. ZenBook 3 Asus has taken a fairly drastic approach to slimming down the new version of its…
Teenage rebellion takes many forms. Some of us get dumb haircuts or listen to some truly terrible music. But for the amateur scientist, breaking your mother’s heart* involves diethyl ether and the family pool. The thing about deithyl ether is that it’s really, REALLY flammable. And it floats on water. So The Backyard Scientist set…
Schizophrenia is a mysterious, misunderstood mental illness without a full cure. However, researchers from the United Kingdom and China may have found a clue that could help to understand it better. According to Science Daily, a new study that looked at MRI scans shows that while schizophrenic participants showed a reduction in brain tissue volume,…
The sun is out, the weather is warm, and your fridge is full of hot dogs. That can only mean one thing: It’s grill season, bitches. If you’re a purist, you’re probably happy with a half dome full of charcoal, some lighter fluid, and a can of cold beer. But you’d be surprised how much…
Can you imagine riding a cheetah? Besides the fact that it would probably hate you being there, it would also be pretty incredible. Just watch this video simulating what that would be like. Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden officials outfitted one of their cheetahs, Savannah, with a GoPro camera to capture what a cheetah in…
German researchers are experimenting with an “artificial robot nervous system” to teach robots how to feel and react to pain, in what might be one of the saddest displays of robot bullying since Boston Dynamics’ Atlas was pushed by a hockey stick. It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but we build robots to go into…
After NASA’s lackluster attempt on Thursday to inflate BEAM, an expandable activity module, it had considerably more success today. NASA began their second attempt early Saturday morning, with officials feeding air into BEAM in seconds-long intervals. By 4:10pm EST, the module had inflated to 67 inches. My earbuds were filled with the sounds of popping…
In March, the Toyota Research Institute bought up Cambridge-based startup Jaybridge Robotics, and according to Tech Insider, they may be expanding with another famous Massachusetts company: Google’s Boston Dynamics, the maker of the Big Dog and Atlas robots. Google has been talking about selling the Waltham-based Boston Dynamics, for a couple of months now, with…
Hello summer! Symbolically, at least. Every Friday around these parts, we celebrate Happy Hour, where we toss tasty booze in a shaker—or fill a glass with a fermented liquid, or pack a pipe with… something—and add a twist of science. You can catch our latest installment of substance abuse for nerds right here, which also…
Despite evidence that suggests holding the Olympics in Rio might be the worst idea thanks to the spread of the Zika virus and various economic factors, it seems for now, it’s going to stay. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement Saturday which stated that moving or canceling the Olympics would have little impact…
Yesterday SpaceX planned the trickiest rocket landing yet. Unfortunately technical glitches meant it had to delay the attempt until today. And an extra day was exactly what SpaceX needed! The Falcon 9 rocket landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. Science fiction fans like our own inestimable Andrew Liptak, note that…
Learning to play any instrument isn’t just about correctly following every last note on a sheet of music. Being expressive, and imaginative, is just as important to learn. That’s what led MIT’s Xiao Xiao and Hiroshi Ishii to develop Andante, which adds lively animated figures to a self-playing piano. Will it help develop the fundamental…
The bar is made of 120 tons of pure, crystal-clear ice. So are the walls, and all the furniture, along with intricately carved ice sculptures, including a replica of the Vegas skyline and an icy Iron Throne just for Game of Thrones fans. Walking into Minus 5 Ice Bar in Las Vegas is like stepping…
Earlier this week The Information reported that Apple is making a smart hub to compete with the very cool Amazon Echo and recently announced Google Home. This is not shocking. Consumer technology companies’ new favorite thing is to get their remarkably well-designed talons into every aspect of our lives. If we want the convenience they…
In 2013, the world’s first lab-grown burger was unveiled to the world. It carried a $330,000 price tag, and apparently, it wasn’t all that tasty. But the scientists behind the idea have been hard at work, and artificial meat that’s both cost-effective and palatable may arrive sooner than we think. It’s not just cow-free beef…
Holiday weekends always suck for traveling but this one should be particularly hellacious. The TSA’s troubles won’t be resolved anytime soon, and lines are so long in some places that airlines have resorted to building their own customized checkpoint systems. Happy travels! And remember, it’s all your fault.
Commuting via bicycle can be rough. There are nails and potholes waiting to destroy your tires, cars waiting to smoosh you, and thieves waiting to steal your bike as soon as your back is turned. The last problem is so pernicious it keeps a lot of people from riding, and those that do opt to…
If the only reason you’re worried about global warming is that it will mean a shorter ski season, you can go ahead and buy that gas-guzzling SUV you’ve been eyeing. A new type of snow machine can churn out the white stuff when it’s as hot as 90 degrees out, and it uses way less…
