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After a nuclear disaster, wildlife tends to flourish in contaminated areas, unchecked by humans that might otherwise hunt them. In the forests around Fukushima, the population of radioactive wild boars is exploding. According to The Independent, the boars have been eating contaminated food, which renders them unsafe for human consumption, all the while they’ve been…
There are some sketchy things in the Terms of Service for the Oculus Rift, and now, a member of Congress is formally asking the company to explain some of the items. Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota), who sits on the Senate Privacy and Technology Subcommittee, has written a letter to the Facebook-owned company, asking them to…
Here’s some excellent news from conservationists: after decades of decline, wild tiger populations are beginning to rebound. That’s the consensus that will be unveiled this week at the Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, held in New Dehli. Among the findings that have been released is the total population for wild tigers has risen…
The vice president of Jet Pack International, Nick Macomber, was hospitalized following a crash in Denver, Colorado according to SFGate. Macomber was flying a hydrogen peroxide-fueled jet pack during a test flight near the Denver Energy drink company. He lost control of the back pack and fell 20 feet, landing on his head. “The guy…
Apple partnered up with Sesame Street a while back to demonstrate it’s ‘Hey, Siri’ feature, as the AI assists Cookie Monster in baking cookies. They just released a ‘behind the scenes’ video that’s really cute. The folks behind the muppets noted that much of this came down to “David Rudman improvising with the character”. It’s…
Remember when we shared those fantastic photographs of BB-8 visiting NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab? (That’s the adorable rolling droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, for anyone who’s been living under a rock the last few months.) Now the folks at Disney have released the video footage from BB-8’s visit, whereby the plucky little droid…
With summer approaching, the risk of a surge in cases of the Zika virus has become a major concern for US officials, and the White House has announced that they would be redirecting money earmarked for Ebola to efforts combatting Zika. The Obama administration made a strong push in 2014 and 2015 to help curtail…
At the end of March, hackers broke into the database for the Philippine Commission on Elections in what InfoSecurity Magazine is calling “what could rank as the worst ever government data breach anywhere.” The hack came in a couple of parts: an initial event that defaced the website, while a second group was able to…
I’m no fan of cars, as you might have guessed from some of my previous stories. But I do believe that better technology—namely the kind that will prevent humans from driving them—can make cars, and our world, better. That’s why I generally agree with the “ban cars”-esque argument in this essay by Rebecca Solnit, a…
NASA’S Kepler Space telescope might have gotten a new lease on life in 2014 when scientists figured out how to repurpose the damaged telescope, but it now appears that it’s in trouble once again. According to the space agency, the spacecraft’s mission operations engineers discovered on Thursday that Kepler was in Emergency Mode. The new…
Think DJs just check e-mail on their computer when they’re DJ-ing? You’re not alone! But when they actually spin instead of just pushing the play button, there’s a lot more going on. Here’s DJ Enferno showing us all how it’s done. It’s a little performative, obviously, but he’s balancing a lot of things at once…
The soundtrack helps, obviously, but there is art behind the art of ballet. Here’s a backstage look at the Oregon Ballet Theatre where you see the moments leading up to the big show. From practices on the stage to getting ready inside the dressing room to the set up of the stage and the costumes…
Even the most basic yo-yo tricks depend on the toy’s ability to keep on spinning. But why does it spin so fast for so long? The magic center of a yo-yo is a bearing—a bunch of tiny metal balls trapped between two rings. Because there’s less surface contact between the balls and rings, less friction…
There’s a wonderful irony to the fact that every single snowflake is a unique masterpiece, but they’re too small for the human eye to enjoy. Thankfully they can also be grown in a lab, by scientists like Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, the “Snowflake Consultant” for Disney’s Frozen, who also films his microscopic creations so they can…
Minutes after a smooth launch of its Dragon spacecraft this afternoon, SpaceX hit a long-standing, elusive goal: It neatly landed the Falcon 9 rocket that had launched the Dragon right down on a drone ship like it was no big deal. https://gizmodo.com/watch-spacex-send-an-expandable-space-house-to-the-iss-1769720689 SpaceX has been sending Falcon 9s to land on the ocean barge—named “Of…
When you think of Paris, you probably think of narrow, tree-lined streets. But consider some of its most famous monuments: They’re ringed by several lanes of busy vehicular traffic. Now the city is promising at least half of that space will go to pedestrians instead of cars. Seven sites in total are getting people-friendly makeovers,…
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is making its first cargo trip back to the International Space Station (ISS) since its June attempt ended unexpectedly with the ship exploding itself, and its cargo, in mid-air. Watch today’s launch happen live right here at 4:43 p.m. (EDT). Don’t be late! The CRS-8 Dragon will be hauling 7,000 pounds worth…
Sony Pictures just announced that Nas, a rapper you probably loved in middle school, is releasing a fashion collection to promote the new Ghostbusters movie. This is such a fun idea! The Ghostbusters deal isn’t just about selling jumpsuits. Nas, an artist who released a song called “Money Is My Bitch” in 1999, will put…
Kurzgesagt ponders the question of whether space elevators can be built and answers it as only they can. It’s fascinating to learn about the (obvious) benefits of having a space elevator—sending things to space becomes much, much cheaper!—but even if it’ll take forever and a half to build this mythical 22,370-mile structure (which we can’t…
M83 released a new album, Junk, today, and although the band has been tweeting out links for how buy it or listen to it using streaming services, they’ve also made the unusual move of uploading whole damn thing for free on YouTube. Digg first pointed out the existence of the tracks, most of which still…
