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Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is renown for his art that incorporates nature and humanity, and his 2012 exhibition, The Hidden Life Within, excavates a massive tree’s early form. The Hidden Life Within was originally shown off at the Art Gallery of Ontario. To come up with the piece, he took a massive tree trunk and…
So… first week of 2016 was pretty sweet, right? Supposedly there was some big convention this week in Vegas that got busted by the feds. Heard of any cool new apps? Many of us just returned from CES where we were blinded by TVs and saw the future of tech in turntables. Now everyone’s talking…
Chalk and seashells are made of the same thing: calcium carbonate. Shells are stronger because they have trapped proteins inside, and scientist had thought that these proteins were trapped like flies in amber. It turns out it’s way more organized than that. Scientists know that it’s the little proteins trapped inside that makes the difference…
Blowing bubbles is fun in the summer, but it gets really interesting when the mercury plummets in winter. When the temperature gets cold enough, bubbles will freeze faster than they can pop. You can watch freezing bubbles in action in a new video from Warsaw-based photographer Pablo Zaluska. Zaluska was inspired to take pictures of…
Yesterday, Lenovo announced it would release the first consumer device using Google’s Project Tango technology. What is this technology good for? I’m glad you asked. The forthcoming “less than 6.5-inch” Project Tango device will use three camera sensors—RGB, depth, and a fisheye—as well as an accelerometer and gyroscope to quickly map the space around you…
Ever gotten off track working on origami (who hasn’t?), and wished you could figure out how to undo your last few folds? There’s a clever new material that might be able to help. It can revert to literally hundreds of earlier shapes by memory. Shape memory polymers—materials that “remember” their original form and return to…
Peach is a new iPhone app. It lets you “see what’s new with your favorite people.” Everybody is talking about it because people like iPhone apps and friends. Evidently, Peach is what’s new with your favorite people. This is Peach: Have a great weekend. Images via Peach Contact the author at [email protected]. Public PGP key…
This fossil of an ancient winged ant queen was recently discovered along the banks of the Flathead River in Montana. It’s the first of its kind ever discovered, and it’s forcing scientists to rethink when these creatures first appeared on Earth. Called Crematogaster aurora, it’s a species of ant that lived in Montana 46 million…
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City is finally redesigning its subway system for the future. Or, to be like what most large transit systems have been like for awhile now. As part of the same sweeping transportation initiatives that will reconfigure the dank hallways of Penn Station, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced…
Despite what countless companies at CES were trying to tell you, a watch doesn’t need a touchscreen to be worth wearing. Swiss watchmaker Azimuth has long been known for its unusual movements, and this time the company has found inspiration in a motorcycle’s drive train. Unlike many mechanical watches that hide their innovations amongst a…
All animals all over the world sound the same. It’s not like they speak different languages, they make the same noises even if they’re different countries! But why is it that different languages think animals make different sounds? It’s because we’re giving names to the sounds that animals make in the construct of language, not…
As a parent you’re not supposed to live vicariously through your kids. But anyone who says that doesn’t realize that Step2 now has a race car bed styled after the Corvette Z06. You’ll probably never be able to afford the real thing, but there’s no reason your kids should go without. Available at Toys R…
People in the past were as interested in how the world worked as we are. Authors and illustrated produced works to cater to that interest—including an incredibly bizarre “flap book” that shows what human insides look like. Now you can look at the whole thing online. In 1613 Johann Remmelin published a book, Catoptrum Microcosmicum,…
A team of ornithologists were working on a small Moroccan island when they observed some rather bizarre behavior in adult falcons. The raptors appeared to be imprisoning tiny birds in the crevasses of rocks in an effort to keep them fresh for a later meal. As reported in New Scientist, University of Rabat ornithologist Abdeljebbar…
In the same way that only a handful of American cities are seriously preparing for self-driving vehicles, it seems the federal government isn’t thinking ahead either. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx revealed yesterday that his department has no plans for national regulations around autonomous cars. That’s very troubling, and it needs to change. Although the…
What’s next for a company that just made spaceflight history by sending a rocket into orbit and safely landing it back on Earth? Why, doing it again, of course—but this time, on an ocean platform. That’s the latest bold challenge SpaceX plans to take on, according to an NBC News report verified by Gizmodo. The…
Today Campbell’s became the first large food company to announce that it would begin labeling all their foods that use GMO-ingredients. Should GMO labeling advocates start celebrating? Nope, and here’s why. Campbell’s is one of the world’s largest food companies, with foods ranging from SpaghettiOs to an array of soups and cookies, that show up…
Redditor muppaphone was forced to do a double take earlier this week while browsing through the insect collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We see what they did there. Apparently this is a thing. As a number of Reddit commenters have pointed out, clever museum gags like this one are quite common. [Laughing…
Broadband access in America still stinks, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). How much does it stink? Around 34 million Americans don’t have fast enough internet. The FCC wants US internet providers to give customers benchmark speeds of 25 Mbps for downloads, and 3 Mpbs for uploads. Apparently, about ten-percent…
It’s cold. It’s lonely. It’s really cold. It’s really lonely. It’s unfathomably cold. And it’s lonely. That’s what this mere glimpse of life on an Arctic expedition looks like. The visuals are jarring: the ship looks like it’s parked on land, the mustaches are frozen, the research looks difficult. But it also must be so…
