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Scattered hand bones, severed arms, cracked skulls: if one thing is clear from this Neolithic burial pit, it’s that some some serious shit went down 6,000 years ago. Circular burial pits like the one shown above were common during the Neolithic period in Central and Western Europe some 6,500 to 5,500 years ago. But rarely…
With the Pixel C, Google imagines a tablet as more than just a portable window into the internet. These things have to be good for more than endless Candy Crush and Netflix, right? The current thinking is tablets needs to evolve, and so Google, like its rivals, has created its own, kinda-sorta work tablet, complete…
If you’re busy exploring everything that OS X El Capitan has to offer, one of the smaller new features that you might not have come across yet is the ability to automatically hide the menu bar from view—if you want a truly full-screen experience for your regular apps, it’s easy to toggle it on and…
A vote on the accord that’s being hailed humanity’s best and perhaps last shot at preventing dangerous climate change is about to take place in Paris. Watch 195 countries try to make history here.
Certain aspects of the Star Wars universe (FTL travel, force magic) are clearly impossible. But some technologies, like extremely high-powered thrusters and even lightsabers, may one day be feasible. This month, the University of Michigan released “Chillin’ with Chewie,” a 5-video series in which everyone’s favorite Wookie warrior interviews a range of experts about all…
Noted killer robot-fearer Elon Musk has a plan to save humanity from the looming robopocalypse: developing advanced artificial intelligence systems. You know, the exact technologies that could lead to the robopocalypse. Let’s unpack that one a little bit. Yesterday, Tesla’s boss, along with a band of prominent tech executives including Linked in co-founder Reid Hoffman…
On Tuesday, Gizmodo and Wired published the results of separate but parallel investigations into documents that suggested a new candidate for the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. In emails and documents shared with both publications (by an individual who identified themselves to Gizmodo reporters as a hacker) Dr. Craig Wright, an…
If you want to know exactly what the moon will look like (to those in the northern hemisphere, at least), this video by NASA has got you covered. It tracks all the phases of the moon for 2016, that is you’ll see the moon wax and wane as it corresponds to each day of the…
Some of the fastest-growing cities in the world sit in high-risk earthquake zones. That’s why researchers are trying to figure out how to build tall buildings using a material that’s not only plentiful and renewable, but even more resistant to earthquakes than conventional building materials. What 7th Century Japanese Builders Knew The perfect example of…
The crop of new skyscrapers going up on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan are very tall, whisper thin, and—yawn—rather boring. This idea for a supertall on the same street is a throbbing EDM antidote to the architectural elevator music that’s taking over New York City. The proposal that takes design audacity to new heights is…
Man, building an aircraft carrier is just like playing with Lego bricks! At a much, much larger scale, of course. Here is footage showing how the final section of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier the HMS Prince of Wales was slapped on top of the ship. The piece, known as Aft Island, weighs 750 tonnes…
You need bacteria to help you digest your food and go about your day. It turns out that plants have their own version of this. And one weed is driving out the competition by attacking the gut bacteria of other species. Without bacteria, we’d need a great deal more food to get by. Although humans…
Do you like being able to drive in cars? Do you like the way World War I turned out? Do you not like Nazi collaboration? If your answer to all three questions is “yes,” then Eugene Houdry is your kind of guy. Eugene Houdry was born in France in 1892 – not an ideal time…
It looks like an alien parasite come to invade our brains, but the truly bizarre creature pictured above is a mud dragon—a tiny worm, roughly half the size of a grain of rice, that squirmed about the seafloor 530 million years ago. It’s one of the first fossils of a mud dragon ever discovered, and…
Nearly all diseases take time and money to diagnose. A new test that exploits a quirk of physics could make blood tests for certain diseases faster, cheaper, and easily performed in virtually any setting. When light moves through water, or window glass, it bends slightly. This is a familiar phenomenon to nearly everyone, and it…
Instead of offering reliable on-time service, zero baggage fees, and decent meals, airlines seem willing to try anything else to fill seats. According to Windspeed, an aerospace engineering company, one aircraft maker plans to offer its over-the-top SkyDeck seats as an option to its clients. The upgraded aircraft will have a pair of seats, about…
It was one of the first NES games to include the well-known Konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A) and now thanks to NECA, Contra fans can finally own action figure versions of the game’s main characters: Private First Class Bill Rizer and Lance Bean. Featuring paint jobs that reflect…
Music legend Dolly Parton turns 70 next month. And to celebrate she’s creating a time capsule to be opened on her 100th birthday. The capsule will contain plenty of unique pieces, but the most interesting item is a new song–a song we won’t be able to hear until the year 2046. “What we’re gonna put…
Pick the apples. Wash the apples. Chop the apples into a mash. Crush that apple mash to pump out the juice in a press. Boil the apple juice. Jar the apple cider. Drink the apple cider. There’s nothing like making it yourself. Or watching people make it in the video below and then buying apple…
This cute, safe, hovering robot that looks like a flying marshmallow is going to reinvent drone design, its creators say. It’s called Fleye, and it’s the exact opposite of “classic” drones, according to the Belgian engineers behind the bot. There’s no huge propeller, no clunky frame, and no heavy crashing into bleachers at sporting events.…
