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A team of recent graduates from North Carolina State are developing a new kind of nail polish that changes color when it’s exposed to date rape drugs. Just stirring a sketchy drink with a finger could let a woman know she’s being targeted for assault. Although a little odd, it does sound like a pretty…
When talking about unannounced smartphones, everything is uncertain—including the name. And while it makes sequential sense that Motorola’s rumored upcoming contribution to the Nexus line would be the Nexus 6, it will likely be called something else. Because the Nexus 6 already exists. Well, sort of. Not as a smartphone, but as a much more…
Google’s powerhouse of an online office suite is great for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any Internet-enabled device, but there’s more to the platform than that. Here are three ways you can use Drive that don’t involve boring ol’ productivity. Your own private YouTube The same video technology that powers Google’s video sharing portal…
China claims it has found a way to create a supersonic underwater vessel that could travel from China to San Francisco in less than two hours using new developments in supercavitation. This could be extremely useful for travel—but also for the development of underwater weapons. In fact, this is a military project. This technique was…
FireChat, the clever app that lets people talk to each other without using cell reception, just got an update that gives its users fixed handles. That might not mean a damn thing to you, which is understandable. FireChat doesn’t have the name recognition of Snapchat. It’s not a popular messaging app. But it should be,…
Well, here’s one cool, unexpected use for all that data your fitness tracker is culling: Jawbone has released a chart showing the spike in wide-awake UP users in the wee hours of Sunday morning, when a 6.0 earthquake shook up the Bay Area from San Francisco to Napa. Jawbone tracks your sleeping patterns as well…
Lee Griggs is an expert in Maya and Arnold, a 3D rendering engine that produces amazing images in the right hands. Like his topographical experiments. He uses millions of tiny geometric elements combined with beautiful color palettes to create exquisite abstract visualizations. Some could be alien planets, others could be microscopic photos of minerals or…
I’ve seen many coldblooded daredevils climbing skyscrapers and towers, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone having a picnic up there—The Centre skyscraper in Hong Kong, 1,135 feet (346 meters) above the ground. I couldn’t avoid gasping when photographer Daniel Lau lifted his camera above him and his friends. SPLOID is a new…
The gap between material science and actual construction is very far and very wide. It can take decades to move a breakthrough in engineering from a lab to a building site. But as architects and engineers face bigger challenges—from earthquakes to dwindling resources to sheer cost—a new generation of smart materials is emerging. Over the…
The constant drive for miniaturization doesn’t just apply to consumer electronics: the crooks are at it, too. And when it comes to card skimmers, this tiny thing is pretty much impossible to spot. https://gizmodo.com/the-latest-long-life-super-thin-atm-skimmers-are-virtu-1601076751 Krebs on Security has pictures of this new breed of card skimmer—the devices that lurk in a card slot to read…
I’ve seen many photos and videos of smokers’ lungs—all of them disgusting—but I’ve never seen a better case against cigarettes than this Vine showing the differences in lung capacity between a smoker and a nonsmoker. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
Birds are awesome creatures, but seeing huge flocks of them—like these pelicans diving into a feeding frenzy—both amaze and scare the bejesus out of me. Maybe is Hitchcock’s fault. Or maybe it’s because I know these sons of dinosaurs are really waiting for their opportunity to eat us all one day. SPLOID is a new…
Methane can come from all kinds of places. But now a team of researchers has discovered over 500 bubbling methane vents just off the east coast of the U.S. that are releasing the gas, too, https://gizmodo.com/do-cow-farts-actually-contribute-to-global-warming-1562144730 The team of scientists has been studying the continental margin—part of the ocean floor that divides the coast and…
What would you do with a magic computer that could make anything you want to appear in front of you. No payments, no three-day Amazon Prime shipping—just type something and boom, it’s yours. It sounds awesome until you see what happens in this short directed by Spencer Susser. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…
Look around hip London or Manhattan coffee shops and restaurants, and you’ll know that big, heavy lampshades of industrial light fittings are in right now. But these stripped-back lights provide a nod to that style—with a lighter, modern feel. The Slims Collection of lamps by Tel-Aviv-based Studio Beam is a contemporary take on the industrial…
Photographer Enrico Sacchetti got a peek of Europe’s new experimental space shuttle, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, and sent us this cool photo of its guts. The IXV will be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on October 2014. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
I’ve seen people in wingsuits flying so close to the ground that I thought they were going to land on their belly at any time. I’ve seen them fly through tight canyons or so close to a cliff that they could high five people standing there. But this flight between trees seems like the most…
Your smartphone has so much promise: tons of computational power and masses of smart software. But all you really do with it is play Temple Run on the toilet and drunkenly flip through Tinder. [Truth Facts] http://kindofnormal.com/truthfacts/2014/08/22
Later today, the first balls will be served at the U.S. Open. But this year, the ball boys retrieving all those missed shots will be under closer scrutiny than usual: they’ll be dressed in nylon Ralph Lauren T-shirts lined with conductive silver-coated thread and sensors, recording all of their biometric data. In a venture with…
Till now, scientists have been teaching robots, at least the kind that are meant to help you around the house, one thing at a time: how to find your keys, pour a drink, put away dishes. But what’s a robot to do when it doesn’t know something? Go on the internet, of course! Robo Brain…
