Tech News

Can You Tell the Monet From the Microscopic Imitation?

One of these is Claude Monet’s famous painting “Impression, Sunrise.” The other is a replica, constructed using an aluminum nanostructure, measuring around 300 microns in width. But can you tell which is the real deal? Printing, at whatever scale, is simply a case of laying down lots of small dots which, when observed at the…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

The hand-drawn version of Frozen looks a lot better than the 3D one

Call me nostalgic but, when I first saw thesehand-drawn concepts fromFrozen, I couldn’t help but think that a classic 2D version would have looked so much better. The warmth and beauty in these drawings are not in the flashy computer animated version. This is not concept art from the abandoned hand-drawn Snow Queen feature film,…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi

The Best Products of the Year, Chosen By Designers

What were the best products designed this year? The IDSA, or Industrial Designers Society of America, has announced its International Design Excellence Awards, naming 176 winners across 23 categories. We picked a few of the most interesting and innovative winners, from a surgery-performing robot to a lightweight bike helmet. Digital Design: BOOK by FiftyThree Designed…

Tech News Alissa Walker

Oculus Rift Developer Creates Weird Third-Person View Hack

This man is living the dream of starring in his own real-world video game, using a complex camera rig and an Oculus Rift headset to view his own life from the popular behind-and-up-a-bit third-person perspective. He is also, presumably, very confused. The project uses a pair of GoPro cameras, fixing them to a 3D-printed mount…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

NASA’s Orbital Carbon Observatory Has Launched!

After the original Orbital Carbon Observatory crashed into the ocean, and the first attempt at launching the replacement observatory was scrubbed yesterday with less than a minute left in the countdown, we finally have a satellite capable of tracking carbon in our atmosphere. I was there. I’m at the Vandenberg Airforce Base in California, part…

Tech News Mika McKinnon

Google’s Cube Lets You DJ Six Videos at Once

Music videos are wonderful, but you can only watch one at a time. No longer—thanks to a weird, but rather fun, project from Google called The Cube, which lets you play and manipulate six at once. A product of its Creative Labs division, you can grab a cube—with mouse or finger—to reveal a different video…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

The More Features Your Phone Has, the Longer You Spend in the Toilet

It’s perhaps a more fundamental law of technology than Moore’s Law, if we’re honest with ourselves. [Truth Facts]

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

How to toss food in a pan like a cool pro chef

This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest tricks of the professional chef. And, let’s be honest, we have all tried it at some point with different—sometimes disastrous—results. The guys at Serious Eats explain how to do it properly. Your meal doesn’t get any better when you flip it in a pan, but it’s…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi

The Modern Version of the World’s Longest-Running Experiment

Remember that 84-year-old pitch drop experiment, where scientists watch as a liquid 230 billion times more viscous than water drips from a glass container? Well, finally, it’s been given a modern overhaul. New Scientist reports that a tweak to the old experiment is letting researchers cheat at the world’s longest-running experiment. It uses the same…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

This is why you are still alive: How the immune system works

Why are we still alive when our bodies are constantly under attack from bacteria, viruses and more? As this video explains, it is because we have a coordinated army of cells fighting for our cause—and this is thanks to our immune systems. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Sploid James Baker

7 Things You Need to Know About Tor

We posted last week about the Tor Challenge and why everyone should use Tor. Since we started our Tor Challenge two weeks ago we have signed up over 1000 new Tor relays. But it appears that there are still some popular misconceptions about Tor. We would like to take this opportunity to dispel some of…

Privacy & Security Cooper Quntin - EFF

Experimental Terracotta: This Material’s More Versatile Than You Think

Terracotta is a wonderfully earthy, traditional Italian material, derived from clay. But there’s more to it than flower pots, as this collection of modern objects crafted from the earthenware proves. This display of objects is the result of a project by 10 designers in the Federazione Italiana del Design (FID) group. While other materials do…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

About 40% of American-made cars in 1900 were steam-powered

Thanks to recent documentaries and news stories, many Americans have woken up to the fact that electric cars aren’t such a new idea. What’s gotten less attention is that steam-powered cars were actually quite popular at the turn of the 20th century as well. From Pacific Standard: The steam-powered automobile may seem like a bit…

Tech News Matt Novak

Why do ice cubes crack when you drop them in drinks?

The sound of summer is ice cracking as you pour yourself a cold drink. Hearing that snap and pop cools everybody down. But why does ice crack? Periodic Videos explains the reason why ice straight from freezer suffers that sudden crack versus how ice left on a tray will just melt instead of crack. The…

Sploid Casey Chan

Stuntmen in LED Suits Made This Impossible Parkour Run a Reality

The advent of CGI has allowed us to realize things on-screen we never thought would be possible—from living, breathing dinosaurs, to giant transforming robots. But it’s become so over-used that over-the-top practical effects now draw the biggest wows from audiences, like Lexus’ use of countless LED-suit clad stuntmen to create one unbelievable parkour run across…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Optical illusion painting changes its perspective as you move around it

When I started to watch this video I thought I wasn’t looking at a painting but a high definition flat display that tracked your eyes, modifying a 3D model to give you the illusion of real depth. And then the magics finally get revealed. It’s so simple and so damn cool. It reminds me of…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

Here’s how golden goop turns into fortune cookies

How do they get those quippy fortunes inside a fortune cookie? It starts with a goop which gets baked and perforated while still hot. The paper fortune is placed on top of the hot cookie which is then permanently folded to its infamous shape with robot hands, trapping the promises of one’s future until someone…

Sploid Casey Chan

No, Teddy Roosevelt never actually forded a river on mooseback

This photo of Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose keeps getting passed around as real. But sadly, it’s a pre-Photoshop fake from 1912. You can read more about it below.

Tech News Matt Novak

Why Vampires Are Sooo Six Seasons Ago

True Blood’s long awaited final season has arrived. Two episodes in and I’m very underwhelmed. I stuck with it through the witches, werewolves, and other supernatural beings, but for some reason, I’m relatively unexcited for its impending vampire apocalypse. However, I’m going to watch each episode regardless—for the blood and the boobs. As should you.…

Tech News Eric Rydin

Meet the guy who smells things for a living for NASA

George Aldrich has been working with NASA for nearly 40 years doing one job: he smells things that are about to go to space. Seriously. Aldrich uses his nose to its full potential, sniffing everything around him to give NASA a report on what is allowed to go to space and what is not. You…

Sploid Casey Chan

Can You Tell the Monet From the Microscopic Imitation?

The hand-drawn version of Frozen looks a lot better than the 3D one

The Best Products of the Year, Chosen By Designers

Oculus Rift Developer Creates Weird Third-Person View Hack

NASA’s Orbital Carbon Observatory Has Launched!

Google’s Cube Lets You DJ Six Videos at Once

The More Features Your Phone Has, the Longer You Spend in the Toilet

How to toss food in a pan like a cool pro chef

The Modern Version of the World’s Longest-Running Experiment

This is why you are still alive: How the immune system works

7 Things You Need to Know About Tor

Experimental Terracotta: This Material’s More Versatile Than You Think

About 40% of American-made cars in 1900 were steam-powered

Why do ice cubes crack when you drop them in drinks?

Stuntmen in LED Suits Made This Impossible Parkour Run a Reality

Optical illusion painting changes its perspective as you move around it

Here’s how golden goop turns into fortune cookies

No, Teddy Roosevelt never actually forded a river on mooseback

Why Vampires Are Sooo Six Seasons Ago

Meet the guy who smells things for a living for NASA

Chinese Startup Debuts Super-Bendy Robotic Arm for Orbital Repairs

Artemis 2 Live Updates: Countdown to the Moon 🔴

Your Devices Are Targets. Bitdefender Shields Them All — For Less Than You Think

Of Course, ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Post Credit Scene Is Another Big Cameo

Proton Just Launched Meet, and It Makes Zoom Look Like a Privacy Nightmare

America’s Latest Unfounded Health Panic: ‘Vaccinated’ Blood Donations

SpaceX Files Confidentially for IPO, Reports Say

Jackery Power Station With 200W Solar Panel Still $590 Off as Amazon Clears Out Leftover Stock After the Spring Sale

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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