Tech News

A new Miami train station was unveiled today by All Aboard Florida, a privately financed passenger rail project that will connect Orlando to South Florida by refurbishing 235 miles of existing rail lines. This station designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is expected to open in 2016. [All Aboard Florida]

3D Printing an Entire Chair Is Easy When It’s One Big Puzzle

We’ve been promised that 3D printers will eventually be able to replicate almost anything we want. But how do you go about creating larger objects when your printer’s capacity is no larger than a toaster oven? The same way you can fit a Thomas Kinkade painting into a small cardboard box: You turn it into…

THC May Help Protect Your Brain Against the Ravages of Meth

Turns out that smoking a bowl before going to town on some meth could keep your brains from scrambling themselves. Newly published research out of the University of Cagliari suggests that THC, the same cannabinoid compound that gets your stoned, could protect your brain from the inflammatory effects of methamphetamine use. Methamphetamine not only decimates…

Apple Just Hired the Two Smartest Music Moguls of Our Time

It’s official, Apple’s dropping $3 billion on a headphone empire. But more than a blockbuster headphone brand and a promising streaming music service, Apple is getting two of the smartest music and entertainment minds in the world. Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine work for Apple now, and that’s a potentially revolutionary combination. Beats by Dre…

Coral Creeps Up Island Slopes to Stay at the Surface

Volcanic islands can develop a fringing reef of coral that persists as the volcano submerges, transitioning first to a barrier reef and later to an atoll at the island sinks below the waves. But how does the coral manage to keep even with the sea surface? https://gizmodo.com/the-life-and-death-of-a-volcanic-island-1554228926 Moorea Island has a reef that is mostly…

A Tiny, Breathing Lung Made of Cancer Cells That Helps Test Chemo Drugs

One of the great tragedies of cancer medicine is when drugs work phenomenally in animal testing, but fail to deliver for human patients. As close as animal testing can get, it’s no substitute for the real thing—which makes this tiny, breathing artificial lung, grown from human lung cancer cells, so promising. Devised by a team…

Watch a Meteor Explode in Joshua Tree’s Night Sky

California’s desert parks provide some of the best opportunities to see the night sky as our distant ancestors did—a rich tapestry of stars, undiminished by the artificial light of civilization. Death Valley National Park, in fact, recently became the world’s largest certified International Dark Sky Park. Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park hasn’t yet earned…

How to Get Hit in the Head With a Drone

Last week I attended a lively tech party and was hit in the head by a flying drone. Given that drones are as controversial as they are ubiquitous in the media, I know what’s going through your head right now: “How can I also get hit in the head by a drone?” Well, it has…

Netflix’s Deal With Sony Shows They Care About Animation

Remember in 2012 when Netflix let their contract with Starz lapse, causing dozens of great movies to disappear from the streaming service? A lot of people were upset at the time, but Netflix is taking steps to return some of what it lost. In a recently announced move, Netflix has signed a deal with Sony…

Is the Future of Condoms Literally Just the Tip?

There ain’t nothing hotter right now than redesigning the necessary evil that is the modern condom. But while most pecker poncho redesigns tend to look at alternative materials (hello, graphene condom), this newest one goes for an approach so minimal—it’s barely even there. Some NSFW imagery follows. Beware! LA condom revolutionary-hopeful Charles Powell thinks the…

These Plantable Pencils Grow Fresh Herbs From Your Failed Lit Ambitions

There are times—dark, frustrating times—when you put pencil to paper and nothing’s there. No inspiration. No life. So you scribble and scratch and sharpen until all that’s left is a bitty wooden nub reminding you of the barren wasteland that is your brain. You could toss that useless end bit in the trash. Or! If…

Beats by Apple Makes Monster’s Big Mistake Even Bigger

Apple’s move to buy Beats for $3 billion is a big deal, and not just because it’s the biggest acquisition in the company’s history. But for Monster’s Noel and Kevin Lee, the original brains behind Beats, all it means is extra salt in the wound. https://gizmodo.com/beat-by-dre-the-exclusive-inside-story-of-how-monster-5981823

Apple Is Officially Buying Beats for $3 Billion

After weeks of rumors and speculation, Apple has officially bought Beats By Dre for $3 billion. The deal includes both Beats’ immensely lucrative headphone business and the recently launched streaming audio service. Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. That’s right, Dr. Dre works for Apple now. There has been a lot…

Burning Oil on Ice Doesn’t Work as Hoped

Although it sounds absolutely bonkers, a common technique for cleaning up oil spills is burning as much as possible, then scooping up the residue. Trying the same technique in Arctic conditions is complicated, burning faster but hiding sooty residue within the ice. Testing in situ burning in icy conditions. Image credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute If…

Shooting Challenge: Circles

We live in a world full of rectangles—mostly because of convenience. Our bricks. Our buildings. Our screens. But we’re round creatures, and we love curves. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, we’re celebrating the antithesis of the square: The circle. The Challenge Take a photo of a circle somewhere in the environment (it could be…

This Bizarre Looking Device Lets You Draw How Your Eyes Actually See

If walk through the square in front of the Flatiron Building this week, you’ll see an odd sight: Someone with their head strapped into what looks like some sort of medieval brain control device. It’s actually just Trevor or Ryan Oakes, artists (and twins) who invented a drawing tool that applies simple mathematics to produce…

Scientists think there may be a wormhole in the center of our galaxy

If Zilong Li and Cosimo Bambi of the Fudan University in Shanghai are correct, what we thought was a massive blackhole in the center of our galaxy could be a wormhole that would allow instantaneous travel between two points in space and time. In fact, it may be the gateway to a different universe. They…

This Supercooling Fridge Chills Food To Sub-Zero Without Freezing It

The current trend in fridge innovation involves adding extra doors, built-in soda dispensers, and pointless touchscreens. So it’s refreshing when a company like Mitsubishi brings a truly unique advancement to its new refrigerators in the form of a freezer drawer that chills food to three degrees below freezing, without actually freezing it. How is such…

How to Pull Off the Perfect Bank Heist

In 2011, architect Armin Blasbichler asked his 21 architecture students at the University of Innsbruck to plan bank heists because, as he says, “architects have a specific view on buildings and organizational structures—on how things relate together, weak points and strong points.” Armin Blasbichler’s students presenting their heist plans. Courtesy of Armin Blasbichler. Blasbichler certainly…

How Forty Acres of Desert Appeared in the Middle of Maine

Maine has miles and miles of coastline, but its most spectacular sand dunes are nowhere near water. For that, you’d have to head inland, toward the vast, sandy expanse known as the “Desert of Maine.” There, thanks to hapless farmers and some unusual geology, you’ll find rolling dunes in the land of lobster and pine…