Tech News

Looks like people have been running into to some problems using Gchat. We’re looking into the issue—but how’s Gchat looking on your end?

Huge part of a Delta airliner’s wing breaks off at takeoff

Missing panels and gremlins top the list of things you don’t want to see on a plane’s wing at 30,000 feet. But on Delta flight 2412 from Orlando to Atlanta yesterday, one passenger captured this unnerving scene: A big panel came loose and fell during take-off. The panel reportedly came loose and fell off as…

How NASA’s Supercritical Wings Save Airlines Millions Every Year

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, aviation engineers struggled to overcome an important issue: That planes became increasingly difficult to control, the closer they got to the sound barrier. It wasn’t until NASA strapped a pair of custom-made wings onto this fighter that supersonic flight became not just feasible, but downright commonplace. See, as a plane…

The (floating) sun also rises in Sydney Harbor—in this case, for Opera Australia’s outdoor production of Madama Butterfly. Each night, the sailcloth orb is inflated by two fans and illuminated by 12 LED lights. “Orb master” Andrew Tindal-Davies sits inside, making sure the sun rises without a hitch. [James Morgan for Opera Australia]

Mac Users, hop over to the App Store today and download a free copy of Microsoft OneNote.

Graphene Could Give You Predator-Vision Contact Lenses One Day

Imagine a future where your contact lenses gave you Predator vision. One day, it might happen, thanks to graphene. Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed the first room-temperature light detector that can see the entire infrared spectrum of colors. And it can be small and compact, because graphene is insane and only one…

All the airplanes that have mysteriously vanished since 1948

As this Bloomberg map shows, Malaysian flight 370 is not the first flight to mysteriously disappear. 83 flights have vanished since 1948—80 of them never to be found again (the dots in yellow). This map only includes flights capable of carrying more than 14 passengers. Some more curious stats: Five planes were missing in the…

How Biotech Could Make Life in Prison a Living Hell

At the University of Oxford, a team of scholars led by the philosopher Rebecca Roache has begun thinking about the ways futuristic technologies might transform punishment. In January, I spoke with Roache and her colleagues Anders Sandberg and Hannah Maslen about emotional enhancement, ‘supercrimes’, and the ethics of eternal damnation. What follows is a condensed…

Aurora over Canada

Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with a thematically-green aurora that was photographed by astronaut Koichi Wakata from the ISS on January 14th. In the same theme, here’s a lovely video of a different aurora captured over Canada in February 2012, and Ghost in the Machine dug out a video of celebrating on the ISS. https://observationdeck.kinja.com/st-patricks-day-in-space-1545490765

Microsoft’s Surface 2 now comes in an LTE flavor. The 64GB, data-ready tablet runs on AT&T’s network (for now) and is available at your local or not-so-local Microsoft store or Best Buy today, for $680.

The Government-Surplus Machines Powering a Cutting-Edge Science Museum

Machines fill the floor of the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s beloved interactive science museum. Over there is a contraption called Bicycle Legs, in which visitors manipulate air pumps to replicate muscles we use when pedaling (it’s trickier than it sounds). A few hundred feet away is a perennial favorite, the Wave Machine, which demonstrates transverse waves…

Even cooler parents actually sing Frozen song perfectly

What the hell, internet, will the Frozen-mania ever stop? Check out these videos of people making fun of the picture-perfect parents from Texas and besting them in the process. First, these parents really sing the song Love Is an Open Door. It actually sounds as good as the original. https://gizmodo.com/amazing-parents-perfectly-lip-sync-to-frozens-love-is-1542621446 Then there’s these twins, which…

Report: Apple Healthbook Will Track Your Life Down to Every Breath

For a couple months now we’ve been hearing about Apple’s plans to release a new fitness tracking system in the near future called Healthbook. This morning, 9to5Mac reports a lot of details about the rumored health-monitoring app for iOS. The app is impressively exhaustive. How is all of this possible? We’re loathe to say an…

How the Persian Gulf Is Quietly Building a Railroad Empire

Here in the U.S., the arrival of a new tunnel boring machine is huge news, warranting naming ceremonies and Twitter accounts. Meanwhile, in Doha, officials have quietly signed a contract to buy fifteen boring machines to build a sprawling new subway system. And that’s nothing compared to the massive transit network being built to connect…

A Pregnancy Diary That Grows With an Expectant Mother

If you’ve never kept a diary or journal before, a pregnancy is probably a great time to start. Not only because of all the new experiences, but it will also probably come in really handy if and when you decide to have a second child. And what better place to document your thoughts than in…

One Day Your Smartphone’s Screen Could Be Used To Test Blood

Patients who rely on the use of coagulants to limit the formation of blood clots in their veins also require frequent and regular trips to the hospital for tests to monitor their blood flow. It’s a time-consuming side effect that researchers at EPFL hope they’ve solved with a portable test that relies on a smartphone’s…

Inside the Homes That 11 Great Architects Designed For Themselves

Building a home for yourself could either be a nightmare or a dream: You have free reign, but you also must live with your mistakes or second-guesses forever. That hasn’t stopped many architects from overseeing the designs of their own spaces—and lucky for us, sometimes they let photographers inside. The public has long been fascinated…

You Can Wear This Fabric Wi-Fi Antenna

Forget what you know about wearable technology. The future of wireless connectivity is going to be woven into the very threads of your clothes. This fully textile waveguide antenna is capable of handing 2.45 and 5.4 GHz dual-band Wi-Fi, and is made entirely from flexible textiles. The heart of the device is a cell inspired…

These Chairs Have Two Wildly Different Wood Grains in One

From a distance, these chairs look like simple wooden objects. Get up close, though, and you’ll struggle to tell quite what they’re made of: expensive oak or cheap OSB laminate board? The reason is simple. The designer, Nendo, takes timber surfaces and prints a second grain onto the furniture. In some cases, the effect makes…

These Sleek Hangers Swap Hooks for Magnets

These sleek hangers, designed by German-Latvian agency Flow Design, look like something’s missing. Don’t worry, though: they’ve simply swapped the hooks for magnets. Called Cliq, the hangers resemble the dozens already hanging in your closet in terms of size and proportions. But at the top is a powerful magnet—strong enough to support items weighing up…