Tech News

Science Wants a Large Hadron Collider That’s Over Three Times As Big

The Large Hadron Collider certainly lives up to its name: the underground behemoth is nearly 17 miles in circumference. Oh, and it also helped scientists discover the Higgs Boson, no big deal. But those crazy scientists always want more, which is why CERN, the particle physics group behind LHC, wants to build it a big…

The Arrow-Shooting Slingshot: Y’Know, (DEFINITELY NOT) For Kids!

We usually think of slingshots as the weapon of choice for precocious little kids, but in the right hands they can be deadly. Especially when they’re designed to fire actual hunting arrows like the Survival Slingshot that lets you take down prey larger than sparrows and squirrels. The ring you see mounted atop is known…

Want to Avoid the NSA? Use a Cell Phone

Holy crap, the latest NSA report is actually good news—sort of. Despite what you’ve heard in the past nine months, the NSA only collects information on 20 percent or fewer U.S. calls. Why? Because they’re having a hard time figuring out how to tap cell phones. The Wall Street Journal just reported that the agency…

Unedited videos really show how crazy any wingsuit jump really is

You’ve probably seen many edited wingsuit jumps with a music soundtrack. They’re fun, but I think those are nothing compared to these unedited flights. There’s something about them—perhaps the anticipation and the actual sound—that really puts me on edge. These are the adventures of Julie Minot and his friends. In their “home” videos you can…

The Most Unusual Sports in Winter Olympics History

Everybody gets the gist of the Winter Olympics. Skiing, hockey, figure skating, various sled races—we’re all familiar with the classics. But did you know that dogs once competed in the Winter Olympics? Have you heard of the sport that’s a cross between hockey and soccer? The Olympics used to be weird, man. Over the decades,…

Science Finally Figures Out How Pruney Fingers Work

The science world’s understanding of pruney bathtub fingers is shockingly thin, especially considering every great mind the world over has probably experienced it firsthand. Finally, German physicists have uncovered the mechanism that lets your fingers go all shriveled, then bounce right back to normal. And that understanding could revolutionize the materials we make. It turns…

These 1.5 Billion Pixel/Sec Buses Will Power the World’s Fastest Camera

It’s being billed as the widest-looking, fastest-shooting, deepest peering telescope on Earth. Or at least it will be when the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope comes online atop a remote Chilean mountain top in 2032. The LSST, combining cutting-edge optics and massive computing power, will scan huge swaths of the heavens and peer deeper into cosmic…

Your skin looks really awful (and kind of beautiful) under UV lighting

I wish photographer Cara Phillips took a picture of my face like these. There’s something intriguing and beautiful about our “awful” skin imperfections. But then again, I always loved freckles. They are my favorite thing ever. Cara takes her black and white photos with UV lighting, a technique used by dermatologists to examine your skin’s…

Hands Down the Easiest Way To Make Ice Spheres

Have you seen some of the contraptions needed to make those sphere-shaped ice cubes that are all the rage? They look like they belong in a factory stamping out auto parts from sheet metal. This silicone Frozen Peas mould looks infinitely easier—and so much more adorable. An open seam running down one side of the…

In Brooklyn’s Sunset Park a 2,579,789 gallon storage tank stands tall amongst the rest of the neighborhood’s buildings. It’s part of US Power Generating Company‘s “Narrows” Gas Turbine Facility; overall the company is capable of powering 20% of New York City. [Image – Nicholas Stango]

Human and dolphin surfing together—and other beautiful images from Oz

Matt Hutton fell in love with photography at age seven in his native Australia. He’s also in love with his country, which he travels working for Rio Tinto Rail, a railroad company that transports ore across the big Oz. I don’t blame him. Just look at the beautiful photos he sent us. You can follow…

5 Reasons SoundCloud With Major Label Music Could Be Amazing

Most of the music services available today have more or less the same music, so they distinguish themselves with third-party apps, free versions, improved designs, mixtape-style playlists, and other attractive features. On-demand music services have the same music (more or less) because the same copyright holders decide which songs to put on subscription services, and…

Toilet Seats Should Have Come With Built-In Nightlights From Day One

Outside of cartoonish decals there hasn’t been much innovation in the toilet seat industry for a few decades. So it’s nice to see Kohler finally bringing something new to the table (err, toilet). A built-in LED nightlight means you’ll never have to squint your way through an overnight bathroom break again. Available on Kohler’s Cachet…

The Real-Life Monument Men: How American Scholars Went to War For Art

They came from the best museums and universities in the country: Art historians, curators, artists and architects who probably never dreamed of joining the army. This band of unlikely soldiers was tasked with the uniquely challenging job of finding—and saving—Europe’s great masterpieces before the Nazis could steal or destroy them. They were called “Monument Men.”…

Insane people walk a line between hot air balloons above the clouds

Tight rope walking is terrifying on its own. If the tightrope is between hot air balloons, itgets mind-bendingly nuts. Just watch The Skyliners do it and you’ll see what I mean. This is totally safe because everyone involved is wearing a parachute, but whenever you see one of these well-balanced badasses fall despite their best…

Hackers Have Stolen $40,000 From Bitcoin’s Biggest Wallet Service

If you’re looking to dive into the exciting world of Bitcoin, chances are you’re going to get your start with Coinbase, one of the more reputable of wallet services that boasts about $15 million in Bitcoin transactions per month. As one TechCrunch editorsaid, “It’s the one I would tell my mom to use.” But even…

Winter Olympics Host Cities Look Amazing From Space

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has released a fresh collection of stunning satellite images to celebrate the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Thanks to them you can view most of the cities and countries that have hosted the Winter Olympics, through the eyes of NASA. Each one is more stunning than the last. The Winter Olympics…

Listen to the Sound of Atoms Bonding

You’d be forgiven for thinking that a large tuning fork, a nail, some Blu-Tack and a guitar amp sounded more like the contents of a DIY music studio than a science lab. But they are, in fact, all the ingredients required to listen to the sound of atoms bonding. No, really! In this video, Professor…

A Guide to the Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony Insanity

Whether you’re watching for the noble pageantry or to mock the outlandish getups forced upon the athletes, the Opening Ceremonies are always the best part of the Olympics. Here’s what you should watch out for today—besides the bathrooms. Whatever goes down in Sochi’s Fisht Stadium tomorrow, it’s going to set the tone of the rest…

Big Companies Want You to Feel Like an Individual, But You’re Not

Man, I bet you can’t believe that someone got the same anonymous-looking lifestyle product as you. They’re such copycats. [Doghouse Diaries]