Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
I don’t know how these tiny dancers got trapped inside this spinning zoetrope but it’s the only explanation I can come up with for this insane light animation. Their movements are so smooth, and the shining light captures the grace of their dance so well that I’m sure some sort of magic has to be…
Yo-yo tricks are already a miracle of physics. But Ben Conde specializes in a type of yo-yo with an unattached string, and does things that defy all logic. But there’s one sneaky feature that makes these contraptions work. Hidden between the halves of his yo-yo are tiny silicone friction pads. These—combined with high rotational speed—grab…
Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 are still exploring interstellar space today. Both probes have flown by Jupiter and Saturn while the Voyager 2 has made its way to Uranus and Neptune too. The Voyager space program has traveled further in space than anything ever has and serves as a wonderful reminder of…
As the world’s premiere auto racing league, the cars that compete in Formula One are technological marvels. But watching what goes into racing vehicles from the turn of the century gives you a greater appreciation for what our ancestors had to deal with to quench their need for speed. If you thought having to pay…
The Eiffel Tower is the most famous and one of the most heavily-guarded structures in Paris. For a fee you can hang out inside of it, but its upper reaches are not legally accessible to the public. So three Russian daredevils decided to scale it anyway, without safety equipment, while being filmed by a drone.…
There is perhaps nothing more American than careening down a massive slip ‘n slide at a former Olympic park wearing a stars and stripes flag cape and a helmet. At the Utah Olympic Park, you can do exactly that. The park is home to the Slip ‘n Soar, a group of three ski ramps—a smaller…
Growing up on Earth you learn from a very young age that liquids will remain in a cup as long as it stays upright. But Steve Mould has discovered a liquid that laughs at gravity and other forces that govern our universe: polyethylene oxide. It’s a polymer made from long chains of molecules that allow…
Seventeen years ago, extreme sports ambassador and titular Pro Skater Tony Hawk pulled off the 900 revolution at the 1999 X-Games. The trick involves rotating the board two and a half times while midair (and in normal gravity), and Hawk struggled with it back in his spry days. Now 48, he gives it the old…
Sorry, I still have a Game of Thrones hangover, so when I watch this beautiful drone footage that gives sweeping views of castles across Europe, I see the map of Westeros in the opening credits come alive. Some of these castles are in ruins, some are near rivers, some are on islets, some are embedded…
Please don’t ever do this at home. Or do this anywhere, really. Mixing bullets with molten aluminum creates a helluva explosion—but it sprays the hot liquid metal everywhere, and that’s just a terrible idea. Plus, it’s guaranteed to end in fire and blood. Instead, watch the Backyard Scientist do it. In the video below, he…
You’re not going to be a master locksmith after you watch this video showing you three ways to break open a lock, but you might stop putting your faith in cheap padlocks. That’s because a few bent paperclips could jimmy the thing open. Even just jamming a screwdriver into the keyhole can make it unlock.…
Ankur Patar is an artist with a talent for recreating famous paintings. His forgeries wouldn’t fool a child, let alone an art expert, but they’re still absolutely remarkable pieces of art unto themselves because they’re painstakingly assembled in Photoshop using nothing but stock photos. Here’s a timelapse video of Patar rebuilding Rembrandt’s The Storm on…
Here’s an interesting portrait of Howard Berger, a special makeup effects artist who’s worked on films like The Chronicles of Narnia and Inglorious Basterds, and the work he does to transform actors into, well, monsters. You get to see everything: adding clay to an actor’s lifecast to build the form, the molding process to create…
Australia has an earned reputation for being dangerous and inhospitable. It’s home to dickhead lizards that look like Jurassic Park dinosaurs, jellyfish that swallow regular fish whole, gangs of murderous sharks, herpes-infested carp, and snakes that are so sick of living there that they try to suffocate themselves in their own skin. Now even Australian…
Two fundamental rules in most science labs are 1) always have protective eyewear on and 2) don’t stick your face next to stuff that’s on fire. For these reasons, Sufficiently Advanced’s flamethrower welding helmet presents a conundrum. Modeled after Cyclops from the X-Men, this deeply unsafe contraption shoots two lines of fire out of your…
Ha! I trapped the drink you ordered in a weird ice sphere. Bet you weren’t expecting that. Don’t even try melting it with your tongue or some shit, because I also lit the glass on fire. You’re going to wait for this lackluster drink to become consumable (not counting the 2.5 hours you waited for…
Dirt is boring. Soil isn’t fun. Who cares what’s happening down there. So I thought. Josh Williams changed my mind with his SoilCam, a waterproof scanner that’s controlled by a Raspberry Pi. He places it in the dirt so we can see everything that’s happening underground. It’s so alive. It’s a whole different world down…
If the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week has left you terrified of the ocean, here’s a much safer way to try your hand at surfing. Just let Kyosho’s foot-tall RC surfer be your proxy, risking life and limb amongst the sharks while you’re safely lounging on the beach controlling it with a wireless remote in one…
Pixar movies are funny and fantastic and all ploy at your emotions with wonderful characters and an always relatable story. But almost everything works out in the end of all their movies. What if they didn’t? Chris Huebs hilariously re-edited Pixar movies so they ended at all the sad parts of the film. Right when…
Smithsonian Channel’s Secrets of Shark Island is a wonderful documentary about the ecosystem in the waters around the Revillagigedo Islands, a group of four volcanic islands 240 miles off of Mexico. Because it’s “the only natural juncture for miles” in the Pacific Ocean, there’s a lot going on around there. Most scarily, a shit ton…
