News about space, physics, archaeology, animals, health, and more
Hey you, Ground Controls and Major Toms orbiting out there! If you’re a space aficionado or know someone who’d like to blast into the cosmos, it’s time to take your protein pills. Here’s the definitive go/no-go holiday gift list. Click here to see all the gifts in a single page. https://gizmodo.com/gifts-for-space-explorers-who-swing-among-the-stars-5411986 From the Earth to … Continued
Angry elephants are a big issue. That’s why someone invented a remote-controlled device that shoots out nylon rope and binds rampaging elephants’ legs. Sounds familiar somehow. How’d those snow speeders in Star Wars subdue the ATATs again? The device is called the Violent Elephant Control Gear and is basically a seven kilogram box that attaches … Continued
Cross promotions sometimes don’t make much sense. I’ve got nothing against Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for agreeing to pitch NASA to youngsters, but really, there are better ways to capture youth attention. The Rock just wants to make sure we remember that NASA’s responsible for the rubber soles on our shoes, and the (apparently humorous) … Continued
Instead of replacing the St. Louis Zoo’s deceased polar bears with live ones, zoo officials put robots up in their place. This slightly-better-than-average yard display will surely be remembered as the humble beginning of the robot bear uprising. The robot polar bears are part of the zoo’s holiday exhibit, and it’s unclear if they’ll be … Continued
If you were hanging out outside in Utah on Wednesday night, chances are good that you witnessed a pretty rare astronomic event: a friggin’ huge meteor that lit up the entire sky. Clark Planetarium Director Seth Jarvis said the stony meteorite was probably traveling 80,000 miles an hour when it hit our atmosphere. He said … Continued
Meteorites, microscopes, or mixing things to go boom. Your science nerd loves it all. Here are a couple of gift ideas for that space explorer, mad scientist, or engineer in your life. BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here. https://gizmodo.com/gifts-for-science-nerds-who-love-to-experiment-5404803/ Lego: It’s not really a secret … Continued
Granted, the green-tinged fluorescence of most hospital rooms is by no means comfortable, but Philips’ solution, seen here, looks like a straight-up alien probe chamber—or so I’ve heard. The company is testing the implementation of their lighting technology alongside their medical technology in Ambient Experience suites across the world. And luckily, the other 9 modes … Continued
Enjoy this beautiful image of the space shuttle Atlantis, ready for today’s 2:26pm EST launch, because you are not going to see it many more times: Sadly, it is Atlantis’ second to last launch. Update: Successful launch! Godspeed Atlantis! If you are having problems, you can tune to NASA TV Click to viewClick on the … Continued
The latest object to shoot high-def video from the edge of space is…an arm chair. To promote its REGZA SV LCD TVs (LED backlight, local dimming), Toshiba trekked into the Black Rock Desert with a helium balloon. Watch the result: https://gizmodo.com/new-high-def-home-video-from-the-edge-of-space-5366687 This is the first part of the ad. The second half for their Satellite … Continued
There were some perks to dating a cyborg. My ex-boyfriend Josh was born mostly deaf, but had some hearing in one ear thanks to a cochlear implant—a spiral of electrodes threaded into his cochlea to stimulate the auditory nerve, bypassing damaged parts of the ear. The surgery, which is irreversible, wipes out any residual hearing … Continued
…And learn to roll again, roll again so free. Sure, Spirit is stuck in sand and senile, but that doesn’t mean he’s down and out. NASA is ready to free Spirit from the sand and put him back to work. https://gizmodo.com/nasa-mars-spirit-rover-has-recurring-case-of-amnesia-5394559 At least, that’s the plan. Really they’re not expecting much from their efforts. Even … Continued
In a press conference going on now, NASA has said they’ve found “a significant amount” of water on the moon. It’s an announcement that’s been expected for some time. https://gizmodo.com/official-theres-water-on-the-moon-5366357 Are we talking about enough water for astronauts to actually live off? That’s what NASA is analyzing now, attempting to scale the results of the … Continued
Sometimes we are too busy concentrating on reaching the stars to appreciate what we have here, under our feet. Then again, if we weren’t reaching for the stars, we would never realize this photo. Zoom in for the HD version. https://gizmodo.com/why-we-need-to-reach-the-stars-and-we-will-5247705 Click on the image to see the high resolution So simple, that little blue … Continued
I’ve seen many amazing, inspiring, and humbling deep space images, but this look inside the heart of our very own galaxy has left me without superlatives. Zoom in to get the 2820×1409 pixel image, and see how it was made. https://gizmodo.com/hubba-hubba-hubble-desktop-backgrounds-5226294 This new six-by-three-foot multi-wavelength image combines three visions of the Milky Way’s center: A … Continued
It may not overheat in the presence of bread, but this pop-up book has the most accurate paper Large Hadron Collider ever. Figures that a book would make ending the world by firing that bad boy up look fun. https://gizmodo.com/large-hadron-collider-overheats-due-to-dropped-chunk-of-5397970 The book’s called Voyage To The Heart Of Matter – The Atlas Experiment At CERN … Continued
A five-year study shows that exposure to bisphenol A, a commonly used plastics additive, increases the risk of erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems. This study surveyed factory workers who face high levels of exposure, but further research is coming. Since the levels of exposure faced by the factory workers are about fifty times that … Continued
