CATEGORIES

Storm Kings

Creating fearsome weather, indoors.

Born [Not] To Run

Police Cruisers And Getaway Cars Are Racing Toward An Unknown Future.

How To Get Ready For Hurricanes, Tsunamis, Floods, and Earthquakes

Seismologist Lucy Jones is on a crusade to prepare us—and our infrastructure—for the next Big One.

The Winding, Heated, And Absurdly Technical Oral History Of The Ginger Emoji

In November 2014, a tech-industry consortium announced a new set of emoji that would diversify the physical appearance of the pictograms.EMMA KELLY, editor and founder of the site Ginger Parrot: I checked and saw that redheads were just not on there. I wondered, has no one brought this up? Is there no one at Apple with red hair? Has everyone forgotten about Ed Sheeran?

Save Your Soles

YOU PROBABLY DON’T WANT TO WEAR THAT PAIR OF BLOWN out Converse All-Stars to amble anywhere farther than the corner store. For long treks, the proper footwear will support your dogs and grip the ground to prevent sore soles, painful blisters, and mangled ankles. These four choices will carry you for many miles over different types of terra firma.

Getting There

Public transportation is great—if you have access to it. Now cities are starting to think about how to help people with the first and last miles of their travels.

How To Create A Robot Icon

Engineers built seven versions of BB- 8 for filming, plus one for red carpet events.

Bitcoin: The Future Of Money

Currency has gone from cows to coins to paper to plastic. The next big disruption? We could all be spending digital dough. 

Designing The Robot Next Door

When you spend time, money and emotional capital providing care, you don’t have to go it alone.

Everyone Will Be A Gamer in the Future

Keep struggling with the same issues? Charlotte Haigh MacNeil explains how to break free.

Are We Ready for Designer Babies?

Did you get enough shut-eye last night? With insomnia on the rise, the answer is probably ‘no’. But what exactly is keeping you awake? Anna Pointer finds out.

Want To Live Forever? Science Takes On Aging

Want more birthdays? Science can help.  

How ISIS Is Taking War to Social Media

ISIS goes viral - and the world fights back.

Edward Snowden: The Internet Is Broken

Edward Snowden on our digital naiveté.

How to Re-Create the First Intercontinental Weapon

DIY-history columnist William Gurstelle gives bygone weapons a modern spin.

Welcome To Drone-kota

A cottage industry wants to put North Dakota on the map.

Your Next Vacation Could Be To 100,000 Feet

Your next vacation could be to 100,000 feet - Balloons like this one will tow a capsule that has seating for six passengers and...a bar.

The Race To Build The Hyperloop

Elon Musk proposed a ridiculously audacious form of transportation. Now, startups are racing to bring the hyperloop to life.

Mission Europa - Jupiter Or Bust

Jupiter's ocean-filled moon might hold the life we've long searched for in space. And scientists have one shot to reach it.

Let's Talk About Martians

We found the perfect excuse to geek out on exploring Mars - in science fiction and real life. And we invited the director of The Martian to join us.

Where The Buffalo No Longer

DESPITE WHAT SEEMS LIKE A CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY, OUR NATIONAL MAMMAL MIGHT STILL BE AT RISK.

Rise Of The Plastic Eaters

Scientists have new hope that nature might hold a solution for our most problematic polymers

The Incredible! Shrinking! Airplane!

Jets are getting bigger, yet, inch by inch, our personal space dwindles. How the %*#+ does that work?

Shamu Dreams Of Europa

The microscope that could look for life on Jupiter’s moon.

​​​​​​​Dirty Little Secret

Meet the wee, multilegged chefs behind the world’s most sought-after loaves.

Looking Sharp

WHEN SETI RESEARCHER FRANCK MARCHIS WAS A KID IN France, he looked at Saturn for the first time through a telescope and saw the planet magnified from a speck in the night sky to a beautifully ringed orb.

The Incredible! Shrinking! Airplane!

Jets are getting bigger, yet, inch by inch, our personal space dwindles. How the %*#+ does that work?

How A Sand Scientist Helped Win World War II

A tale of innovation, war, and glory.

Temple Of Boom

An aggressively powerful car stereo can literally blow your hair back if you feed it a tune with enough thumping bass. But cranking the volume on a cheap set of Craigslist subwoofers risks eardrum- assaulting distortion. A custom setup based on these components will shake the ground under your tires while preserving the essence of the new Post Malone (or the old Public Enemy).

Snaking Transit Through Ancient History

In Profile / Rossella Rea.