NYC is an exciting tourist destination (and also home to many, many people). It’s a wonderful city. But one of its few downsides is the difficulty of finding a public restroom on the go. Locals may know where the best NYC bathroom gems are hidden, but even for a seasoned New Yorker, bathrooms can be difficult to find, so we can’t imagine what tourists experience. Some might say you need an NYC bathroom map to find your way…

And now you can have one! NYC has introduced a new bathroom map to help everyone find salvation. This bathroom map is actually a Google map layer that shows all public restrooms across the five boroughs. The map includes bathrooms located in libraries, parks, shopping centers, and more. Don’t go to NYC without it.

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The argument over the use of generative AI, in which a program aggregates from sources across the globe to create something like text, videos, images, etc., is hot these days. Should production companies use it to cut some corners? Is the product actually inferior? (Yes, it is.) And why do CEOs seem intent on using it, no matter what? Well the final question has been a big one, and producer Chris Miller has responded. Beyond the Spider-Verse will not employ any generative AI.

IndieWire reported on May 30 that Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra told investors that the studio was “looking at ways to produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily.” Obviously, this made people scared, especially for movies like the third Spider-Verse. Those movies, which have gorgeous visuals, are difficult to make. Would this mean Sony would push to use generative AI for “efficiency” sake? Chris Miller had something to say about this, which we first saw on Gamespot.

Miller responded on Twitter: “There is no generative AI in Beyond the Spider-Verse and there never will be. One of the main goals of the films is to create new visual styles that have never been seen in a studio CG film, not steal the generic plagiarized average of other artists’ work.”

It’s worth noting that the Spider-Verse movies have used AI programs, but not generative AI. They instead incorporated ethical and smart-use machine learning to eliminate repetitive tasks and help the artists better adhere to 3D geometry.

Per the effects supervisor Pav Grochola, “We determined that in order to speed up artists’ productivity over the course of the project, we would utilize machine learning to help our animators get an initial predicted result that would give them a reasonable first pass of creating ink lines on the characters.”

We’re not going to see an end to the AI debate in film and TV for some time. As a tool, machine learning can help artists achieve the desired result more quickly. But generative AI undermines the work of hundreds of real humans, not to mention all the people whose work the machine samples. And so far at least, people can tell the difference.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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I did a cursory check and 100% of people stream music. It’s everyone, in the whole world. Remember when people used to buy music, as a society? Now rather than pay for albums, or even songs, they liked, most people use one of a small number of music streaming platforms for everything. But nothing’s for free, especially if you don’t want your listening interrupted by ads. Spotify, maybe the biggest of the bunch, announced on Monday that all of its premium subscriptions prices will go up.

In the article by The Hollywood Reporter, Spotify’s individual plan will go up $1 per month to $11.99, the duo plan rising by $2 per month to $16.99, the family plan rising by $3 per month to $19.99. The student plan, which is offered at a discount to verified students, remains at $5.99. All of this will go into effect immediately for new subscribers and on the next billing cycle for existing.

This is just the latest hike for a streaming service, all of which—video and audio alike—have been skyrocketing as streaming media becomes the norm. Still, Spotify has all the music, so, pros and cons, ya know?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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It’s always sad to write an obituary, and it’s extra sad when the recipient is an adorable creature. But sadly, Kabosu, the dog who was the face of the Doge meme, has died, or as we prefer to say, crossed the rainbow bridge. For a while, Kabosu’s adorable Shiba Inu likeness was everywhere. Thanks to the Doge meme, the dog celebrated much fame.

While the Doge meme was used for all manner of purposes, happily, Kabosu seemed like one well-loved dog that was not concerned with any of that. Whether we knew the pup behind the meme or not, Kabuso’s face likely made it into our lives. And so we feel sad to know the Doge meme dog has died.

Kabuso’s owner shares, “Thank you all so much for loving Kabosu all these years. I am certain that Kabosu was the happiest dog in the world. That makes me the happiest owner in the world. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to everyone who has sent us much love to us.” Honestly, that sounds like the best outcome from the Doge meme to us. Aside from being known for the Doge meme, Kabuso was a rescue dog and very beloved. Hundreds of thousands of people followed her life.

We hope that Kabuso rests well beyond the rainbow, knowing that she truly made an impact. But if you still need to cheer up after this news, you can check out some other adorable creatures here.

The post Kabosu, The Doge Meme Dog, Sadly Dies at 18 appeared first on Nerdist.

For a minute, there was a mad rush to find Twitter substitutes. Facebook’s Threads eventually became the prevailing choice, although imperfect. But Bluesky remains in the game as well. And now it has added a very important feature that may make users consider giving this social media platform another shot. Bluesky revealed that it now officially has DMs. Bluesky notes that you can “Update to the latest version of the app (1.83) or refresh on desktop to start chatting!”

This is very exciting news for users still looking for a new home for their fleeting thoughts. Bluesky additionally shares that it’s still working on adding images via messaging and group chats. But hey, it’s a start.

With the new DM ability and the recent update that allows Bluesky users to share gifs, we’re not counting out this platform yet.

The post Bluesky Officially Adds DMs (And GIFs are Also Now Available on the Platform) appeared first on Nerdist.

The long-discussed TikTok “ban” just took a big legal step towards becoming a reality. It also took a big step towards a courtroom. The recently passed bipartisan national security bill signed into law by President Biden included legislation forcing TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform lest it be banned in the U.S. entirely. But don’t worry about losing access to the site’s videos just yet. The company says it will go to court to have the law overturned.

And, despite some reports that ByteDance is considering selling to some degree, a Variety report confirms that the company affirms will not sell TikTok.

The recent $95 billion dollar national security bill that provided funds to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan also included a piece of legislation called Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The portion of the bill “prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application.” If there were any questions who this bill is specifically targeting it only cites TikTok and ByteDance by name.

The given reason by politicians for the law’s inclusion in the larger bill is one of national security. Despite only a small amount of evidence the Chinese-based ByteDance has ever done so, officials believe the company is following a Chinese law that requires TikTok to sharing private user data with the Chinese government. Meanwhile others have also noted TikTok is a natural rival of Facebook, which has previously spent big dollars lobbying congress to take action against TikTok.

The legislation gives the company nine months to sell TikTok. President Biden can also extend them 30 more days to find a buyer. If ByteDance doesn’t sell the social media platform TikTok will be officially banned in the United States. Before any of that happens though the legality of the bill will head before a judge. ByteDance had previously said it intended to sue the government and has now done so, claiming the ban to be unconstitutional. TikTok shares:

Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet. For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.

How long will that take for this case to make its way into a courtroom? We don’t know. But for at least nine months we have a pretty good idea where you’ll find lots of video updates about its status on the court’s docket.

Originally published April 24, 2024.

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Uh-oh. Do you use an ad blocker? You probably do. But if you also like to use YouTube, you may soon have to turn off that handy dandy ad skipper. YouTube is starting to take a hard line against ad blocker usage on its interface, using its own version of tactics other websites employ. Instead of blocking you from viewing page content if you’re using an ad blocker, YouTube could soon block you from viewing its videos. Ads, it seems are at the center of every conversation right now.

YouTube’s Ad Blocker Crackdown Is Ramping Up

As we saw on The Verge, in June 2023, YouTube was running “a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.” This experiment entails warning users that they may no longer be able to watch videos on YouTube if they don’t disable ad blockers. If an ad blocker is active, users will be able to watch only three videos on YouTube before the platform stops letting them watch any more. And, as of October 2023, it seems like this test has been ramped up in scope, with many users suddenly receiving the ad blocker warning.

Gizmodo reports that, initially, warnings against ad-blocker usage on YouTube could be immediately closed or closed after a brief period of time had elapsed. But now, when a user receives these YouTube pop-ups, they cannot close out of them and continue to view videos on Youtube unless the ad-blocker is disabled.

YouTube’s Anti-Ad Block Efforts Come to Mobile

YouTube has officially noted that it’s “strengthening…enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.” and further shares:

Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error “The following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch a video. We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service.

YouTube warns that third-party apps found blocking ads for users will lose access to YouTube’s API.

YouTube and Google’s Perspective

Google spokesperson Oluwa Falodun shared with The Verge, “We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube… In cases when viewers feel they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker, they can share this feedback by clicking on the link in the prompt.”

Additionally, YouTube communications manager Christopher Lawton noted that using an ad-blocker violates YouTube’s terms of service.

Of course, YouTube taking a stance against ad blockers is one we might have seen coming. One of the perks of YouTube’s paid version, YouTube Premium, is an ad-free experience. If users can get an ad-free experience anyway, they may not be as incentivized to sign up. The company shares, “YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads.” There is, however, the fact that YouTube Premium costs $13.99/month, which is no small price to pay, especially as other streaming platforms become more expensive and complex to navigate.

YouTube shares finally, “We want to inform viewers that ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and make it easier for them to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.” We imagine that is indeed what the platform wants.

Originally published on June 29, 2023.

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Did the genius of one Walt Disney Imagineer just bring us one step closer to Star Trek’s holodeck? Well, not quite. But we’re getting pretty close. Thanks to Kotaku, we’ve learned that celebrated Imagineer Lanny Smoot, recently inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, has created something called a “HoloTile.” So what does this HoloTile do exactly? As seen in the video from the Walt Disney Company below, this HoloTile is an omnidirectional treadmill-like floor. One that multiple people can use at the same time. And it can simulate a virtual reality space better than anything else ever made to date.

What makes the HoloTiles work is essentially a flat layer of small, circular rollers. They have the ability to move and rotate around while people walk on them while automatically adjusting to different walking speeds and directions. Yet the users never move more than mere inches from the HoloTile floor. With a proper VR headset, you’re looking at a rudimentary version of Star Trek’s holodeck come to life. This all seemed like pure science fiction back in 1987 when Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired. But now, it’s almost a reality. Hopefully, it doesn’t malfunction as much as the one on Star Trek.

Since the creative geniuses at Disney Imagineering are the people developing this technology, expect it to appear in a Disney theme park before anywhere else in the world. It’s wild to think that in just a few years, folks might be able to walk around on Coruscant or Dagobah while having fun in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Although we admit, it will be a bit weird if a holodeck appears first in a Star Wars land in a theme park and not one themed to Star Trek. Someone out there needs to make a Star Trek theme park now.

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You know how we all have those movies we’ve seen roughly 8,000 times on basic cable despite the fact they’re not anything special? Well one of mine is 2004’s I, Robot starring Will Smith. It’s not bad, and it’s not great, it’s just a totally fine film. A totally fine film I just happen to know every word of for no good reason. At least there was no good reason until now. All those viewing could finally pay off because I’ll know how to handle a potential problem mankind might soon face. BMW is now testing all-purpose humanoid robots at a plant in South Carolina, and these creepy machines look like they came right out of a sci-fi horror film.

California-based AI robotics company Figure has announced a new commercial agreement with BMW Manufacturing. The company’s autonomous humanoid robots are heading to BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina manufacturing facility. The partnership (which we first learned about at The Verge) will see the futuristic/dystopian machines “enable the automation of difficult, unsafe, or tedious tasks throughout the manufacturing process.” In their press release the companies say these robots will allow “employees to focus on skills and processes that cannot be automated, as well as continuous improvement in production efficiency and safety.”

Sure. Minus all the human jobs these robots could potentially replace, this sounds great for workers. Yeah….

The arrangement includes a multi-stage rollout. Phase one will see Figure identifying “initial use cases to apply” its robots in the automotive production process. Only then will the machines be used at the BMC facility. The two companies also have plans to “jointly explore advanced technology topics such as artificial intelligence, robot control, manufacturing virtualization, and robot integration.”

And I have plans to watch I, Robot again. Not because I actually fear a robot uprising. AI is not actually a threat to us at this point and almost certainly not anytime soon. No, I will watch it again just in case. I’d hate for humanity to end because I needed to see it for the 8,001 time.

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How many of us have cracked our phone screens from merely the slightest drop? It’s a frustrating experience to be sure. But one iPhone fell and hit the ground from a staggering 16,000-foot drop from an airplane, and the screen didn’t even crack. The phone was from Alaska Airlines flight 1282, which had to make an emergency landing on Friday, January 5 when taking off from Portland, Oregon. For still unknown reasons, a door plug detached, resulting in various items sucked out of the plane. Among them were two phones. Someone who just happened upon while taking a walk in Portland discovered one phone, and then posted the images to social media.

Sean Bates, the person who found the resilient phone, said, “Found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for Alaska Airlines ASA1282. Survived a 16,000-foot drop perfectly intact!” So just how does an iPhone make it to the ground with barely a scratch on it? According to The Verge, this phone could stay intact thanks to it reaching maximum speed before hitting the surface. The ground it crashed into was able to disperse most of the impact. Physics, everyone!

No word yet on whether the original owner has their phone back already. We’d put that phone on display if it ever came back into our hands, that’s for sure. It’s like a tiny piece of history. So what about the other phone that fell out of the plane? We know someone found it, but so far, that’s all we know. Meanwhile, they discovered the plug door in someone’s yard. In the end, we’re just glad that no one, both in the plane and on the ground, wound up hurt.

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History is full of painters, architects, and sculptors, but there have always been, and always will be, countless methods any artist can use to express themselves. From scrap metal and ceramics, to animation and crafts, there are no limits on what material can be turned into something special. But we can’t think of any artists who utilize the same item as Japan’s Kiwamu Miyakubo. His art requires something both dangerous and fleeting. He’s a “flame artist” who wields swords of fire to make majestic kinetic performances.

“Flame artist” sounds like a terrific ironic name for a pyro-loving comic book villain. Kiwamu “Ken” Miyakubo is anything but. Whether indoors or outdoors, he turns literal flames from a special sword into videos and live performances that capture the beauty and power of fire.

At his website Kiwamu explained where his love for fire comes from:

Unable to forget the beauty of the flickering flames he saw when he was young, he pursues the ability to manipulate flames using the knowledge and skills he gained on the other side of the sea. He makes full use of the tools he created to express everything from flashy flames with sparks and explosions to small flames flickering in a 6-tatami room. Expressing the ephemerality and strength of flame, it leaves an impression on those who see it.

These are mesmerizing to watch on our computer screen. We can only imagine what it’s like to see him in person. You can do that whevern you like, too. He takes bookings to perform what he calls a “flame dance.” Those performances last anywhere from three to 30 minutes. (Don’t worry about having him at an indoor show. He uses a “special fuel that has almost no smoke or odor, so it won’t pollute the room.” And “if flames are not available, juggling and LED shows can also be used.”)

He also offers what he calls “technical cooperation” for those looking to dazzle a group. He will help set up a performance “using flames and other elements for video and photographic works.”

He also sells a “fire katana” for budding flame artists.

That might be a rare occupation now, but we expect more of them after people see Miyakubo perform.

The post ‘Flame Artist’ Turns Fire into Kinetic Works of Art appeared first on Nerdist.

Isn’t that what we always dreamed of? Apple’s first new major device in nearly ten years is a new AR or mixed reality headset called “Apple Vision Pro.” This new device is “a revolutionary spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others.” It sounds like a bit of a headache to us, but on the plus side, it does let you look like a futuristic beetle. Guilty as charged, our eyes are already glued to our iPhone’s much of the time, but we’re not sure if having those capabilities literally on our eyes will hinder or hurt. Here’s Apple’s introductory video for AR headset. Apple released the device as part of WWDC23 and has most recently confirmed the release date for this piece of technology. Here’s what the Apple Vision Pro can do.

What Is Apple Vision Pro?

According to Apple, Vision Pro “creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice.” And has visionOS, “the world’s first spatial operating system.” The company shares that this will bring digital content into the real world in a whole new way. Apparently it will make digital content look and feel more like it is present in actual reality. But don’t worry, if someone approaches, the device will become transparent—allowing you to interact with the real world if that’s what you want.

Fun with This AR Headset

Among other things, VisionPro also also gives you infinite screen real estate, which, again, sounds vaguely like a threat, and brings all your favorite apps to life around you to allow for even more productivity…

The Vision Pro will also have space for fun, though. The product’s description shares:

With two ultra-high-resolution displays, Apple Vision Pro can transform any space into a personal movie theater with a screen that feels 100 feet wide and an advanced Spatial Audio system. Users can watch movies and TV shows, or enjoy stunning three-dimensional movies. Apple Immersive Video offers 180-degree high-resolution recordings with Spatial Audio, and users can access an exciting lineup of immersive videos that transport them to entirely new places.

Over 100 Apple Arcade games will be available to play on the Vision Pro at launch. And the Disney+ app will be available on Apple Vision Pro from “Day One.” It looks like there will be some new capabilities on the Vision Pro, such as watching games from different angles and learning more information about the content viewed while watching. Users will also be able to access their photos via the Vision Pro and view them at life-size scale. We do smell a Black Mirror episode coming. But we can’t help but wonder will Din Grogu look even cuter via this device?

3D Disney Movies and More

Let’s dig a little deeper into the Disney+ and movie-watching capabilities of the Apple Vision Pro. New information reveals that users will be able to access 3D Disney+ movies at home via the AR headset. A release notes:

Disney’s storytelling will also leap off the screen like never before with remarkable depth and clarity for an unprecedented in-home 3D experience on Disney+ with Apple Vision Pro. Viewers will be able to watch dozens of popular movies in 3D, like Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Elemental, and Encanto. More titles, including those available exclusively to Disney+ subscribers, will be announced at a later date. Apple Vision Pro users can also rent or purchase most 3D movies through the Store tab in the Apple TV app. Users who previously purchased Disney movies that include 3D versions from the Apple TV app will be able to access those 3D versions on Apple Vision Pro at no additional cost.

For those looking for a little extra, Disney shares that “at launch, viewers can transform their space into one of four Disney+ environments, bringing them even closer to the story. Each environment includes animations and sounds that make the space feel alive, and Easter eggs from films and franchises that will surprise and delight fans.”

These environments include:

• The Disney+ Theater, inspired by the historic El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood
• The Scare Floor from Pixar’s Monsters Inc.
• Marvel’s Avengers Tower overlooking downtown Manhattan
• The cockpit of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, facing a binary sunset on the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.

Additionally, Variety reveals that you can rent or purchase non-Disney 3D movies for the Apple Vision Pro via the Apple TV app. Titles mentioned include Dune, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. At launch, there will be more than 150 3D movies available for at-home viewing.

When Will Apple Vision Pro Release and What Does It Cost?

Apple Vision Pro officially has a release date. Apple has revealed that pre-orders for the device will begin on January 19, 2024. The Apple Vision Pro itself will release on February 2, 2024. But make sure you read all the details… especially those concerning the price tag. If you want Apple Vision Pro, the new device will begin at $3,499. But can you really put a price on forgetting reality exists?

Originally published on June 5, 2023.

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Superman made his debut in the pages of 1938’s Action Comics #1. Since then countless actors have brought the character to life on screen. Which live-action iteration of the Man of Steel is our favorite? George Reeves? Christopher Reeve? Brandon Routh? Henry Cavill? One of the many other performers who have played him? It’s almost impossible to pick just one as the best. But it’s not hard to name our top choice when it comes Kal-Els who have actually flown in the real world. The internet is rediscovering the joy of RC Superman, a moppy-haired remote-controlled recreation of the iconic superhero.

Chris Wolf, who goes by the online handle The RC Geek, recently celebrated his delightful 2015 device by uploading a new short YouTube video of his model RC Superman. (Which we first saw at Laughing Squid.)

His super remote-controlled device made its debut at the 2015 PVMAC Big Jolt all-electric RC event. It featured a body that looked like a blue and red model airplane up-close. (Well, a model airplane that had a head with floppy black hair for a nose.) But the real genius of his flying contraption is best appreciated when it’s actually being used. His design made it so that when RC Superman took to the sky, it captured the look and feel of the “real” Man of Steel.

This machine is fantastic unto itself. If we saw it in-person our brains would short circuit until we figured out what was going on. But seeing it soar high in the air in this latest video is its own reward. It features John Williams’ iconic Superman theme. That song makes this footage something special. It’s strangely captivating, as though, for just a brief moment, Clark Kent is real and here to protect us.

The song really does matter, too. Just compare the new video to the original longer one that doesn’t use Williams’ song.

It’s not a bird. It’s not a plane. And it’s not even actually Superman. But it’s still something that is bringing us joy after all these years—just like Superman himself has since 1938.

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In late 2024, NASA is sending a very special machine to the Moon’s South Pole under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. VIPER is the space agency’s first-ever robotic Moon rover. It’s going to spend 100 days traveling many miles across our closest celestial neighbor’s surface. VIPER’s mission will include visiting some of the coldest, darkest places in our solar system. The rover will also sample different kinds of lunar soils and environments. Plus it will also be the first rover to ever measure “the location and concentration of water ice and other resources.” It’s an amazing device embarking on an incredible journey. And if that’s not enough, it’s also going to deliver your name to our cosmic partner. NASA is letting you send your name to the Moon.

In 2020, NASA let denizens of Earth send their names to Mars via a rover. We now have a chance to do that again with the Moon thanks to VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover). Anyone can have their name included on the Moon rover.

All you have to do to be a small part of this mission is fill out a boarding pass. When you do NASA will generate a digital ticket so you can commemorate your part in the mission. You have until 11:59 p.m. EST on March 15 to sign up. Make sure you do so you can travel alongside your favorite website.

“With VIPER, we are going to study and explore parts of the Moon’s surface no one has ever been to before – and with this campaign, we are inviting the world to be part of that risky yet rewarding journey,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a press release. “Just think: Our names will ride along as VIPER navigates across the rugged terrain of the lunar South Pole and gathers valuable data that will help us better understand the history of the Moon and the environment where we plan to send Artemis astronauts.”

That’s right. We’re all going to the dark side of the Moon. Someone make sure Pink Floyd fills out a boarding pass. It won’t be right if we go to the moon without the band.

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These Pokémon keyboards from Higround are not your average keyboards. These are a true Pokémon Master’s keyboards. Not only will they take your typing or gaming to its most evolved form, but there are three different kinds of keyboards in six epic designs just waiting for you to catch ’em all. And that’s not including the five mousepads and one jellybag also available. The Pokémon keyboards are rare, and they’re shiny. They’re just begging to get into your Pokécart. But we feel like they’re going to vanish quicker than you can recite the Pokérap. So get your fingers ready, here’s how you can get your hands on these Pokémon keyboards.

Higround x Pokémon Collaboration

We’re sure there’s a lot about Higround’s Pokémon keyboards that help them achieve the “perfect balance between gaming and creative pursuits.” But, our main takeaway is these keyboards just look really cool. In addition to the Pokémon drop, Higround has several other fun nerdy collaborations in the works. But, we have to say this seems like the best one yet. The available designs include Poké Ball, Poké Ball Sticker (which features several different Poké Balls), Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, and Mewtwo. Basically, Higround wants you to know it’s not messing around with its Pokémon keyboards. None of that adorable starter nonsense other collaborations feature. No, Higround is going right for the big guns. And the design laid out across the many keys of the keyboard really works.

Available Designs

You can take a look at all the available Pokémon Higround designs below.

Click To View Gallery

For those wanting to know more about the styles of these Pokémon keyboards, Higround shares the Basecamp 65 keyboard features “ABS Plastic Frame, Pre-Lubed Switches, Dual Silicone Dampening.” Meanwhile, Summit 65 Keyboards include “CNC Aluminum Case, Gasket Mount Design, Screw-In Stabilizers, World’s First Graphic Mechanical Switch.” And finally, the Performance Collection features “The keys to taking your gaming to the next level. All the available Pokémon keyboards come with 68 keys because “68 key is the superior 65% layout. It’s everything you need in the most compact form factor.” Fair enough!

In addition to the keyboards, you can get Pokémon mousepads and a fun jellybag in Gengar purple. Who can resist that? (Yes, this seems to be a bag made out of jelly sandal-like material.)

When Will the Higround Pokémon Keyboards Release and How Much Will They Cost?

Based on past drops the Pokémon keyboard collection will cost between $150-$300. The mousepads and jellybag will likely be in the $40-$50 range. But get yourself ready. This Pokémon x Higround keyboard collection releases on December 8 at 12 PM PT/3 PM ET via Higround’s special collection website. If Pokémon‘s Van Gogh collection mayhem was anything to go by, these will go quick.

The post These POKÉMON Keyboards Will Evolve Your Typing Powers appeared first on Nerdist.

I know the old saying “money can’t buy happiness,” but I’m not so sure about that. It’s true money can’t buy certain things that bring me joy. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t pay for lots of stuff that does, though. And you know what would make me very happy after a lifetime of watching sci-fi movies and TV shows like Aliens and Gundam? Owning my very own operational mecha suit, that’s what. Do you have any idea how much I’d like that? Of course you do! It would bring you tremendous pleasure, as well. Now back to the original problem: that giant mecha source of happiness costs three million dollars.

The “transformable” ARCHAX robot from Tokyo’s Tsubame Industries makes science fiction an engineering reality. The machine (which we first heard about at Kotaku) stands more than 14.7-feet tall and weighs an imposing 3.5-tons. It’s impressive as a piece of art, except this is no stationary device. It has two working modes, as it can go from upright robot mode to vehicle mode when a pilot climbs into the steel cockpit inside the four-wheeled device’s chest.

From there the operator can use a joystick and foot pedals to make it go. Pilots can move the robot’s articulated arms and hands, which is when it really comes alive. (Good luck watching that video and not geeking out.) ARCHAX can only get up to six miles-per-hour but, considering its weight, that’s really best for literally everyone.

The air-conditioned cockpit also comes equipped with four monitors attached to nine cameras. They provide a live look at your surroundings, that way you can safely show off your pricey mecha suit to friends and also keep an eye out for rogue Xenomorphs. Honestly, even a monster alien would find this impressive. They might even ask to use it. ARCHAX is somehow even cooler than it sounds.

You and your fellow super wealthy friends can pre-order your ARCHAX now. For three million dollars you’ll also get to choose from one of six colors: Sapphire Blue, Pearl White, Spark Red, Atlantis Green, and Midnight Purple.

No matter the color you opt for, I hope yours brings you much joy. For the record, it would make me feel very good to take your mecha suit out for a test drive if you buy it for three million dollars. Your money can certainly buy me happiness.

The post Grab This Giant Working Mecha Suit for Only $3 Million appeared first on Nerdist.

Recently, we learned that a newly discovered type of snake was named after Indiana Jones. Well, after the actor who portrayed him. Now, we’ve got that topped. Because that’s just one snake after all. Thanks to the folks at Gizmodo, we’ve learned that Brazilian scientists from the Emilio Goeldi Paraense Museum have found three new species of spiders, which they are naming after the “Big Three” of Enterprise bridge crews from Star Trek—Captain James T. Kirk, Mister Spock, and Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy. The spiders belong to the Roddenberry genus, which is of course named after Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry.

The scientists discovered these spiders across different locations in Latin America. They found R. kirk in Costa Rica, while they discovered R. spock in Campeche, Mexico, and R. mccoy in Big California Sur, also in Mexico. Co-authors Alexander Sánchez-Ruiz and Alexandre B. Bonaldo identified both a male and female specimen of the spider R. kirk. However, they only discovered a female R. spock and male R. mccoy. Unlike Indiana Jones, they named these spiders after the characters, not the actors. So no R. shatner or R. nimoy in this bunch, sadly.

The original Star Trek series inspired researchers after noticing how the arachnid anatomy resembled that of various starships seen in the iconic franchise. We’re not really sure we see that ourselves at all. Maybe the Enterprise saucer section a bit? But we guess they kind of look like some Klingon ships we’ve seen in the series. We bet these scientists were just super big Star Trek fans, and wanted to immortalize their favorite characters for eternity. We can’t say we blame them. Hey, maybe they discover some new species as time goes on, and we got a few spiders with names like R. uhura, R. sulu, R. scotty, and R. chekov. Get the whole Enterprise bridge crew their own arachnid counterparts.

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It’s official, after over 10 years of the distinctive flat edge, Apple is getting rid of its Lightning cable for iPhones, beginning with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. That’s right, after forcing everyone and their mother to buy Lightning cables since 2012, Apple is finally swapping over to a more universal cord and port for its iPhone products, the USB-C. I guess we must all evolve at some point, even the iPhone. This means that Apple and Android users will finally be charging their phones on the same port. Additionally, Apple is gearing up its iPhone to become a gaming device, one that can play full games like Resident Evil 4.

In discussing the change from the Lightning cable-powered iPhone to the USB-C-powered one, Apple touts the benefits this iPhone 15 evolution will bring to users. In a release, the company shares, “The new USB‑C connector is supercharged with USB 3 speeds—up to 20x faster than USB 2—and together with new video formats, enables powerful pro workflows that were not possible before.” Of course, it doesn’t note the European Union mandate that all phones sold in the region, including iPhones, have USB-C capabilities by December 2024. This mandate stipulates that a standard USB-C charging port for phones will be good for consumers and the environment. And that seems true.

Who among us has not at some point found ourselves stranded without a Lightning cable at the most inopportune moments? Hopefully, this shift from the Lightning port to USB-C port on the iPhone 15 will make a positive change. Given that Apple Watches, Macbooks, and iPads already use USB-C ports, we don’t expect too many complaints about this final sunsetting of the Lightning cord.

In addition, Apple’s updated AirPods Pro (2nd generation) will also swap lightning to USB-C. And new iPhone 15s will allow users to “charge AirPods or Apple Watch[es] directly from iPhone with the USB‑C connector.”

In addition to amending its port, Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro is bringing with it updated gaming capabilities. A release shares, “iPhone 15 Pro brings true-to-life gaming to the palm of users’ hands with console titles never before seen on a smartphone, like Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage.” These AAA titles will not be mobile versions of the games but a full, playable rendition. According to IGN, the iPhone 15 Pro will run at 30 frames per second. Additionally, games purchased for phones can variously run on newer iPads and Macs. Finally, GameSpot shares that the Backbone controller, which lets you transform your phone into a handheld console for games, will soon work with iPhones as well as Androids.

The Lightning-less, USB-C and gaming-friendly Apple iPhone 15 and 15 Pro will be released on September 22. As a final note for heavy photo-takers, the 15 Pro will have a version that offers 1 TB of storage.

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In May, Sony announced Project Q, a PS5 handheld gaming device, at its PlayStation showcase. Now called the PlayStation Portal, this “remote play dedicated device” has a release window and a price tag… And also some limitations. Here’s what we know about the PlayStation Portal.

Firstly, what is the PlayStation Portal, and what does it cost? A release from PlayStation shares more. It notes, the “PlayStation Portal remote player brings the PS5 experience to the palm of your hand. It includes the key features of the DualSense wireless controller, including adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. The vibrant 8-inch LCD screen is capable of 1080p resolution at 60fps, providing a high definition visual experience that’s expected from the high-quality games created by world-class developers.” The PlayStation Portal costs $199.

Basically, the PlayStation Portal is a portable device you can use to play all your PS5 favorite games. Sony suggests you can use it in cases where your TV screen is otherwise occupied… Or if you just want to visit a different room than your console. If you want to play PS5 games in your bed, it sounds convenient. The PlayStation Portal remote device will let you play your PS5 games using Wi-Fi, but you do need to connect to your actual PS5 to do so. It will essentially mirror your PS5.

But without Wi-Fi, you won’t be able to use this device. Much to the disappointment of fans, the PlayStation Portal itself does not have 5G capabilities. It will also not stream games from PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud. Sony notes, “Games that require a VR headset (PlayStation VR or PlayStation VR2) or additional peripherals (other than a DUALSHOCK 4, DualSense, or DualSense Edge wireless controller) are not compatible. Games that must be streamed on PS5 using a PS Plus Premium membership are not compatible.”

Additionally, the Portal device does not have Bluetooth capabilities. Not even Sony’s PlayStation Pulse 3D headset will work with it. In order to hear your audio, you’re going to need wired headphones, Sony’s new Pulse Elite wireless headset, or its Pulse Explore wireless earbuds. These new Pulse products will use Sony’s “new wireless audio technology, PlayStation Link” to function.

The PlayStation Portal will release this year. If you want a slightly more portable way to play your PS5 games, it could be a good deal for you.

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Everyone has a streaming service these days. From Max to Peacock, there are a zillion services to sign up for and just as many things to watch. And streaming services are almost constantly in the news for price hikes and new restrictions, like ad-supported tiers. But we never thought we’d see the day where there is a NASA streaming service. Readers, that day is coming really soon. NASA announced that it will launch a streaming service called NASA+. Unlike many other streaming services, NASA+ will be free of cost and ads, which is awesome because we love to not spend money!

What Kind of Content Will Be on NASA+?

That’s a great question. NASA+ will offer live event coverage (think rocket launches) as well as original video series. No, there will not be alien talk shows nor a continuous loop of Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar” playing. (Although we would love both of those things.) We don’t know any specifics about its upcoming content but the government agency is pretty stoked about this new offering. “We’re putting space on demand and at your fingertips with NASA’s new streaming platform,” said Marc Etkind, associate administrator at NASA. “Transforming our digital presence will help us better tell the stories of how NASA explores the unknown in air and space, inspires through discovery, and innovates for the benefit of humanity.”

It is all a part of NASA’s revamping strategy, which will include a fresh look to its website as well as the official app. There’s even a beta version of its website that you can browse right now.

How Can I Get NASA+ and What Is Its Release Date? 

NASA+ will be available in the NASA app (on iOS and Android) as well as Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, and on the internet. NASA’s new streaming service is set to arrive sometime in late 2023.

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We’ve reached a new evolution in food delivery thanks to Domino’s Pizza—and it’s one that makes sense. It’s not quite the instant replicator of our Star Trek dreams, but we have come a step closer to getting food to come to us wherever we are. Hopefully, a sci-fi machine is next, but in the meanwhile, Domino’s has taken the next logical step of the food delivery system. Now, thanks to its new “Pinpoint Delivery” system, Domino’s can deliver pizza to locations that don’t have real addresses, think the beach, the park, or the concert line. Here’s more about how this new Domino’s food delivery system works.

According to a release, customers can just “drop a pin on the map and get pizza delivered virtually anywhere.” Additionally:

With Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery, customers can receive their order at a countless number of dynamically created hyper-local spots without a typical address. Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery allows customers to track their order with Domino’s Tracker^®, see their driver’s GPS location, view an estimated time of arrival and receive text alerts about their delivery. Domino’s will also alert customers when their delivery expert arrives at the pickup spot, at which time they can activate a visual signal on their phone, which will help the driver spot them.

With our phones broadcasting our locations at nearly all times, this seems like the obvious next innovation in food delivery. We can’t always be home when we’re hungry. Of course, we assume the caveat is that a Domino’s location still needs to be in range in order for us to get our pizzas at ephemeral spots. Of course, we’ll also have to have steady phone service in the place we’re ordering from. And obviously, in crowded locations, this could create something of a difficulty at the point of hand-off. Hopefully, those ordering from the beach will think ahead and communicate their locations well. Additionally, cash payments do not function for Pinpoint Delivery, and you cannot change your location once you’ve input it.

Ultimately, this form of food delivery, where food is delivered to a specific point instead of a specific address, will likely need to be iterated. However, it does seem like it’s the natural direction for food delivery to go. Domino’s is pretty good at staying at the forefront of delivery innovation. And we feel certain we’ll see it used as a plot point in a movie sometime soon. Food can often take a leading role, after all.

Domino’s Pinpoint delivery system is now available at “nearly all” locations.

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There’s nothing more untimely than typing out an impassioned speech only to see autocorrect has changed your carefully chosen words into “duck” and “ducking.” Sure, it could bring a laugh in a tense situation. However, the gulf between the word you probably intended and “duck” is most likely large. Telling jokes is not really autocorrect’s purpose. While it may feel like Apple’s autocorrect is there to sanitize your speech, Apple sees the issue. The company will finally make sure the word “duck” will only appear when you’re alluding to the charming animal. If your intention is to swear, Apple’s latest autocorrect update for iPhones and the like will learn that about you and stop bringing out the duck.

Duck yeah, autocorrect! Craig Federighi, the Head of Apple’s Software Engineering, shared this evolution at WWDC 2023. He noted, “In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too.” This new version autocorrect will come to Apple’s products as part of the iOS 17 software update coming in September. Autocorrect will now function using artificial intelligence technology. It will better learn a user’s speech patterns, including when they’d like to swear instead of quack. Although, who knows, some of you may have just adopted “ducking” into your daily lives thanks to autocorrect.

In addition to making autocorrect more swear-friendly, the update will add other enhancements to the feature. Autocorrect will also receive “a refreshed design to better support typing, and sentence-level autocorrections can fix more types of grammatical mistakes. Users will now receive predictive text recommendations inline as they type, so adding entire words or completing sentences is as easy as tapping the space bar, making text entry faster than ever.”

Well, duck. We just hope we won’t start to see autocorrect adding swears in when we’re just trying to appreciate wildlife.

The post Apple’s Autocorrect Update Will Finally Let You Swear, It’s About Ducking Time! appeared first on Nerdist.

Science fiction is fun because physics and lack of technology aren’t constraints. You can create any building or vehicle you can imagine, no matter how big or fast. Just as important, though is that you don’t have to worry about tedious things like budgets or having enough building materials. And when you’re free to make anything you want, no matter how ludicrous, you can get really, really outrageous. But as this new starships size comparison video shows, even when you think you’ve dreamed up something so enormous it defies belief, someone else has made something even more ridiculous.

And that something is Ringworld.

The fantastic YouTube channel MetaBallStudios from Álvaro Gracia Montoya is back with another size comparison video, and this time we’re looking at more starships than we can count. Previously he’s shown us the difference in scope between fictional creatures and planets. But this latest size comparison video is an extra-long, updated version of different fictional starships. It might also be his most incredible video yet.

Starting with the tiny Hocotate ship from Pikmin, which stands less than a foot tall at 30 centimeters, this video takes us through some of the most famous star crafts in pop culture. Of which there are a lot. And every time you think, “Wow, that’s bigger than I realized,” like with an Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer from Star Wars, you realize how small a lot of these other starships are in the world of sci-fi.

It’s when you get to the Borg’s Cube that you first come to appreciate how gigantic some of these starships really are, we guess that’s where the size comparison comes in. Then they get bigger. And bigger. And bigger. Until you’re no longer talking about anything the human mind can even comprehend. Because it’s impossible to truly understand the enormity of our Sun. So how can anyone process the scope of Star Trek‘s Dyson Sphere?

And Ringworld easily surrounds that.

How big would a galaxy have to be to even have enough materials to build something that big? Forget defying physics; the coolest thing about fictional starships is defying resource limits. We wonder if, in a future iteration of this starships size comparison video, a ship will ever top Ringworld.

Originally published September 30, 2020.

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Pets bring so much joy to our lives. It’s hard to replicate in robotic pets, but companies keep trying. For those who are allergic or kids training for a real dog, robotic dogs have been on the market since 1999. The latest is called Dog-E and it comes with a million possible combinations of lights, eye shapes, and sounds. While that mostly includes pastel colors and shapes like hearts and stars, it still somehow looks unsettling. We’re not sure this is a snoot we want to boop.  

Dog-E certainly has some interesting traits though. Its tail conveys written messages through the same optical illusion used in those spinning wands that were popular in the 2010s. The 10-inch-tall pup has sensors that respond to being pet and a tongue that sticks out. Families can create their own profile with one Dog-E. The dog looks and acts differently based on who it’s interacting with. There are four options for the dog’s main personality: licky and loving, sweet and lazy, protective and hungry, or playful and energetic. If you want to add one to your family, it’s available for pre-order. It costs $80, with shipping expected in September 2023. 

Gizmodo reports that the E-Dog is just one of many headed to the market that were shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Robo-dogs aren’t the only colorful tech to come out of the convention, BMW also debuted their trippy E Ink concept car.

We’ve seen a lot of variety when it comes to robo-pets. In Japan, there’s stuffed animal robots that nip your fingers and dinosaurs that serve ice cream. One company has developed robotic dolphins intended to replace those in captivity in theme parks. And of course there’s the Boston Dyanimcs robo-dogs, some of which work for NASA. Or people who don’t own pets could simply head to the local dog park or cat café to make a new friend.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

The post Dog-E the Colorful Robot Dog Looks Friendly But Also Creepy appeared first on Nerdist.

As The Last of Us prepares to hit the small screen on HBO this month, Nerdist’s Kyle Anderson got to thinking about zombie apocalypses and which of our favorites from pop culture could actually happen. From I Am Legend to 28 Days Later, find out which of these viruses are the most scientifically possible on today’s episode of Nerdist Now!

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Blowing bubbles (and chasing after them) is a fun pastime that never gets old. That’s why those light-up bubble wands are everywhere. But who knew it could also be a winter sport? Thankfully, a few incredible photographers have taken gorgeous pictures and videos and clued us in to this freezing phenomenon. The bubbles look like a natural snow globe forming before our very eyes. And it’s as simple as using bubble solution in cold weather, or making your own mix of water, dish soap, and glycerin.

The video above, which we saw on Laughing Squid, shares macro photography of the soap bubbles as they ice over. The bubble with tiny snowflakes and fern-like ice coming together are undeniably beautiful. But when the soap bubbles freeze over completely, it’s especially interesting to watch them pop. The thickness and texture of the leftover frozen soap is a definite surprise.

Assuming the -10 degrees the photographer mentions is the temperature in Celsius, that’s only 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Spending some extra time outdoors in that weather seems almost reasonable (even to this Southern Californian) when that much beauty is the reward. Next time it’s freezing outside, you bet I’m going to go and blow some bubbles of my own. 

The Another Perspective YouTube channel is full of other amazing macro photography, including of snowflakes, spiders, and mushrooms. The artist also shoots close-up shots of non-freezing bubbles, which are much more colorful and certainly beautiful in their own way. They uploaded a how to video in case you want to try getting some similar images for yourself. Or there’s a few other ways to get truly ethereal photographs, like light painting time-lapses and choreographing underwater shots. And if you’re looking for more frozen soap bubble content, there’s also video of one that levitates using magnets. 

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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BMW revealed its latest concept car at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas and it made quite the splash. There’s no door handle or any buttons on the dashboard, and there’s a winking eye where the headlights should be. But the biggest attention-getter is the customizable color-changing technology. Using an app, you can choose from 32 colors. And with 240 different segments, the possibilities are endless. Racing stripes, color blocks, and any other combination you can dream up displays almost instantly across the car’s external palette.

Last year, BMW debuted the iX Flow, which used a similar technology but could only change its exterior color between white, gray, and black. Now that incredible idea is completely overshadowed by this new concept car. It’s called the i Vision Dee. Dee stands for “Digital Emotional Experience.” The huge increase in tint options comes thanks to some familiar colors. Just like a desktop printer, the car uses cyan, magenta, and yellow to create the vast variety of shades. 

The color-shifting conveyance uses E Ink, a name you might be familiar with if you have a Kindle or certain Android phones. The basics of how E Ink works relies on magnetic fields to shift between shades. In the case of an entire car’s exterior, what is essentially a paper-thin electronic coating doesn’t yet hold up to the elements. The video below shows a slow-speed test drive of the i Vision Dee on the Las Vegas Strip, but the car can’t handle much more than that for now. The concept car, which we saw on CNBC, is just that and not actually ready for the consumer market. 

While we wait for our color-changing car, we still have inspiration from the animal kingdom. Some species, like octopuses and squids, can change colors to match their surroundings. Camouflage isn’t a necessary feature for a car though, and actually sounds potentially unsafe. But boy, does it look cool!

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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3D-printing technology has led to humans having almost anything we need in only a few simple steps. That apparently includes scale models of our own internal organs. That way, surgeons can practice on an exact replica of the body they’ll soon be operating on. Which is all well and good, but we’re not sure we could stomach actually watching our own organs go under the knife. Even if it is only a model. But that’s exactly what YouTuber Tom Scott does in the video below. And while it’s not a Voodoo doll, he understandably cringes and grabs his own abdomen while watching the surgery on his 3D-printed organs.  

Scott linked up with the company Lazarus 3D that makes the 3D-printed body parts. After getting an MRI of his abdomen, he literally unboxes a replica of himself. The process recreates the shape and size of his actual organs. But, in this case, the company added a cyst on his left kidney. The surgeon walks Scott through everything, pointing out the arteries, veins, and other odds and ends. It all looks a bit like Silly Putty and Gak, but it’s definitely not child’s play. Thankfully, the dummy Scott’s organs and vessels aren’t filled with the gushing red blood stand-in the company offers.

Scott remains remarkably calm while his faux abdomen and its 3D-printed organs is poked, prodded, and snipped. But then again, he has already seen his body as colorful 3D X-rays in a previous video on his YouTube channel. He also came face to face with a robotic double of himself, which would freak most people out.

Watching the robot respond to the surgeon’s gestures is particularly interesting. The tiny tools move with his hands when he’s explaining things to Scott. Other similar medical advances include experimental robotic surgeries with no human control. Researchers have also created 3D-printed tumors to find helpful treatments and surgeries. All this technology means a higher surgery success rate, but thankfully it doesn’t require you to watch.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.

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What will happen to your body after you die? It’s a big decision that many people may not really want to think about. And now there’s a new option, an alternative to the usual practices of burial or cremation. Human composting just became legal in New York. It is the sixth state in the U.S. to allow the environmentally friendly practice, following California, Washington, Colorado, Vermont, and Oregon. The body is mixed with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw to naturally decompose over the course of a few months. The process generates about a cubic yard of soil. Your loved ones can use it in their gardens or scatter in your favorite places.  

Recompose charges $7,000 for the human composting service, which we first learned about on Gizmodo. It’s pretty similar to choosing a reusable bag instead of paper or plastic at the grocery store. If you’re looking to do more to help the environment and reduce your carbon footprint, the Washington-based company can help. According to estimates, 5.3 million gallons of embalming chemicals like formaldehyde are buried every year with dead bodies. And cremation leads to the release of about a metric ton of carbon dioxide per person. That’s roughly the same as the average U.S. car produces in three months.

You can donate the soil to the Bells Mountain Forest in Washington state. Based on the image above, it looks like a lovely place to spend eternity. Or family members receive eight cups of soil from each human composting, or can opt to pick up the entire pickup truck-load. They can scatter the soil as they would ashes, or bury it as they would for someone who wants a casket funeral. This isn’t the first environmentally friendly funeral idea we’ve come across. A company in the Netherlands makes coffins out of fungus for sale that help naturally decompose human bodies.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Astronomers recently captured some of the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken. They show the surface of the Sun in stunning detail, and offer close-up looks at phenomena such as sunspots. Up close, those apparently look like the mouths of sandworms from Dune.

The image of the sunspot above was taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope near the 10,000-foot-high summit of Haleakalā in Maui. The sunspot itself is about 5,000 miles across, and each golden nugget surrounding it is roughly the size of Texas. Remarkably, the telescope can see details as small as 18 miles across. It, along with the probe NASA recently used to collect samples from the Sun, will likely lead to many new discoveries about the star we orbit.

Astronomers utilizing GREGOR, the largest solar telescope in Europe, also recently shared images. They described their work in a press release from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS). In the KIS release, which comes via Futurism, the astronomers discussed their paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics outlining how they revamped GREGOR over the last year.

“This was a very exciting but also extremely challenging project,” Dr. Lucia Kleint said in the KIS release. Kleint, a senior researcher and professor at KIS, led the revamp of GREGOR. “In only one year, we completely redesigned the optics, mechanics, and electronics to achieve the best possible image quality,” Kleint added.

The GIF above shows one of the sunspots Kleint and her team captured. It’s unclear how large this particular sunspot is, but they range from roughly 1,000 to 31,000 miles in diameter. In general, GREGOR is able to image details as small as 31 miles in diameter. For reference, the astronomers say this would be “as if one saw a needle on a soccer field perfectly sharp from a distance of one kilometer [or .62 miles].” And, as mentioned above, our ability to image the sun is only improving.

Kleint et al. were also able to capture the “intricate structures of solar magnetic fields” in high resolution. For those unfamiliar, electrical currents inside the Sun generate a magnetic field that surges and ebbs cyclically, causing violent activity on the star’s surface. GREGOR’s close-up image of one of those structures is immediately below.

By studying the Sun’s magnetic fields, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of their influence on Earth. This will be important for guarding our technological infrastructure, including satellites, the astronomers say. No word yet on whether or not anyone has been worthy enough to ride the mighty sunspot.

Originally published September 9, 2020.

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Would you consider living in a top-heavy tower that looks like a Jenga game ready to fall? It may not be among the wonders of the modern world or on the list of biggest skyscrapers in the world, but the 53-story Vancouver House is definitely a marvel. The building fits in a tiny triangular footprint between off-ramps and the Granville Bridge. Most people thought it was an impossible place to put a building, but Danish architect Bjarke Ingels designed one that gets larger the higher up it goes. The result is a trippy “Upside-Down” tower that looks like it’s ready to topple over.  

The video above is part of the Smithsonian Channel’s series How Did They Build That? For those interested in learning about amazing feats of engineering, the channel also shares other clips from episodes of the show on YouTube. There are more wild architectural marvels like bridges, parks, and even an Antarctic base on the list to go along with the upside-down building. Another cool clip shows off the design of the skinniest skyscraper in New York City and how it keeps from blowing over in the wind. Add that to the list of places we would love to see but may be too scared to get into. But that’s just as well since it’s not exactly an affordable place to live.

The Canadian skyscraper is 515 feet tall, the fifth highest in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite its risky appearance, the building is home to almost 500 apartments. After years of construction, it was finished in 2020. Most of the units, including a three-story penthouse, sold long before the building had even opened. It’s certainly a beautiful place for a home. But we’re not sure we could ever relax knowing there is nothing solid below our feet. The view from the plentiful balconies must be extra terrifying as well. We guess maybe this is one building that would be better in Stranger Things‘ realm of The Upside Down.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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The Perseverance rover on Mars dropped off a tube of rock samples and it looks like it came straight from a galaxy far, far away. There’s (probably) no kyber crystals inside, but it bears a strong resemblance to a lightsaber. Somehow we doubt that the design similarities are an accident. There’s probably a bunch of Star Wars-loving nerds at NASA geeking out over this moment as well. If you’ve seen Apollo 13, you’ll know that NASA is also capable of the same kit-bashing skills that led to the iconic lightsaber hilts.

Whether or not the sample holder is meant to look like a lightsaber, the task of returning them to Earth is a big deal. Each hilt (or sample tube) is filled with a sample collected by Perseverance. NASA shares information about each one, including pictures from the rover of the drill site. Not counting the pet rock it picked up in its wheel while roving around Mars, Perseverance has collected 18 samples. The rover dropped the first one at a potential pickup spot near its original landing site. Next, it took the picture above to make sure the sample hadn’t rolled under the rover’s wheels. It will drop more lightsabers/tubes over the course of the next two months. But it also holds onto duplicates of each sample in case anything goes wrong. 

Returning the samples to Earth is a long term goal. NASA is aiming to put a lander on Mars in 2028 and the samples may not make it back to Earth until 2033. Even then, scientists would preserve some of the the rocks for decades. That way, they can be analyzed with technology that doesn’t even exist yet. Researchers did the same with lunar samples collected by the Apollo program, some of which they are just now studying 50 years later.

If you want your own lightsaber/Perseverance sample tube, you can try kit-bashing your own build. Or put one together on your next trip to Savi’s Workshop at Galaxy’s Edge in the Disney theme parks. That way, you’ll get to choose what color your lightsaber is. We assume all those coming back from Mars will be red.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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The James Webb Space Telescope continues to deliver awe-inspiring images and insights into the universe. Its mirror is six times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been taking stellar pictures since 1990. But it’s not just about size. The new telescope records infrared wavelengths rather than visible light so it can see farther and more clearly. Older stars appear as bright eight-pointed spikes in the Webb telescope pictures below due to the way the images are taken. But it also adds to the ethereal nature of each image as we peer farther and farther into infinity.

A Holiday Galaxy

The James Webb Space Telescope shared this festive image just in time for the holiday season. Galaxy NGC 7469‘s spiral looks like a wreath, complete with glowing lights. The large red starburst is actually made up of spikes from the telescope’s hexagonal mirrors caused by the light from the galaxy’s center. The gas and dust shines brightly as it falls into a black hole, but doesn’t it look lovely? Scientists are excited about the star-forming regions they can now see thanks to the telescope’s infrared cameras. But it’s also the perfect image for this year’s holiday card.

An Illuminating Protostar

A new star, “only” about 100,000 years old, is forming in the neck of this cosmic hourglass. The protostar L1527 itself is hidden in this view, but the light it creates illuminates clouds of gas and dust that are being sucked inwards. The vivid pinks, oranges, and blues are only visible in the infrared light of the James Webb Space Telescope. As the star ages, it gathers these nearby materials into its accretion disk, gaining mass and eventually reaching the size and stability of a full star. 

The James Webb Space Telescope Captures the Pillars of Creation

The first image of the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 is one of the most widely seen space photos. Now the James Webb Space Telescope adds its remarkable abilities to share even more of the wonder that is the Pillars of Creation with the world.

The near-infrared view of this cosmic nursery 6,500 light years away reveals many new details. The red dots seen on the edges of the top pillar are young stars, only a few hundred thousand years old. The red lava-like areas in the other pillars are ejections of hydrogen molecules from still-forming stars. The entire image is eight light years across but represents only a small area of the Eagle Nebula. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope is truly astounding.

In addition, we also got to see a slightly more creepy version of the Pillars of Creation courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope. This rendition was taken with the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The first image, meanwhile, was taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This second view allows researchers to see concentrations of gas and dust. But it also makes for another amazing, slightly horror-movie-inspired image from the James Webb Telescope.

Dust Rings Around Binary Stars

The James Webb Space Telescope imaged a system with two enormous stars, each 25-30 times more massive than our Sun. Called Wolf-Rayet 140, their orbits bring them close together about every eight years. The gravitational forces push out a huge dust cloud when that happens. Previous images from ground-based telescopes could see two dust rings, but the new image from JWST shows at least 17. Check out this video from JPL for a visualization of the two stars orbiting each other and a comparison to the older images. 

Neptune’s Rings in Focus Courtesy of the JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the clearest view of Neptune’s ring in more than 30 years. We see the rings and the planet’s fainter dust bands. Neptune system expert and interdisciplinary scientist Heidi Webb said, “It has been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared.”

Tarantula Nebula

The image above of the Tarantula Nebula is 340 light years across. It introduces us to tens of thousands of stars never seen before because they were lost in the dust of Hubble’s view. The region forms news stars, which appear pale blue. And in case you’re trying to find the eight-legged creature the nebula is named for, apparently it looks like a tarantula’s burrow with silk around the entry, rather than the spider itself. The video below also shows the mid-infrared image from the Webb Telescope. Gases and cosmic dust glow turquoise and purple. It’s beautiful to us casual observers, but adds even more data for astronomers.

The James Webb Space Telescope Reveals the Phantom Galaxy

Also known as M74, the Phantom Galaxy is 32 million light years away in the constellation Pisces. When compared to pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, the image from the James Webb Space Telescope cuts through the gas and dust to show off the star clusters at the galaxy’s core. Stars and other distant objects are also visible through patches in the arms of the spiral. Combining the images from the two space telescopes gives astronomers the best of both worlds. The visible and infrared light spectrums provide complementary insights into the mesmerizing center of the Phantom Galaxy.

Exoplanet HIP 65426 b

Images of this faraway planet are the first of one outside of our Solar System. Different cameras and filters on the James Webb Space Telescope provide multiple views and insights to astronomers. HIP 65426 b is a gas giant nine times the mass of Jupiter, but we don’t know much more about it yet. Scientists are analyzing all the new data from the Webb Telescope. They removed the light from the planet’s sun using a coronagraph. Once the much brighter star was masked, the faint planet could finally be photographed. 

First Images from the JWST

Keep up with the telescope’s Twitter account to see the newest images and research. These include tests taken right here in our own Solar System. Like stunning views of Jupiter, including aurora and some of its many moons. And plenty of distant targets, like the Cartwheel Galaxy and its swirling dust clouds. And of course the first images, including a deep field view that included the oldest and farthest away objects ever photographed.

Originally published September 6, 2022.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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A robot on Mars ended its successful science mission with a poignant social media post. InSight, a lander that’s been on the red planet since November 2018, signed off with one final message below. Its solar panel are covered in Martian dust and it cannot recharge or send more messages back to Earth. The goal of this NASA robot was to track marsquakes and learn about the planet’s molten core over the course of two years. The last time NASA was able to communicate with InSight was December 15, 2022, just over four years from its landing. Farewell and congratulations on a job well done, InSight! We won’t worry about you, but we’ll think of you fondly.

The lander also carried names to the red planet. The supporters that list represents are likely not the only ones sad to see InSight sign off for the last time. Its well-deserved retirement is a bittersweet occasion for the science team. It’s also not the first time an anthropomorphized NASA robot has made us sad. Back in 2018, the rover Opportunity signed off with a last message of: “my battery is low and it is getting dark.” That machine designed for a 90-day mission operated for nearly 15 years. And then there’s the Curiosity rover, which sang “Happy Birthday” to itself back in 2013. But InSight’s final message really does hit hard.

InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The various probes and measuring equipment recorded marsquakes and weather changes over the years. The information about tremors helps scientists understand Mars’ interior, including the planet’s mantle and crust. 

While it’s sad to see InSight sign off, the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are still working hard on the surface of the Mars. The news, which we saw thanks to Kotaku, comes as NASA plans more missions to the red planet. The agency plans to return samples from Perseverance and the Artemis missions to the Moon act as training to land the first people on Mars.  

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Star Trek‘s technological legacy is vast. Kids watching back in the ’60s grew up and invented the cool things they saw in the show. Tablets, video calls, and flip phones are all real-life gadgets inspired by Star Trek tech. Food replicators and medical tricorders are not far off. But did you know that automatic sliding doors belong on that list as well?

Those of us who were not alive yet when the original series came out may have no idea that this technology blew people away at the time. Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has even said it was the least realistic part of the show to him. When he watched as a kid, space travel and warp drive were believable enough. However, doors that knew when you wanted them to open seemed truly too good to be true. Let’s explore a bit about the history of those automatic doors, both in Star Trek and in real life.

When Were Automatic Doors Invented?

An engineer in ancient Greece actually invented the earliest known version of automatic doors nearly 2,000 years ago. It involved fire, pulleys, and a priest. The mechanism was designed to give the illusion that a divine power opened the temple doors. The next automatic door wasn’t around until 1931 but only existed in one restaurant in Connecticut. It swung open and closed to allow waiters back and forth to the kitchen.

Engineers invented the first automatic sliding doors in 1954 and they became commercially available in 1960. But they used a mat on the floor to trigger the doors, which is definitely not the case in Star Trek. They didn’t really catch on until the addition of motion sensor technology in the 1970s, after Star Trek‘s run. In the ’80s and ’90s, infrared technology advanced. Most automatic doors now use that to determine when to open and close.

Their use in popular places like gas stations, grocery stores, and airports increases accessibility. It also removes the need to touch door handles and other surfaces. But because the infrared devices monitor a large space around the doors, they still open even if you’re just walking by. And that’s something that makes the doors in Star Trek smarter still than what we have today.

How Do Doors Work on Star Trek?

There’s some continuity questions about the doors in Star Trek. Some come with a button, others respond to voice commands, and then there’s those that magically know when to open and close. Private quarters have a chime and some sort of voice recognition. Other doors only open when characters actually intend to go through them, something that sets them apart from modern automatic doors. There are many scenes of people loitering near doorways that don’t open. With real-life automatic doors, people walking by, animals, or even a strong breeze can trigger them.

Since the beginning, a distinctive sound has accompanied the doors. It has changed over time but is likely still dubbed rather than the actual on-set audio. The whooshing certainly implies some sort of pneumatic air-powered door. Rumor has it that the original foley is actually the sound of someone pulling paper from an envelope. We do see a few manual doors, like those in Wesley Crusher’s dorm at Starfleet Academy, though characters in universe consider them antiquated relics.

Does Star Trek Use Automatic Doors on Set?

In the original series, a stagehand operated the doors behind the scenes. Wires attached to the doors ran through a series of pulleys. The assistant director triggered a light, the person in charge of the door pulled on the mechanism, and the doors would open. It seems that the same setup was used on The Next Generation, which likely means it was on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and movies during that time as well. Enjoy the blooper compilation below where mis-timed doors on both shows trigger late, early, or not at all. Just like in our reality, perhaps the on-set doors should come with caution signs.

Much of the publicly available information about the sets of the more recent shows and movies are actually from blooper reels. Chris Pine grappled with a door during at least one of the Star Trek movies. Based on a set tour of Strange New Worlds available to watch on Paramount+, it appears the doors slide open at the push of a button. Since they open automatically in universe, most likely an on-set crew member triggers the door out of frame when Pike and his Enterprise crew need to pass through.

Automatic sliding doors are present from the pilot episode (both of them) of the original series to the finale of Strange New World’s inaugural season (the most recent live-action episode to air). Of all the many questions we have about Star Trek, the most pressing is: when did automatic doors come to the set?

Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek legacy is many-fold and ever-lasting. Important people were molded by their love of the show. The diverse casting in every series advances civil rights around the world. And then there’s the technology. That something as ubiquitous as automatic sliding doors are now was once a science fiction dream is just one more testament to Star Trek‘s lasting legacy.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. Her text messages arrive to the sound of TNG’s door chime. Melissa also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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If we’ve learned anything from pop culture, it’s that the best heists include lasers and can lead to fun and sometimes sexy scenes, like in Oceans 12 and Entrapment. Scientists have also been using lasers to do everything from brew coffee to track space debris. Now there’s a discovery that’s much less fun to learn about unless watching a scientist looking at data while remote-triggering a toilet amuses you. But it’s important science. Apparently, commercial toilets can fling water from the toilet bowl five feet in the air when flushed. And that seems like something we should all know, even if it’s disconcerting. 

The water flushed into a toilet bowl forces some of the contents out into the air, in what the scientific team described as a “strong chaotic jet.” “Even though we expected to see these particles, we were still surprised by the strength of the jet ejecting the particles from the bowl,” says lead scientist and engineering professor John Crimaldi in an article for The Conversation, which we saw on Geeks Are Sexy. 

The researchers published their findings in Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. They suggest that designing different toilet shapes or valves could help reduce these plumes of particles. Closing the lid also reduces the spread and height of the toilet water spray, though they didn’t visualize whether some particles still escape or where they all go instead.

There’s more science to do, whether we want to know the truth or not. The researchers performed the experiments in an open room. The presence of stall doors and ventilation could alter the plumes of spewing toilet water. The team didn’t specifically look at disease transmission, but it’s likely that flu and other germs spread this way. The scientists also didn’t include anything but water in the toilet bowl, stating in the article that: “The presence of fecal matter and toilet paper could alter plume dynamics in unpredictable ways.” But, isn’t that kind of important for us to know about too? Guess we’ll stay tuned for the next toilet water study.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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There’s been a lot of buzz hubbub surrounding the recent arrival of so-called “murder hornets” in the US, with factoids and pictures of the relatively large flying monsters terrorizing the internet. But just how frightened should you be of these vicious-looking insect immigrants? It turns out, according to experts and data, not all that frightened. Unless you’re a honeybee.

The Murder Hornets, which are technically referred to as Asian giant hornets, or Vespa mandarinia, are the world’s largest hornets. They are native to temperate parts of East Asia, South Asia, and the Russian Far East, although the reason you’ve only recently heard of them, most likely, is because of the fact that they have now been spotted in the US for the first time ever.

Gary Alpert

While the news is only breaking now, the Asian giant hornets were actually spotted in the US in December of last year, in Washington State. At that time, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) received and verified four reports of the Asian giant hornets near the cities of Blaine and Bellingham. It’s not clear to officials how exactly the Asian hornets managed to make it to the US, but according to Seth Truscott at WSU’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, “Insects are frequently transported in international cargo and are sometimes transported deliberately.”

In terms of how deadly these Asian giant hornets are, the answer is: very. The jumbo arial assaulters are armed with quarter-inch-long stingers that are able to inject large amounts of potent venom into their victims, which are most often other insects, but also—very, very rarely—humans. In the latter, the hornets’ venom can reportedly cause skin hemorrhaging and necrosis, organ failure, and death.

In terms of sheer pain factor, according to wildlife educator and YouTuber Coyote Peterson, a person who’s stung by an Asian giant hornet should expect to feel something on par with famed-boxer Mike Tyson “taking an open shot right at your jaw.” In the below video, you can watch Peterson writhe in agony as he willingly injects himself with some of the hornets’ venom and subsequently enters “the sting zone.”

Despite its deadly venom and sizable stinger, you still shouldn’t fear Asian giant hornets, especially if you live in the US. Not only is the WSDA actively trying to eradicate the known populations of the hornets, but the odds of being stung by one are teensy tiny. As in, there have been zero reported stings by Asian hornets in the US. so far, let alone deaths. And even in Japan, where there is far greater number of the insects, there are only a few dozen deaths a year.

For honeybees, however, it’s a different story. A single Asian giant hornet can kill as many as 40 bees per minute, and a group of 30 hornets can annihilate a hive containing 30,000 bees in less than four hours. It’s not all bad news for the bees though, as they can use a tactic referred to as “heatballing” to literally overheat and kill the monster ‘nets. Check out a quick clip of that fantastic eusocial defense mechanism immediately below.

No Sightings in 2022

Just before the end of 2022, the WSDA announced that they found no murder hornets in the US in 2022. We saw this good news on The Verge. While it takes three years before they declare the pests eradicated, this is certainly a good first step. Since they were first spotted in 2019, the agency has diligently been tracking down and destroying their nests in Washington state. Citizen scientists also got in on the project, reporting any sightings.

Featured Image: Gary Alpert

Originally published May 4, 2020. Additional reporting by Melissa T. Miller.

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Space-faring ships that turn out to be alive are nothing new in science fiction. There’s more entries every year, but the leviathans often have similarities to previous versions. Many of them are whale-like, with interior corridors that look like the belly of the beast. Some even sing like whales. But while there’s plenty of overdone tropes in science fiction, what exactly constitutes life and sentience is one that is still interesting. As humanity’s understanding of non-human sentient life deepens over time, we continue to explore this concept in our entertainment as well. Here’s some of our favorite living “ships” from TV and film.

Jean Jacket (Nope)

Nope is the latest sci-fi movie to introduce a living ship. The flying saucer turns out to be an animal rather than a typical UFO. Technically it does carry passengers, for a little while at least. Then it eats them. If only we humans weren’t so delicious and nutritious. The real animals that inspired Jean Jacket’s design—urchins, cuttlefish, squid, and other ocean life— are not really a threat to us. But when a large alien shows those same unfamiliar behaviors, it’s a lot more scary.

Jordan Peele consulted scientists to make his predator more realistic and comment on the dangers of trying to control nature. That’s a tale many of the sentient ship stories that came before tell, and will likely remain a sci-fi theme for years to come since humanity hasn’t yet taken it to heart.

TARDIS (Doctor Who)

The TARDIS is clearly a sentient ship and seems to actually be alive. At one point, it transforms into a woman and we get to hear its “voice” and get a peek into its “soul.” But is it alive or is that just Gallifreyan AI? The TARDIS certainly seems to have a life and mind of its own, making decisions and showing some level of warmth and love towards The Doctor. And, a TARDIS is not built by beings, but rather grown, which indicates that it is itself a living being that operates as a ship.

This is surely a debatable one among some fans; however, there is an episode of Doctor Who where there is a more clear-cut living ship. In “The Beast Below,” the monsters of the week aren’t Daleks or Weeping Angels—they’re humans. Survivors from Earth have captured the last star whale and they torture it into obediently carrying their “civilization” on its back. Anyone who protests after learning of the animal’s captivity is summarily fed to the whale. Amy Pond saves the creature, who just wanted to help instead of harm others.

Moya and Talyn (Farscape)

Farscape’s ship Moya is biological, a species called leviathans. Just like our heroes are escaped prisoners, Moya is an escaped prison ship. The Peacekeepers used a collar to control her and inhibit her abilities. She is bonded with Pilot, an enormous Henson puppet that is the crew’s connection to their ship. Both suffer when they’re apart. In certain storylines, the rest of Moya‘s flawed crew tests this interconnectedness and grapples with their treatment of both the ship and Pilot.

Throughout the series, Moya sometimes goes off on her own missions. She even gives birth to a baby ship, Talyn, who is actually a hybrid. Part Peacekeeper ship, he is covered in weapons and harder to communicate with. Farscape offers plenty of takes on life and love and is often unexpected and weird. Perhaps our crew of misfits grappling with the morality of living on a sentient ship is actually the most normal thing they ever do.

Vorlons and Shadows (Babylon 5)

Now that the show has finally been upgraded to HD, it’s time for a full rewatch. Both the Vorlon and Shadow ships are biological and at least semi-sentient. They act instinctively and can heal from attacks and even adapt their defenses. Though it’s highly guarded technology, Sheridan and his crew learn a little bit about them during the Shadow War. But they don’t really ponder the ethics of destroying these ships. Instead, the unfamiliar technology of living ships is merely fascinating.

The Vorlons and Shadows are ancient enemies, but there are many similarities in their fleet of biological ships. Between conflicts, the ships disperse and hibernate, standing ready for the next sign of trouble. They need to bond with a pilot so even though there’s a billion Vorlon ships, the relatively small number of Vorlons themselves mean much of the fleet is out of service. The ships communicate telepathically, another recurring theme in sci-fi. They even sing.

Gomtuu (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Multiple species that use biological ships exist in the Star Trek galaxy. The episode “Tin Man” in The Next Generation‘s third season revolves around making first contact with a new life form. The Enterprise finds the being hanging out near a supernova in Romulan-occupied space. The infallible bridge crew respects its right to exist but is also wary of its powerful abilities. Luckily, they have a powerful Betazoid named Tam aboard who is able to communicate with it telepathically.

Tam learns its name is Gomtuu and it hasn’t seen another of its kind in thousands of years. The species evolved to live symbiotically with passengers and Gomtuu is lonely now that its crew is dead. Tam is also isolated (and kind of a jerk) because he is bombarded with everyone’s telepathic thoughts. You can see where this is going, right? Tam beams aboard to help save Gomtuu from both the supernova and the Romulans. They end up bonding and finding the companionship they both need.

Species 8472’s bio-ships (Star Trek: Voyager)

Later in Trek history, Voyager introduces the much more ominous Species 8472. So named by the Borg, both the aliens and their ships are organic life. They are impervious to both Borg and Federation technology, leading to the unlikely temporary alliance that introduces Seven of Nine to Voyager‘s crew. The bioships have plenty of traits we’ve seen before and will see again. They regenerate when damaged and can communicate telepathically with Kes.

Species 8472 lives in another realm called fluidic space, which we’ll have to ask the Star Trek science advisor about, because we have no idea what that means. Though allegiances flip-flop multiple times during the two-part “Scorpion” storyline, Voyager ultimately defeats 8472 in the Delta Quadrant. And because it’s Star Trek, Leonardo da Vinci (played by John Rhys-Davies) is somehow involved in the conflict.

Biblical stories about Leviathans and other sea monsters have made way for science fiction fantasies about sentient ships. The morality lessons we tell about the ethical treatment of animals, even if they do pose a threat to us, are important. They can also be entertaining, too! We hope to see many more living ships in science fiction yet to come.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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We could all use less noise and air pollution in our lives. New headphones offer a solution, but they’ll set you back $949. The Dyson Zone boasts cutting edge acoustics plus an air-filtering magnetic visor. Dyson began development on this wearable version of their air purifiers in 2016. The idea is to create a bubble of clean air just for you as you go through your day. Pre-pandemic, would anywhere wear such a device? Now we’re all used to wearing face coverings and thinking about the air we breathe.

Dyson went through hundreds of prototypes to miniaturize the air filtration and delivery system. The Zone consists of a compressor fan in each headphone that draws air in. An electrostatic filter also in the ear piece collects particles. The purified air is then delivered via the visor to mouth and nose area. It doesn’t touch your face, but blows air at you from a small distance. It will also make you look a bit like Ant-Man.

The Verge tested the Dyson Zone. There are multiple fan speeds to compensate for heavier breathing when working out versus sitting at your desk. At the highest setting, the fans in the ear piece do add some noise even with noise cancellation activated. The size and weight of this first generation technology may be an issue. But there’s no denying that there’s a market for these in our modern world of air and noise pollution.

The Dyson Zone will be available in spring 2023. The battery lasts up to 50 hours when you’re just using the headphones, but that drops to four hours once you activate the air purifier. The magnetic visor is removable when you want to use just the headphones. Or if you don’t want to look like a Benzite from Star Trek. The visor also lowers on a hinge. This automatically reduces the noise cancellation of the headphones so you can conduct normal conversations. But when you’re wearing them, will anyone want to talk to you?

Originally published March 31, 2022.

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Scientists uncovered fossils that have a lot in common with modern-day swimming birds like ducks and penguins. This new dinosaur species fills in gaps about what we know about the aquatic lifestyle of Cretaceous critters. The artist’s recreation below shows off its ability to float on the water’s surface but also dive below and swim after fish. The team dubbed the new dinosaur Natovenator polydontus, which is Latin for “swim hunter many tooth.” It’s those teeth that give the otherwise friendly looking creature an air of danger. Will we see them in the next Jurassic World movie, nibbling at the toes of unsuspecting tourists?

Paleontologists discovered the fossils in the Gobi desert of Mongolia. Sometimes teams only find a few bones and have to recreate complete skeletons based on their best educated guesses. For example, the most complete T. rex skeleton only includes about half of the bones. There’s even some species that are known only from a single fossil. This find, however, consists of a nearly complete skull with many teeth as well as most of the neck, tail and limbs. In the image below, white bones represent those that the team uncovered and studied.

The peer-reviewed journal Communications Biology published the research, which we heard about from ScienceNews. Natovenator‘s streamlined body includes rib and limb bones that are flatter than those of other land-based dinosaurs. They are more similar to aquatic reptiles like crocodiles and turtles.

Though bones can only tell us so much about what animals really looked like, the scientific and artistic renderings of this new dinosaur definitely look like a combination of ducks, penguins, and velociraptors that we wouldn’t want to run into in the wild. It joins the much larger semi-aquatic Spinosaurus, which was also adapted to be an excellent swimmer.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Ever watch James Bond films and feel like being a villain would be more fun? The perks of having your own henchmen, lair, and kitty are pretty tempting. Now you can at least make believe by launching imaginary asteroids at Earth. An interactive website with an asteroid simulator lets you do just that. Just choose the size, speed, and impact angle and decide if the projectile is made up of gold, iron, stone, or carbon. You can even launch a comet, which is mostly ice and dust. So if those scary size comparison videos and doomsday asteroid simulations aren’t hands-on enough, or you just have a god complex, now you can get even more involved. Learning is fun, but most of these scenarios are pretty bleak. You’ll get a list of how many people would die from the various fireballs, earthquakes, and shock waves. 

We learned about this simulator thanks to Boing Boing using the example of the author’s hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Even though asteroids are more likely to hit water than land, it is somehow more fun (or horrifying, depending on your definition of fun) to hurl them at population centers and rack up your kill count.

When you create a fireball, it tells you how far away people would have to be for their clothes not to burst into flames. But there’s no mention of tsunamis caused by the impact. That would definitely be a huge problem if an asteroid hit the ocean. The simulator also doesn’t factor in elevation. For example, when chucking a small comet at Mount Everest, it says the projectile would disintegrate 1,861 feet above the Earth. But the peak is over 29,000 feet tall, so it would definitely wreak some havoc. 

This also assumes that NASA doesn’t launch a DART spacecraft to bonk your asteroid off-course and save the day. It’s comforting to know they are able to even if none of the killer asteroids on NASA’s radar are coming for Earth anytime soon. 

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.

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If silver-tongued devils are people known for flattery, what does that make a golden-tongued mummy? The first thing that comes to mind might be the creepy scene in 1999’s The Mummy when Imhotep takes the eyes and tongue of an unfortunate archaeologist. Thankfully, this story doesn’t take a dark turn. According to an Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Facebook post, archaeologists recently uncovered mummies with tongues made of gold. Historians believe ancient Egyptians practiced this funerary ritual to ensure the dead could speak for themselves in the court of Osiris, god of the underworld.

Researchers found many other adornments with the golden-tongued mummies, including jars, pots, and jewelry. They also uncovered golden scarab beetles and lotus flowers. Those performing the burials placed painted eyes over the eyes of the deceased to help them see in the afterlife. They buried the mummies in wooden coffins with brass nails, pieces of which the archaeologists discovered as well.

The methods used in mummification changed over many years. The golden tongues were a popular practice during the Greco-Roman period that lasted from 332 B.C. to 395 A.D.. The find, which we saw in Live Science, came during an excavation near Quesna, a city north of Cairo. Archaeologists in other areas of Egypt have found golden tongues before. They believe the tongues also help the dead taste all the goods brought with them into the afterlife. Though scientists are still studying the artifacts, they discovered the mummies in rooms that include multiple burial layers, meaning they were likely used over the course of many years.

It’s probably not the best idea to get ancient Egyptian history lessons from pop culture like The Mummy and Moon Knight, but there are some mythological insights in both. Who can forget the hippo goddess Taweret shuttling souls to the afterlife, golden tongues and all?

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.

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Flipping your fins you don’t get too far, but underwater scooters are designed to zip you around. Hold on tight to the Geneinno S2 for rides up to 2.7 miles per hour. That may not sound that fast but it is about half the top speed of Michael Phelps, who obviously swims much faster than the average person. Dart above coral reefs or dive down 100 feet to look at the world around you, right there on the ocean floor. Maybe you’ll even meet some friendly dolphins who want to play with you. And it won’t cost much, just $359 and you can begin your adventures under the sea.  

We saw this cool personal sea scooter on DesignTAXI. It only weighs six pounds and Geneinno touts it as being only slightly larger than a MacBook laptop at 19 by 10 inches (though it is also six inches tall). That’s still smaller and cheaper than the average personal underwater engines on the market. This one runs for about an hour. It also has a GoPro mount so you can share all your adventures with those poor unfortunate souls back on land. Interestingly, there’s an app that connects to the scooter. It includes a parental control function that can shut down the motors, which seems like a feature right out of a James Bond movie. Here’s hoping there’s no villains in your life waiting to disrupt your underwater plans.

For the well-funded underwater enthusiast, there’s personal submarines shaped like a manta ray or like a giant underwater bubble. Geneinno also sells other ways to document your underwater adventures, like camera drones for $2,400. Or you could always just make a version out of LEGO. If you’re more of an indoor person and don’t actually want to get wet, you’ve still got options. There’s a great selection of underwater video games to spend your time with instead. 

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Whether everyone likes it, big properties like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe aren’t afraid to use technology to de-age actors for flashback scenes and prequels. So it makes sense that Disney Research Studios has a team working on better processes. The newest breakthrough can digitally re-age faces to be either younger or older. It works in various lighting conditions and when the actor isn’t facing directly at the camera, whereas previous versions glitch out under those circumstances. It’s also production ready, so we could start seeing this better version of re-aging technology soon.

Similar to the system used in The Irishman, which Netflix and ILM developed, this system doesn’t require an actor’s face to be covered in tracking dots. It also doesn’t require visual effects artists to spend weeks erasing (or adding) wrinkles in every frame. The video above shows off the simple interface, where all you have to do is enter the actor’s age and how old you want them to look.

The research paper, which we first learned about on Gizmodo, introduces FRAN, which stands for Face Re-Aging Network. The peer-reviewed journal ACM Transactions on Graphics published the study. More insights about Disney Research’s behind the scenes tech is available on the YouTube channel. The facial recognition and modeling videos that show the leaps forward in animation and machine learning are particularly cool. 

Recent Star Wars shows also use voice de-aging technology. Artificial intelligence program Respeecher made Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian sound like Mark Hamill in the original trilogy. James Earl Jones recently retired, but his iconic Darth Vader performance lives on using the same AI in Obi-Wan Kenobi and future Star Wars properties.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Who doesn’t need a multi-colored armored spine just in time for the holidays? Sure, it makes a good cosplay addition, but it could also be used for other purposes. Perhaps the metallic armor is just the accessory you need to finally sit up straight in your office chair. Cyborgs certainly don’t slouch. You can buy your very own bionic glowing spine for $710-910, depending on the options you choose. What options are there for cyperpunk spines, you may ask. Well, the aluminum structure itself comes in either silver or black and has three sizes. So whether you need a small, medium, or large spine, the Etsy shop BionicConcepts has your back.

We saw this luminous tech on Technabob. The rig comes with a remote control to set the speed, brightness, and colors. And based on the Instagram feed, the designer has been working to improve it for years now. For those who want to incorporate cyberpunk aesthetic elements into their everyday lives, this Etsy artist has you covered from head to toe, front to back. The shop also sells wings, gauntlets, utility belts, and more items that bridge the divide between mechanical and fantastical.

The market for light-up cosplay pieces seem to expand every year as folks add new glowing accessories to their lives. Another great artist we learned about recently is Sophy Wong, who brings a colorful mixture of robotics and art to her 3D-printed pieces. But for those of us not crafty enough to make our own pieces, it’s nice to know Etsy has plenty of shops where we can spend our hard-earned cash on that perfect addition to our wardrobe.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Many of us tackled the egg drop experiment in science class at some point in our childhood. But this former NASA engineer took it to a whole other level. The stratosphere, to be specific. And just like you’d expect a former NASA engineer to, Mark Rober and his team constantly designed and redesigned a rig that would take an egg to space and drop it back to Earth. They had some help from other Jet Propulsion Lab alumni. And even a parachute made out of the same material used on Mars rovers. And just like the best NASA projects, years of trials, failures, and scrubbed launches are necessary steps to this successful project.

After starting the project three years ago, the video above thankfully ends in triumph. And it has over 17 million views in the few days since it was posted! Both the egg in the rocket and the redundant backup egg Rober insisted on including land back on Earth fully intact. Though the rig cut them loose at 100,000 feet (which is “only” about 19 miles up) rather than technically in space (which is about three times that high). The only thing missing is someone breaking the egg at the end to prove it was a regular egg. We’re sure they didn’t hard boil it in advance. But they do mention the addition of a warming device to keep the egg from freezing on the way up.  

Rober jokes about creating the world’s largest mattress and executing the world’s tallest egg drop. Even if those aren’t actual records he’s chasing, he already holds two Guinness World Records. One for highest elephant’s toothpaste fountain and the other for most dominoes set up and toppled in one hour. The Mark Rober YouTube channel has those and other fun but unnecessary feats of engineering, including the increasingly complex mazes he sets up for backyard squirrels and wildly convoluted glitterbomb traps for package thieves.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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Alligators that live in the sewers of New York City may just be a myth, but now there’s a new critter to think about scurrying through the pipes. A Japanese company designed robotic spiders to scuttle through the sewers. But why, you may ask (while glancing suspiciously at your bathroom door)? While it may seem like the start of a horror movie, the idea is actually for the robots to inspect the over 300,000 miles of aging sewer lines throughout Japan. The “eyes” are actually LEDs to light the way and there’s a 360 degree camera mounted to the front. Because people cannot fit in the pipes, the robot operators use a game controller. 

We first saw these spider robots thanks to IEEE Spectrum. TMSUK showed off the SPD1 design in a setup with three of the units tethered together. The front sewer spider navigates, the second finds areas of the pipes in need of repair, and the last one makes those repairs with tiny tools. The spider bodies can crouch down, adjusting to different inner pipe diameters. They may not be ready to deploy yet, but “sewer spiders” will likely creep more than a few people out.

This isn’t the first time engineers have used natural designs while building robots to help make our lives easier. There are robots in the shape of lizards that wriggle and move in unconventional ways and some that look like perching birds and are able to grip onto things. There are even tiny versions of arachnid robots already, along with other robotic creepy crawlies like bugs and worms.

Why can’t they all just be cute robotic dolphins that swim with humans in order to save the real animals from a life in captivity? That’s technology we can really get behind.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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For the first time, scientists have simulated how far and fast the Chicxulub asteroid, a.k.a. the one that killed the dinosaurs, impact spread around the globe. Besides wiping out the dinosaurs, it changed much more than that about our planet. The asteroid hit the ocean in what is now the Gulf of Mexico, but it was so powerful that it ejected seafloor sediment and even part of the Earth’s crust miles into the atmosphere. It also caused a wave nearly three miles high. Even 10 minutes after impact, the wave was still about a mile tall and was racing outward, already over 130 miles away from the crater. The video below shows the waves that spread around the world spreading devastation.

The scientific team found evidence to back up their simulation’s version of events in the fossil record. In what is now New Zealand, sediment cores show a very jumbled record of time. Though previously attributed to local earthquakes, scientists now think that the asteroid impact 7,500 miles away caused the disarray. Because even if the tsunami waves were “only” 30 feet high, they disturbed the ocean all the way down to the seafloor.

AGU Advances published the open access, peer-reviewed research project, which we saw in Science Alert. This may be the first scientific simulation of the asteroid’s impact, but there have been plenty of non-scientific ones. The Discovery Channel’s video of the devastation caused by a 300-mile-wide asteroid is essentially a disaster movie no one survives. Or if you want to work your way up to that level, there’s also a size comparison of asteroid impacts, starting with ones small enough to burn up in the atmosphere and ending with world-killers.  

This news comes just weeks after the discovery of a planet-killer sized asteroid in our astronomical neighborhood. But don’t worry, it’s not predicted to cross paths with Earth anytime soon. And even if it did, NASA now knows how to bonk asteroids off course.    

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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After its fair share of delays, NASA’s Artemis I spacecraft is on its way to the Moon! It blasted off from Florida at about 1:47am in a spectacular display. This is the first launch of the Artemis mission, which will eventually return people to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. It’s also a step towards putting people on Mars. For now, the uncrewed spacecraft is heading to the Moon and back to test all of the Artemis systems.

Within minutes, the spacecraft had shed its rocket engines and unfurled solar panels in Earth’s orbit. There’s lots more coverage coming from NASA, including the first photos the vehicle takes of Earth. Artemis I will be on a close approach to the Moon in just a few days and then again when it starts the journey back to Earth. Splashdown back on Earth is scheduled for December 11, 2022. You can track the Artemis I spacecraft over the 26 day mission. A video of the launch is also now available.

NASA scrubbed previous launch attempts on August 29 (engine temperature issues) and September 3 (leaking liquid hydrogen). Teams made repairs on the launch pad on those occasions because moving the rocket back into its hangar is a process that takes eight hours of cautious driving and risks further delays.

But once Hurricane Ian threatened the area, a September 27 launch date was also scrubbed and the rocket was rolled into its hangar for safety. It weathered the dregs of Hurricane Nicole on the launch pad in early November as well.

Instead of a human crew, Artemis I is taking a few dummies, called Moonikins by NASA. Two female moonikins are aboard. One is wearing a radiation vest and one is not, both connected to sensors that track the levels of exposure.  

The spacecraft is also carrying assorted swag on the mission. NASA released a list of flags, patches, and pins, (which we learned about on DesignTAXI). The list also includes seeds, Girl Scout merit badges, and USB drives containing people’s names, essays, and artwork. A plush Shaun the Sheep is also aboard. The popular character posted blogs and photos during training for the mission.

Artemis I will deploy 10 CubeSats near the Moon. These measure gravity, radiation, and other parameters to help on future missions. There’s even one named IceCube that will look for water on the lunar surface.  

NASA recently announced the landing site options for Artemis III, which will be the first crewed mission. Its scheduled to bring the first woman and person of color to the Moon in 2025. The last time people were on the Moon was the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Artemis II launches in 2024 and will see a crew orbit the Moon without landing. 

NASA teams have been testing out lots of new technology to help astronauts once they’re on the Moon, including a backpack that 3D maps the lunar environment and the water-seeking VIPER rover. There’s also a lot of people and NASA facilities involved in tracking and communicating with the mission from back on Earth. We talked to the Artemis team at Comic-Con about the mission and their science fiction influences. Like us, they’re excited about returning people to the Moon, and eventually make it to Mars.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.

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Assuming you’ve accepted Pluto’s demotion, Uranus and Neptune are the two planets in our Solar System farthest from Earth. That distance means humanity is still learning a lot about them. Some of those discoveries lead to amusing headlines like “Neptune’s ‘Fart Storm’ Is About to Die” and “Probing Uranus Is Our Next Space Exploration Priority.” The size comparison below shows off what we do known about the moons of both planets.  

Uranus has 27 moons and, even though scientists named them over the course of 150 years, most get their monikers from characters in Shakespeare’s many plays. Uranus himself was god of the sky and air, so the planet’s first moons got their names from fairies and sprites. Well-known characters like Juliet and Puck are represented in the list, but there’s also Miranda, a name Shakespeare invented. Most of the smaller moons in the video above belong to Uranus. There are large, spherical moons as well, culminating with the largest, Titania, which is still less than half the size of our own Moon. 

Neptune, named after the god of the sea, has 14 moons. All of them represent Greek and Roman water mythology. The largest moon is Triton, which is nearly as large as Earth’s Moon. The most recently discovered (and also the smallest) is Hippocamp. It is named after a mythological creature that is half fish and half horse. 

Considering that astronomers spotted many of the moons around Uranus and Neptune for the first time in 1989 when Voyager 2 flew by, it’s possible that there’s still more to learn about both planets and their satellite moons and rings as we continue to explore and utilize better technology.

Among the MetaBallStudios YouTube channel’s many other size comparisons are other moons in our Solar System. Saturn has 83 moons and Jupiter has 80, including Titan, the largest in our stellar neighborhood.  

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

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