Tag: Science

There are a ton of podcasts out there, but finding the right one can be difficult. In our column Pod Hunters, we cover what we’ve been listening to that we can’t stop thinking about.

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws is a cinematic classic, a film that set the mold for the modern blockbuster. This summer, Wondery debuted a new podcast from Mark Ramsey, the podcaster who was responsible for two earlier series, Inside Psycho and Inside the Exorcist. Inside Jaws opens with an infamous incident that occurred in July 1916: 25-year old Charles Epting Vansant takes a swim at in New Jersey with his dog, and became the first victim of a series of shark attacks that summer in the area. It was an incident that cemented the image of a killer shark…

Continue reading…

That the modern world is a complex place will not have escaped your notice.

We are all dimly, unsettlingly aware that our lives are enmeshed in systems we can’t fully comprehend. The last meal you ate probably contained produce grown in another country that was harvested, processed, packaged, shipped, then sold to you. The phone in your hand is the end-product of an even more convoluted chain; one that relies on human labor from mines in Africa, assembly lines in China, and standing desks in San Francisco.

Explaining how these systems connect and the effect they have on the world is not an easy task. But it’s what professors Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler have attempted to do in a new artwork and essay, unveiled last Friday at the…

Continue reading…

Instagram has added personalized emoji shortcuts to its app, placing your most used emoji above your keyboard when you begin to comment on a post. The new feature was widely rolled out on Thursday, but it has been in public testing since May on both Android and iOS.

The new emoji bar won’t show up in other areas that the keyboard is used, like responding to a story or captioning your own posts. But given the huge number of people that comment with emoji, this should help cut down on the time it takes to post a comment.

The new personalized emoji shortcuts are now available in the latest Instagram…

Continue reading…

Last week the internet was preoccupied with sleuthing who was telling White House secrets.

Elon Musk is smoking something, doppler lidar helps cars see better, and the Diplomatic Security Service braves Ebola

Pour as much or as little wine as you like without spoiling the rest of the bottle, and pay handsomely for the privilege.

We don’t expect any new Apple TV hardware this time around, but there’s still room for improvement.

The stainless steel Ooni Pro can bake pizzas, or whatever else your heart desires.

Strange, long-forgotten numbers called quaternions are undergoing a revival in computer graphics, math, and physics.

The lockout follows a similar ban by Twitter.