science

Article

The Only Math Museum in the U.S. Just Opened

Math has been intimidating and worrying students (and their parents) since humans starting adding and subtracting. But the people behind MoMath—the only museum devoted to math in the United States—want to change the perception that math is boring and scary. "We want to show a different side of mathematics," co-founder Cindy Lawrence tells New Scientist. "Our goal is to get kids excited, and show them the math they're doing in school is just one tree in a whole huge... READ ON

Article

CERN Students Make Zombie Film ... At CERN

Some of the students working at CERN in 2010 had at least one interesting extracurricular activity: Filming a zombie movie around the facility. In Decay, a disaster at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) releases the Higgs and its particle field, which turns the workers in the underground complex into flesh-hungry undead. A group of scientists isolated in the subterranean control room (which, in real life, is actually on the surface) must try to fight their way out. The movie was filmed without official... READ ON

Big Question

Why Did Humans Start Eating Cheese in the First Place?

By Chris... READ ON

Big Question

Do Cameras Really Add 10 Pounds?

For everyone who’s ever been unhappy with the way they look in a picture or on video, there’s almost always someone there to try and comfort them by pointing out that the camera “adds ten pounds” to its subjects.Sometimes this just excuses actual flabbiness, but some people swear up and down that the phenomenon is real and cameras actually fatten us up. What’s going... READ ON

Article

NASA's Pretty Confident the World's Not Going to End Next Week

So confident, in fact, that last night they released a video called "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday," 10 days before the end of the Mayan calendar, which some conspiracy theorists believe signals the end of the world. According to the video, the Mayan long count calendar—which is more complex than any other calendar ever used—doesn't end on December 21st. It actually rolls over, sort of like a car's odometer. And there's no evidence that the Mayans predicted the end of the world, either.... READ ON

WWI Centennial

12 Technological Advancements of World War I

Erik Sass has been covering the events leading up to World War I exactly 100 years after they happened. But today he's here to discuss some inventions of The Great War. 1.... READ ON

List

12 Star Trek Gadgets That Now Exist

For geeks growing up in the 1960s, 80s and 90s, a vision of the future has been provided by one very successful television franchise: Star Trek. And the future, it turns out, is coming sooner than even Trek's writers could have imagined. Here are 12 gizmos used on the Star Trek television shows that are now becoming real. 1. Food... READ ON

Article

Why the Enterprise Could Never Go Underwater

By now, you've probably seen the new trailer for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness, which features a stunning shot of the Enterprise rising up out of a body of water. According to journalists who have seen the first nine minutes of the film, the Enterprise is purposefully hiding there. Only one problem, though: It could never happen. Raymond Wagner, who has a PhD in electrical engineering and works in the space industry, told Badass Digest going underwater is the kind of thing that simply... READ ON

Big Question

Are Poinsettias as Dangerous as Everyone Says?

Poinsettias are as indispensable to Christmas as evergreen trees and mistletoe. Every year, they come out of the greenhouses and off the store shelves into our homes, and every year, some well-meaning but factually-challenged aunt or family friend warns us that we shouldn’t have the plants out around the baby or the cat or the dog because they’re extremely poisonous.This idea originated in 1919, when a 2-year-old child in Hawaii reportedly ate the leaves of a poinsettia and soon fell ill with... READ ON

Article

Preserving the President: Abraham Lincoln, Grave Robbers, and an Excellent Embalmer

President Lincoln's funeral train in Philidelphia near the start of its 13 day journey from Washington to Springfield. Photo courtesy of After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his body was taken from Washington, D.C., by train to be laid in a tomb in Springfield, Illinois. The funeral train carried the president, some 300 mourners, an honor guard, and the disinterred body of Lincoln’s son, Willie, which would be laid to rest near his father. The train made 11 stops along the way, loosely... READ ON