Exploring bleeding edge experiments, oddities, new and bizarre dicoveries, and fact-checking conspiracy theories since 2008. No question is out of bounds and no topic is too strange for a deep dive.
# podcast
Some of the most frequently seen and impressive sci-fi weapons in movies and TV shows have a dirty little secret. They wouldn’t actually work as advertised, if they work at all.
# science
Popular science figures argue that we’re not taking real problems seriously because the public lacks scientific education. But that’s not the problem. The problem is much, much worse.
# health
A woman who inherited a rare genetic mutation is giving doctors and scientists an unprecedented glimpse in how we process pain, fear, and anxiety, and how we could treat all three.
# oddities
A popular fan theory says GoT is a metaphor for the threat of global warming. But by the same logic, it could also be a metaphor for the encroachment of automation, or any other drastic upheaval on your mind.
# tech
The experiment to turn laid off coal miners into rockstar programmers has been going on for years now with little to show for it except more right wing rage on social media.
# science
The right manufactured a free speech crisis on college campuses and President Trump may be giving them a tool to hold the nation’s R&D labs hostage while demanding the spotlight.
# podcast
Of all the worlds to which humanity may travel, the most typical one would require our colonists to live under a sky in which the sun never rises or sets because it physically can’t.
# tech
Every computer system can be compromised, even artificial intelligence. But despite some recent warnings, it’s not about to become a prime new target for hackers.
# tech
Tech evangelists promising an internet-powered utopia helped design of social media as we know it. Their plan to unite the world was doomed the minute it met reality.
# space
Considering what we know about planetary formation, Jupiter shouldn’t have been able to grow as massive in its current orbit. But a new simulation shows it could’ve been born much, much further away.