3. The Many Poisoned Emperors of China

Elixirs of Life, potions and pills that could supposedly extend life — or even make the person who consumed them immortal — feature prominently in the history of imperial China. There were numerous alchemists who claimed to have perfected the formula, but … Read More → "7 ways that people died trying to become immortal"

A team of astronomers combining radio data from the Green Bank Telescope, West Virginia, and data from the radar transmitter at the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico, have compiled a stunning new view of Venus. Often described as Earth’s twin due to its similar proportions, capturing high quality images of the inhospitable planet has traditionally been a challenging prospect thanks to extreme atmospheric conditions. However, by combining observations from the instruments to create … Read More → "Combination radio/radar imaging produces stunning view of Venus"

Think you’re good at predicting Google’s search suggestions? You now have an easy way to prove it. A new (and decidedly unofficial) Google Feud game challenges you to makeFamily Feud-style guesses about what comes next in Google’s autocomplete box. The closer you are to the top result, the more points you get; guess outside of the top 10 and you’ll get a strike. There’s sadly no easy way … Read More → "Game turns Google’s search suggestions into ‘Family Feud’"

The end is finally in sight for Microsoft’s long-fraught Internet Explorer. At the Microsoft Convergence conference yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s head of marketing, said that the new flagship browser for Windows, which was announced in January and is codenamed Project Spartan, will not be associated with the Internet Explorer& … Read More → "Microsoft is scrapping Internet Explorer"

According to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Mattel has announced an upcoming Barbie that plans to record children’s voices during play and send those recordings wirelessly to the company. The purpose, Mattel says, is to bring the dream of an interactive Barbie to life for children by creating a doll that can hear and respond to your child.
via … Read More → "New Barbie records children’s voices while playing and sends them wirelessly to Mattel"

It’s not often that animals thought to be extinct are rediscovered, but you can put the Jerdon’s babbler (Chrysomma altirostre) on that short list. The small bird, lasted spotted in the grasslands of Myitkyo, Bago Region near the Sittaung River in 1941, was recently rediscovered by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Myanmar’s Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division—MOECAF, and National University of Singapore (NUS).

The team was … Read More → "A bird thought to be extinct has been rediscovered"

“Asteroid hunters.” It sounds like some Hollywood blockbuster / straight-to-DVD “classic” that already exists, but now you, yes you, can be one… from your PC. NASA has launched a desktop app that recruits civilians to help identify asteroids from telescope photography, helped by a special asteroid algorithm. Scientists announced the desktop app at SXSW during in a panel discussion where they elaborated on how muggles& … Read More → "NASA wants your help hunting for asteroids"

The Diving Bell Spider (Argyroneta aquatica) is the only spider species that lives its entire life underwater.

It accomplishes this amazing feet by maintaining subsurface air bubbles. The spider’s body is covered with tiny hairs. Air bubbles adhere to that textured surface. The spider then weaves protective cases for these air bubbles with its silk. It attaches these air tanks … Read More → "The diving bell spider builds its own underwater air tanks"

As awesome as electric vehicles are—and, they areawesome—range remains their limiting factor. Regenerative braking, which captures energy otherwise lost as heat and returns it to the battery, helps here. And engineers have considered other ways of capturing energy from things like the rebound and compression of shock absorbers. Goodyear sees an opportunity to squeeze a little juice out of the tires.

< … Read More → "Goodyear is trying to make an electricity-generating tire"

Security researchers this week discovered an NSA cyber espionage program that installs malware in hard drive firmware, making it hard to detect or delete. It’s serious stuff, but there’s a light side to this story.

Kaspersky’s researchers also published a list of URLs that the malware … Read More → "These are the silly URLs the NSA uses for cyber espionage"