You can see Janet airplanes at several airports throughout the U.S. You can hear them on air traffic control. You can fly one in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. But you can’t buy a ticket on a Janet flight, and the people who fly on Janet flights can’t tell you, or even their families, what they do for work. It is seemingly an airline that flies to nowhere.</ … Read More → "America’s secret airline flies non-stop to Area 51"

Every other year, the World Design Impact Prize is awarded to a project that uses design to tackle a pressing and widely felt problem. The most recent recipient, as reported by Inhabitat, is a water tower built to extract drinking water straight from the air.

Warka Water is the brainchild of Italian industrial designer Arturo Vittori. … Read More → "Water tower that pulls water from the air wins World Design Impact Prize"

Dousing every meal in salt might make food tastier, but all that extra sodium is eventually going to raise your blood pressure—giving you bigger problems than bland food. So researchers in Japan have built a prototype electric fork that uses electrical stimulation to simulate the taste of salt.

Designed and engineered using … Read More → "This electric fork simulates a salty flavor by shocking your tongue"

Jennifer Null’s husband had warned her before they got married that taking his name could lead to occasional frustrations in everyday life. She knew the sort of thing to expect – his family joked about it now and again, after all. And sure enough, right after the wedding, problems began…

To any programmer, it’s … Read More → "These unlucky people have names that break computers"

After cats, hedgehogs might be the internet’s favorite animal. But how much do you know about these spiky mammals—other than how cute they look when getting a bath?

1. A GROUP OF HEDGEHOGS IS CALLED AN “ARRAY.”

Read More → "16 fun facts about hedgehogs"

The beautiful sport of fencing comes to life with the help of motion tracking and gorgeous visual effects by Japanese fencer Yuki Ota and the Fencing Visualized Project. Each fencer’s weapon is illuminated with trailing color as they attempt to hit their opponent. The technology could be used to make televised fencing … Read More → "Bringing fencing to life with motion tracking and gorgeous visual effects"

Art experts have long known that The Bedroom isn’t the same painting it once appeared to be. In 1888, van Gogh described it in a letter to his brother Theo, saying, “The walls are of a pale violet. The floor—is of red tiles.” Those exact pigments have since vanished after more than a century of fading, but conservation scientists at the … Read More → "Analysis reveals lost colors in Van Gogh’s ‘The Bedroom’"

While they might not look exactly like we had imagined, unicorns actually did exist—and more recently than previously believed. Paleontologists in Kazakstan have uncovered a well-preserved skull of the Elasmotherium sibiricum (aka the “Siberian Unicorn”) that lived just 29,000 years ago—shattering the previous estimation of 350,000 years. The Siberian Unicorn looks more like a furry, slimmed-down version of … Read More → "Paleontologists discover a fossilized skull of the Siberian Unicorn"

Flirtey, the startup that did the first FAA-sanctioned drone delivery in a rural area, has replicated the feat in an urban setting. It sent out an autonomous hexacopter on a half-a-mile flight to an empty house in Hawthorne, Nevada on March 10th, carrying food, water and a first-aid kit in a box attached to a rope. It’s probably not the most secure way to transport fragile objects, though, so … Read More → "Nevada gets first FAA-approved urban drone delivery"

Using genetic engineering to make zany-looking zebrafish isn’t exactly new. (You can buy neon-tinted “GloFish” at just about any pet store.) But this time, the pops of color serve a purpose other than brightening up your aquarium or a David Blaine trick: learning how skin grows back.

Scientists at … Read More → "Scientists genetically engineered tricked-out rainbow zebrafish to study skin cells"