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The Constellations Won't Always Look That Way
At some point as children, many people learn to identify one or two constellations: The Big Dipper, Scorpio, Orion’s Belt. As adults, they see those same shapes again, the star patterns seeming distant...
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The Trouble with Philae
Even after its gas thrusters and anchoring harpoons failed, the European Space Agency probe Philae still managed to make a historic, albeit bumpy, landing on a comet. But since the touchdown, times on...
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Tracking Fishy Behavior, From Space
Since the first hook caught the first fish perhaps 40,000 years ago, technology has raced with increasing speed to extract more and more fish from the oceans. Most big fish are long gone and fishing...
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Rent-a-Geek
Germany, the country that brought us intricate trash-sorting and car-sharing programs featuring slick BMWs, has a new innovation: peer-to-peer tech support. The program, launched this autumn by mobile...
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Cholera Gave a British Doctor the Idea for IVs
Physicians have been trying to stick fluids into patients—or experimental animals—for hundreds of years. In 1656, Sir Christopher Wren wanted to see what would happen if he took a quill and a pig's...
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How WWII Made Rock Climbing Safer
The leader must not fall. That was once the rule of rock climbing. Still is, to some extent—falling's never a good thing, when you're suspended high above the ground. But in the early years of rock...
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Why No One Can Design a Better Speculum
Few women enjoy pelvic exams: the crinkly paper dress, the awkward questions, the stirrups, the vague fear that can comes with doctors’s visits of any kind (what if they find something abnormal,...
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A Drone for the Environment
Drones are, largely, military tools—hardened, efficient machines of war. They're sturdy, not fuzzy. Strong, not brittle. And they should definitely not start breaking down upon impact. But breaking...
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American Surveillance Now Threatens American Business
What does it look like when a society loses its sense of privacy? In the almost 18 months since the Snowden files first received coverage, writers and critics have had to guess at the answer. Does a...
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There's a Dog in This Story, So More People Will Pay Attention to It
Jack Shepherd, the human whose job is to oversee BuzzFeed's content about animals, once said it was "indisputable" that "the internet is one giant, virtual cat park." After giving a nod to one of the...
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Philae's Turbulent, Triple Touchdown
The European Space Agency's historic comet landing came with several hiccups: Philae's harpoon anchors didn't fire, it bounced off of the comet twice, and it got stuck in a ditch. Now, the ESA has...
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What Wikipedia Taught Me About My Grandfather
On June 6, 1989, my grandfather looked at me and lifted his spoon. Between us was a bowl of lightly sugared fruit. He took a breath, stared down the 9-year-old across from him and said, “Go!” Less than...
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What Texting Does to the Spine
Surgical TechnologySixty pounds is roughly the weight of four adult-sized bowling balls. Or six plastic grocery bags worth of food. Or an 8-year-old. It is also, according to a new calculation...
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Why You Can't Read The Atlantic in China
When Internet users in China fire up TheAtlantic.com, check out product specifications on Sony Mobile, or add a Firefox plugin, well, too bad. The Chinese authorities have blocked those and thousands...
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And Lo, a Taco Emoji Appeared Among Them
This time next year, facing your phone’s keyboard and searching for just the right emoji, you may have some new characters at your disposal. You may be able to tap out something religious, selecting...
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The Word of the Year Is a Total Drag
The Oxford English Dictionary selected "vape" as its word of the year this year. If you're not sure what "vape" means, don't feel bad. I didn't, either, and I deal with words for a living. The...
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When Fitbit Is the Expert Witness
Self-tracking using a wearable device can be fascinating. It can drive you to exercise more, make you reflect on how much (or little) you sleep, and help you detect patterns in your mood over time. But...
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Why Isn't Academic Research Free to Everyone?
A blurb below the search bar on Google Scholar tells you to "stand on the shoulders of giants." The giants in question here are academic writers, and Google Scholar does provide searchable access to...
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The Proton and Neutron Just Got Two New Subatomic Cousins
Using the same massive particle accelerator that found the elusive Higgs Boson in 2012, physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced that they discovered two new "heavy-weight" subatomic...
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Americans Still Use the Whole Pig
Livestock have always been more than just slabs of meat. Traditionally, the inedible parts, like beef fat, were rendered to make products like soap and candles. It's a common refrain from...
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