How William Gibson Keeps His Science Fiction Real
Midway through his career, the inventor of "cyberspace" turned his attention to a strange new world: the present.
Joshua Rothman | The New Yorker
The Photographer Who X-Rayed Chernobyl
With permission to be in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone before tours were available, she photographed the site using a regular camera, but also documented the area—and the legacy of the 1986 nuclear disaster there—in a different, more extraordinary way.
Winnie Lee | Atlas Obscura
Seagoing drones are eliminating the data gap on Earth’s last frontier
When cartographers first started mapping the world’s oceans, sea monsters and mythical beasts inhabited the places where sailors had yet to explore. Today, we still don’t know much about what’s going on in some places, but autonomous sensor platforms are working to change this.
Michael J Coren | Quartz
A Review of the Best Typography Books for Designers
"Over my 19-year career as a designer, I’ve amassed quite a nice collection of books on typography. Some have been more useful than others. In this article, I will share my thoughts on the books I’ve read, as well as gather together a list of books I’ve seen recommended elsewhere that I hope to read in the future."
Jeremiah Shoaf | Typewolf
‘There’s something terribly wrong’: Americans are dying young at alarming rates
A massive study of U.S. mortality shows a grim trend in life expectancy across racial lines.
Joel Achenbach | The Washington Post
Exclusive: Humans placed in suspended animation for the first time
Doctors have placed humans in suspended animation for the first time, as part of a trial in the US that aims to make it possible to fix traumatic injuries that would otherwise cause death.
Helen Thomson | New Scientist
143 New Geoglyphs Discovered on the Nasca Pampa and Surrounding Area
A research group at Yamagata University discovered 142 new geoglyphs which represent living things and other objects, on the Nasca Pampa and surrounding area, while a test using AI successfully identified a new geoglyph they missed — paving the way for the use of AI in understanding Nazca lines and dramatically speeding up their discovery.
News | Yamagata University
Eerie space chatter spewing from the Sun
The European Space Agency just released a recording of the frequencies generated as a solar storm collided with Earth’s magnetic field.
via American Geophysical Union
Humans will ruin outer space just like they’ve ruined everything else
Colonization and exploitation define our major institutions, and are engrained in western society. They persist in science. And unless we make changes, they will persist in outer space as well.
Monica Vidaurri | Quartz
Cosmic cats and nuclear blasts: the strange history of interstellar messages
From Sagan to Tesla, scientists have long puzzled over how to talk to extraterrestrial intelligence
Daniel Oberhaus | The Guardian
NASA will use a robot to listen out for danger on the ISS
A flying robot armed with a suite of microphones will roam through the space station and listen for any worrying clinks and clanks.
Neil V Patel | MIT Technology Review
The Toxic Bubble of Technical Debt Threatening America
Climate change will soon expose a crippling problem embedded in the nation’s infrastructure. In fire-ravaged California, it already has.
Alexis Madrigal | The Atlantic
Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows
Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, according to new research, threatening to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities.
Denise Lu and Christopher Flavelle | The New York Times
Air Force X-37B secret spaceplane lands after 780 days in orbit
A U.S. Air Force X-37B spaceplane made a pre-dawn landing Oct. 27 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after spending 780 days in orbit, breaking its own record by 62 days.
Sandra Erwin | Space News
Evacuation orders rapidly expand in California as wildfires spread in historic windstorm
The county sheriff’s office estimated that 180,000 people had been ordered to flee the Kincade Fire, which has spread to 30,000 acres and was only 10 percent contained. Officials rapidly expanded the number of areas under mandatory evacuation orders in the early hours of the morning as gusts as high as 93 mph swept through the hills and valleys north of the San Francisco Bay area.
Derek Hawkins and Kayla Epstein | The Washington Post
Graphic Content with Warren Ellis
Comics writer, novelist and screenwriter Warren Ellis picks the music that reflects the work he does, how he works, and what music means to him. With tracks from Delia Derbyshire, Billy Bragg and Neu!
Paperback Writers: Graphic Content | BBC 6
U.S. Military Could Collapse Within 20 Years Due to Climate Change, Report Commissioned By Pentagon Says
The report says a combination of global starvation, war, disease, drought, and a fragile power grid could have cascading, devastating effects. The senior US government officials who wrote the report are from several key agencies including the Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, and NASA.
Nafeez Ahmed | Motherboard
NASA's New Space Suits Will Fit Men and Women Alike (for Once)
Seven months after a debacle in which the agency ran short on space suits for women, NASA is showing off a new, more flexible design.
Eric Niller | Wired