As the demand grows for the metals that power electronics, we may have to look farther and farther for mining opportunities. The next big mining frontier is the deep sea: along the seafloor, mysterious vents shoot scalding hot fluid into the ocean. These vents are a haven for miraculous and unique sea life, but they’re also home to highly concentrated (and very valuable) metals. What happens if we decide that the metals are worth more than the life?
Two engineers try to create an immortal dog in John Scalzi’s short story “A Model Dog.” In this animated adaptation, an overbearing CEO demands that his employees engineer a solution to his dad’s aging dog.
This year, if all goes well, astronauts will launch to space on a private craft for the first time in history. It’s SpaceX’s big chance to show NASA that it can be trusted with the work of ferrying astronauts to and from the international space station. We met the two astronauts selected for this historic mission and spoke with them about what’s different about working with a private company like SpaceX.
It only takes one rocket to start an interplanetary revolution.
Organic food is a huge trend: it promises a healthier and better life. But can Organic food really live up to the expectations or is it just baloney?
“Sierra” was just crowned the second-most powerful supercomputer on the planet. And while most of its peers use their power for climate simulations, astrophysics, and other civilian work, Sierra is purpose-built for an entirely different mission: nuclear weapons. We took a tour of this massive system, and found out why the US builds supercomputers to support its nuclear arsenal.
This week, scientists will meet to redefine the world’s weights
In 1977, twin golden records were sent into space on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts. Still sailing through space at nearly 60,000 km per hour, the records contain sound, songs, and images from earth. But how did NASA include images on an analog record? Here, we decoded the audio, and see the images the way that aliens were intended to see them.
Earlier this year, a company launched four tiny satellites into orbit without permission. These “rogue satellites” caused an uproar in the space community, and in the future, others like them could increase the risk of catastrophic collisions in orbit. We talked to some space experts about what’s at stake when no one knows exactly what’s up there in space.
In 1946, the American military detonated a nuke underwater in the Pacific Ocean to see what would happen to abandoned warships nearby. In this video, we trace the far-reaching consequences of that test. It leads all the way to the present day; to a major American city; and to a nuclear scandal that’s cost millions and has put people behind bars.
Meat is a complicated issue. But also a delicious one. Let's talk about it.
‘It was like watching fireworks, but from the inside’
This week, we meet the very cute and very bizarre result of an almost 60-year-long experiment: they’re foxes that have been specially bred for their dog-like friendliness toward people. We do a little behavior research of our own, and discover what scientists continue to learn from the world’s most famous experiment in domestication.
How Google Earth led a team of scientists to discover an untouched mountaintop rainforest
We cover a lot of space stories at The Verge, but this is the closest we’ve gotten to actually going there. Join Loren Grush as she takes a ride on the infamous “vomit comet” and experiences true weightlessness.
A war has been raging for billions of years, killing trillions every single day, while we don’t even notice. This war involves the single deadliest being on our planet: The Bacteriophage.
That big “E” at the top of your doctor’s eye chart tells you whether you need glasses - but it also tells you a lot about the physics happening inside your eyes. We put human visual acuity to the test - in our office, and across a city.
The Black Hole Bomb and Black Hole Civilizations
Why should you care about the well-being of people half a globe away?