I have done a great many stupid things in my life: hiking deep in the Canadian Rockies without a map, drinking a large bottle of Robotussin in one swig, eating six hot dogs right before my SATs. But I have never done anything even remotely as dumb as these Aussie cliff-swingers. Ladies and germs, I now present for your viewing pleasure…. the Death Swing.
Noah Shachtman is a contributing editor at WIRED. He's the former editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone and The Daily Beast. ... Read More
Contributing Editor
Quantum ‘Jamming’ Could Help Unlock the Mysteries of Causality
To keep communications secure in a post-quantum world, cryptographers are digging down into the concept of cause and effect.
Matt von Hippel
All the Fancy Measuring Devices Used in Science Rely on Two Stone-Age Techniques
The many methods we use to gather data ultimately boil down to either counting or comparing.
Rhett Allain
Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them From Breeding
Garlic, as your grandmother may have told you, repels mosquitoes; it also completely blocks them from mating and laying eggs. Diallyl disulfide, it turns out, deserves the credit.
Fernanda González
Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy
States across the US are looking to take major sources of pollution and use them to generate much-needed power.
Maria Gallucci
Not to Alarm Anyone, but Flesh-Eating Screwworms Have Entered the US
The USDA this week confirmed the first known infection of the carnivorous fly larva, which feast on the flesh of living mammals, after the United States eradicated the nightmare bugs in the 1960s.
Beth Mole, Ars Technica
The First Atomic Bomb Test in 1945 Created an Entirely New Material
The discovery from the Trinity nuclear test site shows how extreme conditions can result in materials never before seen in nature or in the lab.
Marta Musso
The US Has a Plan to Combat Screwworm. It Involves a Lot More Flies
Releasing sterilized flies can crash a local population of flesh-eating screwworms. But the US currently has limited capacity to produce them.
Emily Mullin
A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned
It’s long been accepted that the smoother the surface, the lower the aerodynamic drag. That turns out not always to be the case.
Ritsuko Kawai
xAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuit
Emails show that Elon Musk’s company is expanding its use of portable gas-fired power at its Colossus 2 site as a fight over air quality continues.
Molly Taft
The Romance Scammer Who Made a Small Fortune Posing as a WWE Superstar
In this excerpt from WIRED Book Club pick The Yahoo Boys, journalist Carlos Barragán traces one scammer’s journey from flop to fortune.
Carlos Barragán
The Universe Is Full of ‘Impossible’ Black Holes. Scientists Now Know Why
There are black holes that are too big to be born from the death of a star but aren’t quite supermassive either. There’s finally evidence for where those came from.
Jorge Garay
Greg Bovino Was the Star at a European Remigration Conference
The man who headed Trump’s invasions of US cities joined the US and European far right in Portugal to preach “remigration”—a plan to expel all minorities and immigrants.
David Gilbert