Tag: author_name|Andrew Tarantola
How we built a less-explodey lithium battery and kickstarted the EV revolution
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium — these foundational materials are literally what the modern world is built on. Without sand for glass, say goodbye to our fiber optic internet. No copper means no conductive wiring. And a world without lithium is a world without rechargeable batteries. For the…
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Offworld ‘company towns’ are the wrong way to settle the solar system
Company Towns — wherein a single firm provides most or all necessary services, from housing and employment to commerce and amenities to a given community — have dotted America since before the Civil War. As we near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, they’re making a…
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Black hole behavior suggests Dr. Who’s ‘bigger on the inside’ Tardis trick is theoretically possible
Do black holes, like dying old soldiers, simply fade away? Do they pop like hyperdimensional balloons? Maybe they do, or maybe they pass through a cosmic rubicon, effectively reversing their natures and becoming inverse anomalies that cannot be entered through their event horizons but which continuously expel energy and matter…
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Stadium card stunts and the art of programming a crowd
With college bowl season just around the corner, football fans across the nation will be dazzled, not just by the on-field action, but also by the intricate “card stunts” performed by members of the stadium’s audience. The highly-coordinated crowd work is capable of producing detailed images that resemble the pixelated…
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What happened to Washington’s wildlife after the largest dam removal in US history
The man made flood that miraculously saved our heroes at the end of O Brother Where Art Thou were an actual occurrence in the 19th and 20th century — and a fairly common one at that — as river valleys across the American West were dammed up and drowned out…
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Humane’s Ai Pin costs $699 and ships in early 2024, which is about all we know for certain
Wearable startup Humane AI has been dripping details about its upcoming device, the AI Pin, for months now. We firs saw it at a TED Talk in May and, more recently, got a glimpse of its promised capabilities at Paris Fashion Week, ahead of Thursday's official unveiling. However many questions…
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