“Seeing” a Black Hole

Every visualization you’ve ever seen of a black hole has been an illustration. As Vox points out, the closest the scientific community has ever come to seeing one was through last year’s observation of “spacetime-warping gravitational waves radiating” from the billion-year-old collision of two black holes. This is because black holes are small, far away, dark and surrounded by bright things. Now, however, a planet-sized …

Digital Knitting Machine, Kniterate

On Kickstarter now, an invention that turns your designs into garments

Aspiring fashion designers can now attempt to produce their own knitwear with a clever digital knitting machine currently funding on Kickstarter. Already fully-funded with $287,000 and still 32 days to go (at time of publish), well over their $100k goal, Kniterate automatically turns users’ designs into garments—from sweaters to scarves and even shoes. Similar to an industry-level machine, Kniterate is computer-controlled. With six yarn carriers …

The Haunting Sounds of Icebergs

Only 20 years ago the scientific community had no idea that icebergs made noise. After the last remaining chunk of the largest iceberg ever (twice the size of Delaware) began to fall apart, sounds were heard up to thousands of miles away. In fact, the ocean was documented as being much noisier as a whole. Through data analysis, scientists were able to trace the sounds …