“Fortnite is dead” felt like an increasingly popular sentiment in 2020. You certainly didn’t have to look too hard to find comments from gamers who felt that it was the end of an era for a game so popular that it was prominently featured in the highest-grossing movie of all-time. But in recent months, it
Month: December 2020
DuckTales has been cancelled after three seasons. It’s a major gut punch to any fan of the astounding reboot of the classic 80’s series. Even three seasons in it felt like the show was only beginning to rev up. It was slowly building a new version of the Disney Afternoon universe, more and more characters
In a perfect world, TV streaming services would offer a playlist feature – imagine the joyful nerdery of shareable Top 10 episode lists. When it came time for a Christmas binge-watch while you’re wrapping gifts, or spraying pine cones silver, or gently weeping and glugging Advocaat from the bottle (whatever your festive tradition is, delete
IMAGE: Graphene enhanced heat pipes can efficiently cool power electronics view more Credit: Ya Liu/Johan Liu/Chalmers University of Technology Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have found that graphene-based heat pipes can help solve the problems of cooling electronics and power systems used in avionics, data centres, and other power electronics. “Heat pipes are one
Fresh off the heels of the American Gods Season 3 renewal, hosts Kari Lane and Flobo Boyce chat about, this week’s episode “The Beguiling Man.” We get some insight on Shadow’s relationship with his late mother, Laura and Mad Sweeney enter The Horde, and a plan is a-brewing with The #NewGods. ABOUT AMERICAN GODS: American
We don’t know if you’ve noticed but chess is having a bit of a moment right now. Thanks to Netflix’ superb and stylish miniseries The Queen’s Gambit, many retailers are reporting a significant increase in sales of chess boards. Chess is as fun as it is ancient, but if you want to get in on
I enjoyed and even loved Happiest Season, Hulu’s new lesbian Christmas romantic comedy. But like pretty much any queer person with a pulse and a Twitter account, I’ve spent the last week dissecting some of the more troubling aspects of a movie that was meant to be romantic escapist fun. Some of its issues come
Star Wars Sequel Trilogy 2017 middle act The Last Jedi may have a share of detractors for numerous reasons, but the 2019 release of J.J. Abrams’s closing follow-up, The Rise of Skywalker, and three whole years of hindsight have put it into perspective, generating a unique appreciation for director Rian Johnson’s renegade franchise offering. However,
IMAGE: Massive work function-mediated charge transfer in graphene/?-RuCl3 heterostructures provides the necessary conditions for generating plasmon polaritons without electrostatic or chemical doping. The image depicts a characteristic infrared near-field image of… view more Credit: Daniel J. Rizzo/Columbia University New York, NY–December 2, 2020–Graphene, an atomically thin carbon layer through which electrons can travel virtually unimpeded, has
IMAGE: A nanomaterial sheet can be used to either bounce heat away or absorb it. Here it is in heating mode (top) and cooling mode (bottom). view more Credit: Po-Chun Hsu, Duke Engineering DURHAM, N.C. – Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a dual-mode heating and cooling device for building climate control that, if widely deployed
Nucleation is a ubiquitous phenomenon that governs the formation of both droplets and bubbles in systems used for condensation, desalination, water splitting, crystal growth, and many other important industrial processes. Now, for the first time, a new microscopy technique developed at MIT and elsewhere allows the process to be observed directly in detail, which could
As we move away from fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy to tackle climate change, the need for new ways to capture and store energy becomes increasingly important. Lancaster University researchers studying a crystalline material have discovered it has properties that allow it to capture energy from the sun. The energy can be stored
New class of living plant-based sensor interfaces wild-type plants with engineered optical nanosensors, able to detect arsenic levels as low as 0.2 parts per billion Arsenic is a heavy metal highly toxic to humans and the ecosystem – inorganic arsenic in rice is estimated by some to lead to 50,000 premature deaths a year This
IMAGE: PhD researcher Ebtsam Alenezy holds a prototype of the light-activated hydrogen sensor, which can deliver ultra-precise results at room temperature. view more Credit: RMIT University Inspired by the surface of butterfly wings, researchers have developed a light-activated hydrogen sensor that produces ultra-precise results at room temperature. The technology can detect hydrogen leaks well before they
IMAGE: A temporary adhesive based on molecular solids is strong enough to hold a chemistry PhD candidate, but can be released without force through the use of heat in a vacuum. view more Credit: Photo courtesy of Nicholas Blelloch. HANOVER, N.H. – December 2, 2020 – Temporary glues may not steal headlines, but they can make
Join hosts Chauncey K. Robinson, Jaimi Alexander, and Zach Silverman as we join the family affair for the season 5 premiere! Listen and watch as we get to know the fastest woman alive, Nora West-Allen, what might have happened to Killer Frost, and the big bad of the new season! Flash is based upon characters
While Netflix’s 2018 holiday film, The Christmas Chronicles, didn’t have a clear antagonist—it was more about saving Christmas—the 2020 sequel pits Santa Claus (Kurt Russell) against an elfin protégé-turned-human-rival, Belsnickel (Julian Dennison). But while Belsnickel, with his odd garb and anti-Claus vendetta, might initially seem not to fit into The Christmas Chronicles 2, the character
Warning: contains spoilers for The Expanse season 4 At the beginning of The Expanse season four, the show’s characters stood at the crossroads of a brave and expansive new world, as did the cast and crew in their new home at Amazon. It was a marriage made in heaven. The Expanse was bigger, slicker, bolder,
To be abundantly clear: the first Doctor Who Christmas Special was ‘The Christmas Invasion‘ in 2005. However, the first time the show was broadcast on Christmas Day was in 1965, the seventh episode of ‘The Dalek Master Plan’. The previous two years also had also seen Dalek stories at Christmas, with the first ever Dalek
We need hopeful, critical, and empathetic voices in speculative fiction now more than ever, and Charlie Jane Anders is one of the best. The io9 co-founder who has gone on to write Hugo-nominated speculative fiction novels All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, is coming out with
Did you know that Elf is Canada’s favorite Christmas movie, or that Singapore loves Home Alone? Check out the most popular Christmas movies by country! “The start of the holiday season means it’s time to recommence the annual debate over which Christmas movies are the best. If you’re discussing the matter with a friend from
For many music fans, the name Trent Reznor has long been synonymous with Nine Inch Nails. It is, after all, the groundbreaking industrial rock act that Reznor founded in 1988 and was the sole stationary member of until Atticus Ross was added as a permanent member in 2016. For others still, Reznor and Ross are
IMAGE: Skoltech researchers have investigated the procedure for catalyst delivery used in the most common method of carbon nanotube production, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), offering what they call a “simple and… view more Credit: Pavel Odinev/Skoltech Skoltech researchers have investigated the procedure for catalyst delivery used in the most common method of carbon nanotube production, chemical
IMAGE: IoT sensor captures and detects trace amounts of antigens on a nano-film surface view more Credit: COPYRIGHT (C) TOYOHASHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Overview: Associate Professor Kazuhiro Takahashi and Assistant Professor Yong-Joon Choi of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology have developed a chip that can
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed new and improved probes, known as positive controls, that could make it easier to validate rapid, point-of-care diagnostic tests for COVID-19 across the globe. The positive controls, made from virus-like particles, are stable and easy to manufacture. Researchers say the controls have the potential to
IMAGE: As biosensing and bio-imaging research seeks to look deep inside tissue to the intracellular level miniaturising laser devices poses significant challenges for these nanoscale biological applications. view more Credit: Jiajia Zhou Lasers are used in a range of everyday devices, harnessing the power of light molecules, photons, – lined up to form highly concentrated beams
Hosts discuss Outlander for the episode “First Wife.” AFTERBUZZ TV — Outlander edition, is a weekly “after show” for fans of Starz’s Outlander. In this show, hosts Adrian Snow, Tiona Hobson, Rachel Goodman, and Emily Harlan break down the episode 8. ABOUT OUTLANDER: Outlander is an American-British television drama series based on the historical time travel
HBO’s Rome ran for only 22 episodes. Divided over two seasons, the show premiered in 2005 and concluded in 2007. Yet despite its brevity, the original HBO epic left an indelible legacy—and some unfinished business. Reports of a possible Rome movie continuing the narrative of the series sprung up shortly after its finale aired in
This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers. Baby Yoda has a big adventure ahead of him. In Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, “The Jedi,” the audience and Din Djarin both learn two important pieces of information. First, the kid’s name is Grogu. Perhaps it’ll catch on as well as Baby Yoda did? Second, Ahsoka
The most gripping scene in the His Dark Materials episode ‘Theft’ is a two-hander between Ruth Wilson and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Mrs Coulter and Lee Scoresby. (As their daemons are a key part of things, the scene could more properly be described as a two-hands and eight-paws-er, but let’s not be cute about it.) Invented