In 2014, chemist Floyd Romesberg, of the Scripps Research Institute, synthesized a new pair of artificial nucleotides and got a cell to accept them as part of its genetic code. In metaphorical terms, he extended the alphabet of life. To review, the DNA molecule is built from four nucleotides, or “letters”: adenine (A), thymine (T), […]
Of all the weird, blood-soaked thriller-horror flicks Italian director Dario Argento ever made, Suspiria is the one cinephiles most often like to name-drop. With good reason: It looks somewhat ham-fisted now, but it’s a brilliant piece, full of twisted witchcraft themes and an electric color palette that’s still eye-catching four decades later. With director Luca […]
When you open TikTok, its weird hits you like a train. There is no preamble, no consistent landing page: Your whole phone screen is now teenage cheerleaders bouncing, then a cat attacking a hand to the beat of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It,” then two people lip-syncing to Bebe Rexha’s “I’m a Mess” in […]
Since its founding in 2015, chat and messaging client Discord has become a powerful upstart in the gaming software scene, drawing a commanding user base in a short time—150 million monthly active users, the company revealed today—and cracking the code of "social gaming integration" in a way that larger companies have failed to do. Along […]
If you haven’t spent your life reading comic books, they can seem weird. Like any medium, like movies or books or podcasts, comics have their own informational syntax. The pairing of static images with cartoon indicators of motion, typographically distinct onomatopoeic sound effects, enbubbled words for dialog—you have to learn to digest all that. After […]
In retrospect, 1976 may not have been the absolute dawn of videogames, but it was certainly the dawn of moralizing about games. That was the year Exidy re-worked its arcade title Destruction Derby as Death Race, tying it to recent cult hit Death Race 2000—and receiving blowback from the National Safety Council in the process. […]
You've got a little more than seven weeks left before the end of 2018. You've probably also got a pile of books you bought this year that you still haven't finished. Normally we'd tell you to buckle down—but not right now. Right now, you're surrounded by new releases that demand your attention, whatever your preferred […]
This story was originally published in September 2018, before Hurricane Florence made landfall in the Carolinas. Its advice, however, is timeless, and we've updated the post accordingly. Social media can be a lifeline during natural disasters. It has become an essential tool for people to find accurate information—about highway closures, weather forecasts, evacuations—and to contact […]
I'm not sure if I should be feeling so comfortable in the apocalypse. That's the thought that keeps working its way through my mind as I play the first hours of Fallout 76 and its now-foundational rituals. As I leave the nuclear war refuge of the Vault. As I find ugly leather armor. As I […]
Do you know the tragic story of Hard Rock Park? I'll keep it quick: A decade ago, just as the 2008 credit crisis was hitting, a multi-million-dollar classic-rock-themed amusement park opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It featured rollercoasters dedicated to Led Zeppelin and The Eagles, a sensory-overloading ride based on The Moody Blues’ love […]