US Department of Energy 3 00 seconds will produce a relatively quick death, which is better than many alternatives. After just 30 seconds of exposure, dizziness and fatigue will find you a week later. Two minutes of exposure and your cells will soon begin to hemorrhage ; four minutes: vomiting,…

by KYLE MIZOKAMI The year is 2016, and two of the U.S. Navy’s latest ships are backing a key ally in the tinderbox of the South China Sea. They’re facing down the Chinese navy halfway across the world with the latest weapons and systems the United States can get its hands on. But is it enough? For…

In 1893, Rudolf Diesel was awarded a patent for the diesel engine. Gandhi committed his first act of civil disobedience. Thomas Edison created the movie studio. And zany New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote. Nabisco invented Cream of Wheat. It was also the year that…

Next Showtime has a problem. The problem is this: on a long enough timeline, all of its shows start to suck. It happened with Weeds . It happened with Dexter . And now it’s starting to happen with Homeland . It’s arguably Showtime’s most critically beloved series to date, and its rapid deterioration…

Why OS/2 got SIQ Unfortunately, OS/2 had a crucial flaw in its design: a Synchronous Input Queue (SIQ). What this meant was that all messages to the GUI window server went through a single tollbooth. If any OS/2 native GUI app ever stopped servicing its window messages, the entire GUI would get…

The USS Zumwalt getting a coat of paint at Bath Iron Works. The ship is exotic in many ways, but it runs on off-the-shelf computing technology. It also costs nearly $4 billion. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works When the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) puts to sea later this year, it will be different from any…

The Higgs Boson, a particle that has shaped the theories of modern particle physics, was discovered at a super collider in Geneva. It was a hugely significant moment for big science—and it should have been discovered in Texas.

Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach, thinks we’ve lost sight of what artificial intelligence really means.

The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other. It rarely tries new things in…

Apple execs talk up the new features in OS X Mavericks. At yesterday's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple made some bold claims about the future of battery life in its laptops. A new 13-inch Macbook Air, for instance, should now run a full 12 hours on a single charge , up from 7 in…

Photographed by Mario Testino, Vogue, September 2013 Whether lighting up an indie or fronting a blockbuster franchise, Jennifer Lawrence is the most electric talent to hit Hollywood in a generation. Jonathan Van Meter meets America’s favorite heroine. Leave it to J.Law to choose the Odeon, a…

Ray Mears: 'I can identify the different species of trees by the sound their leaves make, and they can foretell weather changes.' Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian F rankly, I have been brought here under false pretences. I had been promised an interview with Ray Mears in Richmond Park. We…

Swiss workers pack iodine tablets to send for the Swiss embassy in Japan. The pills keep the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine. ( PASCAL LAUENER / REUTERS ) By Staff Reporter Tues., March 15, 2011 Japanese survivors of the tsunami and earthquake who live near the four stricken nuclear…

Julian Assange hasn’t set foot outside Ecuador’s London embassy in more than a year. But physical confinement seems only to enhance his reach.

The world of container shipping is crucial to our everyday existence, yet few people have any idea what happens on the high seas.

As Skype turns ten, a look back at how six Europeans changed the world.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Inca Empire was the largest South America had ever known. Rich in foodstuffs, textiles, gold, and coca, the Inca were masters of city building but nevertheless had no money. In fact, they had no marketplaces at all. Centered in Peru, Inca territory…

50 Unusual Facts About Tigers Animal Planet recently voted the impressively powerful tiger to be the world’s favorite animal. Yet a great deal of what we know about tigers is colored by common misconceptions or confusion with other large cats. Tigers are the most varied cat on earth, and have many…

The 55 miles from Campbell to San Francisco make for one of the nicest commutes anywhere. The journey mostly zips along the Junipero Serra Freeway, a grand and remarkably empty highway that abuts the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is one of the best places in Silicon Valley to spot a…

Admired and attacked in Season 1, the HBO drama reboots with A-list advisers as its creator opens up about his process (up to 6 showers in one day), how he broke his nose and dealing with hate-watchers: "You're playing a dangerous game if you write to try to change people's minds." This story first…

Runner No. 3694 in the Chicago Marathon was known as Superman. Runner No. 21385 was nine months’ pregnant. At Mile 26, their paths diverged. And there’s no explaining why only one crossed the finish line.

How San Francisco’s new entrepreneurial culture is changing the country.

Share 7 Share 37 Shares 129 Have you heard of the Rule of 72? Maybe if you go back to your college finance class? And even if you did remember it, you probably haven’t thought about it since then – especially in an investing context . However, the Rule of 72 is a great tool that every investor…

Illustration by Mike Nudelman/Photo by Fortune Live Media On the morning of Thursday, July 12, 2012, Yahoo’s interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn, still believed he was going to be named permanent CEO of the company. He had just one meeting to go. That meeting was a board meeting, to be held that day in a…

As she works to reverse the fortunes of a failing Silicon Valley giant, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer has fueled a national debate about the office life, motherhood, and what it takes to be the CEO of the moment. “I really like even numbers, and I like heavily divisible numbers. Twelve is my lucky number—I…

Courtesy White arkitekter AB Mining damage is forcing Kiruna, Sweden, to pick up and move — two miles east. At 90 miles above the Arctic Circle, the small outpost of Kiruna, Sweden, may seem like an odd choice for a new, billion-dollar model city. But Sweden's northernmost town, with a population…

After taking a turn as a Sunset Strip club owner in last week's screen adaptation of hair-metal musical Rock of Ages , Alec Baldwin will appear in Woody Allen 's latest European ode, To Rome With Love , to be released this Friday. The newly engaged, paparazzi-sparring actor and Words With Friends…

While he is currently most famous for his role as the hot-tempered, ratings-chasing executive producer, Don Keefer, on HBO's The Newsroom , Thomas Sadoski is also a theater veteran. Sadowski's role in Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty (2009) earned him a Tony nomination , and last year the actor…