To play B-Social, you turn the app on, and choose how long you want to ignore your phone. Unlock the screen before your time's up and you lose that round.

For 17 years, the Parkes radio telescope in Australia has been receiving strange, intermittent signals dubbed "perytons". A PhD student finally figured out where they were coming from: Nearby microwaves.

Italian scientists sprayed spiders with water that contained a mixture of graphene flakes and carbon nanotubes. The spiders began producing silk up to six times stronger than before.

An experienced shooter using the technology demonstration system repeatedly hit moving and evading targets.

Data from Spotify appear to confirm why your parents are so out of it: As people get older, they listen to less hot music of the moment, and instead just… Read the rest of the article: As you get older, you listen to less hot music: the "Coolness Spiral of Death"

Samm Bennett catalogues drum kits of the 1920s and 30s — when the bass drums were often sumptuously painted with trippy, outdoorsy scenes.

Dr. Ian Crozier caught Ebola last year, but survived and seemed Ebola-free — until scientists discovered his left eye still harbored a mass of infection, so bad it turned the… Read the rest of the article: Ebola infests a survivor's eye, and turns it green

After the American Civil War, a group of Southerners left for Brazil — where the "Confederados" remained so culturally separate from the rest of Brazilians that to this day their… Read the rest of the article: Brazilians who keep alive the accents of Civil-War-era US southerners

Why were pies in the 1600s baked in such improbable shapes? Over at HiLobrow, Tom Nealon investigates, and Deb Chachra drops some science on the question.

If you want a card for a friend or family member who has cancer, Emily McDowell — who survived Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 24 — has created the… Read the rest of the article: Condolence cards designed by a cancer survivor

Behold: An Apple Watch app that generates a random Pokemon! Stephen Wolfram shows how you can use Wolfram Language to very quickly write all sorts of fun software for the… Read the rest of the article: Making oddball Apple Watch apps with Wolfram Language

Crystal is an app that attempts to summarize your personality by analyzing your online presence. My friend the philosopher Evan Selinger wrote a smart assessment of the problems with this… Read the rest of the article: Crystal, an app that attempts to summarize your personality

Back in the 70s, the federal Office of Technology Assessment calculated the effects of a bomb hitting Detroit, and Leningrad. It wasn't a pretty picture, and nearly 40 years later,… Read the rest of the article: What if Detroit were nuked? A 1979 government report found out

The McCoys made the pop song "Hang on Sloopy" famous in 1965; twenty years later, the Ohio State Assembly voted it in as the state's official rock song. The legislation… Read the rest of the article: When Ohio passed a law making "Hang on Sloopy" the official state song

In the 60s and 70, Cambodia had a thriving, free-wheeling rock scene. Then along came the Khmer Rouge. Filmmaker John Pirozzi hunted down the surviving members of that scene and… Read the rest of the article: Cambodian rock — before the Khmer Rouge destroyed it

Only two known forms of cancer are contagious, affecting dogs and Tasmanian devils. Now a third has been discovered — infecting clams by spreading through the water in the Northeast… Read the rest of the article: A "contagious" cancer is infecting clams

Behold the "emotional geography" of Victorian literary: A map that shows the "feeling and sensations" connected with various city locations in 19th-century novels. There are some surprising findings.

Profs sometimes complain about the harsh ratings on RateMyProfessors. I wonder what they think of the sketches students are uploading to DrawYourProfessor?

I love this prototype by Roy Martens: a set of Sifteo cubes that run Spotify, allowing you to trigger songs by moving the blocks around.

In the New Yorker, my friend Dan Zalewski reports on Lonni Sue Johnson, a 64-year-old with profound amnesia—and new research into how her brain, and memory, works.