Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More

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With the successful recovery of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, private space exploration takes a great leap forward. But it's also a reminder of the history of private business in manned spaceflight, both real and imagined.

A project to use barcodes to track consumer waste reminds me of what Slavoj �i�ek says while standing amidst piles of garbage: "part of our daily perception of reality is that this [trash] disappears from our world."

At Boston's Berklee College of Music, an a cappella choir treats video game music with a full measure of seriousness�and affection.

This third installment of a serial review of Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants encounters technology as a force with a sense of purpose and a plan. What that plan consists in we don't know�and it seems that technology isn't telling.

Design fiction as poetry, "Tableau" is a nightstand that quietly prints out photos from Twitter and places them in its drawer. Emily Dickinson might have approved.

Impress your Romulan visitors with this fashionable DIY sliding-door treatment. Video after the jump.

An animated tour of the known universe gives a glimpse of cosmic structure�and hints at our limited view.

Entropy isn't just something that makes us lose our car keys; it also keeps time's arrow pointed in its familiar direction, as this deft film by John Pavlus ably shows. Video after the jump.

The latest example of the periodic-table-of-elements meme is�wait for it�a periodic table of elements.