News

Headed to Mars? Pack Some Aerogel—You Know, for Terraforming

Mars attacks. Its wisp of an atmosphere means that if you were standing on the surface, it’d be a race to see if suffocation or the sub-zero temperature killed you first. But that’s all tarring the red planet with too broad a brush, perhaps. It’s not all a rusty, frozen hellscape. At the mid-latitudes, just […]

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The Best of Amazon Prime Day, Twitter's Redesign, and More News

Amazon has a ton of deals for Prime Day, Twitter redesigned its website, and scientists have an idea to make Mars habitable. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here! Today's Headlines Amazon Prime Day is here […]

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Cheaper Lidar, a Self-Driving Deal, and Other Car News This Week

By now, anybody watching the self-driving car space is familiar with the “trough of disillusionment,” the stage of the Gartner hype cycle that follows the “peak of inflated expectations,” and—for the lucky ones—precedes the “slope of enlightenment.” This is the part where instead of puffing their chests out, the technologists put their heads down to […]

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Should You Buy the Nintendo Switch Lite?

Nintendo will launch its Switch Lite system on September 20. This is the first variant of the Switch console to be released since its 2017 debut model, so naturally, people have questions: What makes the Switch Lite different? Is the Switch Lite right for me? What are the pros, cons, and hard facts about this […]

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Get Primed for Prime Day With These Tips and Early Deals

Like winter in Game of Thrones, Amazon's fifth annual Prime Day Sale has come. Prime Day began back in 2015. It was a day-long sale celebrating Amazon's 20th anniversary, a chance for Amazon's millions of Prime subscribers to score some sweet deals. That first Prime Day was so successful that Amazon made it an annual […]

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Facebook's Libra and the Future of Money

Last month, Facebook announced its plans to get into the cryptocurrency race with Libra. A blend of blockchain and partnership with 28 companies, Libra has been pitched as a money transfer service and a unique currency rolled into one. But just by virtue of being a Facebook venture, Libra immediately garnered controversy. Some people think […]

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Space Photos of the Week: A Tribute to Voyager’s Twin Trippers

In late August and early September of 1977, NASA launched twin spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2. These two missions fundamentally changed the way we understand our solar system: Scientists saw massive storms on Jupiter. They found Io covered in erupting volcanoes. They captured Saturn’s rings in such unprecedented and tantalizing detail that it warranted a […]

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Why the Momo Challenge Film Might Beat the Meme Movie Curse

Momo is not coming for your children, but she may be coming soon to a theater near you. The creepy face, which became the center of a viral hoax that petrified thousands of parents earlier this year, is reportedly about to be the basis of a horror movie from Orion Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment, and producer […]

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Amazon Is Making a Lord of the Rings MMO Game

Greetings, gamers! Welcome to a new edition of Replay, WIRED's lightning-fast videogame news roundup. Undoubtedly the biggest deal this week was the announcement of Nintendo's new Switch Lite, but that's just the beginning. There's also a new Lord of the Rings MMO on the horizon, and Cuphead might be getting a TV show. Let's press […]

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Tropical Storm Barry Pits New Orleans Against Water—Again

If all does not go well this weekend, Tropical Storm Barry will spin into the city of New Orleans, bringing with it (according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) life-threatening storm surge, 40 mile-per-hour winds, and perhaps as much as 25 inches of rain. Barry is a lumbering brute; forecasters expect it to linger. […]

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