The Internet Made Dumbledore Gay
Just imagine the fanfiction now. It’s the kind of thing people write on social media after a tense scene between two heavily “shipped” characters, or when fan-favorite actors get cozy off set. It’s also what Potterverse creator J.K. Rowling said to a shocked Carnegie Hall in 2007, moments after she revealed that she’d “always thought…
Colloidal Silver Turns You Blue—But Can It Save Your Life?
In 2008, Paul Karason, a 57-year-old man from the Pacific Northwest, agreed to appear on the Today show. And appear is the best word for it, since he was there because of the way he looked. From head to toe, Paul Karason was the color blue. Not a subtle light-wash tint, either. This was closer…
Game of Thrones' Final Season Has a Launch Date
Happy Monday, and welcome to another installment of The Monitor, WIRED's roundup of the latest in the world of culture. In today's news, HBO has finally coughed up a release date for the final season of Game of Thrones, Netflix is facing a lawsuit, and it looks like the Super Bowl won't be marooned without…
The Astounding Engineering Behind the World's Largest Optical Telescope
It's easy to miss the mirror forge at the University of Arizona. While sizable, the Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory sits in the shadow of the university's much larger 56,000-seat football stadium. Even its most distinctive feature—an octagonal concrete prominence emblazoned with the school's logo—looks like an architectural feature for the arena next door. But…
The Best of Stan Lee’s Marvel Comic Books
To try and summarize the comic book career of Stan Lee is almost impossible. He was the primary—at times, sole—writer for Marvel in the 1960s when the company was becoming Marvel Comics. He was involved in the co-creation of almost all of the company’s most well-known characters, from Spider-Man to the X-Men, with Iron Man,…
Can Nike's New Marathon Shoes Make You Faster? A Nike-Funded Study Says Yes
Eliud Kipchoge, the world's best marathon runner, runs in Nike shoes. But do his shoes help him run faster? You'll be shocked—shocked!—to learn that Nike claims they do. Kipchoge wears a special version of the Vaporfly 4%, which got its name from a study out of CU Boulder. Funded by Nike, and conducted in collaboration…
How #HimToo Became the Anti #MeToo of the Kavanaugh Hearings
Since its inception, the #MeToo movement has received copious backlash: Survivors brave enough to speak up face harassment and doxing, while the media speculates about how being outed as an abuser will impact men’s careers. But until a few days ago, #MeToo hadn’t inspired a full-on hashtag-slinging countermovement. Now there’s #HimToo. The hashtag and its…
How the CIA Trains Spies to Hide in Plain Sight
Despite how easy it looks in James Bond movies and heist flicks, good disguises are hard to pull off. A good wig and some makeup don't make you a new person—full transformation requires a full attitude adjustment. Just ask any contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race. And when you're a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency,…
What if Sex Is Just a Garbage Dump for Genetic Mutations?
For a species whose numbers show no signs of collapsing, humans have a shockingly high mutation rate. Each of us is born with about 70 new genetic errors that our parents did not have. That’s much more than a slime mold, say, or a bacterium. Mutations are likely to decrease an organism’s fitness, and an…
Ephemerality Is a Lie
On the internet, as with most of life, you can’t count on things lasting forever. Websites close down, servers get turned off, the wrong button gets hit and years of work is erased. But just as you can’t depend on anything persisting, you can’t count on everything disappearing, either. Those photos of you looking ridiculous…