science

The fact that a commercially-made rocket made it to space and almost piloted itself back to a floating ship safe and sound is a miracle in itself. But he, explosions!

There are many more of these responses right here, but be warned: they don't get any smarter than this.

Just when you think robots are about to take over the world, they go and do something like this.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge was held this past weekend, with numerous teams “vying to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters.”

Turns out they had a few disasters of their own as well.

IEEE Spectrum created a compilation of robot falls from the first day of the finals, and while this is pretty funny to watch in itself, one YouTuber took it a step further and mashed it up with some WWE commentary turning it into Internet gold.

“As much as nobody wanted to see a robot fall, everybody wanted to see a robot fall,” wrote IEEE Spectrum on their blog.

The course involved the competing robots trying to open doors, turn valves, drive cars and climb over rubble.

Team KAIST from South Korea took home the top prize with the fastest time, and here’s their robot, DRC-Hubo, stepping up to victory. It was built with wheels on its knees to help protect it from taking a tumble.

“These robots are big and made of lots of metal and you might assume people seeing them would be filled with fear and anxiety,” said DRC organizer Gill Pratt. “But we heard groans of sympathy when those robots fell. And what did people do every time a robot scored a point? They cheered!”

Meanwhile, nothing can stop the beasts from Boston Dynamics, so while these falls are funny, the threat is still very real.

This conversation will hurt your brain.

QVC is not typically the go-to place for spirited discussions about the mysteries and marvels of space, but this week host Shawn Killinger and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi turned it into one.

Killinger was presenting a "Cherry Blossom Print Boyfriend Cardigan" design by Mizrahi which she thinks looks like the Earth "when you're a bazillion miles away from the planet moon."

And from this point forward we realize our education system has failed us, at least in the science department.

"From the planet moon…" repeats Mizrahi.

"Isn't the moon a star?" she asks, questioning herself.

"No the moon is a planet darling," he says, but Killinger isn't so sure anymore.

"The sun is a star. Is the moon really a planet?" She wonders.

It goes on like this for while. They get people to Google it for them off camera, and Killinger makes a joke about having a blonde moment.

Maybe QVC can book Neil deGrasse Tyson next week to set everyone straight, and while he's at it, pitch his own line of celestial vests and ties.

Skip to the back fifth of the video to get skip the mad candy science and get to the good stuff.

There were a lot of records set in the Stratos jump this past Sunday, but I don't think that's one of them.