The World’s Smartest Plants, Atomic Clocks, and Whale Poop: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Illustration: Sam Woolley (Gizmodo) / Photo: N. Phillips (NIST) / Illustration: Chelsea Beck (Gizmodo) / Illustration: Jim Cooke (Gizmodo

It’s the final stretch of 2018, folks, and here at Gizmodo we’re still working hard to end this year with a bang. In the past week, we’ve covered everything from which plants are cleverer than others and NASA’s InSight lander to just how screwed up Robin Hood’s version of medieval history is and the annual White House tradition of making Christmas terrifying again. We also found the time to investigate the AI-powered malware of the future and what happens when the Internet Archive fails to record the past.

All this and more below, in our roundup of the best Gizmodo stories of the week.

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What's the Smartest Plant?

Compared to even the dumbest human being, your average tulip is a moron. But you’d have to be…

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When the Internet Archive Forgets

On the internet, there are certain institutions we have come to rely on daily to keep truth from…

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Geologists Joke About 'Sea Monster' After Mysterious 30-Minute Rumble Emanates from Waters Near…

Between Mozambique and Madagascar lies the island of Mayotte. Since May 10, the French Geological…

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NASA's InSight Probe Just Touched Down on Mars—Here's What's Next

Now that NASA’s InSight probe has successfully landed, you might wonder what’s next for it. Well,…

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Scientists Build Atomic Clocks Accurate Enough to Measure Changes in Spacetime Itself

Physicists have created atomic clocks so precise that they can measure deformations in spacetime…

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The Time Capsules That Will Outlast the Apocalypse

When we die, we leave behind information. This information can take many forms, from our genetics,…

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The Watercolor Artist Whose Paintings Help Save Rainforests

Earlier this year, Peru established Yaguas National Park, a 2 million acre Amazonian preserve…

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The Scientists Who Spend Their Summers Hunting for Whale Poop

Marine ecologist Leigh Torres has been documenting gray whales along the Oregon coast since…

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The White House Continues Its Tradition of Turning Christmas Into a Horror Film

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something filled with the coagulating blood of…

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Is the Game-Changing Origin Story You've Been Waiting For

The idea of Sony churning out yet another Spider-Man origin story for the big screen has been…

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The Creators of The Wicked + The Divine Talk About Making Beautiful Magic Together

The comics that Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie have done as a tandem have featured characters…

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The Curious Case of Entrapta on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

The characters on Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power are like an onion: They’ve got…

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We Asked a Researcher to Judge the Historically Inaccurate Junk in Robin Hood

I don’t care that Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood played so fast and loose with history it basically…

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The Malware of the Future Will Have AI Superpowers

In the past two years, we’ve learned that machine learning algorithms can manipulate public…

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The Google Pixel Slate Is a Brilliant Chrome OS Response to the iPad

Chromebooks aren’t supposed to cost a lot of money. That’s a big reason we like them! They’re…

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DJI's Osmo Pocket Is a Very Tiny, Super Steady 4K Camera 

Budding cinematographers and Instagram influencers alike will probably love the Osmo Pocket. This…

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The PlayStation Classic Is Minimum Effort Nostalgia 

Even though I know all these retro consoles are largely an effort turn my nostalgia into big-time…

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This Incredibly Rare Console from the 1980s Is Like the Switch's Great-Great-Great Grandparent…

Without the internet instantly dispersing images to millions of people, it was probably a lot…

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