Alasdair Wilkins, Author at Gizmodo

Meet the two newest, tiniest horned dinosaurs

Two pint-sized relatives of the famous Triceratops have been discovered in Alberta, giving us our best understanding yet of how these horned dinosaurs expanded into North America. The best part? Neither was much more than a meter or so long. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is unveiling these two new species, Unescopceratops koppelhusae and…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Joss Whedon explains why The Avengers won’t feel Whedonesque. Plus the latest on Game of Thrones and Walking Dead!

Joss Whedon explains how he’s approached editing The Avengers. There are tons more set photos from Doctor Who’s Western episode. Bruce Boxleitner gives a Tron 3 update. Plus the first look at Kristen Stewart as a vampire in Breaking Dawn! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Prometheus. The Avengers Director Joss Whedon says…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

The insane physics that lets us see the Man in the Moon

For millennia, people have looked up at the full Moon and sworn that they could see something up there. Depending on the culture, it’s anything from a face to a dragon. But why is anything there in the first place? The Man in the Moon – which we’ll use as the collective name for everything…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Insects have been battling each other across continents for millions of years

Many insect species have natural enemies. Often, insects are locked in an evolutionary race for dominance with another insect species — and it turns out that these wars are much more epic than we ever realized, according to a new analysis of insect DNA. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh used the DNA of a…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Earth’s twin could be hiding in a thick dust cloud

Our solar system is pretty sparkling clean when it comes to dust. That isn’t necessarily the case elsewhere, as many other stars are surrounded by thick disks of debris. These might actually be the perfect places to find Earth-like planets. That’s the finding of astrophysicist Sean Raymond of France’s Observatory of Bordeaux. He has run…

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Watch some clips from Daenerys’s journey in Game of Thrones season 2!

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Daniel Craig’s third James Bond movie, but we do know Javier Bardem is involved, possibly as the villain. And if new set photos are anything to go by, he’s not above wearing disguises. All that plus Joss Whedon explains the evolution of Iron Man’s look in The…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Behold the eerie infrared glow of the Sombrero Galaxy

This gorgeous infrared image offers a colorful spin on this famous Hubble image of the Sombrero Galaxy. It’s actually a spiral galaxy much like the Milky Way…even if it looks more like a giant floating ring than anything else. https://gizmodo.com/heres-what-the-glow-of-100-billion-stars-looks-like-5550545 NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope provided the infrared data for this image, which builds on the…

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Let Dark Shadows take over your life: Get all 1,225 original episodes in one gargantuan boxset

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows movie has naturally rekindled interested in the cult classic supernatural soap opera…but I didn’t think it had generated this much interest. If you’ve got $600 to spare, you can buy the entire original series on DVD. MPI has announced they are releasing all 1,225 in a single set spread over 131…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

We already have the technology to send trains into space, at a fraction of the cost of rockets

This is Startram, a proposed launch system that would use magnetic levitation trains, a 1000-mile tunnel, and a superconducting cable to reach low Earth orbit. Amazingly, we already have the technology to do it…at far less than the cost of rockets. Gizmag has a great overview of how Startram would work, but the basic idea…

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An extra female sex chromosome might actually make guys more masculine

Between 1 in 500 and 1 in 1000 men have an extra X chromosome, a condition known as Klinefelter’s Syndrome. In mice, these extra female genes have an unexpected effect, as the second X chromosome actually makes mice more masculine. When researchers talk about “masculine” and “feminine” behaviors, they’re typically talking about an animal’s sexual…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Joss Whedon reveals his unexpected plans for the Avengers sequel!

Tons more spoilers have been revealed about Doctor Who’s trip to Spain. Check out new videos for The Hunger Games and Lock-Out. Fringe casts a potentially crucial new role. Plus Misha Collins reveals what to expect from his Supernatural return! It’s spoilers all the way down! Top image from Doctor Who. The Avengers 2 Joss…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

The Seagull Nebula spreads its wings across 100 light-years

This beautiful image is an up-close look at one of the universe’s best examples of pareidolia: the Seagull Nebula, also known as the Parrot Nebula or Eagle Nebula, depending on your ornithological preference. Point is, this is one gargantuan bird. Just like the Man in the Moon, the face on Mars, and, for some reason,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Quantum Suicide: How to Prove the Multiverse Exists, in the Most Violent Way Possible

Quantum mechanics says objective reality doesn’t exist, that instead all we see are probabilities collapsing into one particular configuration… and all other possible realities might just exist together in a quantum multiverse. Here’s the deadly experiment that could help you to test that very idea. First, let’s take a look at two major interpretations for…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The “QWERTY Effect” is changing what words mean to us

Back in the 1870s, a newspaper editor named Christopher Latham Sholes rearranged the letters on typewriters so that the keys would stop jamming. The result was the QWERTY keyboard… and his innovation has actually fundamentally altered how we think about words. That’s the idea put forward by Kyle Jasmin of University College London and Daniel…

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This strange sponge owned the world’s first known skeleton

This rather bizarre organism is Coronacollina acula, which lived on the seafloor about 550 million years ago. This sponge-like creature doesn’t look like much of, well, anything, but its discovery throws a whole new light on the evolution of skeletons. Coronacollina acula dates back to the Ediacaran Period, which spans from 630 to 542 million…

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German Avengers trailer reveals all new scenes. Plus a Farscape star joins Doctor Who!

John Carter’s Andrew Stanton and Michael Chabon explain the legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Susan Sarandon reveals the insane process behind adapting Cloud Atlas. We may not have heard the last of Chronicle — and, for some reason, Terra Nova. Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Prometheus. The Avengers Here’s a German trailer,…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Chimpanzees have their very own police force

Sadly, this news doesn’t involve chimps wearing badges and shooting criminals… at least, not yet. But our fellow primates do display behaviors much like a human cop, as respected members of chimp populations will intervene in conflicts as an impartial peacekeepers. Primatologists at the University of Zurich have confirmed that certain chimps will get themselves…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Galaxies are smashing into each other all over this cluster

This is the Hercules galaxy cluster, located relatively close to us at just 500 million light-years away. But the way its galaxies are colliding with each other makes it look like a throwback to the chaos of the early universe. This new image from the European Southern Observatory gives us our best look yet at…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Some of your genes are more similar to gorillas than to chimps

Our closest evolutionary relatives are chimpanzees, and both of our species are much more related to each other than to gorillas, the next closest relative. But a new genome analysis reveals we share some unexpected traits with our massive gorilla cousins. Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have sequenced the gorilla genome, using DNA…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Joss Whedon explains why The Avengers is finally going to get the Hulk right!

Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard gives a sequel update. The costume designer for The Dark Knight Rises talks about the looks of Bane and Batman. Prepare yourself for another Journey movie. Plus Doctor Who is definitely headed abroad again! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from The Dark Knight Rises. The Avengers Director Joss Whedon…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Alasdair Wilkins

Meet the two newest, tiniest horned dinosaurs

Joss Whedon explains why The Avengers won’t feel Whedonesque. Plus the latest on Game of Thrones and Walking Dead!

The insane physics that lets us see the Man in the Moon

Insects have been battling each other across continents for millions of years

Earth’s twin could be hiding in a thick dust cloud

Watch some clips from Daenerys’s journey in Game of Thrones season 2!

Behold the eerie infrared glow of the Sombrero Galaxy

Let Dark Shadows take over your life: Get all 1,225 original episodes in one gargantuan boxset

We already have the technology to send trains into space, at a fraction of the cost of rockets

An extra female sex chromosome might actually make guys more masculine

Joss Whedon reveals his unexpected plans for the Avengers sequel!

The Seagull Nebula spreads its wings across 100 light-years

Quantum Suicide: How to Prove the Multiverse Exists, in the Most Violent Way Possible

The “QWERTY Effect” is changing what words mean to us

This strange sponge owned the world’s first known skeleton

German Avengers trailer reveals all new scenes. Plus a Farscape star joins Doctor Who!

Chimpanzees have their very own police force

Galaxies are smashing into each other all over this cluster

Some of your genes are more similar to gorillas than to chimps

Joss Whedon explains why The Avengers is finally going to get the Hulk right!

‘Butt Birth’-ing Rhinoceros from Ace Ventura Sequel Sold at Auction for a Whopping $60,000

The Ryan Gosling Sci-Fi Streak Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Study Challenges Popular Theory on Why Primordial Bugs Were So Darn Huge

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway’s Mystery’s Sci-Fi Film Has Its First Trailer

Scientists Just Found the Salt Limit That Pushes Your Heart to the Breaking Point

White House Social Media Just Had Its Covfefe Moment

Roborock F25 Ultra Steam Wet Dry Vacuum Is Now at Its Lowest Price, but Only During the Spring Sale Window

This $450 Semi-Dumb Phone Is Barely Even a Phone

Startup Successfully Ignites World’s First Fusion Rocket

Shokz OpenDots One Earbuds Hit Their Lowest Price Yet Across All Color Options, Including the New Ones

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees