Alasdair Wilkins

What the heck are the clouds doing in this video?

The sky above this Singapore hotel seems perfectly normal…but then something weird starts happening in the clouds. They suddenly change shapes, brighten and dim, and seem to pulsate for no apparent reason. This strange phenomenon has baffled scientists…until now. Videos capturing these strange, rapid light changes in clouds have popped up a lot in recent…

Stephen Dorff explains why he’s the Han Solo of Immortals

We recently chatted with Stephen Dorff about his role in Tarsem Singh’s Greek gods epic Immortals. He explained why he saw his character — a hungry, horny thief and escaped slave — as the perfect antidote to the sometimes stuffy world of the gods. Dorff, probably best known in these parts for his turn as…

Bruce Campbell reveals why Ash won’t be in the Evil Dead reboot!

Batman takes to the skies in new Dark Knight Rises photos. Tarsem Singh talks up his kinder, gentler Snow White movie. Casting details are revealed for the 300 sequel. Plus John Barrowman reveals his dreams of a Doctor Who movie! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight…

Mickey Rourke tells us why Immortals isn’t some “Marvel piece of crap”

Mickey Rourke was the best thing about Iron Man 2, and now he’s wreaking havoc in a bear-tooth hat in The Immortals. How does he go about creating such memorably batshit villains? We were lucky enough to speak with him one on one recently, and he told us his evil secrets. Find out how Rourke…

The sudden evolutionary shift that drove ancient hominids to socialize with each other

Our capacity for complex social interactions is a defining feature of humanity, but how did it evolve? It seems like it would have been a slow, gradual process, but a new statistical model suggests something very unusual happened 52 million years ago. The last few decades have seen remarkable strides in our understanding of social…

The long-awaited Neuromancer is courting a major star… but for which role?

Aaron Eckhart’s post-apocalyptic Frankenstein movie chooses a location. Director Bill Condon says something shocking about Breaking Dawn’s special effects. Army reservists reveal secrets of being an Avengers extra. Plus showrunner Jeff Pinkner explains why Peter had to disappear on Fringe! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Immortals. The Dark Knight Rises Here’s a…

Immortals Cast Interviews

Fossilized footprints reveal the deadly caterpillar that ruled the oceans 500 million years ago

Many of the creatures that lived in the seas half a billion years ago were far too soft to leave behind many fossils. But their footprints remain, and one of the most striking finds is a giant, predatory sea millipede. Our best window into the Cambrian Period of 500 million years ago is the Burgess…

Satellites reveal Libya’s lost 2,000-year-old cities

One of the side effects of the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime is that archaeologists can now explore parts of the country’s past that were long suppressed, starting with the lost cities of the ancient Garamantes civilization. Satellites and aerial photographs have revealed evidence of over a hundred fortified farms, villages, and towns…

Marsh harrier birds suggest there are evolutionary advantages to gender bending

Over 40% of male marsh harriers look like females, spending their lives sporting the brown plumage and white heads characteristic of females. They’re one of only two bird species that does this. What’s the evolutionary advantage of gender bending? While the males of many bird species will have female plumage as they grow up, marsh…

Your hibernation pod is ready

Imagine going to sleep for months at a time and then waking up just in time to land on Mars. Hibernation is second nature to bears and other mammals…but there’s no reason humans can’t do it too. Exactly how hibernation works and why only certain animals do it remain great mysteries for biologists, but the…

Find out what’s ahead for Fringe, The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, and American Horror Story!

The Avengers find their composer. Steven Spielberg picks a location for Robopocalypse. Henry Cavill explains the difference between Tarsem Singh and Zack Snyder. What does The Hunger Games need to succeed? Plus the latest on the dueling Snow White adaptations! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from The Avengers. The Dark Knight Rises Here’s…

Fish will have to swim faster to survive climate change

As sea temperatures rise, many fish species will have to relocate to find waters that can support them. But they won’t have a lot of time to look for the right new home. For fish, it’s survival of the fastest. An international team of researchers examined over fifty years’ worth of data dating back to…

We could spot alien civilizations from the light of their cities

There’s no surefire way to find evidence of alien civilizations — indeed, they’re basically all long shots — but a new method could reveal the existence of aliens just like us. And we’ve almost got the technology needed to do it. It’s always dangerous to assume that another intelligent species would evolve along the same…

New DNA analysis reveals what cavemen were really painting 35,000 years ago

The artistic skill and attention to detail on display in prehistoric cave paintings is nothing short of astonishing, but one unsolved mystery is whether prehistoric humans simply painted exactly what the saw, or if the art was more symbolic. And recently, we’ve come a lot closer to answering that question. Some key pieces of evidence…

One of the galaxy’s youngest stars surrounds itself with massive nebula

A giant star known as IRS 4 is one of the rare stars that’s actually younger than the human race. Formed just 100,000 years ago, it’s already leaving its mark on the cosmos, creating that huge hourglass-shaped nebula. Of course, exactly which star is IRS 4 might not be immediately obvious. The massive star in…

Tons More Videos and Photos from The Dark Knight Rises‘ Epic Battle Scene!

The American Akira might not be completely white-washed. The directors of the new Ghost Rider explain how they crammed R-rated violence into a PG-13 movie. George Miller is still hopeful the new Mad Max movies will happen. All that plus details on an epic Game of Thrones battle, the new James Bond movie Skyfall rounds…

What to expect from Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2, Clash of the Titans 3, and Tintin 3!

Another key Dark Knight Rises cast member is spotted in New York. George R.R. Martin’s other famous series gets a movie adaptation. Joshua Jackson promises the epic return of an old Fringe villain will be the best episode ever! It’s spoilers all the way down! Top image from The Amazing Spider-Man. The Dark Knight Rises…

New galactic survey reveals relatively few stars have the right stuff to create life

To get life, you first need organic molecules, and the easiest way to get those is from the compound methanol. Now it seems there are very specific conditions needed to create methanol and, ultimately, life… and most stars don’t have them. The organic molecules that are the basis for life here on Earth — and,…

Fruit fly intestines could hold a vital clue to increasing human longevity

There seems to be one surefire way to increase longevity in animals. It’s caloric restriction, which means placing them on a near-starvation diet. We don’t know if that could work on humans… but fruit flies might be able to give us the answer. There’s no reason to think that caloric restriction wouldn’t work on humans,…