Alasdair Wilkins, Author at Gizmodo

Nicolas Cage moves like a cobra in the new Ghost Rider. Plus more intriguing cast updates for Pacific Rim!

Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale reveal what they’ll be doing to Pittsburgh for The Dark Knight Rises. Steven Moffat clarifies Doctor Who’s stance on Hitler. HBO is committed to True Blood and Game of Thrones. Plus Total Recall set photos! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. The Dark…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Flying mammals are a big waste of energy

Bats are the only mammals that can technically fly, but a lot of other creatures do a pretty good impression of flight by gliding down from the tops of tall trees. But there’s a problem: this behavior makes no sense. Lots of small mammals have perfected the art of gliding, using folds of skin to…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Why Knights of Badassdom is the ultimate adventure movie

We recently talked to Knights of Badassdom director Joe Lynch, who showed us new footage from his LARPing-meets-demons movie. He explained why this movie avoids CGI, what genre this is, and why this is the most authentic LARPing movie ever. First, let’s do a mildly spoiler-y description of the footage, which was dubbed “Succubeth Rising.”…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The new Avengers Hulk will have a lot of Mark Ruffalo in him. Plus tons of hints for the new Doctor Who episodes!

The latest Star Trek 2 news is the most optimistic we’ve heard in ages…but it might be delayed even more than we thought. Jon Favreau talks mixing genres in Cowboys & Aliens. Plus who is taking over The Walking Dead? Spoilers from here on out! Top image from The Walking Dead. The Avengers Marvel Studios…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Wil Wheaton says the technobabble on Eureka is better than Star Trek’s

Nerd icon Wil Wheaton has returned to sci-fi television as Eureka’s slimy Dr. Isaac Parrish. We spoke with him at Comic-Con about just what makes good (and bad) technobabble, the secret to playing a scientist, and what’s ahead on Eureka! What’s it like stepping back into the world of technobabble? The technobabble is terrific because…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Earth’s first known Trojan asteroid follows our orbit like a second Earth

Trojan asteroids are objects that share a planet’s orbit around the Sun but reside in what are basically gravitational dead zones. We’ve discovered Earth’s first Trojan asteroid…but how did it get there, and why have we only just found it? In any system where a smaller object orbits a larger one – say the Moon…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Why do people in higher latitudes have bigger brains?

Though pundits have argued that the “bell curve” of human intelligence favors big-skulled northerners, a new study shows definitively that large heads have nothing to do with intelligence. People in higher latitudes evolved bigger brainpans, but not because they’re smarter than their equatorial counterparts. Instead, people living in the far north and far south evolved…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Reports of this elliptical galaxy’s death were greatly exaggerated

In the prevailing view, elliptical galaxies are long-dead places, full of stars that are all at least seven to ten billion years old and without the gas needed to form new stars. The truth may not be that simple. That a look at the photo up top, which shows galaxy NGC 474 in the foreground.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

An iconic Batman location returns for The Dark Knight Rises! And just what is going on with the script for Star Trek 2?

Emma Stone explains why Gwen Stacy loves Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. Edgar Wright is making progress on Ant-Man, and an iconic Batman location returns for The Dark Knight Rises. Plus official descriptions for Battleship and the Oz prequel! It’s spoilers all the way down! Top image from Cowboys & Aliens. The Amazing Spider-Man…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Biologist says cancers might actually be newly-evolved species inside your body

We think of cancer as a disease, a form of runaway cell growth within an organism. But we might not have realized what cancers really are: separate, brand new parasitic species that evolve from and prey upon their human hosts. That’s the theory put forward by UC Berkeley biologist Peter Duesberg, who argues that the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Eureka does its best impression of Minority Report

Yesterday’s Eureka loaded up on guest stars, adding Wil Wheaton and Stan Lee alongside Felicia Day’s socially awkward physicist. But there’s no time to bask in all the guests, as some psychic contact lenses have predicted the town’s imminent annihilation. “Glimpse” is my favorite episode of the still young season 4.5 – it had a…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

The moon Enceladus rains down water on Saturn

The small moon Enceladus is constantly shooting water vapor out of its geysers. But that water isn’t staying on the satellite – it’s actually making its way to Saturn, making Enceladus the first known moon to shape its planet’s composition. Enceladus blasts more than 500 pounds of water vapor out of its geysers every second,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Did warfare fuel the birth of advanced civilization?

For six centuries beginning around 500 BCE, ancient Peru was ravaged by nearly constant war. But the end result might almost have been worth it: that war seems to have been the driving force for the region’s first complex civilization. The Peru of the first millennium BCE was full of smaller groups, but it isn’t…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Bryan Cranston explains the new Cohaagen in the Total Recall reboot! Plus tons of hints for The Walking Dead, Chuck, and Supernatural!

Two more actors join Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Hugh Jackman talks Real Steel, while Rose McGowan discusses the new Conan. Eureka’s animated Christmas special adds a BSG admiral. Plus promo photos from the new Judge Dredd movie! Spoilers from this point forward! Top image from Doctor Who. Pacific Rim Two more cast members have…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

The Walking Dead is totally on the run for zombie-plagued season two

We talked to the cast and crew of The Walking Dead, and they told us what to expect for season two, why we won’t be seeing any celebrity zombies, and why Frank Darabont doesn’t want the show to become Lost. Spoilers ahead… At last weekend’s Comic-Con panel, executive producer Frank Darabont promised that the season…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Nighttime on a strange alien world (or possibly Nevada)

Between those bizarre structures, the impossible colors up in the night sky, and the fact that this photo was apparently taken in the middle of a busy star cluster, how can this not be from some far distant alien world? The answer, it seems, is when you’re looking in just the right direction at some…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Large Hadron Collider is tantalizingly close to finding the Higgs Boson

Once again, there’s excitement in the physics community about the possible discovery of the Higgs boson. But this time, it’s multiple discoveries…both experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have detected some intriguing possibilities, as has Fermilab’s Tevatron. What’s going on? The Higgs boson, just to review, is the only subatomic particle from the Standard Model…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Ancient black hole contains 100,000 Suns worth of water

A distant, hyper-energetic black hole known as a quasar contains the largest reserve of water in the known universe, equivalent to 140 trillion times the water on Earth. The solution to our water crisis is only 12 billion light-years away! Technically speaking, quasars occur when giant black holes suck in huge amounts of gas and…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Charlize Theron and Damon Lindelof explain the deeper meanings of Prometheus!

The star and writer of Prometheus explain that, while the original was about how in space no one can hear you scream, this movie is about how space changes you forever. Also, just how classy is Charlize Theron’s Prometheus nudity? All that plus more awesome concept art for The Avengers, including our first look at…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Dorothy of Oz footage promises a sugary sweet return to Frank Baum’s world

Dark reimaginings of The Wizard of Oz are all the rage, but what we saw of the upcoming computer-animated Dorothy of Oz suggests there’s still some kiddie magic left to share. Also, Patrick Stewart voices a tree with multiple personalities. Dorothy of Oz is a computer-animated adaptation of the 1989 book of the same name,…

Movies Alasdair Wilkins

Alasdair Wilkins

Nicolas Cage moves like a cobra in the new Ghost Rider. Plus more intriguing cast updates for Pacific Rim!

Flying mammals are a big waste of energy

Why Knights of Badassdom is the ultimate adventure movie

The new Avengers Hulk will have a lot of Mark Ruffalo in him. Plus tons of hints for the new Doctor Who episodes!

Wil Wheaton says the technobabble on Eureka is better than Star Trek’s

Earth’s first known Trojan asteroid follows our orbit like a second Earth

Why do people in higher latitudes have bigger brains?

Reports of this elliptical galaxy’s death were greatly exaggerated

An iconic Batman location returns for The Dark Knight Rises! And just what is going on with the script for Star Trek 2?

Biologist says cancers might actually be newly-evolved species inside your body

Eureka does its best impression of Minority Report

The moon Enceladus rains down water on Saturn

Did warfare fuel the birth of advanced civilization?

Bryan Cranston explains the new Cohaagen in the Total Recall reboot! Plus tons of hints for The Walking Dead, Chuck, and Supernatural!

The Walking Dead is totally on the run for zombie-plagued season two

Nighttime on a strange alien world (or possibly Nevada)

The Large Hadron Collider is tantalizingly close to finding the Higgs Boson

Ancient black hole contains 100,000 Suns worth of water

Charlize Theron and Damon Lindelof explain the deeper meanings of Prometheus!

Dorothy of Oz footage promises a sugary sweet return to Frank Baum’s world

Roku’s 2025 Streaming Stick HD Is 40% Off to Compete With Amazon Fire TV Stick During Spring Sale

Epstein Victims Sue Google, Claim AI Mode Exposed Personal Information

‘Wicked Spot’ Is a Fun, Sapphic Rom-Com That Yeets a Witch Into the Magical World of Influencer Culture

Anthropic and OpenAI Just Gave Us a Glimpse Into the Future of Model Pricing

Amazon Slashes 63% Off Acer Aspire Desktop for a Limited-Time Spring Sale, With Keyboard and Mouse Included

Smart Glasses Now Have One of the Vision Pro’s Best Features

Marvel Just Put ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 in a Very Weird Place in the MCU Timeline

Trump Drops $1B to Kill 2 Wind Farms, Then Watches a Bigger One Go Online

Scientists Found a Weird New Way to Wash Fruits and Vegetables

White House’s Mysterious ‘Covfefe Moment’ Was Stupider Than We Imagined

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