Alasdair Wilkins, Author at Gizmodo

The universe’s first stars spun around at a million miles per hour

The early cosmos might have been full of giant stars spinning 250 times faster than our own sun rotates. These strange spinstars died out after just 30 million years, but they might well have changed the universe forever. Astrophysicist Cristina Chiappini of Germany’s Potsdam Institute led the team that found evidence for such spinstars in…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Four different telescopes reveal the Andromeda Galaxy in every wavelength

This awesome video, courtesy of the European Space Agency, takes us through the optical, ultraviolet, microwave, and infrared wavelengths to reveal our neighboring galaxy Andromeda in quite literally every possible light. Four telescopes teamed up to create this particular image – the Planck space telescope for microwaves, the XMM Newton satellite for ultraviolet, the Herschel…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How to raise a language from the dead

How do we know what ancient Egyptian sounded like, or Old English? Linguistics gives us the tools to reconstruct lost languages from the words we speak today. Here’s how it’s done. The most important method of linguistic reconstruction is known as the comparative method. It entails pretty much exactly what you would expect – it…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Jodie Foster’s role in Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium revealed! Plus learn more about X-Men First Class’ mutant Go-Go dancer.

Zoe Kravitz reveals her role in X-Men: First Class and teases the climactic battle scene. Plus a Supernatural cast rumor, Kristen Bell campaigns for a Hunger Games part, and our first look at Lex Luthor’s return to Smallville! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Green Lantern. Captain America Chris Evans confirms what was…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Feeding the world might require undoing 10,000 years of plant domestication

The world is potentially headed into a serious food crisis, thanks to a combination of climate change, land degradation, and depletion of natural resources. And the solution to all this might mean taking plant species back to before their domestication. That’s why researchers are currently headed to the Middle East, in search of the wild…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The strange case of the asteroid planet Vesta

Vesta is the asteroid belt’s second largest object, but figuring out what it is has driven astronomers crazy. Is it an asteroid? A planet, perhaps a protoplanet? Whatever the answer, Vesta might just be the solar system’s most important object. Our current planet classification system isn’t perfect, and it’s still more than a little controversial…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Sea squirts could hold the secret to human immortality

Sea squirts might not look like much…they’re simple, hermaphroditic creatures that barely even have a brain. But they have a particular knack for activating the enzyme telomerase, which protects DNA from degradation. That unexpected talent could help fight human aging. Although these simple organisms only live about six months to a year, the basic mechanisms…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Will Ridley Scott’s Prometheus feature some familiar creatures after all?

Does a new photo reveal Tom Hardy’s look for The Dark Knight Rises? Chris Evans says the Captain America should be set in New York. And what was the real first appearance of the Silents in Doctor Who? Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Dark Knight Rises…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Powerful next generation lasers get us one step closer to creating virtual particles

The Extreme Light Infrastructure is a new project that will build three incredibly powerful new lasers. Capable of creating energy pulses 20 times more powerful than anything before, these new lasers could help us probe the world of weird physics. The European Commission has approved the plans to build the lasers in the Czech Republic,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Saying “I love you” is a matter of evolutionary economics

Men and women say “I love you” at different points in their relationships, and they say it for very different reasons. It turns out that even the timing of “I love you” is all about following our ancient evolutionary drives. Here’s what a new MIT study found: In two-thirds of the couples sampled, men were…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Poisonous formaldehyde may have saved all life on Earth billions of years ago

About 4.4 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet crashed into Earth. This cataclysmic event actually made Earth melt, and the fallout from the collision became the Moon. So how did Earth’s earliest organic molecules hang on during these apocalyptic times? Although this collision happened long before life emerged on our planet, the basic building blocks…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Meet the monster who lives in the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

This nebula is located about 2,400 light-years from Earth. It gets its nickname from its elongated, trunk-like shape, but this close-up on the main body of the nebula reveals something else…is that a monster staring back at us? Of course, any weird faces you might see in the nebula are merely a case of cosmic…

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Awesome casting rumors for The Hunger Games, Luke Cage, and the Oz prequel. Plus who’s writing Iron Man 3?

See Kevin Bacon in action in the new X-Men: First Class trailer. Steven Moffat drops some more seriously tantalizing Doctor Who hints. Plus a Stargate favorite explains why Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn’t just another movie. Spoilers from here on out! The Avengers Turns out Natalie Portman is not in this movie…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

The beautiful swirling galaxies of our nearest cosmic neighborhood

Once you get past the Milky Way and the handful of galaxies that are right around us, these brilliant, faraway galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are the closest thing we’ve got to neighbors in this vast, largely empty universe. So let’s let a NASA astronomer introduce us to the neighbors: Well over a thousand galaxies…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Chimps will follow their leader even when it’s the stupid thing to do

Chimpanzees keep showing how smart they are compared to humans, but now there’s a big knock against their intelligence – they’re seemingly unable to go against the dominant group member, even if it means using a totally ineffective strategy. This lack of chimp initiative was discovered by Georgia State researcher Lydia Hopper. She trained a…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The most disgusting flower in the world is about to bloom

The amorphophallus titanum has perhaps the least charming nickname of any flower: it’s known as the corpse flower because it smells like rotting flesh. And yet its latest bloom this weekend is expected to bring over 10,000 eager admirers. It’s a generally remarkable flower, standing well over six feet tall, and this particular one has…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How Gertie the chicken mysteriously switched genders

Late last year, a British hen named Gertie stopped laying eggs. She then started crowing like a rooster, and suddenly her entire appearance seemed to morph into a male. So just what is going on here? Gertie is one of two hens kept by Jim and Jeanette Howard from Cambridgeshire in England. According to Mrs.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

New Green Lantern promo shows more of the movie’s cosmic villain. Plus hear Basement Jaxx’s soundtrack in the new Attack the Block trailer!

Paul Bettany takes us inside the post-apocalyptic, action-packed world of Priest. Tyler Perry wants to return in the new Star Trek. Plus John Noble previews tonight’s Fringe, while the cast and crew of Doctor Who drop some seriously intriguing hints. Spoilers from here on out. Top image from Green Lantern. Star Trek 2 Tyler Perry…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

“Hammer-biter” marsupials were a weird mix of mammal and lizard

The marsupials and monotremes that are now found primarily in Australia represent a sort of evolutionary middle ground, mixing together their mammalian features with those of reptiles or amphibians. One ancient marsupial represents a particularly weird case of convergent evolution. Malleodectes, otherwise known by the awesome nickname “the Hammer-Biter”, was a marsupial that lived in…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The first three-parent babies could soon be born

The technology is now in place for three different parents to contribute DNA to an embryo – two of them providing the 98% of DNA in the cell nucleus, while another provides the crucial 2% that is mitochondrial DNA. Why does this matter? Mitochondrial DNA is passed on exclusively by the mother, but some women…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Alasdair Wilkins

The universe’s first stars spun around at a million miles per hour

Four different telescopes reveal the Andromeda Galaxy in every wavelength

How to raise a language from the dead

Jodie Foster’s role in Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium revealed! Plus learn more about X-Men First Class’ mutant Go-Go dancer.

Feeding the world might require undoing 10,000 years of plant domestication

The strange case of the asteroid planet Vesta

Sea squirts could hold the secret to human immortality

Will Ridley Scott’s Prometheus feature some familiar creatures after all?

Powerful next generation lasers get us one step closer to creating virtual particles

Saying “I love you” is a matter of evolutionary economics

Poisonous formaldehyde may have saved all life on Earth billions of years ago

Meet the monster who lives in the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

Awesome casting rumors for The Hunger Games, Luke Cage, and the Oz prequel. Plus who’s writing Iron Man 3?

The beautiful swirling galaxies of our nearest cosmic neighborhood

Chimps will follow their leader even when it’s the stupid thing to do

The most disgusting flower in the world is about to bloom

How Gertie the chicken mysteriously switched genders

New Green Lantern promo shows more of the movie’s cosmic villain. Plus hear Basement Jaxx’s soundtrack in the new Attack the Block trailer!

“Hammer-biter” marsupials were a weird mix of mammal and lizard

The first three-parent babies could soon be born

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

Gym Bros Are Pushing Mystery Muscle Drugs Doctors Barely Recognize, Study Warns

The Head of HBO Explains What it Takes to Get a ‘Game of Thrones’ Spinoff Going

Elon Musk’s Lawyer Claims Jury’s 420 ‘Joke’ Proves He Didn’t Receive a Fair Trial

‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’ Is a Genre Blending Delight

Leaked Anthropic Model Presents ‘Unprecedented Cybersecurity Risks,’ Much to Pentagon’s Pleasure

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