Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

Ask Hannu Rajaniemi anything you want about The Quantum Thief

In June, the io9 Book Club read Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief. Now Rajaniemi is coming to answer your questions about the book tomorrow, July 1. https://gizmodo.com/the-io9-book-club-is-in-session-lets-talk-about-hannu-5816324 He’ll be popping into the comment thread on this very post July 1 between 12:00 and 1:00 PM Pacific Time. Start posting your questions for him now, and…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Jun 30

If this is actually the real plot for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, just shoot us now [Updated]

A tipster has forwarded us what somebody close to the production on Prometheus claims is the plot outline to Ridley Scott’s long-awaited prequel to Alien. We’re fairly dubious that this is the actual plot. Update: A Fox rep got in touch with us and told us that this synopsis is not accurate at all. See…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 29

The trouble with predicting climate change

When you hear predictions about climate change, scientists often refer to simple models of gradual transformation. But new evidence suggests that climate change is likely to be abrupt, with the temperature of the planet rising quickly over only a few decades. University of Bristol Earth scientist Paul Valdes has spent his career researching how to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 29

There are robots rioting in Brixton

In 1981, British working class neighborhood Brixton saw an outbreak of rioting in response to several violent episodes between local police and Brixton’s black residents. Now, filmmaker Kibwe Tavares has reimagined these riots between police and robot workers. His short film “Robots of Brixton” is a fascinating and gorgeously-designed interpretation of what might happen to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 28

The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. In June we read Hannu Rajaniemi’s novel The Quantum Thief. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! For those unfamiliar with the io9 book club, here’s how it works: You read the book. We create a special book club post on io9 when…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 28

Literary superstar Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, turns to speculative fiction and scifi

You may have heard of U.K. author Zadie Smith’s smash hit novel White Teeth, or her more recent book On Beauty, which won the prestigious Orange Award. Now this literary superstar tells The Literateur that she’s excited to spend the next decade writing speculative fiction and scifi. Smith revealed that she’s exploring very new territory…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 28

The mysterious remains of one of the world’s first organized religions

Homo sapiens may have had religion since the dawn of our evolution, but building vast monuments to our beliefs is a relatively recent development. And by “recent,” I mean 11,600 years ago. Archaeologists believe they’ve found the oldest temple ever built, in southern Turkey. Called Göbekli Tepe, it is perhaps the world’s first example of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 28

How to make a glass bowl out of sand and sunlight, in the middle of the Sahara

This gorgeous, mysterious video is a glimpse of one possible Earth future. Imagine that we abandon fossil fuels for solar, but not before our once-green world grows sprawling new deserts. Our communities shrink, but our technology continues to flourish. Instead of giant, energy-guzzling factories we move toward renewable forms of craft production. Here we see…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

Screw the Transformers – the best super car has always been Wonderbug!

From 1976 to 1978, the true inspiration for transforming cars ruled the Saturday morning airwaves: Wonderbug, from legendary TV creators Sid and Marty Krofft. Their Krofft Supershow brought you Land of the Lost, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, and most importantly, Wonderbug. Like any good superhero, Wonderbug had a secret identity: the Shlepcar (with a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

A plague road movie, done Clive Barker style

Clive Barker is the master of weird, smart horror — he brought you the classic, original Hellraiser flick, and wrote the Abarat series, as well as the story that inspired Candyman. And now this horror legend is asking people to support the work of an upcoming filmmaker named Mark Miller, who is using Kickstarter to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

10 Airships of the Present Day — and Near Future

Airships, the silent, futuristic vessels that float through the skies of alternate histories and ecotopias, aren’t just the stuff of science fiction. Here are ten airship that exist today, or are under development for tomorrow. Goodyear Fleet This fleet of four blimps dates back to the early twentieth century. Docked throughout the United States, these…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

A space age arsenal made of glass

These incredible blown glass rayguns are part of a series called (appropriately enough) Raygunz, created by Canadian master glassblower Jeff Burnette. Burnette owns a massive glassmaking warehouse in Vancouver’s East Side, which he’s dubbed Joe Blow Glassworks. You learn more about Burnette’s work, which includes goblets and glass sculptures, on the Joe Blow Glassworks website.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 27

Blue light could cure diabetes

Over the past several years, genetics researchers have made great strides using optogenetics — the manipulation of genes with different colors of light — and now we’re starting to see this new field mature into potential therapies. A group of Swiss researchers published a paper in Science this week explaining how they could use doses…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 24

Experimental beer archaeology yields 3,000-year-old brew recipes spiked with thyme and poppy

There’s a terrific article in the Smithsonian today about “beer archaeologist” Patrick McGovern, a scholar who has unearthed millennia-old alcohol recipes by analyzing residues in ancient pottery. Now he’s working with a brewer, Sam Calagione, whose pub Dogfish Head serves up beers based on recipes that are thousands of years old. In the Smithsonian, Abigail…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 24

Epidemiologists reveal that black men in America have a better survival rate in prison than outside

Being in prison could save your life – depending on your racial background. A group of epidemiologists studying patterns of death among prisoners have discovered that black men in prison die at much lower rates than black men outside. There are a number of possible causes for this discrepancy. Public health professor Anne Spaulding and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 23

William Gibson says cyberspace was inspired by 8-bit videogames

Over at the Paris Review, William Gibson has finally told the full story of how he invented the term cyberspace — partly by scribbling on notepads, and partly by watching kids playing videogames in early-1980s arcades. Here’s a really fascinating excerpt from a much longer interview with Gibson: INTERVIEWER Where did cyberspace come from? GIBSON…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 23

The search for monsters among us

When people think of cryptozoology, they often scoff at the idea of people studying Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. But the hunt for cryptids, or mystery animals, isn’t just about myth chasing. It’s also about finding new species. When does monster hunting become science? Zoology is the study of the animal kingdom, from the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 23

Cambridge University Library lets you read all the notes Charles Darwin made in his books

Want to know what Charles Darwin was thinking when he read books about natural history? Now you can, thanks to a massive project at Cambridge University Library where Darwin’s book collection — complete with his notes in the margins — have been digitized, indexed, and put online. Here you can see a page from Thomas…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 23

The Pleistocene Reenactment Society

Jeff and Andrea wanted to do it right. Be authentic. They got their hands and legs modified right before Solstice, and set out for the Pleistocene preserve soon after. By the time they arrived, Jeff could already walk on his knuckles. Hormones had covered them both in a layer of fine, warm hair. Their short…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 23

Proteins are beautiful

Inside your body, proteins are a kind of communications system, allowing DNA to pass information and energy back and forth. Every protein is a specific message from one molecule to another. And the information is expressed via the strange folds and twists of each protein’s structure. They look like beautifully folded ribbons, and you can…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 22

Annalee Newitz

Ask Hannu Rajaniemi anything you want about The Quantum Thief

If this is actually the real plot for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, just shoot us now [Updated]

The trouble with predicting climate change

There are robots rioting in Brixton

The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.

Literary superstar Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, turns to speculative fiction and scifi

The mysterious remains of one of the world’s first organized religions

How to make a glass bowl out of sand and sunlight, in the middle of the Sahara

Screw the Transformers – the best super car has always been Wonderbug!

A plague road movie, done Clive Barker style

10 Airships of the Present Day — and Near Future

A space age arsenal made of glass

Blue light could cure diabetes

Experimental beer archaeology yields 3,000-year-old brew recipes spiked with thyme and poppy

Epidemiologists reveal that black men in America have a better survival rate in prison than outside

William Gibson says cyberspace was inspired by 8-bit videogames

The search for monsters among us

Cambridge University Library lets you read all the notes Charles Darwin made in his books

The Pleistocene Reenactment Society

Proteins are beautiful

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