Annalee Newitz

Many Whites Today Would Have Been Classified as Black in the 1940s

The U.S. has a long history of using pseudoscience to classify people by race. So what happens when we try to use a legitimate science? A new study of a large data sample from personal genomics company 23andme reveals that people’s genetic backgrounds have little impact on their racial self-identification. https://gizmodo.com/the-9-most-influential-works-of-scientific-racism-rank-1575543279 Carl Zimmer has a…

What Is Your Favorite Marvel Version of a DC Character?

There are two universes out there: Marvel and DC. They used to be found exclusively in comics, but now they live in movies, television, games and books. And you may have noticed some (ahem) similarities between their heroes and villains. Like Hawkeye and Green Arrow. Or Iron Man and Batman. Which Marvel universe character is…

Why Is This Nebula So Perfectly Symmetrical?

This is one of the most symmetrical nebulae we’ve ever seen. It was discovered in the mid-2000s by astronomer Peter Tuthill, who named it the Red Square. Its unusual shape hints at a possibly violent future for the star at its center. Image credit: PETER TUTHILLPALOMARKECK A release from Keck Observatory describes the nebula: The…

The Interview: Only a Bad Movie Could Start This Culture War 

The Interview begins with a thought experiment. What if, tomorrow, North Korea demonstrated that it had nuclear missiles that could destroy the US from across the Pacific? The resulting movie is a mess, but as a political satire it obviously hit its mark. Here’s why such a terrible flick started a culture war. Yes, there…

Fly Swarms Reveal Something Profound About the Human Brain

We think of our brains as single, unified organs. But a new set of experiments with flies reveals that certain brain cells in these insects respond exclusively to crowd behavior. And that leads to an interesting question: Did cells in the animal brain evolve to think using something akin to the wisdom of fly swarms?…

It’s Snowing in the Grand Canyon Right Now, and It Looks Beautiful

Thanks to the wonderful Twitter feed from the park rangers at the Grand Canyon National Park, we have this incredible shot of a light dusting of snow that fell over the Grand Canyon today.

The Marvel Movie Universe, In Completely Chronological Order

Comics blogger Michael Furth, editor of The Comic Archive, decided he needed a new way to appreciate the Marvel cinematic universe. So he painstakingly edited all the movies (and some Agents of SHIELD episodes) into chronological order to create the Marvel Omnibus Phase 1, a 12-hour extravaganza. Furth explains everything you’ll need to make your…

This 1.2 million-year-old stone tool found in Turkey shows that the ancestors of humans, Homo erectus, were hanging around in Turkey long before we evolved. Something about the region has long been attractive to us. Over a million years after this tool was made, humans built some of the world’s first cities in the same…

In the Aftermath of a Star Explosion

This image of the star Eta Carinae, taken almost two decades ago by the Hubble Telescope, reveals something extraordinary. Though it blew up, releasing as much visible light as a supernova, the star somehow survived. Now it shines at the heart of a debris cloud. Photo: Jon Morse (University of Colorado), and NASA In the…

The Bizarre Case of the Woman Who Saw Dragons Everywhere

Recently, a group of neuroscientists examined a woman who complained of an unusual ailment. The people around her kept turning into dragons. The fifty-something woman said the problem had been plaguing her for most of her life, and eventually prevented her from holding a job. When people turned into dragons, she reported, their faces turned…

Short Form Poetry Found in Minecraft Maps

The Twitter account Minecraft Signs, created by @leonardr, is a goldmine of non-sequiturs and poetic delights found in Minecraft maps. If you need some absurdist humor right about now, Minecraft Signs is here for you. Here are some recent bits of awesomeness.

Scientist Tries to Justify the Awful Snake-Eats-Man Discovery Special 

A few weeks ago, Discovery Channel aired one of the worst pseudo-science documentaries in its history. Called Eaten Alive, it was about what would happen if a giant anaconda tried to eat a person. Now, the environmental researcher behind the documentary says he still thinks it was a good idea. https://gizmodo.com/seriously-fuck-discovery-and-its-eaten-alive-by-an-ana-1668364996 Naturalist Paul Rosolie, who…

A Rescue Ship Raked the Ruins

It was almost too late. The buildings were falling to dust, eaten by the invisible jaws of the nano-disintegrators, and hostiles had ringed the city in deadly mechas. But then a rescue ship came out of nowhere, and we heard the Commander’s voice calling from an open hatch. This amazing scene was created by Hyunwook…

How Much Money Would an Earth-Like Exoplanet Really Be Worth to Us?

The prospect of finding another planet like Earth is exciting from the perspective of exploration — and our future as a species. But let’s consider the bottom line. What would such a discovery really be worth for us in terms of money? Astronomy journalist Lee Billings breaks it down for you. Illustration by Ron Miller…

The CIA Explains How to Avoid a Secondary Search in Airports

Worried you’ll be singled out for the hassle and humiliation of a secondary screening at the airport when traveling to another country? Wikileaks has published a leaked document from the CIA that explains what makes agents give travelers a hard time — and how you can prevent it. Over at Popular Mechanics, John Wenz sums…

Everything They Said About Making Three Hobbit Movies Was True

Remember when Peter Jackson announced he was splitting J.R.R. Tolkien’s slim volume The Hobbit into three movies? Even with Jackson’s OCD attention to detail, that seemed too much — and the entire internet worried that it would be all bloat and no heart. Well, the internet was right, at least about the third movie. The…

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meet 1/6 to Discuss The Three Body Problem 

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, out in a brand-new translation by Ken Liu. We’ll meet on January 6 to discuss it. Join us! What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book we’ve all read together, and then…

The Exodus Mystery: How Can a Movie Be So Wrong in So Many Ways?

This is one of those moments when a movie comes along that is so repugnant, and so bland, and so pretentious, that it’s almost impossible to believe. And yet, like a voice from a burning bush, Exodus is an unbelievable event that will nevertheless lead thousands of people on a terrifying quest — to movie…

What a 9,000-Year-Old Mystery Taught Me About Honoring the Dead

Last month, I told a story for the podcast Story Collider about visiting an ancient city in central Turkey. It’s about the mystery of why people living 9,000 years ago buried their dead underneath their beds — and the mystery of my father’s recent death. If you’ve got a spare 10 minutes, give it a…

Saturn’s Moons As You’ve Never Seen Them

What you’re seeing here is an image of Saturn’s moon Dione as it passes in front of the moon Titan. The detail is breathtaking, and you can just see the haze of Titan’s atmosphere glowing around the curve of the lake-covered moon. This Cassini spacecraft image was calibrated by Gordon Ugarkovic, who offers this information…