Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

The world isn’t ready for Mega-Shark vs. Crocosaurus

The thing is, I believed Mega-Shark and the giant octopus. I believed in Sharktopus, and Mega-Piranha. But Crocosaurus? I don’t know. Maybe The Asylum can convince me with its new kaiju megastar. Here’s the synopsis: The massive prehistoric shark has survived the last battle, and the world is again threatened when a new, more dangerous…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 4

Spacecraft zooms in for a close look at the cold heart of a burning comet

What you see here is the icy core of Comet Hartley 2, a flare of light at its back. NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft captured this incredible image from 435 miles away early this morning. EPOXI, nicknamed Deep Impact, blasted off in 2008 and roams the solar system looking for interesting objects to study, including comets and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 4

Ask Catherynne M. Valente anything you want about Palimpsest

We’ve been talking about Catherynne M. Valente’s novel Palimpsest over at the io9 Book Club, and now Valente is going to drop in this evening to answer your questions. Just post them in the comments section below! https://gizmodo.com/the-io9-book-club-is-in-session-lets-talk-about-palimp-5679873 Post your questions, and Valente will stop by after dinner tonight, around 8 PM EST, to answer.…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 4

io9’s Environmental Writing Contest

We can’t prevent environmental disasters without preparing for them. That’s why io9 is going to pay $2000 each to two people who write the best stories about environmental disaster. It’s io9’s Environmental Writing Contest – for science fiction and non-fiction. io9 is looking for stories that deal with environmental disaster, whether caused by random asteroid…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 4

Physicists discover “violation of a fundamental symmetry of the universe”

Today physicists announced that they may have found the key to explaining dark matter in the universe. It all has to do with the potential discovery of a “sterile neutrino.” Image via Fermilab According to a release about the new study: Neutrinos are neutral elementary particles born in the radioactive decay of other particles. The…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 3

A soldier’s brain implant sends him on a holy quest

Ali once fought on the side of the Free Shi’ah Anti-Crediteers in a war over global credit. But now he just wants to save his dying wife, and figure out the messages he’s getting from his glitchy brain implant. Photo by David Shariatmadari This is the setup for Nebula-nominated author Saladin Ahmed’s short story “The…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 3

Watch the birth of “super Monarch butterflies” that live 10 times longer than their parents

Every four generations, Monarch butterflies create a “super generation” that lives long enough to migrate to Mexico. In this video from National Geographic, we see how the butterflies engineer their children for such astonishing longevity. This is part of a special called Great Migrations that National Geographic is airing this Sunday, Nov. 7. (Thanks, Marilyn…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 3

Every aspect of the landscape was a result of biological engineering

Autotrophic mountains of cellulose respired beneath the genetic engineers’ podship. Their motto was “no cell shall remain unchanged.” They took a planet full of ragged trees and mismatched flowers and made it a monument to perfect biological efficiency. This is the work of Dan McPharlin, an artist whose future retro aesthetic is like Zardoz crossed…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 3

A mathematical analysis of what happened the last time the House went Republican

A few years ago, some mathematicians analyzed the US Congress using network theory, trying to determine which committees were linked by shared members. They discovered that the connections between committees and subcommittees changed markedly when Congress was dominated by Republicans. What you see above is a network diagram that shows connections between committees in the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 2

The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Palimpsest

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. This month we read Catherynne M. Valente’s novel, Palimpsest. 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 the…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 2

On Supernatural, the monsters are getting better (and closer)

Let’s play catchup with last week’s Supernatural, “You Can’t Handle the Truth,” where Dean was cursed to hear what happens when people stop lying . . . and there was a major revelation about Sam. Spoilers! This was one of those episodes that reminded me why monster of the week stories can be pretty damn…

Television Annalee Newitz Nov 2

The remaining episodes of “Caprica” will air on Canada’s Space channel

Last week, Syfy Channel abruptly announced that Caprica would be canceled, and that the remaining episodes would air early next year. But starting tonight, Canada’s Space channel will be airing the remaining episodes of Caprica at 10 PM EST every Tuesday until the bitter end (not that I’m bitter). While us Yankees down here in…

Television Annalee Newitz Nov 2

Tiny, glowing bubbles at the nanoscale

These bubbles are so tiny that they can only be viewed under a microscope. It’s one of several winners of an image contest in Chemical & Engineering News, and we’ve got a gallery of the resulting molecular weirdness. See more at Chemical & Engineering News Runner up. By Thomas Lazzara. According to Chemical & Engineering…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 2

In “Seed Seeker,” teens from an Earth colony meet their maker

Pamela Sargent’s Seed Seeker is the long-awaited third book in her early 1980s Seed Trilogy. It’s a graceful coming-of-age story set on a colony world, where a group of troubled teens meet the generation ship who engineered them. The descendant of humans who colonized the planet Home many generations ago, Bian is a young woman…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 1

A live, updating list of problems voters have had with voting in 2010

Our Vote Live is a website where the Election Protection Coalition logs every complaint or problem that people report with voting, from finding their polling place to operating weird voting machines. It’s fascinating to watch all the problems roll in. Already, there are almost 2,000 problems, and it isn’t even election day yet. Check it…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 1

Two-mile-high mountains discovered in Saturn’s rings

At the edge of Saturn’s B ring, the Cassini spacecraft has spotted a huge mountain range of debris stretching up over two miles above the ring plane. In this picture you can see the mountains’ long shadows. And below, you can see the motion of the B ring, in a series of photos taken every…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 1

Medieval mysticism explained with lolcats and action figures

Catherynne M. Valente’s new novel, Habitation of the Blessed, is about a mystical figure named Prester John. Here, Valente explains the book’s premise with action figures. It’s the best lesson in Medieval Christian metaphysics you’ll ever get on YouTube. Here’s the full description of the book, which is the first volume in a trilogy about…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 1

Winners of the 2010 World Fantasy Awards

The prestigious World Fantasy Awards for fantastic fiction were announced over the weekend at World Fantasy Con in Ohio. Here are the winners. Art by World Fantasy winner Charles Vess. This is a definitive list of the nominees and winners, first posted on Tor.com: NOVEL * WINNER: The City & The City by China Miéville…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 1

Trivia quiz: Name that cat scare

The “cat scare” is a subcategory of the well-known “jump scare” in horror and science fiction, when our heroes are looking for the Big Bad but find a screaming kitty instead. Do you know where these cat scares come from? It’s Friday evening fun, trivia nerd style. Name the cat scares in this clip –…

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 29

A fifty million-year-old ant, whose existence could change the history of India

This ant, preserved in amber 50 million years ago, is evidence that we may have dramatically misunderstood the environmental history of India. Until recently, scientists believed that many of the plants and animals in the Indian subcontinent had evolved in isolation from other landmasses, during a period hundreds of thousands of years ago before India…

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 29

Annalee Newitz

The world isn’t ready for Mega-Shark vs. Crocosaurus

Spacecraft zooms in for a close look at the cold heart of a burning comet

Ask Catherynne M. Valente anything you want about Palimpsest

io9’s Environmental Writing Contest

Physicists discover “violation of a fundamental symmetry of the universe”

A soldier’s brain implant sends him on a holy quest

Watch the birth of “super Monarch butterflies” that live 10 times longer than their parents

Every aspect of the landscape was a result of biological engineering

A mathematical analysis of what happened the last time the House went Republican

The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Palimpsest

On Supernatural, the monsters are getting better (and closer)

The remaining episodes of “Caprica” will air on Canada’s Space channel

Tiny, glowing bubbles at the nanoscale

In “Seed Seeker,” teens from an Earth colony meet their maker

A live, updating list of problems voters have had with voting in 2010

Two-mile-high mountains discovered in Saturn’s rings

Medieval mysticism explained with lolcats and action figures

Winners of the 2010 World Fantasy Awards

Trivia quiz: Name that cat scare

A fifty million-year-old ant, whose existence could change the history of India

This Is Supposedly the Final, Final, FINAL Look of the Foldable iPhone

Scientists Watch Brain’s Self-Cleaning Process During Sleep in Real Time

LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant Sees 30% Off on Amazon While LEGO and Nintendo’s Official Stores Keep It at Full Price

‘No Data Centers’ Sign Found After Shooting at Indianapolis Politician’s Home

‘Dark Matter’ Season 2 Sees Joel Edgerton Forced Back Into the Multiverse

Astronomers Found the Closest Thing Yet to the Universe’s First Stars

Samsung’s 55″ 4K Smart TV (2025) Comes Without the Pricey Tag in Amazon’s Clearance Sale, Skip Smaller Budget Displays

KAMRUI’s High-Performance Hyper H2 Mini PC Hits Its Lowest Price for Amazon Prime Members Only (32GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Movie Has Found Some New Writers

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound