Annalee Newitz

Watch This Gigantic Wall of Snow Engulf Buffalo, New York

This snow storm is so intense that it looks like a thick, dense cloud has blanketed part of the city of Buffalo. And that’s what’s extraordinary about it. This is an intensely localized storm, which dumped several feet of snow on just one narrow slice of the city. Ferociously tiny snowstorms like this are caused…

You’ve Given the Universe a Sexually Transmitted Disease

Yep, that’s the premise of our favorite new indie scifi movie, Cosplay Fetish Battle Drones. How will our intrepid team of kinky heroes, known mysteriously as the Struggled Reagans, save the world? Now, at last, you can watch the movie on VOD and find out! The movie, formerly known as The Struggled Reagans, has toured…

LSD Mystery Meat Case Will Remain “Unsolved” Say Police

Earlier this year, a family in Florida rushed to the hospital with bizarre symptoms. After eating broiled steak from Walmart, they had all started hallucinating and feeling sick. It turned out that their meat had been tainted with LSD. But where did it come from? Tampa Bay News reports that we may never know: Before…

This Is the Most Destructive Process on Earth

It reduces boulders to smears of ions. It dissolves and disintegrates the tallest mountains. Geologists call it “weathering.” It sounds harmless enough, but weathering is one of the most destructive forces on the face of the planet. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-slowest-and-most-destructive-process-on-ear-1646507947

Imagine What It Looked Like Before the Collapse

All that’s left of the ancient megastructure is this massive hand, its height greater than that of dozen women standing foot-to-shoulder. In its palm lies the neverending source, its healing waters feeding nothing more than the swampy wreckage of this one-great city. Shaun Slade is a concept artist. You can see more of his mind-blowing…

The Origin of the Speculum Is Just As Creepy As You Imagined

The speculum is that scary device that looks like a duck bill and is used to conduct pelvic exams on women. Perhaps not surprisingly, the guy who invented this medical instrument did it in the most horrible way possible. Over at The Atlantic, Rose Eveleth has a story about the origins of the speculum, and…

How Farming Almost Destroyed Ancient Human Civilization

Roughly 9,000 years ago, humans had mastered farming to the point where food was plentiful. Populations boomed, and people began moving into large settlements full of thousands of people. And then, abruptly, these proto-cities were abandoned for millennia. It’s one of the greatest mysteries of early human civilization. The dawn of the age of agriculture…

Some of the greatest advances in technology, from robotics to genetic engineering, are being used on farms. The U.S. National Science Foundation has a fascinating set of articles about the ways agriculture is getting insanely futuristic.

Look Into the Star-Spawning Eyes of a Disturbed Galaxy

The AzTEC-3 galaxy is 12.5 billion light-years away in the constellation Sextans, and it’s not just huge and shockingly explosive — it’s also a glimpse backward in time, to the early days of our universe. It was a tumultuous time when galaxy clusters were just beginning to form. Our universe is full of galaxy clusters,…

Is This “Privacy Bag” a Sign that We Are Living in Dystopia?

Imagine a world so crowded that the only way you can hope to get some private space is by encasing yourself in a fabric cocoon. That’s the premise behind Nutshell, a collapsable privacy shield for people suffering from social claustrophobia who just need a few minutes of peace. It looks a little like a body…

This Medical Device Is a Major Gamechanger for Kidney Patients

This device could improve the lives of tens of thousands of people who visit kidney dialysis centers. Using this 10-pound, miniature portable dialysis machine, they can cleanse and monitor their blood constantly, with minimal effort. The FDA has just put the device in its new “fasttrack program.” David Russell Schilling highlights the new technology over…

Quite Possibly the Worst Analysis of NSA Spying You Will Ever Hear

In a bizarre application of the old “blame the victim” idea, the Guardian’s James Ball has decided that ordinary people with nosy neighbor syndrome are the fundamental cause of government spying. It’s a classic example of confusing the cultural problem of gossip with the political problem of surveillance. This comes in the wake of that…

9 Ways That Doing Science Is Like Being in an Action Movie

Sometimes it seems like there’s a mandate that says stories about real-life science have to be as boring as possible. But doing science is actually more like living inside an action movie full of robots, explosions and thrilling mysteries. Here are ten ingredients you’ll find in action movies and in science. Gif by Sam Woolley…

Person of Interest Goes from Whimsy to Darkness in 50 Minutes

Last night’s Person of Interest was deceptively light, following a jewel heist caper with Shaw that suddenly took a left turn. And it left us with profound questions about how far we should go to eradicate surveillance technologies from our lives. The ostensible number of the week was a hot jewel thief who blew into…

Does Our Universe Bear the Scars of a Collision with Another Universe?

Though many physicists believe it’s possible that our universe is one of many in a multiverse, they struggle to find concrete evidence to back up that hypothesis. But now, we may find that evidence — if we look for the wreckage left behind by a collision of cosmic proportions. Illustration by Olena Shmahalo Over at…

This Dragon Is Not a Toy

A word of advice. Even though he seems a little smaller than other dragons, he can still outthink you. And don’t go near that mouth. Just don’t. Deiv Calviz is a concept artist and illustrator in Makati, Philippines. You can see more of his incredible work on his website.

This Ultra-Tiny House Is Perfect for the Post-Apocalypse

Jess and Dan wanted to simplify their lives. So they built one of the tiniest houses we’ve ever seen. It’s 128 square feet on top of a truck flatbed. Here’s how they fit all of life’s essentials into such a small space. The couple built this house from the ground up in Rhode Island, using…

Commemorative Plates for the Mass Extinction

Artist Nicole Antebi has created a series of odd and melancholy commemorative plates devoted to six extinct animal species. Called “The Last Menagerie,” they’re the perfect science art treasure for your apocalypse knick-knack shelf. Writes Antebi on her Etsy store page: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the last year of the last known…

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meet 11/25 to Discuss Prince Lestat

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading Anne Rice’sPrince Lestat. We’ll meet on November 25 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 we have an online chat with the author — see our…

What Geeky Debate Sucks You In Every Single Time?

No matter how many times you swear you will not have this debate again, somehow you get pulled back in and find yourself taking a stand. Whether it’s Android vs. iPhone, or Marvel vs. DC, you just can’t stop! What’s your greatest weakness when it comes to geeky arguments? Tell us in comments which issues…