Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

“After.Life” Manages To Make Dead, Naked Christina Ricci Boring

On paper, the indie flick After.Life sounds terrific. Liam Neeson plays an undertaker who may be crazy, or may be a supernatural creature who helps the restless dead like Christina Ricci accept their fates. Unfortunately it feels rote. Spoilers! One reason we were excited about this movie, other than the promise of Neeson and Ricci…

Movies Annalee Newitz Apr 9

Flying Mega Piranhas Are Worse Than Terrorists

What terrible force is causing scantily-clad coeds to drown in bubbling, red waters of their own blood? That’s right – it’s a mega piranha, whose powers include largeness and destruction of small towns from the air. Ah, Syfy original movies. Syfy’s next original movie is Mega Piranha, which might not be as catchy as Chihuanhas,…

Movies Annalee Newitz Apr 8

A Sunny Lunchtime, With Birds And Robots

It’s a perfect spring day for watching the blue skies and whiling away the afternoon feeding birds. Especially if you are an artificial being made of metal. This is one of the most beautiful, peaceful robot pictures I’ve ever seen. Over on group art blog Travesty’s Beard, the artists are amusing themselves (and us) by…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 8

Why Is William Gibson Obsessed With Branding?

William Gibson just finished his new novel (coming out later this year) called Zero History. And now he’s come out of novel-writing mode to chat on his blog and Twitter to answer questions about everything from Belgians to branding. One of the most interesting Q/A exchanges Gibson had was with a person who asked about…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Apr 8

A Drug That Manipulates Retroviruses To Fight Cancer

A potential therapy for cancer already lurks in our own genes. Chunks of ancient viruses lie embedded in the human genome. Administer just one protein to cancer cells and these built-in viruses go hyperactive, eventually killing the cell. The human genome is dotted with “endogenous retroviruses,” the remains of viruses that infected humans tens of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 8

The One Thing That Humans and Robots Desire Most

This short film, called “The Gift,” is about a box whose contents seduce both humans and robots. It’s directed by newcomer Carl Erik Rinsch, a Ridley Scott protege, and [update] several studios are bidding to make it into a feature film. Rinsch, a commercial director who was originally tapped to do the Alien prequel, scored…

Movies Annalee Newitz Apr 8

I Can’t Tell If I’m Taking Drugs Or Watching “V”

OK, look. I love the idea of the show V. I love the actors, many of the writers, and both the current and ex-showrunners. But last night’s episode, “Pound of Flesh,” sucked us into the plotholes of doom. The math problem First of all, let’s talk math. Seriously. One of the big plot points of…

Television Annalee Newitz Apr 7

At Last! Scientists Have Created Ununseptium, The Most Massively Heavy Element Ever

A new element has been created, and it’s so massive they call it “superheavy.” Element 117 on the periodic table is currently known as ununseptium, and was made when scientists smashed together some atoms from the elements calcium and berkelium. Above, you can see berkelium (left) and calcium (right), whose atoms form the two ingredients…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 7

How Many Millas Can You Handle?

In Resident Evil: Afterlife, you’re going to get as much Milla Jovovich as you could ever want: There will be an entire army of cloned superbeings called Alice, and according to the actress, they will all have different personalities. We caught up with Jovovich last weekend at WonderCon, where she geeked out about fight sequences…

Movies Annalee Newitz Apr 7

Mysterious Celestial Body Might Be Supergiant Planet Or A Cool Little Star

This bizarre object, found about 450 light years away in the constellation Taurus, is slightly too awesome to be a planet but slightly too cool to be a star. What is it? There is actually quite a bit of debate about that. The object appears to have a ring of debris around it, and to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 7

UFO Hunters Identify 50-Mile “Sheep Mutilation Corridor” In The UK

Members of the “Animal Pathology Field Unit” in the UK have identified a UFO hotspot in the UK, where locals say the skies are lit up by flashing lights and dozens of sheep have been mutilated by mysterious forces. Why are the aliens always mutilating cows and sheep? No word on that yet, but at…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 7

Excavations Begin on Syria’s 7000-Year-Old Metropolis, Known As “Zaidan”

The prehistoric cultures of Mesopotamia gave rise to literacy, bureaucracy, agriculture, and modern cities. And now a nearly-untouched city in Syria will give us a peek at what urban life was like 7000 years ago in the so-called Ubaid period. The remains of a city called Tell Zaidan, or just Zaidan, are located in northern…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 6

In Honor Of This Month’s RoboGames – Our Quick-And-Dirty Robot Art Contest

Every spring, San Francisco is host to an international robot competition known as the RoboGames, featuring tests of strength and skill. This year RoboGames is April 23-25, and organizers have joined forces with io9 to sponsor a robot art contest. Here are the details on our official quick and dirty Robot Art Contest: 1. Contest…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 6

Iain M. Banks Has Finished His New Culture Novel, “Surface Detail”

At Eastercon over the weekend, Iain M. Banks announced he’d just finished his latest novel in the Culture series, to be called Surface Detail. It will come out in February 2011. Dave H from the Iain Banks Fan Forum was at Eastercon and reports on the Banks news: The first draft of Surface Detail was…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Apr 6

Chemists Convert Cotton T-Shirts To Military-Grade Body Armor

Boron carbide is one of the hardest materials on Earth, used by the military in body armor. Unfortunately it’s too heavy for daily wear. Until now. Chemists discovered how to turn cotton fibers to boron carbide, creating armor from t-shirts. Though the process is still experimental, it could lead to extremely flexible, strong body armor…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 6

What Happened To All The Water On Mars?

The Martian rover Opportunity has traversed the valley called Meridiani Planum, and convinced scientists that the region was once bathed in an acid lagoon. Now scientists believe the region was fed by non-acidic groundwaters destroyed by the drying planet. A group of Earth scientists and chemists published a paper over the weekend in Nature Geoscience…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 6

Perfectly-Preserved Plants And Insects Discovered From 95 Million Years Ago

An amazing discovery of perfectly-preserved amber in Ethiopia has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse of the ecosystem in that region 95 million years ago. These pictures show plants and insects from the Cretaceous woodlands, right after flowering plants had evolved. Of course “right after” in evolutionary time still involves many hundreds of thousands of years,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 5

Buck Rogers Movie Will “Play It Straight” And Be Based On The Comic Strip

Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson has just gotten started on his next project, a reboot of Buck Rogers. We asked him where he was at with the script, and what to expect. Anderson confirmed that they have a storyline, which is currently being fleshed out by Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.…

Movies Annalee Newitz Apr 5

New Hiroshi Ishiguro Humanoid Robot Is Creepier Than Ever

Roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, famous for creating a robotic duplicate of himself, over the weekend debuted his new female robot. Called Geminoid F, it’s designed to smile, laugh, and serve as a remote-controlled emotional avatar. The IEEE Spectrum has the story: The new robot, a copy of a woman in her 20s with long dark hair,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 5

The City We Built On Top Of Yours

When the old-fashioned skyscrapers were no longer adequate to serve the civilization’s needs, we built flexible organic structures on top of them. Why go miles down to street level? Just grow bridges between buildings with fast-maturing biological materials. These images of a futuristic city built in layers are by French concept designer François Baranger, who…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 5

Annalee Newitz

“After.Life” Manages To Make Dead, Naked Christina Ricci Boring

Flying Mega Piranhas Are Worse Than Terrorists

A Sunny Lunchtime, With Birds And Robots

Why Is William Gibson Obsessed With Branding?

A Drug That Manipulates Retroviruses To Fight Cancer

The One Thing That Humans and Robots Desire Most

I Can’t Tell If I’m Taking Drugs Or Watching “V”

At Last! Scientists Have Created Ununseptium, The Most Massively Heavy Element Ever

How Many Millas Can You Handle?

Mysterious Celestial Body Might Be Supergiant Planet Or A Cool Little Star

UFO Hunters Identify 50-Mile “Sheep Mutilation Corridor” In The UK

Excavations Begin on Syria’s 7000-Year-Old Metropolis, Known As “Zaidan”

In Honor Of This Month’s RoboGames – Our Quick-And-Dirty Robot Art Contest

Iain M. Banks Has Finished His New Culture Novel, “Surface Detail”

Chemists Convert Cotton T-Shirts To Military-Grade Body Armor

What Happened To All The Water On Mars?

Perfectly-Preserved Plants And Insects Discovered From 95 Million Years Ago

Buck Rogers Movie Will “Play It Straight” And Be Based On The Comic Strip

New Hiroshi Ishiguro Humanoid Robot Is Creepier Than Ever

The City We Built On Top Of Yours

Trump’s Botched Iran ‘Ceasefire’ Puts Polymarket Bettors in a Bind

A New ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ Video Has Me Seriously Worried

Scientists Move Closer to Male Birth Control With No Hormones, No Snip

Artemis 2 Day 8: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ Is a Sublime Fantasy That Finds Beauty in the Mundane

OnePlus Should Abandon Phones and Go All In on Gaming

Meta’s First AI Model From Its Superintelligence Lab Doesn’t Exactly Spark Joy

Iran Demands Bitcoin and Crypto for Strait of Hormuz Toll Payments

Stephen Colbert Adds Yet Another Genre Voiceover Cameo to His Belt

Turns Out Home Taping Wasn’t Killing Music After All

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

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