Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

20 Best Science Fiction Books Of The Decade

After much mulling and culling, we’ve come up with our list of the twenty best books of the decade. The list is weighted towards science fiction, but does have healthy doses of fantasy and horror. And a few surprises. This list is alphabetical, and not in order of awesomeness. All are equally great and worthy…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Dec 12

They Arrived On Titan Just As Saturn Was Setting

The captain brought their ship in low over the old lake jetty, parts of it crumbling with age. As the thin band of Saturn’s rings reflected the sunlight, sparks seemed to fly from methane waves as they frothed to shore. This just one of the many gorgeous creations of Jean-Pierre Normand, who has illustrated a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 11

SF Writer Peter Watts Arrested, Beaten At US-Canadian Border

Peter Watts, the critically-acclaimed Canadian author of Blindsight and other dystopian novels, entered a dystopia of his own on Tuesday after border guards beat and pepper sprayed him at the US-Canadian border. Now you can help with his legal defense. Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow has a full account of what happened. Watts was returning…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 11

Physicists to FlashForward: You Are Full Of Crap

On physics-gone-haywire show FlashForward, characters recently suggested that an accelerator in Palo Alto, CA might have caused a worldwide blackout that killed millions by conducting “proton-driven plasma-wakefield acceleration” experiments. Now scientists at the real accelerator in Palo Alto have responded. The premise of FlashForward is that everybody in the world blacks out at the same…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 11

Follow The Fictional Science Adventures Of Squid & Owl

Given everything that squid and owls have in common, why shouldn’t they switch places for a while? That’s the question that designer John Holbo asks in the beautifully-illustrated tale Squid & Owl, a romp through taxonomy, science and retro illustration. Holbo is a philosophy professor when he isn’t concocting weird tales of squid, and it…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 11

Rebuilding A Shoreline: One Of Year’s Best Engineering Projects

This is a picture of one of the year’s five most impressive civil engineering projects, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. It’s a completely reengineered part of the Lake Michigan shore, preventing erosion and creating eco-friendly recreational areas. For 10 million dollars, the coastal area belonging to Wisconsin’s Concordia University went from eroding…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Mysterious Cattle Mutilations In Denver – Again

Ranchers in Colorado have discovered more bizarre cattle mutilations, which look as if they were created with lasers. One calf seemed to have been dropped from a great height. Could it be . . . UFOs? Or mad science? Nobody knows. According to the Denver Post: There by the trough – past the locked gate…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Who Is The Greatest CGI Character Of Them All?

There have been countless characters in movies and television generated entirely using computer effects. But which one was the most believable as a character? This isn’t a poll about which CGI creature looks the coolest – instead, we’re aiming at which one felt the most like an actual character in the movie. In other words,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Huge Iceberg Drifting Towards Australia

A 54 square-mile iceberg that broke free of an Antarctic ice shelf ten years ago is headed straight for Australia, and similarly large icebergs have been sighted off the coast of New Zealand. Are we heading for ice disaster? While the situation is quite weird – few icebergs this large have ever drifted so far…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Weirdly Glorious Venture Bros. Cosplay With The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you had a live-action version of Venture Bros., crossed with a cheesy 1970s-era romance starring arch villains The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. Monarch (AKA Dr. Girlfriend)? Of course you have. Created by Nick Murphy, this is a pitch-perfect blob of weirdness, a slo-mo romance montage featuring the…

Television Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Norway Light Spiral Was a Failed Missile Launch, Says Scientist [Updated]

New Scientist is reporting that the strange spiral of light that Norwegians saw in the sky two nights ago was in fact a failed Russian missile launch. https://gizmodo.com/mysterious-light-spiral-appears-over-norway-5422610 The magazine quotes Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who identifies it as the failure-prone Bulava ballistic missile, launched from a submarine. McDowell said the Russian Navy is in…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 10

Future Hawaiian Cities Will Be Partly Underwater

As the cities on Hawaiian islands grow larger, they’ll start developing offshore, building underwater resources for residents. Already a plan is underway to cool Honolulu using ocean water; and offshore farming there could turn oceans into food production areas. Over at the Food Futurist, Christophe Pelletier describes a new study from BioScience on the viability…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 9

Extinct Bees and Drugs Haunt Douglas Coupland’s “Generation A”

A science fictional echo of his classic Generation X, Douglas Coupland‘s latest novel Generation A imagines a future where fuel is scarce and bees are extinct. Suddenly, five people are stung. Five people with strange molecules in their blood. After Coupland published the groundbreaking novel Generation X in the early 1990s, surly speculative writer Kurt…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Dec 9

We Know Where To Find Bigfoot Bones, Says Expert

One of the big questions about Bigfoot has always been: Well if this creature exists, why haven’t we found any of its bones? Now monster expert Loren Coleman from Cryptomundo answers this question, and suggests where to start digging. Coleman explains that most bones in forests are, of course, picked clean by predators. So that…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 9

The Scariest Map Ever – At Least for Americans

More precisely, this map will be scary for people in the US. It’s a time-lapse video of unemployment rates over two years – the darker the color, the higher the rates. Welcome to the jobless future. [via LaToya Egwuekwe]

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 9

A Giant Tentacle Monster Defeats An Oil Rig

In this fantastic computer-animated short, a creature who looks like the spirit of oil embodied attacks an oil rig at sea. Called "Oceansize," it’s the best sea monster story I’ve seen in a long time. [via Undead Backbrain]

Movies Annalee Newitz Dec 9

The Evolutionary Cost of Being Extremely Sexy

It’s a classic tale of how mediocrity is maintained. Evolutionary biologists in California have discovered that when males shower attractive females with attention, it actually undermines those females’ fitness as mothers. That means fit females don’t pass their genes on. Today PLoS Biology published a study of fruitflies, a species where the male flies show…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 8

Your Favorite Movies Were Made By Computers

Like robots doing complicated surgeries, the computers that generate CGI effects are more than just tools. They’re storytellers. This week on io9, we explore a world where humans watch the world through computer eyes just by going to the movies. Since the earliest days of cinema, special effects have been crucial to movie storytelling. One…

Movies Annalee Newitz Dec 7

How Is Media Technology Changing Science Fiction?

We know that science fiction is a form of media that changes the future – it’s influenced everyone from scientists to economists. But are new media technologies changing SF? The Small World podcast explores some answers. This week I was lucky enough to join scifi writers Cory Doctorow and JC Hutchins, along with scifi podcaster…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 5

The First Space Butterfly Takes a Test Flight

Yesterday a Painted Lady butterfly emerged from its chrysalis and flapped its wings – in microgravity on the International Space Station. It was the first butterfly to be born and survive in microgravity. In this awesome movie, where the butterfly flaps around in its cage with a floating chrysalis, you can see the future of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 4

Annalee Newitz

20 Best Science Fiction Books Of The Decade

They Arrived On Titan Just As Saturn Was Setting

SF Writer Peter Watts Arrested, Beaten At US-Canadian Border

Physicists to FlashForward: You Are Full Of Crap

Follow The Fictional Science Adventures Of Squid & Owl

Rebuilding A Shoreline: One Of Year’s Best Engineering Projects

Mysterious Cattle Mutilations In Denver – Again

Who Is The Greatest CGI Character Of Them All?

Huge Iceberg Drifting Towards Australia

Weirdly Glorious Venture Bros. Cosplay With The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

Norway Light Spiral Was a Failed Missile Launch, Says Scientist [Updated]

Future Hawaiian Cities Will Be Partly Underwater

Extinct Bees and Drugs Haunt Douglas Coupland’s “Generation A”

We Know Where To Find Bigfoot Bones, Says Expert

The Scariest Map Ever – At Least for Americans

A Giant Tentacle Monster Defeats An Oil Rig

The Evolutionary Cost of Being Extremely Sexy

Your Favorite Movies Were Made By Computers

How Is Media Technology Changing Science Fiction?

The First Space Butterfly Takes a Test Flight

Finally, a First Look at Brad Bird’s New Animated Sci-Fi Detective Movie

Two LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon Sets Land at All-Time Lows, Including the Dark Version

Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction Headphones Are Briefly Back at Their Lowest Price on Amazon

‘Man of Tomorrow’ Is On the Hunt For Maxima

HP Laptop With Microsoft 365 Hits Record Low After Multiple Price Cuts, Now Cheaper Than A16 iPad

Artemis 2 Day 9: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

How the Hands Behind Rocky Got Hired for ‘Project Hail Mary’

Google Quietly Drops Nest Cam (2nd Gen) to All-Time Low on Amazon, Turning It Into a Budget Home Security Pick

Galaxy S26 Ultra Now Available for $480 as Samsung Expands Trade-In Offers With Extra Savings on Buds4 Pro

‘The ‘American Horror Story’ Reunion Could Be a Sequel to ‘Coven’

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