Annalee Newitz

Watch Out For Biting Nanobots!

The nanobot swarms are always the worst at this time of year. I guess it’s something about the transition from heat to cold that gets them replicating like crazy. I got three nanobot bites last night! Damn they itch. We’ve featured the work of London artist Adam Baines on io9 before, and I’m always excited…

On Supernatural, The Antichrist Loves The X-Men

Last night’s Supernatural started out with a goofball monster-of-the-week scenario and evolved into something dark and epic. Only on this show could you find joy buzzers that are tied to the fate of good and evil on Earth. Spoilers ahead! The episode, called “I Believe the Children Are Our Future,” starts out by lulling you…

A Dinosaurian Desk Lamp Made From Lasers and Wood

This cool lamp is made the same way those 3D wooden dinosaur models are. You get a set of flat wooden puzzle pieces, notch them together, and presto – from 2D bits you get 3D awesomeness. Plus lasers! Designer Pedro Mealha created this lamp using a CNC laser cutter to create perfect shapes for the…

io9 Costume Show Weekly Standouts

From the utter adorableness of homemade Dalek dresses, to a brooding Crow on the New York subway, we’ve got a few standouts from the io9 Halloween Costume show this week. Check out your fellow io9ers’ costumes, and post yours too! All month long we’re running the io9 Halloween Costume Show in a Flickr pool. Want…

Galactic Weather Discovery Changes Our Understanding of the Solar System

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, has provided NASA with a completely unexpected view of solar winds. Turns out that these “winds” of charged particles are shaped by nearby stars. This discovery completely changes our picture of the solar system. Scientists are using IBEX to create a more accurate map of the boundary between interstellar…

A Genetically-Engineered Cat With Antenna Dishes In Its Ears

This kitten is a rare genetic/cyborg experiment that poses a simple question. What would happen if cats could hear radio waves and receive data via microwave in their ears? OK, I’ll admit it. This cat is genetically engineered in that old-school breeder way, and it doesn’t really have antenna dishes in its ears. Though that…

Stories about science, the future, and weird true things.

You Know It’s An Indie Horror Movie When . . .

Paranormal Activity has everybody talking about indie horror, especially shoestring budget flicks like Blair Witch Project. What do DiY scare movies really have in common, other than nausea-inducing steadycam? Allow us to enlighten you. With slick horror movies hitting theaters this horror-tastic season, it’s important that you know how to recognize true, authentic made-in-my-basement chills.…

Karl Schroeder Talks About Futurism vs. Science Fiction

Science fiction writer Karl Schroeder, author of The Sunless Countries (reviewed here), is earning his masters degree in “strategic foresight,” or futurism, at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He told us about how futurism is influencing his work. https://gizmodo.com/crowdsourcing-leads-to-madness-in-the-sunless-countrie-5376577 io9: Tell us about how you got into futurism. Karl Schroeder: Around 2005 the…

The Spine-Tingling Glamour of Hammer Pinup Girls

Just in time for Halloween, Titan Books has released Hammer Glamour, a luscious coffee table book that collects pinup images of beauties featured in iconic Hammer Studios movies of the 1960s and 70s. These ladies helped redefine the horror genre. Hammer was a UK studio whose mid-twentieth century reimaginings of popular monsters like Dracula reinvigorated…

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American LARPers Are Useless!

This wins the prize for Best Rant Ever. A German live action role player (LARPer) named Kalle yells at Americans for being poseurs when they LARP. It devolves into Kalle beating the photographer with a stick. Of course this indictment of LARPing in the USA is itself an exercise in role-playing. “Kalle” is Viennese performance…

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It’s The io9 Redesign – Now With More Commenter Powers!

You may have noticed that the site looks a little different today. It’s day one of our latest redesign, so things may be a bit buggy. But they will also be more awesome – now we have forums and more! Let’s start with the basic changes. For one thing, all our tags look like Twitter-style…

Passage for the Narrowest of the Great Steam Ships

This is a rare image of otherworldly tranquility from concept designer Thomas Crausaz. Usually his work tends towards gorgeous desolation and destruction, as you can see in our gallery. But here he managed to portray a massive steamship looking delicate. You can see more of Thomas’ amazing work – including a ton of videogame design…

This is a secret communication from the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Is Science Fiction Feminized Or Is It Sexist? Both.

Is science fiction “feminized”? Do women exist to destroy all that is cool and inspiring about space opera? That’s what one blogger argues in a post that’s stirred up controversy this week. But is his opinion really the problem? The hullabaloo is over an anonymous essay about the “feminization of science fiction” published on a…