Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

Last Chance to Apply for io9 Fall Internship

Tonight at midnight PST is the deadline to apply for a fall internship with io9. Want to get some experience blogging? Here are the details. io9 is looking for interns who are obsessed with science fiction and/or science. An intern works 5 – 10 hours per week doing research, fact-checking, and contacting sources in the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 15

Massive Offshore Wind Farm Will Power 200,000 Danish Homes

This week, 91 wind turbines in the ocean will begin powering hundreds of thousands of Danish homes. And the beautiful wind farm is also a vacation spot: People can rent hotel rooms on a nearby ocean platform. Eco-sea tourism? The farm is called Horns Rev 2, and was commissioned by the Danish utility Dong Energy.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 15

Evolutionary Throwback Snake With Foot Discovered

A woman in China discovered a snake clinging to the wall of her bedroom with one clawed foot. It turned out she’d discovered an incredibly rare mutation – it’s actually more common for snakes to have two heads than feet. Unfortunately, Duan Qiongxiu of Suining, China, killed the snake before it could be captured and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 15

The Bible Is A Holographic Computer Program!!!

The Omega Code is one of those great Christian apocalypse movies. This eye-popping, Tom Cruisian scene introduces Satan’s future (unwitting) helper, a motivational speaker who thinks the Bible is a holographic computer program . . . in 3D! I’m sad that I can’t show you every single moment in this fine film, especially when we…

Movies Annalee Newitz Sep 15

This Year’s Intense El Niño Could Be Linked With Flu Pandemic

In an odd research paper announced today, scientists claim that global warming does not cause intensified El Niños, or disruptive weather systems. But strong El Niños like the one brewing in the Pacific right now are linked to flu pandemics. Texas A&M oceanographer Benjamin Giese has just completed extensive research into the 1918-19 El Niño,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 14

William Gibson’s Bridge City in “Virtual Light” Could Become Real

San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is getting a makeover that will leave a large portion of the old bridge unused, but still standing strong. Now two architects are proposing that the city build a neighborhood on it. Local architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello hit upon this idea after considering what was about to happen…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 14

Buy a Genuine Coconut Cup from the Asteroid Belt

A bunch of writers decided to conduct an unscientific experiment: Would people pay more for items on eBay if they were offered up for auction with a fictional story explaining their importance? We’ve written before about this project, called “Significant Objects,” created by io9 contributor Joshua Glenn and writer Rob Walker. https://gizmodo.com/alternate-histories-of-objects-for-sale-on-ebay-5309739 One of the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 14

“Death Stench” Is Universal Among Animals And Insects

Insects avoid their dead instinctively, repelled by a “death stench.” Now scientists have discovered that nearly all animals emit the same stench when they die, and have been for over 400 million years. Evolutionary biologist David Rollo and a team of scientists at McMaster University in Canada stumbled upon the universal death stench while studying…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 14

Welcome to the Future Metropolis

Cities contain highly-concentrated human activity. That’s why they represent our glorious, high-tech future – and threaten us with dystopian social collapse. This week on io9, our Future Metro section explores the wonder of cities in fiction, art, and real life. One of the most haunting images from recent science fiction is the garbage city where…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 14

Lamest Chase Scene In The History of Science Fiction

There’s nothing like a really great chase scene in a science fiction movie. Think of the awesomeness of watching people stalked by velociraptors, angry Cylons, and acid-secreting aliens. Then there’s this scene. Where our characters are chased by – COLD! This bit from Roland Emmerich’s environmental disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow will probably go…

Movies Annalee Newitz Sep 11

50 Millionth Unique Chemical Added to Registry of Known Substances

The American Chemical Society announced yesterday that they’ve added the 50 millionth chemical to their comprehensive guide to publicly-disclosed substances, the Chemical Abstracts Service Registry. The substance is “a novel arylmethylidene heterocycle with analgesic properties.” In other words, a painkiller. Said chemist Hideaki Chihara, “A novel substance is either isolated or synthesized every 2.6 seconds…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 11

Night Shade Books’ Jeremy Lassen on the Future of Book-Buying

Night Shade Books is a small press that’s quickly getting bigger. Known for edgy novels, they’ve also published heavy-hitters like Iain M. Banks. And editor-in-chief Jeremy Lassen thinks his press fits perfectly into a future of videogames and online bookstores. I sat down with Lassen a few weeks ago in a Montreal coffee shop during…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Sep 11

On “Supernatural,” Angels May Be Worse Than Lucifer

After seeing how angels behave on last night’s episode of Supernatural, you’ll want to cozy up with Lucifer too. You also won’t be suprised that everybody is after the Winchester brothers’ hot bods – fans and archangels alike. Spoilers ahead! Aptly titled “Sympathy for the Devil,” last night’s 5th season premiere of Supernatural started with…

Television Annalee Newitz Sep 11

Norway’s First Giant Monster Is An Egg With a Huge Tongue

When you think of Norway, you think of good things: pickled herring, black metal, Nazi zombie movies. And now this fine nation has its own giant monster, whose face you can see for the first time in this trailer. The disappointing thing for everybody who was hoping for a battle with this giant egg is…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 11

British Government Gives Official Apology to Alan Turing for Homophobia

It’s too late to save World War II codebreaker and computer inventor Alan Turing, who was chemically castrated for being gay in 1952. But 55 years after Turing’s death, the British PM Gordon Brown has apologized. Turing is one of the most intriguing and important figures in British intelligence history. His work on an early…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 11

Economists Suggest Mind-Reading As a Way to Determine Public Good

A bizarre experiment carried out at CalTech has led economists to an even more bizarre assertion. Governments allocating spending for public goods like education should use “neurotechnology” – mind-reading via fMRI brain scans – to determine who should be taxed. The problem that CalTech economist Antonio Rangel and his team were grappling with was the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 10

34,000-Year-Old Twine Woven by Ancient Humans Discovered

Humans who lived 34 thousand years ago in a cave in the Republic of Georgia were making clothing from dyed, woven fibers. Scientists who discovered the fibers say they are the oldest known examples of human-made cloth and rope. The fibers were made from woven flax, which the paleolithic humans gathered in the wild outside…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 10

Catch Up With “Supernatural” Before Tonight’s Premiere

While you weren’t watching, Supernatural became the best speculative show on television. Season 5 premieres tonight, and the demon-busting Winchester brothers are facing the ultimate big bad: Lucifer himself. Jump into the action with our handy catch-up guide. Spoilers! With its finely-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, and smart-but-not-boring moral dilemmas, Supernatural is quite simply one of…

Television Annalee Newitz Sep 10

What’s Wrong With How Blacks Are Portrayed On Supernatural?

Over on Angry Black Woman, there’s a great post from Alaya Dawn Johnson about the basic problems with how blacks are represented on terrific American horror show Supernatural. It’s written as an open letter to showrunner Eric Kripke, and Johnson does a great job laying out exactly why it’s a problem that every black character…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 10

New Tor.com Print-On-Demand Line Launches with “Year’s Best Fantasy 9”

Tor.com is much more than the online wing of fabled scifi publisher Tor – it’s an SF fiction magazine as well as a terrific lit blog. And now it’s branching out into next-wave publishing with a line of print-on-demand books. If you were wondering about how scifi book publishing might leave traditional publishing behind, this…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Sep 10

Annalee Newitz

Last Chance to Apply for io9 Fall Internship

Massive Offshore Wind Farm Will Power 200,000 Danish Homes

Evolutionary Throwback Snake With Foot Discovered

The Bible Is A Holographic Computer Program!!!

This Year’s Intense El Niño Could Be Linked With Flu Pandemic

William Gibson’s Bridge City in “Virtual Light” Could Become Real

Buy a Genuine Coconut Cup from the Asteroid Belt

“Death Stench” Is Universal Among Animals And Insects

Welcome to the Future Metropolis

Lamest Chase Scene In The History of Science Fiction

50 Millionth Unique Chemical Added to Registry of Known Substances

Night Shade Books’ Jeremy Lassen on the Future of Book-Buying

On “Supernatural,” Angels May Be Worse Than Lucifer

Norway’s First Giant Monster Is An Egg With a Huge Tongue

British Government Gives Official Apology to Alan Turing for Homophobia

Economists Suggest Mind-Reading As a Way to Determine Public Good

34,000-Year-Old Twine Woven by Ancient Humans Discovered

Catch Up With “Supernatural” Before Tonight’s Premiere

What’s Wrong With How Blacks Are Portrayed On Supernatural?

New Tor.com Print-On-Demand Line Launches with “Year’s Best Fantasy 9”

Ozempic Shreds Bones? How a Small Study Turned Into a Big Health Myth

Anker’s Soundcore Translation Earbuds Are Now Nearly 7x Cheaper Than AirPods Pro 3 After a Sudden Price Drop on Amazon

Volkswagen Shuts Down Tennessee Plant’s EV Production at the Worst Possible Time

Using Emojis at Work? You’re Not Going to Like This Study 😮

A Terrifying Invasion Feels Eerily Familiar in This Short Horror Story

Shark AI Ultra Robot Vacuum at 51% Off Quietly Undercuts Dyson’s Stick Cleaner Prices

Tubi Manages to Turn People Against Recommendations With Bad AI Branding

Gizmodo’s Favorite Photos From NASA’s Artemis 2 Mission

Lucasfilm Keeps Telling Authors Not to Bring Back Mara Jade

As Mass Drownings Add Up, Emperor Penguins Officially Join the Endangered List

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