Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

Ghost Skyscraper

Earlier this week, the New York Times’ David W. Dunlap took this eerie photograph of 7 World Trade Center, which seemed to be turning invisible as the light caught it at just the right angle. It looks as if the entire 52 stories of the building were draped in a giant scramble suit, the invisibility-creating…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 4

T-Shirts That Advertise Atomic Structures

Uranium is one of the most notorious elements — it’s gotten a pretty bad rap due to its tendency to show up in nuclear weapons. Also, it’s kind of radioactive. That’s probably why it’s such a great element to show your support for in t-shirt form. Woot! has uranium tees that pay tribute to this…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 4

Possible Cure for Ebola Could Revolutionize Antivirals

Ebola is the poster virus for outbreak scares because it spreads extremely fast and kills 90 percent of its victims by causing them to bleed uncontrollably. Featured in science-scare book The Hot Zone and countless cheesy movies, Ebola is considered ripe for development into a bio-weapon. But now it seems that a group of U.S.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

Vin Diesel’s Underground Website Still Rocks Our World

Even the wreck of Babylon A.D. hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm for Vin Diesel, whose performance in near-future 2002 spy flick xXx still just plain rules. He plays Xander, a guy whose politically-subversive Jackass-style stunts have made him a hit on “underground websites.” This scene, from early in the film, shows Diesel in full action-geek mode,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

Battlestar Galactica Returns in January — So Say We All!

Yesterday we told you about rumors that Battlestar Galactica might not return until April of next year. Happily, SciFi Channel issued a press release today saying they are on track to air the final season starting in January 2009. Still a long time to wait, but at least we know they’re staying on schedule. [SciFi…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

The Wind-Swept Clouds of Mars

The Phoenix Lander look a series of photographs of the polar skies this week, and researchers have turned them into a short movie that gives you a shivery sense of what it would be like to stand under Martian skies. Those are ice water clouds, swooshing overhead very much the way clouds do on Earth.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

Energy Ball Turns Your Roof into a Wind Turbine Farm

When peak oil means you’re paying more to power up your computers than you are for rent, it’s time for Energy Ball. Developed recently by Swedish company Home Energy, these cool-looking devices are designed to work in low winds and make very little noise. That makes them perfect for home use, as well as in…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

Obama Promises National Tech Officer and a Space Advisor to the President

Want to know what presidential candidate Barack Obama will do to make the U.S. a great nation for science again? Among other changes, he promises to create a position of “chief technology officer” for the country, and to recreate a space advisory council that reports directly to the president. In addition, he claims the rDNA…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 3

Every Great Apocalypse Mixed Together Tastes Awesome

From the moment the voice over intones, “First the world was NORMAL . . . and then the APOCALYPSE came,” you know that the web series Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 is basically going to be the most awesome thing you have ever seen. With production values that spare no expense on everything from tin…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 2

Has Brent Spiner Gone Andy Kaufman?

Look I know that Brent “Data” Spiner has always been into light jazz (his album “Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back” attests to that), but somehow things have gone a bit deep endy with his new album “Dreamland.” As the incomparable Ed “Bat Segundo” Champion already revealed in his amazingly demented interview with Spiner, the actor…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 2

First Look at “Dead Set,” the Ultra-Dark Zombie Satire of Reality TV

The website for British series Dead Set has just gone live with a trailer for the miniseries, about what happens to a group of reality TV players during an all-out zombie attack. We’re excited by this meta-horror series because it’s produced by the same group that does wildly popular reality TV show Big Brother, on…

Television Annalee Newitz Sep 2

The Season’s Real Genetic Opera Is “The Fly”

Sure you can see Paris Hilton getting her face slashed in forthcoming movie Repo: The Genetic Opera, but this month in David Cronenberg’s fiendishly seductive opera adaptation of his 1980s gorefest The Fly, you can see a naked man go transgenic and turn his entire body into an experiment in human-insect genetic hybridization. Plus, the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 2

A City Prepared for Disaster Is a City that Looks to the Future

Click to view Back in May, there were reports that the rebuilt levees in New Orleans were still leaking, despite the fact that storm season had nearly arrived. One example of a leaker was this one, a levee along the Industrial Canal that was patched up for nearly $22 million and barely managed to hold…

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 2

Happy Labor Day

We’re busy relaxing in zero gee, hanging out with robots and getting drunk on small molecules. But we’ll be back tomorrow. Go read a book or watch a movie or something!

io9 Annalee Newitz Sep 1

Babylon AD: Yet Another Scifi Flick About the Virgin Mary

So we already know that Babylon AD director Mathieu Kassovitz has said that his own movie is horrible, but that didn’t stop us from getting up at the crack of ass this morning and going to see a 10:20 AM show so we could bring you the scoop on this near-future actioner with Vin Diesel.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 30

Weirdest Superhero Fight Scene Ever — With Captain Banana and Captain Yellow

Party 7 is the touching tale of seven people coming to terms with their pasts, learning to care for their families, and finding out why it’s important to carry on the traditions of voyeuristic superheroes. Captain Banana and the reluctant Captain Yellow, Jr. are heroes who share one mission: To be peeping toms. Their secret…

Movies Annalee Newitz Aug 29

Thanks to Our Sponsors

Thanks to io9’s generous sponsors this week — Chevy Fuel Solutions, Star Wars Clone Wars Soundtrack, Infinite Undiscovery, T-Mobile, Unscrew America — we have managed to travel through a wormhole, fight an alien war, and make friends with a guy in a latex outfit named “Harvey.” If you would like to aid us in our…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 29

A Trip Down Cheesy Memory Lane with the Sci-Fi Channel

If you like to giggle at Sci-Fi Channel original movies (like the new Ricky Schroeder hellhound saga), you’ll want to take a trip down memory lane and check out the kinds of stuff you could have been laughing at on Sci-Fi back in 1992. (There was the original series “Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion,”…

Television Annalee Newitz Aug 29

Autonomous “Flying Saucers” to Aid Military in Battle

Click to view Small, autonomous “flying saucers” are going to become the next big thing in recon and surveillance on the battlefield — at least, if British firm GFS has anything to do with it. GFS (which stands, charmingly, for “Geoff’s Flying Saucers”) has prototyped its new model of flying saucer (pictured), called the Fenstar…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 29

Let’s Talk Dirty to the Animals

Click to view Janni Pedersen is one of the only linguists in the world whose research focuses on a non-human language. The Iowa State University researcher at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, US, studies the language capabilities of bonobos, especially ones who have been trained to communicate with humans. Like chimps, bonobos can learn…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 29

Annalee Newitz

Ghost Skyscraper

T-Shirts That Advertise Atomic Structures

Possible Cure for Ebola Could Revolutionize Antivirals

Vin Diesel’s Underground Website Still Rocks Our World

Battlestar Galactica Returns in January — So Say We All!

The Wind-Swept Clouds of Mars

Energy Ball Turns Your Roof into a Wind Turbine Farm

Obama Promises National Tech Officer and a Space Advisor to the President

Every Great Apocalypse Mixed Together Tastes Awesome

Has Brent Spiner Gone Andy Kaufman?

First Look at “Dead Set,” the Ultra-Dark Zombie Satire of Reality TV

The Season’s Real Genetic Opera Is “The Fly”

A City Prepared for Disaster Is a City that Looks to the Future

Happy Labor Day

Babylon AD: Yet Another Scifi Flick About the Virgin Mary

Weirdest Superhero Fight Scene Ever — With Captain Banana and Captain Yellow

Thanks to Our Sponsors

A Trip Down Cheesy Memory Lane with the Sci-Fi Channel

Autonomous “Flying Saucers” to Aid Military in Battle

Let’s Talk Dirty to the Animals

That Movie with AI Val Kilmer as a Priest Has a Trailer Now

‘You Can’t Miss What Our Values Are’: Before Its Pivot to AI, Allbirds Sounded Very Different

The First ‘Clayface’ Footage Was Wonderfully Disgusting

Scientists Found Literal Ink From Ballpoint Pens in Martian Meteorites

The ‘Galaxy’s Edge’ Han Solo Proves You Really Can’t Replace Harrison Ford

BYD Is Rolling Out 5-Minute Charging on Several Popular EVs

Jury Does What Trump’s DOJ Wouldn’t, Deems Ticketmaster a Monopoly

Govee RGBIC TV Smart Light Bars Go on Clearance, Bringing Each Down to Under $25 on Amazon

EU Is Rolling Out an Online Age Verification App That Could Become the Global Blueprint

16 Underrated Anime That Deserve Your Love

Alienware’s $350 QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Nixes Everything for a Pretty Screen

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

The Soundboks Mix Is Going to Make You the Most Popular Guy at the Park

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