Annalee Newitz

Here’s the Shiny Cover of William Gibson’s New Novel!

With this exclusive io9 reveal, at last we’ve got a solid glimpse of William Gibson’s long-awaited novel,The Peripheral, coming out October 28. This is the first time in two decades that the author of Neuromancer has written a book set in the far future. Gibson himself is ecstatic about the cover, and explained why to…

Now THIS Is a Badass Feathered Tyrannosaurus Rex

Don’t mess with old feather-head. That’s what they say, and you can see why. This illustration of a feathered T. rex is by R.J. Palmer, and you can see more of his awesome monstery work on his Tumblr.

Where Are All the Female Science Fiction Heroes in Picture Books?

Amanda R. Von Der Lohe maintains a Goodreads page on science fiction picture books, and after looking at hundreds of books she made a depressing discovery. Less than 15% of these books featured a girl protagonist. Illustration from Boy + Bot Jason Boog, author of Born Reading, interviewed Von Der Lohe for Galleycat, to find…

This Is Why I Love Your Selfies

I’m not really into taking pictures of myself, but I love seeing your selfies. I don’t care whether you’re posing with some weird food item or standing next to that guy who kind of annoys me. That’s because your Snapchat pic of a barf face is fulfilling an ancient biological urge that I share with…

Looking for a fun activity with the kids? Why not mummify Barbie? This little girl figured out all the ingredients she’d need, and did a fantastic job cutting her doll’s organs out before wrapping her in linen and preparing her elaborate burial chamber.

Three Ways to Reduce the Ocean’s Garbage Gyres (And One Way Not To)

You’ve heard about the ocean’s garbage patches, swirling with tiny pieces of plastic. Now there are several organizations and inventors working on cheap, simple ways to reduce ocean garbage — and some of them are already working. Photo of inner harbor water wheel by Andrew Thaler. Over at Deep Sea News, Kim Martini has a…

Masters of Sex Is Trying to Do Something That’s Almost Impossible

I am obviously the target audience for Masters of Sex because I love romances involving repressed men, but I am also a fan of hot sex scenes and laboratory dramas. Last night’s premiere, however, reminded me that this show does something even harder than creating a story about kinky/repressed geeks. Spoilers ahead. This season is…

The Most Popular Sport in North America 900 Years Ago

Beneath the freeways of East St. Louis in Illinois there lie the ruins of a city built nearly a millennium ago, around towering earthen pyramids. Today called Cahokia, it held as many as 40 thousand people, and their influence spread throughout the southeast U.S. — mostly due the popularity of a game called chunkey. Some…

Only the Owls Know the Answer to Your Riddle

I have heard it said by wise people that birds are the only creatures who can truly answer a difficult riddle. Perhaps it is because they are used to seeing everything from above — and, when they land, from below. That double perspective is the key to their peculiar understanding. This is a detail from…

Politician Explains Why Sodomy Is Causing AIDS Due to “Sperm Enzyme”

Bob Frey is a Republican running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, and he’s worried about the economic cost of sodomy. He’s not against gay people, mind you — the problem, he explained yesterday, has to do with the way sperm burns our anal cavities. Here’s his theory. It turns out that Frey has a…

What Created This Beautiful “Sky Jellyfish” in the Upper Atmosphere?

You know it can’t be a UFO because this picture is actually in focus and doesn’t look like it was taken from the back of a moving truck. Lauren Hitchings at New Scientist has the answer: According to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this is just one of many…

The U.S. Centers for Disease control have shut down their flu and anthrax labs, citing “accidents.” Over the past month, hundreds of C.D.C. employees have been exposed to potentially deadly anthrax and H1N1 flu strains due to flubbed safety measures and sample contamination.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Is the Most Upsetting Dystopia of All

Three years ago, audiences were blown away by Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a smart reimagining of the Apes franchise for the biotech age. Now ape protagonist Caesar is back in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, where humanity has been decimated by a plague and the planet’s future is the grimmest…

It Was an Unexpected Sunset

He’d heard the ships would be arriving at dusk, but he didn’t realize that they would actually be causing the dusk in question. This is a detail from Michael Heath’s award-winning cover of the middlegrade novel Earthfall. You can see more of Heath’s amazing work on his website.

Are open relationships the next sexual revolution? Over at Alternet, Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson ask whether “designer” relationships that include more than two people could go mainstream in the future, offering people more options when it comes to romance and marriage.

What Is Causing the Kidney Stone Epidemic?

The number of people suffering from kidney stones has grown over the past thirty years, and a new study shows it’s likely to get worse. Here’s why. Pediatric urologist Gregory Tasian and his team analyzed over 60,000 medical records of people with kidney stones in major cities throughout the U.S. What they found was that…

Planet of the Apes: A Timeline and an Explanation

Now that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is out, it’s time to assess where we are in the complicated, time travel dystopia of the franchise that started over a half century ago. We’ve got a timeline and an analysis of where the current series puts us. Chart by Jim Cooke The Planet of…

A Breakthrough in Our Understanding of How Intelligence Evolves

It’s hard to study intelligence in humans — our cultures are incredibly complex, and what counts as “smart” is defined as much by our societies as it is by our genes. So some researchers have turned to chimpanzees to understand what actually gives rise to intelligence in the brain. Photo by innotata.

I’m Not Sure How to Feel About this Neko Case Video About Geeks

Awesome singer-songwriter Neko Case got together with Kelly Hogan to make the song “These Aren’t the Droids” for the 2776 comedy/music benefit project. A lot of the sight gags are great, but the “geek stuff is for boys” message is a little … outdated. It’s hard to tell exactly what Case and Hogan are trying…

The Ten Plagues Look Cheesily Great in the Trailer for Exodus

So Ridley Scott decided to cast a dude named Christian to play Jewish superhero Moses in his movie Exodus: Gods and Kings. But if this trailer is any indication, at least the movie won’t be deviating from the original book when it comes to showing us the ten badass plagues. Anybody who has ever been…