Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

Watch Postapocalyptic “Afterworld” Online

What happens when 99 percent of humans disappear and all technology stops working? Watch machinima “Afterworld” and follow the surreal adventures of an advertising exec who wakes up one morning to find the world utterly changed. Each 3 minute episode ends in a creepy, interesting cliffhanger as we get closer to understanding what’s caused this…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Six Earth Cities That Will Provide Blueprints for Martian Settlers

If humans land on Mars by 2037 as NASA hopes, they’ll need cities modeled on ones that already exist in extreme climates on Earth. Here are six high-tech (and a few low-tech) cities that would have a passing shot at survival in the Martian climate. Of course there are the obvious choices, like research stations…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Enter io9’s “Fake Star Trek Footage” Contest

You’ve got one more week to enter io9’s contest — cosponsored by geekgasmic site Trek Movie — to create the very best fake footage from the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. It all got started last week when we stayed up way too late drinking, saw this fake footage (included above) allegedly from the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Disarming a Landmined World in Eliot Fintushel Story, Free Online

In a war-ravaged future where most urban areas are riddled with mines, a de-miner’s only friends are New York street kids and his bomb dog Uxo (short for unexploded ordnance). In the short story “Uxo, Bomb Dog,” available from excellent scifi blog Futurismic, author Eliot Fintushel creates a wry, sad portrait of a man who…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Riverside Views in a Thriving Halo World

You can see the entire grand sweep of the curving cities, which occupy one small space in the habitat ring around the planet Abalakin. What’s great about this image from concept designer Alexander Preuss is the way he manages to capture the vast distances and strange, bulging infrastructure that would be part of a beautiful,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Ultrathin, Rubbery Circuits Bring Us One Step Closer to Google Brain Implants

A new kind of computer circuit printed on ultrathin rubber would make the perfect “brain wrapper,” says its inventor. Usually computer circuits are etched on rigid, plastic boards, but University of Illinois researcher John Rogers has successfully placed circuits on a rubbery material that can bend and stretch. Many groups have been working on developing…

io9 Annalee Newitz

When (Microscopic) Blood Vessels Explode

The Wellcome Trust, a medical research charity, has just announced the winners of its 2008 imaging contest. Above is my favorite, a picture of a microscopic blood vessel that has ruptured. You can see single red blood cells slowly leaking out. This was taken by Anne Weston, with a scanning electron micrograph. She says the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Navy Initiates a Five-Year Plan to Build Laser Blasters

Long range laser weapons that do more than make little red dots show up on distant objects have long been a dream of science fiction creators and the military alike. Now it looks like a true, long-range laser blasting weapon may be ready for action within the next five years. The Navy is ponying up…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Heavy Geek Music from Goblin Cock to Filk

I am totally in love with this band Goblin Cock, whose entire goal in life is to sing about geeky topics in a register that can only be described as Spinal Tappian. This video from their song “Stumped” contains every possible great thing: druids, comic book stores, women’s softball, robots, and street fights. I guess…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Vector Map of the Unnamed Methane Sea on Titan

Peter Minton is a California teacher who loves to make vector maps in his spare time. His favorite places to map are islands and coastlines, and so when the Cassini-Huygens probe sent back images from Saturn’s moon Titan he was happy to discover the geographical features he loves most. There, on the pole of Titan,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Top Medical Discovery of 2007 Explained via Cartoon

For a long time, it seemed as if a medical discovery that Science called “one of the greatest of 2007” might never get covered by the mainstream media because it was just too complicated. But then an enterprising journalist and artist with the Philadelphia Inquirer boldly went where no reporters dared go. Writer Tom Avril…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Kilauea Volcano Restarts Its Fires, Spews Strange New Ash

A crater on the ever-active Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii has started to spew a huge plume of ash. The recent explosion, which shut down roads in the area, may be a harbinger of even bigger explosions to come. Above, you can see what happened a few years ago when things got explodey on Kilauea. We’ve…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Automated Science Fiction Convention Finder

You know you’re living in the future when somebody builds a web application to help you find the science fiction conventions nearest to your zip code. Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow points us to the just-born “Convention Finder,” a creation of SpaceWesterns editor Nathan Lilly. Now it’s up to us to help make Convention Finder…

io9 Annalee Newitz

We Already Knew Men Could Get Pregnant

The media is going nuts over a man named Thomas Beatie who has become pregnant, but to anyone familiar with cutting-edge science or science fiction his situation is totally old news. Here’s how it happened: there was this guy who used to be a chick, but when he switched over to the guy side he…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Six Bite-Your-Head Brilliant Dragons from Science Fiction

Although the flying, fire-breathing, lizard-esque creature known as a dragon usually appears in fantasy stories full of elves and magic, the scaly beasts show up in scifi too. Sometimes they’re apocalyptic killing machines, like the “ancient species unearthed by subway digging” in that Christian Bale flick Reign of Fire, and sometimes they’re more like a…

io9 Annalee Newitz

20-Sided Die Memorials for Gary Gygax

Jess Burgess looks out over Killian Court on the M.I.T. campus, where students created a giant 20-sided die last week as a memorial for Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax. 20-sided dice are a crucial part of that game. If you couldn’t get over to Cambridge, Mass, to place flowers at the foot of the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Classic Tale of Extraterrestrial Medicine from Vonda N. McIntyre — Free Online

A doctor on an alien planet has only three tools in her medical kit, and they are all living snakes. Using a kind of biotechnology in her own body, she’s able to synthesize tailor-made drugs from the snakes’ venom after exposing them to people who are ill. Leading a nomadic life, she moves from town…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Provigil is the Cocaine of the Twenty-First Century

Provigil (AKA modafinil) has been called a wonder drug: it can keep you awake and alert for hours without side-effects, and it’s even recommended as “the professor’s little helper” by neuroscience researchers writing in the prestigious journal Nature. Provigil, approved by the US food and drug administration for the treatment of narcolepsy, is often prescribed…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Comet Smashes into the Earth in 1931

A French flick from 1931 called La Fin du Monde was a special effects blockbuster for its time, featuring a giant comet about to smash into the Earth, and amazing chases up and down the Eiffel Tower. So of course, an American film distributor got hold of it and decided to do the old “Raymond…

io9 Annalee Newitz

This Just in: Mars Rovers Will Not Be Shut Down

NASA has announced that the Mars rover Spirit will not be shut down. This is a great relief to us, and to all of the io9ers who cried out in pain when NASA suggested it would have to kill Spirit in order to make a $4 million budget cut requested by the US government. [AP…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz

Watch Postapocalyptic “Afterworld” Online

Six Earth Cities That Will Provide Blueprints for Martian Settlers

Enter io9’s “Fake Star Trek Footage” Contest

Disarming a Landmined World in Eliot Fintushel Story, Free Online

Riverside Views in a Thriving Halo World

Ultrathin, Rubbery Circuits Bring Us One Step Closer to Google Brain Implants

When (Microscopic) Blood Vessels Explode

Navy Initiates a Five-Year Plan to Build Laser Blasters

Heavy Geek Music from Goblin Cock to Filk

A Vector Map of the Unnamed Methane Sea on Titan

Top Medical Discovery of 2007 Explained via Cartoon

Kilauea Volcano Restarts Its Fires, Spews Strange New Ash

Automated Science Fiction Convention Finder

We Already Knew Men Could Get Pregnant

Six Bite-Your-Head Brilliant Dragons from Science Fiction

20-Sided Die Memorials for Gary Gygax

Classic Tale of Extraterrestrial Medicine from Vonda N. McIntyre — Free Online

Provigil is the Cocaine of the Twenty-First Century

A Comet Smashes into the Earth in 1931

This Just in: Mars Rovers Will Not Be Shut Down

Kia’s EV3 Is Headed to the US This Year With Up to 320 Miles of Range

Watch and Follow Live as NASA Launches Its First Crewed Mission to the Moon in 54 Years 🔴

This Is the Way to Lego’s April Releases

Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Turns Out to Be Sneakily Backed by OpenAI

Amazon Facilities in Bahrain Hit Again as Iran Follows Through on Threat, Report Says

Why the PS6 Handheld Will Matter More Than the PS6

DNA Study Casts Even More Doubt on Shroud of Turin’s True Origin

Sam Witwer Is Ready for Maul’s Moment

Anthropic Can’t Cover Up Its Claude Code Leak Fast Enough

Zach Cregger Recruits Second Zach for His Aunt Gladys Spinoff

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

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?