Annalee Newitz

Will we be living in city-states in the near future?

As we shift away from fossil fuels, there will be a few cultural changes that you might not expect. For one thing, political and economic power will become focused in cities rather than regions or states. That’s what energy expert Joe Browder says in an intriguing essay. Image by Jake Murray Browder, who consults with…

Incredible examples of ancient writing found in lost city in Iraq

Often when archaeologists find a lost city or civilization, they have to puzzle out what life was like there based on buildings and objects like pots and weapons. But the researchers who recently excavated the kingdom of Idu, which is over 5,000 years old, got lucky. They found some written records. Like many ancient cities…

At last, the beautiful song that Dimetrodon deserves

This latest song from The Doubleclicks is about one of my favorite animals, Dimetrodon, a mammal-like reptile called a synapsid who lived during the Permian period, millions of years before dinosaurs evolved. Somehow, The Doubleclicks have figured out exactly why I love Dimetrodon. I have been whining for years that somebody should write a song…

How did crows develop a social safety net?

A lot of crows come to my backyard looking for peanuts, but this group of five was different. They were scrappy, with tattered white bits of down sticking out from between their black feathers. One of them made a cry more like a bleat than your typical caw caw! And then I discovered them doing…

A strange argument about why lawyers will benefit from UFO disclosure

If the governments of the world have somehow managed to put all their differences aside and work together as a team to cover up UFO visitations, who will benefit most from ending this conspiracy? Apparently, according to one UFOlogist, lawyers. Over at UFO Digest, Ed Komarek explains: Hopefully at some point soon some very large…

Do you have a Star Trek t-shirt design you’ve been dying to create? Now you can enter the ThinkGeek and HerUniverse contest for best Star Trek tee design — winners get cash, and the design will be turned into a gorgeous tee! More details about the contest on ThinkGeek.

We have seen clouds on a giant planet beyond our solar system

On the left is an artist’s recreation of what the clouds look like on a planet called Kepler-7b, a hot Jupiter in orbit around a large, aging star in the constellation Lyra. And, for the first time in history, scientists are certain that cloudy atmospheres exist beyond our solar system. It’s our first glimpse of…

Are there any realistic scifi scenarios for space travel that could come to pass in the 21st century? Futurist Peter Schwartz says there are — and over at Forbes, Elise Ackerman lays them out for us.

Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you’ve been needing

First-time novelist Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice is a tale of war crimes whose astropolitical scope is stunning. It’s a military thriller, a mystery, and a very complicated love story about sentient starships and hive minds in an alien civilization that looks a lot like something out of Earth’s history. What’s immediately impressive about Ancillary Justice…

An unexpected way that old media is being destroyed by the future

You see a lot of rants about how social media is destroying venerable old TV news and newspapers. But there’s another force that’s wrecking the old media way of doing things: crime. In San Francisco, there has been a rash of people stealing equipment from TV news reporters. There have been several instances in the…

How DNA testing can rip families apart — and bring them together

Two women from shattered homes have been using DNA tests to discover why they have always felt like outsiders. They find each other on a social network for people who want to compare their genomes — and they get a match. Are they related? Did their parents have an affair? New DNA services promise to…

You must only speak the words to enter the realms beyond

Weary traveler, I’m not sure how you made it here through the darkness. But now you are almost home. Our gates will open to all who know the languages spoken in secret among slaves, because we have built this place as a refuge. Pablo Palomeque is a concept artist in Buenos Aires, Argentina. You can…

This fashion show is like a glimpse of the future

Fashion designer Rick Owens debuted his new line in Paris this week with this incredible, futuristic show featuring steppers. It’s absolutely mesmerizing, and reminds me of Afro-futurist art or the movie Born in Flames. Just gorgeous.

What is the greatest science fiction-inspired song ever written?

Science fiction themes have ruled pop music, from 1950s rockabilly tunes about Martians, to David Bowie’s 1970s Ziggy Stardust and Janelle Monae’s current tales of the android Cindi Mayweather. But what is the absolute best song with science fiction themes that’s ever been written? Tell us your choice, and be sure to include a picture…

Behold the power of a supermassive black hole

At the center of this image is a supermassive black hole, shooting radiation out from the heart of its galaxy. Those two bursts of pink to the left and right are jets of particles that the black hole is shooting out of the galaxy at unbelievable speeds. Chandra X-ray Laboratory reports on what you’re seeing:…

Why is this man growing a nose on his forehead?

Yes, this man actually has a nose growing on his forehead. It’s part of a cutting-edge transplant procedure, and doctors will eventually replace his damaged nose with the new, healthy organ. Image via Reuters According to Reuters: A new nose, grown by surgeons on Xiaolian’s forehead, is pictured before being transplanted to replace the original…

A disturbing and sad experiment that revealed the nature of phobias

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner were two researchers at Johns Hopkins University who innocently wondered what caused phobias. Their next move was not quite so innocent. They got themselves a baby, about nine months old, and experimented with drilling fear into a child’s mind. They called the baby Albert B. Albert’s mother was an employee…

7 Brilliant and Enticing Movies About the Lives of Sexologists

This weekend is the premiere of Showtime’s new series Masters of Sex, the story of famed sexologists William Masters and Virginia Johnson. But their tale of vibrators used as scientific instruments isn’t the only one out there. Here are seven more great stories of sexual science and its consequences. https://gizmodo.com/full-trailer-for-masters-of-sex-shows-the-long-hard-ro-1071122392 https://gizmodo.com/11-works-of-sexology-that-will-blow-your-mind-with-sci-5985191 https://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-sexology-breakthroughs-of-the-past-130-year-5142240 1. Kinsey Alfred…

The one truly outstanding scene in the Revolution season premiere

Last year, Revolution got everybody’s attention with an intriguing premise. What if all our electricity was sucked away by nanotechnology? Its second season premiere gave us political baggage and daddy issues — but we’re hoping the show will look a lot more like this scene. After her mother Rachel let somebody die last season so…

A mysterious fire transformed North America’s greatest city in 1170

One thousand years ago, in the place where St. Louis, Missouri now stands, there was once a great civilization whose city center was ringed with enormous earthen pyramids, vast farmlands, and wealthy suburbs. For hundreds of years it was the biggest city in North America. Then a mysterious fire changed everything. https://gizmodo.com/9-ruined-cities-that-remain-a-mystery-to-this-day-1239294825 Illustration by Bill…