Esther Inglis-Arkell, Author at Gizmodo

Your Jaw Is Basically a Fish Gill (Plus Millions of Years of Evolution)

As you sit at your desk and chew your morning muffin, consider the complicated interlocking structure of your jaw. How did you manage to evolve such a thing? What you’re eating through is essentially a badly deformed but useful gill, and we’ll tell you how it got to be that way. Worm World The world…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 21

The Two Men (And the One Dinner) That Uncovered the Cause of Botulism

Today we bend Clostridium botulinum to our will, forcing it to make our faces smoother and our actors less able to do their jobs. Once, though, people had no idea what caused the “sausage disease.” It took two good men and one bad dinner to let the world know what was going on. The Sausage…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 18

It Took Seventy Years From Its Discovery for this Element to Be Isolated

Dysprosium was discovered in 1886, through such an elaborate process that even a 19th century chemist thought it was over-the-top. And that technique wasn’t enough. It took another seventy years to get dysprosium on its own. Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran clearly learned patience by writing out his own name, and so when it came…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 18

Scientists Show What Happens When You Wrap Something in An Invisibility Cloak

The latest model of the Invisibility Cloak is here, and it has two major improvements on the last few models. It can actually wrap around the stuff it’s concealing — and you can’t see the cloak itself. Take a look! This sounds less like science fiction than Greek myth. A cloak can be placed over…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 17

How The Man Who Wrote Faust Helped Discover Caffeine

We know Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and poet. He was also an amateur botanist, and his interest and connections led to the discovery of the chemical you crave every single morning. You’ve heard of Romantic painters and poets. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was, in his way, a Romantic chemist. He lived in…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 17

Why the CIA Invented Cough Syrup

Much of the cough syrup on the shelves today owes a little something to the US Navy and the CIA. One of its main effective ingredients was developed by a project funded by both agencies. Learn why. Dextromethorphan (DM), a major ingredient in many cough syrups, is not entirely uncontroversial. At high doses it can…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 17

William Buckland Was Science’s King of Poop

William Buckland was a man of many achievements—most of them poop-centered. No one would be more proud of this than William Buckland. William Buckland eventually became the Dean of Westminster, an impressive achievement, but not the one for which he’s most famous: Buckland was one of the great feces experts of his day. He could…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 17

Daffodils Are Getting Revenge on Florists With Ground-Up Kidney Stones

One of the major complaints among florists is what’s known as “daffodil itch.” Cut down too many daffodils and they will make you pay for it. And they’ll accomplish this by using the major component of kidney stones. Daffodils are poisonous. This usually isn’t a problem, because people don’t usually try to eat daffodils. Usually.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 16

These Butterflies Put Only A Minimal Effort Into Avoiding Interspecies Mating

Closely related butterflies all look so alike that they often confuse lepidopterists. In fact, they even confuse each other—and they have special adaptations to make sure they’re not actually breeding with closely related species, instead of their own species. Except when they don’t bother. Butterflies are known for their ability to imitate each other. Looking…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 16

Close Calls: Three Times When Humanity Barely Escaped Extinction

Today it looks like humans will have to launch themselves into space to get enough room for our collective population, but we weren’t always so robust a species. There are three times in history during which humans nearly went extinct. Here’s what threatened us, and how we survived. 1.2 Million Years Ago: Humanity Before We…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 16

Sap-Sucking Sea Slugs Have a Ruthless, and Intriguing, Survival Technique

Sap-sucking sea slugs do exactly what they sound like they do: They go up to seaweed and suck the sap out of it, and they do it fastidiously. But it’s the way that they do it that makes them so unusual. Each sap-sucking sea slug has a whole row of teeth, but it doesn’t use…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 16

This Video Shows You How a Coffee Stain Resembles an Avalanche

The Coffee Ring Effect is a well-known phenomenon. A puddle of coffee leaves behind a dark ring, instead of a uniform brown stain. This video explains why— and how this phenomenon resembles what happens in an avalanche. Ever notice that, as the sides of droplet of coffee evaporate, the droplet doesn’t shrink? The droplet’s circumference…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 15

Here’s an 1844 Recipe for Making Your Own Condoms!

What could be more American than the can-do pioneer spirit? If you set your mind to it, you can do anything, including making your own condoms. A nineteenth century practical recipe book tells us exactly how. My new favorite book ever, The United States Practical Receipt Book, was first published in 1844. It contained all…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 15

The Slow Process of Proving That You’ve Found a Mass Grave

In 2013, while digging a foundation for a library café at Durham University, workers uncovered human remains. Over the next two years, researchers began the process of proving what they suspected—that it was a mass grave dug in the aftermath of a famous battle. Knowing History The conclusion that researchers came to after years of…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 15

Australia’s Answer to the Cat Communicates Through Poop

This is the “quoll,” otherwise known as the “native cat.” On the plus side, it’s not venomous. (Way to hold back for once, Australia.) On the negative side, well… it seems to have a feces-based communication system. The quoll technically isn’t just one species; it’s any member of a group of carnivorous marsupials from genus…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 15

How a Few Wildfires Turned Into a Fire Tornado

In just two hours, in 1894, a wall of flame took out six Minnesota towns. A lot of factors came together to create the firestorm, but the main one was a nasty, but innocuously-named phenomenon called a “temperature inversion.” Hinckley was a logging town in Minnesota. It wasn’t a city, but it was a large…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 14

This Experiment Made Victorians Believe That Murder Victims’ Eyes Contain an Image of Their Killer

I’m going to show you the last thing a rabbit ever saw. It, in turn, will show you why Victorian-era people believed that a murder victim’s eyes contained a “photograph” of the person who murdered them. In the Victorian era, people began to work with cameras instead of paint brushes. It was common knowledge that…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 14

Giant Clams Are Watching You With Hundreds of Eyes

Start your Monday with a creepy feeling all up and down your back—especially if your back is to an aquarium. Giant clams may look like unseeing blobs, but they’re not. They have pinhole eyes all over their bodies. Giant clams sit in the warm shallows of the Pacific and Indian oceans for a century. They…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 14

Here’s What Happens When You Throw Water Into Hot Oil

It’s a bad idea to try to put out an oil fire with water, and this video will show you why. It will also show you a drop of water crazily growing and shrinking, over and over, inside some hot oil. Here we see water drops in hot oil. Starting at 1:58, the drops undergo…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 11

Huge Communities of Crayfish Are Living Right Underneath The Prairies

If you ever spend a humid night walking around the American prairie, you might run into one of these. It’s a prairie crayfish, and it and all of its friends have been living under your feet. We see crayfish in rivers and streams. They need to keep their gills wet to survive. But they’ve become…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 11

Esther Inglis-Arkell

Your Jaw Is Basically a Fish Gill (Plus Millions of Years of Evolution)

The Two Men (And the One Dinner) That Uncovered the Cause of Botulism

It Took Seventy Years From Its Discovery for this Element to Be Isolated

Scientists Show What Happens When You Wrap Something in An Invisibility Cloak

How The Man Who Wrote Faust Helped Discover Caffeine

Why the CIA Invented Cough Syrup

William Buckland Was Science’s King of Poop

Daffodils Are Getting Revenge on Florists With Ground-Up Kidney Stones

These Butterflies Put Only A Minimal Effort Into Avoiding Interspecies Mating

Close Calls: Three Times When Humanity Barely Escaped Extinction

Sap-Sucking Sea Slugs Have a Ruthless, and Intriguing, Survival Technique

This Video Shows You How a Coffee Stain Resembles an Avalanche

Here’s an 1844 Recipe for Making Your Own Condoms!

The Slow Process of Proving That You’ve Found a Mass Grave

Australia’s Answer to the Cat Communicates Through Poop

How a Few Wildfires Turned Into a Fire Tornado

This Experiment Made Victorians Believe That Murder Victims’ Eyes Contain an Image of Their Killer

Giant Clams Are Watching You With Hundreds of Eyes

Here’s What Happens When You Throw Water Into Hot Oil

Huge Communities of Crayfish Are Living Right Underneath The Prairies

First Statewide Data Center Ban Passed by Maine Legislature

FCC Exempts Netgear from Foreign-Made Router Ban for Some Reason

Jamie Dornan Is Your New Aragorn in ‘The Hunt for Gollum’

Trump’s Fed Pick Is Knee Deep in Tech and Crypto Investments

The First Trailer for ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Takes Terror Stateside

The Trump Phone Still Looks Like Total Trash

‘Masters of the Universe’ Really, Really Wants to Be the Next ‘Barbie’

Samsung’s Micro RGB TVs Provide So Much Color It May Be Too Much

The Crypto Bros Want to Get Their Hands on Anthropic’s ‘Super Dangerous’ Model

This Is What a Music Industry ‘Plant’ Looks Like in 2026

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

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice