Katharine Trendacosta

Count Dracula Learns To Be a Grandfather in Hotel Transylvania 2 Trailer

The teaser trailer for Hotel Transylvania 2, the sequel to thesurprisingly cuteHotel Transylvania, has Adam Sandler’s Dracula taking on the role of grandpa to his half-human grandchild. Instead of throwing the kid into the deep end to teach him to swim — as is traditional — Dracula throws his kid off of a very tall…

The Game You Can Play to Help Cancer Research

Cancer Research UK’s latest foray into citizen science is in the form of the game Even the Odds. Just spend some time trying to save the Odds and you can also help researchers gather data on cancer cells. The game itself is pretty similar to other games out there: the world of the Odds is…

Here’s How Apocalyptic Fiction Has Changed Over the Last Century

Tumblr user Destination Toast has done a lot of statistical analyses of fandom — all of it very impressive — but the latest analyzes how the kinds of apocalypses in fiction have changed over time. We’re worried about a lot more now than we used to be. The chart below covers the different kinds of…

New Outlander Promo Puts Everyone In Danger

We just cannot wait for Outlander to return. We’ve still got three weeks to go before the rest of season one airs, but now we have a short glimpse at it. And things seem to be going quite poorly for everyone in this trailer. There’s only a little bit of happiness in this trailer —…

Watch Sarah Michelle Gellar As Cinderella In An Epic Princess Rap Battle

This one’s hard on a very personal level: Sarah Michelle Gellar is awesome, as always, but it’s hard to really side with Cinderella over Belle. Feel free to come at me in the comments.

Newspaper flashback: Here’s a look at Guardian profile of Christopher Lee that was published 43 years ago today. Back then, Lee’s career was only just starting. Who knew it would still be going strong now? And that he’d be a metal Christmas carol singing badass? [Read a digital except here]

Like Marty, a Back to the Future Documentary Will Arrive in October 2015

Back In Time, a documentary that started life as a small film about Back to the Future from the point of view of the Delorean, has expanded far beyond its original brief. Just from the trailer you can see just how perfect a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of Back to the Future the documentary…

Impossibly, the Veil Nebula Appears to Flutter In Space

Only a small portion of the Veil Nebula — located in the constellation Cygnus — is only partly visible to the Hubble Telescope. But what can be photographed is fairly impressive. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA) – ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: J. Hester (Arizona State Univ.) This is the “south-eastern knot” of the Veil Nebula, which…

New Clips from iZombie Show How Hard “Full On Zombie Mode” Is

Next week we finally get to see the premiere of iZombie, the CW’s latest foray in the realm of supernatural television. With these two new clips, we’re pretty enchanted with the show’s protagonist, Liv (Rose McIver). The clip above has Liv meeting Clive Babinaux, in a way that does not seem to indicate that he’d…

The Newest Live-Action Comic Universe Will Be From Valiant 

We’re reaching the point where all comics, everywhere, are getting the live-action treatment. But that’s not always a bad thing! In this case it means we’re getting Bloodshot, Shadowman, and Archer & Armstrong. The deal comes as a partnership between DMG Entertainment (Iron Man 3, Looper) and Valiant Entertainment. The press release isn’t exactly clear…

All of Ned Stark’s Game of Thrones Season 1 Plot In Less Than 60 Seconds

As we get geared up for Game of Thrones’ return, Vanity Fair has stepped up to give the shortest possible recap of the first season. It’s the shortest any Game of Thrones plotline has ever taken. While Cersei has never actually said “Go fuck yourself,” it’s perfectly in character.

You Can Now Buy a Real USS Enterprise Frisbee

In the grand tradition of April Fool’s products turning into reality, the ThinkGeek NCC-1701 Enterprise (the original, of course) has now become reality. The saucer section spins when you throw it, and it tows the rest of the ship with it. It’s very cute and fun, but if you got hit in the face with…

Scientists Created False Happy Memories In Mice

In a near pairing of neurobiology and positive reinforcement, researchers have induced happy memories of a certain location in mice. The hope is that it can provide a new way of dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Image credit: Eating cute little mouse by Tambako The Jaguar/flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0 In the study, published in Nature, two…

New San Andreas Trailer Ruins California, Promises Even More Destruction

I still can’t believe this isn’t a Roland Emmerich movie. It should be, right? It’s got the destruction of landmarks on a massive scale, a cast of thousands, and someone giving dire warnings that — just guessing — won’t be heeded until it’s too late. And as have the Emmerich films, so does this one…

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant only came out last week, but it’s already making steps to go to the big screen. In a Guardian article about the author being “on side of the pixies and the dragons,” Ishiguro confirmed that Scott Rudin had bought the film rights. [via Empire]

All the Ways Butterflies Use Color to Stay Alive

We all know that camouflage is an important tool in the evolutionary toolbox. But it’s only one of the ways that butterflies and caterpillars use color to keep themselves safe. Image credit: First Butterfly In May by tdlucas5000/flickr/CC BY 2.0 Liz Langley atNational Geographichas an article on the bright colors used by various species of…

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World Follow-Up Will Be Intelligent Life

Instead of doing another big franchise film after Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow’s next project, Intelligent Life, will bring him back to his Safety Not Guaranteed roots. Fingers crossed that this film will continue to put him on a upward trajectory. Intelligent Life will be directed by Trevorrow, and was written with his Safety Not Guaranteed…

The Incredible Artistry That Went Into The Hobbit‘s Endless Battles

Weta’s put a huge amount of concept art from The Battle of the Five Armies. The level of detail going into the costumes, weapons, and fight scenes is simply incredible. In Weta’s video, you can see ideas go from concept art to practical and visual effects. No matter what else The Hobbit is, it looks…

Celebrate the Women of Science With These Beautiful Pieces of Art

It’s International Women’s Day, and along with celebrating the women who changed the history of physics and those working in science now, there are these amazing prints from Rachel Ignotofsky. Ignotofsky’s work is available on Instagram and for purchase as t-shirts and prints on etsy. She’s finished seven of her planned total of fifty —…

How much snow has the United States seen this year? The New York Timeshas a set of composite photos showing snow cover from 2013, 2014, and 2015. Two things stand out: one is the photos for the Northeast, which shows the thicker more snow this year. The other is the disappearance of snow from the…