Lauren Davis, Author at Gizmodo

Is The Large Hadron Collider Being Sabotaged from the Future?

What if all the Large Hadron Collider’s recent woes are more than bad luck and technical problems? Two noted physicists speculate that the future may be pushing back on the LHC to avert the disaster of observing the Higgs boson. The quest to observe the Higgs boson has certainly been plagued by its share of…

io9 Lauren Davis

The Trippy Robot Toys of Yesteryear

Children of the 1950s might have delighted in the battery-powered robots lining their toy shelves, but the real gems are the boxes they came in, depicting alien scenes of our multicolored, sparking, smoking, and missile-launching robot future. Life Magazine has even more box art from 1950s science fiction toys, with plenty of ray guns, spacemen,…

io9 Lauren Davis

Today, You Can Write a Story With Neil Gaiman

Ever dreamed of collaborating on a story with Neil Gaiman? Today, you’ll get your chance as Gaiman launches an experiment to create an original story using the collaborative power of Twitter. Today at noon EST (that’s 9am Pacific time), Gaiman will begin an exquisite corpse story on the BBC Audiobooks America Twitter account with a…

io9 Lauren Davis

Steampunk Toilet Flushes Away Your Clockwork Dreams

Has steampunk gone too far? Perhaps to prove there’s nothing that can’t be enhanced with a touch of brass, one artist has built a steampunk toilet, replete with retro bells and whistles. Technically a urinal, the “Teslapunk” toilet is completely functional but offers some rather unusual features, including a laser guidance system, a “flush capacitor,”…

io9 Lauren Davis

More Proof That Aliens Want Our Beef

Friday, we showed you incontrovertible proof that a UFO abducted a poor, defenseless cow. Still not convinced? Well, UFOlogists have analyzed the photos, and they’re seeing hooves. https://gizmodo.com/utterly-compelling-evidence-that-a-cow-was-abducted-by-5377766 UFO blog Inexplicata has followed up on last week’s report that a cow was spotted flying above Rosario, Argentina, until it was swallowed up by a flying…

io9 Lauren Davis

Nanoparticle Drugs’ First Target: Improving Your Sex Life

We’ve mentioned before the amazing promise nanoparticles hold for our future health: zapping tumors, destroying drug-resistant bacteria, and diagnosing lung cancer. But it looks like the first nanoparticle drug we’ll see on the market treats a more intimate problem. https://gizmodo.com/nanotech-and-lasers-team-up-to-cure-cancer-5349611 https://gizmodo.com/nanoparticle-breakthroughs-that-could-save-millions-of-5304074 http://io9.com/5349969/golden-breathalyzer-could-diagnose-lung-cancer Nanoparticles, objects less than 100 nanometers long in any direction, are already in…

io9 Lauren Davis

Terrifying Souvenirs from the Mountains of Madness

In HP Lovecraft‘s novella “At the Mountains of Madness” an expedition from the fictional Miskatonic University uncovers the unspeakable horrors waiting in Antarctica. One Lovecraft fan is crafting and assembling souvenirs from the ill-fated mission. The blog Propnomicon is devoted to creating props based on Lovecraft’s mythos, and one of its ongoing projects is to…

io9 Lauren Davis

Steampunk Zombies of the Seattle Apocalypse

Confederate airships! Mad scientists! Zombies! Goggles! Cherie Priest‘s Boneshaker is a veritable grab bag of subgenre tropes. But, fortunately, it’s far less about clockwork and brass than it is about human adaptability and the shifting nature of the American Dream. Boneshaker takes place in an alternate Washington territory, where the Klondike gold rush ramped up…

io9 Lauren Davis

50 Years, 200 Missions, One Enormous Map

Have trouble keeping track of the nearly 200 past and current missions to explore our solar system and beyond? National Geographic’s elegant infographic displays 50 years of space exploration in a colorful map of our planetary neighbors. The “Fifty Years of Exploration” map, created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic, outlines humanity’s…

io9 Lauren Davis

Alien Windmills and Cyborg Prostitutes Invade Amsterdam

Collage artist Sam Van Olffen takes the Holland’s most iconic features — its windmills, its tulips, its bicycles, and Amsterdam’s Red Light District — and meshes them with dieselpunk elements to create strange, overstuffed scenes of the Netherlands’ unlikely future. Netherlands Outrezone [Sam Van Olffen] Don Quixote of Amsterdam vs. The Alien Windmills Red Light…

io9 Lauren Davis

Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan’s Glowing Blue Junk

Do you spend hours analyzing the moral philosophy of Watchmen, the multicultural occultism of Promethea, or what Lost Girls says about storytelling and human sexuality? Consider submitting a paper to an upcoming academic conference on the work of Alan Moore. Nathan Wiseman-Trowse, Senior Lecturer in Popular Culture at the University of Northampton, is currently soliciting…

io9 Lauren Davis

Don’t Feed the Sexy Mercenary, and Other Lessons from Sanctuary

Sanctuary returned last night with an ailing Bigfoot, monster-making madness, and more of vampire Nikola Tesla. And we learned many important lessons about everything from dealing with hot female mercenaries to hanging out with Jack the Ripper. Sasquatch Hate Vampires: We’ve apparently abandoned the Lazarus virus plotline from last season. The villainous Cabal had created…

io9 Lauren Davis

Hot Monster Hunters vs The Sand Whale Apocalypse

If the Assault Girls teaser didn’t sate your appetite for gun-toting girls battling graboid-like monsters in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the full trailer is here, with more clips of our monster-slaying ladies kicking human and sand-whale ass. https://gizmodo.com/oshis-winged-female-hunters-slay-the-futuristic-graboid-5348982 As we mentioned a while back, Assault Girls is the latest endeavor from Ghost in the Shell director…

io9 Lauren Davis

Leonard Nimoy Explains Fringe’s Final Storm

Last night on Fringe, we drank worms, did drugs, and stole cryogenically frozen heads. But more importantly, we finally got to see Olivia’s visit to the other universe, and hear Leonard Nimoy explain all about the coming interdimensional war. The Great Cryo-Caper: Agent Broyles nails it with the absurd Fringe quote of the night: “Why…

io9 Lauren Davis

The Life and Times of a Brain in a Jar

Pixar illustrator Nate Wragg‘s recent series captures moments in the life of BrainBot — part robot, part human brain. BrainBot proves that you don’t need facial expressions to display your melancholy. We’ve profiled some of Wragg’s sexier (read: NSFW) work before, and BrainBot has the all their whimsy, but is tinged with sadness as well.…

io9 Lauren Davis

Jupiter’s Moon Could Sustain Animal-Like Life

Water on out moon might make lunar colonization possible, but it appears that Jupiter’s satellite Europa is better suited for life. A new study suggests Europa could support not just microorganisms, but complex life — and a lot of it. Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona will be presenting his findings on Europa today…

io9 Lauren Davis

Lego Zombies Celebrate Gay Pride and Ride the Carousel of Doom

The Zombie Apocafest has once again overrun the Lego lovers’ convention BrickCon. For the past two years, fans of both colorful plastic bricks and the undead have come together to create an enormous diorama of the zombie apocalypse. Last year was the inaugural voyage of the Zombie Apocafest, organized by the Brothers Brick, and this…

io9 Lauren Davis

Massive Thor Plot Details, Plus More From the Doctor Who Set, And Lost’s Startling Secret!

Major Thor subplots revealed! Plus more Doctor Who set pics, including a clip from filming. Discover one Lost character’s secret importance, and a few more details on Avatar. Plus: New Moon, The Lovely Bones, Fringe, Smallville, and Supernatural. Avatar Producer Jon Landau says that the character Jake Sully begins as a more vulnerable and sensitive…

io9 Lauren Davis

Zombie Lois Lane

io9 Lauren Davis

The Lovely Bones Posters

io9 Lauren Davis

Lauren Davis

Is The Large Hadron Collider Being Sabotaged from the Future?

The Trippy Robot Toys of Yesteryear

Today, You Can Write a Story With Neil Gaiman

Steampunk Toilet Flushes Away Your Clockwork Dreams

More Proof That Aliens Want Our Beef

Nanoparticle Drugs’ First Target: Improving Your Sex Life

Terrifying Souvenirs from the Mountains of Madness

Steampunk Zombies of the Seattle Apocalypse

50 Years, 200 Missions, One Enormous Map

Alien Windmills and Cyborg Prostitutes Invade Amsterdam

Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan’s Glowing Blue Junk

Don’t Feed the Sexy Mercenary, and Other Lessons from Sanctuary

Hot Monster Hunters vs The Sand Whale Apocalypse

Leonard Nimoy Explains Fringe’s Final Storm

The Life and Times of a Brain in a Jar

Jupiter’s Moon Could Sustain Animal-Like Life

Lego Zombies Celebrate Gay Pride and Ride the Carousel of Doom

Massive Thor Plot Details, Plus More From the Doctor Who Set, And Lost’s Startling Secret!

Zombie Lois Lane

The Lovely Bones Posters

Tesla Goes Ahead and Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Fully Human-Controlled

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

‘Supergirl’ Will Feature David Corenswet’s Superman in a Sort of Big Brother Role

Report: FDA Set to Unban RFK Jr.’s Favorite Peptides

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?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset