Lauren Davis, Author at Gizmodo

Happy Birthday to Science Fiction’s Oldest Film

Science fiction cinema turns 107 today with George Méliès A Trip to the Moon, which debuted in France on September 2, 1902. Watch as silent astronauts construct a rocket ship, put out the moon’s eye, and fend off irate aliens. [via Wired]

Movies Lauren Davis

Dramatic Photographs Bring Vinyl Toys to Life

Brian McCarty‘s toy photographs employ professional set dressing, dramatic lighting, and human extras to create strange and charming science fiction scenes with vinyl robots, monsters, and aliens as the subjects. Much of McCarty’s work is commercial, commissioned by toy companies, Rockstar Games, and Adult Swim, and his job is to bring art toys to life.…

io9 Lauren Davis

Golden Breathalyzer Could Diagnose Lung Cancer

Lung cancer diagnosis can be an invasive process, involving CT scans and tissue biopsies. But a new nanotechnological process for cancer detection could make diagnosis lung cancer as simple as breathing into a tube. Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa created a silicon-gold circuit by embedding gold nanoparticles in a silicon wafer.…

io9 Lauren Davis

A Fresh Crop of Mushroom-Shaped Nanowires Keeps Your Circuits Shrinking

Researchers at IBM are farming nanowires, growing wires a thousand times thinner than a human hair like microscopic silicon bonsai trees. This image shows the wires sprouting silicon. The company hopes this new method will enable it to manufacture increasingly small computer chips. While Moore’s Law states that circuit density doubles each year, therefore enabling…

io9 Lauren Davis

Space War and Mexican Conflict Could Be On America’s Future Agenda

The next hundred years could see the United States merge as a mature global power, only to see a rival nation threaten its space assets, and face aggression from a strong and prosperous Mexico, according to geopolitical forecaster George Friedman. Friedman is an intelligence officer with Strategic Forecasting, a private intelligence agency, as well as…

io9 Lauren Davis

Everything that Cures or Prevents Cancer (According to the Media)

Can’t recall which items the media claims prevent cancer and those that cause it? Kill or Cure takes aim at bad science journalism with its tongue-in-cheek index of items the Daily Mail links to cancer. [via Metafilter, Image from SMBC]

io9 Lauren Davis

16 Great Characters with Numbers For Names

This week, we’re gearing up for 9, Shane Acker’s film about nine animated rag dolls, each known only by their number. With that in mind, we list 16 other characters who have numerical monikers. Leaving aside characters with alphanumeric names (like Star Wars’ R2-D2 and C-3PO), characters who also have serials number imparted to them…

io9 Lauren Davis

Twilight 80s Edition Imagines Sparkly Bloodsucking River Phoenix

If Twilight had been made in the 1980s, there would have been Brat Packers and teen heartthrobs aplenty to step into Robert Pattinson’s sparkly shoes. MTV imagines Twilight’s alternate 80s cast, complete with Kiefer Sutherland and werewolf Johnny Depp. [MTV]

io9 Lauren Davis

Margaret Atwood Says She Doesn’t Write Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin Disagrees

Margaret Atwood insists that her novels aren’t science fiction, as everything she writes either has happened or could happen today. But in looking at Atwood’s latest novel, The Year of the Flood, science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin disagrees. In her essay collection Moving Targets Atwood explains that she doesn’t consider the books she…

io9 Lauren Davis

Classic Movies Get Silkscreen Poster Update

Tyler Stout designs incredibly detailed screenprinted movie posters that give classic science fiction films an updated look while offering newer movies a touch of vintage Hollywood charm. Stout, who also does many of the concert posters for Flight of the Conchords, has an ever-growing series of posters from classic and more recent films (and, for…

io9 Lauren Davis

The Real Household Pests That Inspired District 9’s Aliens

While District 9 is certainly an allegory for racism and apartheid in South Africa, not all of its South African inspirations are political. Neill Blomkamp‘s aliens were inspired, in part, by a common Johannesburg pest: the Parktown Prawn. After District 9 screened in Johannesburg, many noted that the “prawns” — as the aliens are contemptuously…

io9 Lauren Davis

NASA’s Quirky and Cartoony Mission Patches

Wired Science has a wonderfully weird collection of offbeat patches to commemorate various NASA missions, featuring everything from Marvin the Martian to Stephen Colbert, and the stories behind them. [Wired Science]

io9 Lauren Davis

Original Pilot vs. Official Pilot: Which Shows Changed the Most?

While most shows’ pilots air as their first episode, some shows get a do-over to make creative changes, improve production, or appease the network. We look at some of the pilots that didn’t make it and how the shows changed. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Riff Regan vs. Alyson Hannigan) What they changed: Joss Whedon financed…

io9 Lauren Davis

Teleporting Refrigerators, Robotic Greenhouses, and Six Other Appliances for the Future

Appliance manufacturer Electrolux challenged designers to imagine the appliances households will be using over the 90 years. The finalists include printable foods, waterless washing machines, and fridge that can teleport groceries directly into your home. In honor of Electrolux’s 90th anniversary, its annual Design Lab competition is looking toward the next 90 years, asking designers…

io9 Lauren Davis

At Last, A Graph That Explains Scifi TV After Star Trek

When have TV aliens been more popular than magic? Do shows featuring time travel fare better than those about space exploration? We chart the popularity of television’s most common themes, and see how scifi television has changed since 1970. We looked at over 300 science fiction and fantasy television shows from 1970, the year after…

io9 Lauren Davis

Action Shots From Zombieland Supernatural And Wolfman, Glamour Shots Of New Moon’s Italian Vampires

Dakota Fanning goes goth for New Moon, while Del Toro grits his fangs as the Wolfman. Chuck gets a superheroic new cast member, and Paris Hilton tweets her Supernatural experience. Plus, Zombieland, Lost, Flashforward, True Blood, and Sherlock Holmes spoilers. Zombieland See Emma Stone lug her gun and learn what the undead look like on…

io9 Lauren Davis

Mount Rushmore Gets a Virtual Backup — In Case It’s Ever Destroyed

If invading Martians or raging Kryptonians ever destroy the faces of Mount Rushmore, at least we’ll have a backup to work from. A team of Scottish scientists are teaming up with the American company CyArk to create a 3D model of the monument, which CyArk claims will be accurate within 3mm, in case archeologists ever…

io9 Lauren Davis

What’s Behind Pixar’s Dinosaur Concept Art?

An eagle-eyed fan noticed a strange image lurking in the background of a Pixar featurette: concept sculptures depicting a boy and a dinosaur. Does this mean Pixar is going prehistoric? A reader at Upcoming Pixar who goes by the name Bryko614 spotted the framed picture hanging behind Pixar sculptor Greg Dykstra in a featurette for…

io9 Lauren Davis

What Robots Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Doctor Popular‘s short comic Robots Don’t Know Anything About Twitter outlines all those little things robots just don’t understand — cupcakes, pedicures, world domination — and the funny, sometimes disastrous, consequences of their lack of understanding. [via Make]

io9 Lauren Davis

Möbius Strip Library Adds a Twist to Kazakh Architecture

BIG Architects recently unveiled their unusual design for a new library to be built in Astana, Kazakhstan: a twisting infinite loop designed to maximize natural lighting for the library and shading for the interior corridor. BIG Architects was commissioned to design the Nursultan Nazarbayev Library, which will also serve as a major cultural center for…

io9 Lauren Davis

Lauren Davis

Happy Birthday to Science Fiction’s Oldest Film

Dramatic Photographs Bring Vinyl Toys to Life

Golden Breathalyzer Could Diagnose Lung Cancer

A Fresh Crop of Mushroom-Shaped Nanowires Keeps Your Circuits Shrinking

Space War and Mexican Conflict Could Be On America’s Future Agenda

Everything that Cures or Prevents Cancer (According to the Media)

16 Great Characters with Numbers For Names

Twilight 80s Edition Imagines Sparkly Bloodsucking River Phoenix

Margaret Atwood Says She Doesn’t Write Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin Disagrees

Classic Movies Get Silkscreen Poster Update

The Real Household Pests That Inspired District 9’s Aliens

NASA’s Quirky and Cartoony Mission Patches

Original Pilot vs. Official Pilot: Which Shows Changed the Most?

Teleporting Refrigerators, Robotic Greenhouses, and Six Other Appliances for the Future

At Last, A Graph That Explains Scifi TV After Star Trek

Action Shots From Zombieland Supernatural And Wolfman, Glamour Shots Of New Moon’s Italian Vampires

Mount Rushmore Gets a Virtual Backup — In Case It’s Ever Destroyed

What’s Behind Pixar’s Dinosaur Concept Art?

What Robots Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Möbius Strip Library Adds a Twist to Kazakh Architecture

‘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

Source Code for Anthropic’s Claude Code Leaks at the Exact Wrong Time

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Malfunctions, Breaks Apart in Orbit

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