Ria Misra, Author at Gizmodo

What it looks like when an octopus decides to steal your camera.

When an octopus decided that deep sea diver David Malvestuto’s camera would be better off in his own eight arms, the resulting tug-of-war was pretty epic. Things really got good, though, when Malvestuto started taking pictures during the struggle. Here are a couple of the shots he snagged during the scuffle, before the octopus swam…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 18

California might start putting warning labels on soda

Should your soda come with a warning label? In California, it could soon — just like on the back of a pack of cigarettes. The bill was proposed by state senator Bill Monning, and would add the tag “STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay”…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 18

The great lakes are now frozen enough for a plane to land on the ice

Just how frozen are the great lakes right now? Frozen enough that a plane was able to successfully land on the deeply frosted over waters of Lake Huron today. While flying over Lake Huron today, a pilot of a seven-passenger aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing when the engine stalled. The plane touched…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 17

Will the technology of the future even be recognizable to us?

The baby in this video understands an iPad, but she doesn’t know how to read a magazine — and that could have some serious implications for the tech of the future. In response to this post about the ways that technological change is wrapped up with societal change, commenter HollywoodCed, posted a snapshot of a…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 17

Watch a live feed of a giant asteroid as it zips by earth today

It’s an asteroid the length of three football fields, it’s traveling at over 27,000 MPH, and it will be swinging pretty near to our own planet tonight — not close enough to touch (fortunately), but plenty close enough to get an eyeful. You can watch it here! Top image: Artist’s conception of an asteroid belt…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 17

Watch Bill Nye debate climate change with a congresswoman

He started with evolution. Up next on the docket: climate change. Of course, in his last debate, Bill Nye’s opponent was a man best known for providing the world with life-sized dioramas of people hanging out with dinosaurs. This time his opponent was a six-term Republican congresswoman. https://gizmodo.com/watch-bill-nye-debate-the-creation-musum-live-right-1516136046 “What we need do is to look…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 17

How an ice storm uproots a tree

Atlanta’s recent ice storm was so severe that some meteorologists were predicting that the city could lose more than a quarter of its trees in a single day. So, just how does ice take down a tree? Top image: Gerd Altmann Well, one way, it turns out, is by becoming so heavy that the tree…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 14

Scientists now know why this mysterious rock suddenly appeared on Mars

When a rock suddenly appeared in front of the Opportunity rover on Mars last month, scientists were puzzled. Now, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab say they’ve solved the mystery. https://gizmodo.com/this-mysterious-rock-just-appeared-in-front-of-our-rove-1503489334 Back in January when the rock — which scientists helpfully described as “about the size of a jelly doughnut” — was first spotted, a…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 14

Why do trolls annoy you online? Because they’re sadists.

Though not just sadists — researchers say online trolls also score above average in narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. In a new study published in Personality and Individual Differences, researchers from the University of Manitoba looked at the correlation between internet trolling and the four traits that are part of the (alarming sounding) “Dark Tetrad.” The…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 14

The GIF Party doesn’t start until you get here!

Hello, GIF-partiers! Are you having an unscheduled snow day today? What are you doing with it? Now is the time to tell (or just show) us what’s going on in your world this week, all through our chosen format of GIFs.

io9 Ria Misra Feb 14

The time President James Garfield wrote a mathematical proof

So, now that we’ve reviewed which U.S. presidents in history did the most to advance science, let’s turn our attention to which presidents have done the most for math — and the time U.S. president James Garfield wrote a proof for the Pythagorean Theorem. https://gizmodo.com/which-u-s-president-was-the-most-pro-science-1522251878 Commenter jztemple suggested that, though Garfield’s term in office was…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 13

WHOA. A giant lightning bolt just struck the world’s tallest building

A massive bolt of lightning just struck the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa — and a photographer was there to catch it the precise moment when it all happened. To get the shot, photographer Michael Shainblum said that he spent more than four hours lying in the rain, until capturing just the moment that lightning…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 13

Are photographic memories real — and could you have one?

There are people out there who can remember almost every detail of what they did on a random day ten years ago. But is it possible to have an actual photographic memory, whether developed by nature or nurture? Here’s the truth. A case study of one — or possibly none The list of people claiming…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 13

Your brain no longer knows the difference between emoticons and emotion

Does anyone know the emoticon for a vague sense of discomfort, caused by staring-down a dark and technologically alienating future? A new study published in Social Neuroscience says that the brain has begun processing a typed emoticon with the same signals that previously only accompanied processing a real, emoting human face. Smithsonian explains: Researchers at…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 13

Was Deus Ex: Human Revolution a re-imagining of Robocop?

The Robocop remake is out today — but it might not be the only re-working of the original movie’s world. After reading the movie review, a discussion began about the differences between a remake and a re-imaging — and just where videogame Deus Ex: Human Revolution , with its direct references to the original Robocop…

Movies Ria Misra Feb 12

What would Google, Apple, and Facebook look like if they built cities?

Large technology corporations like Google, Facebook and Apple already have employee populations that rival those of some small towns. So what would it look if they actually did become their own towns? Alfred Twu of First Cultural Industries created these imagined cityscapes to show what it would like if tech companies were to build up…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 12

A climate map showing every Winter Olympics ever!

Climatologists over at NOAA have mapped out the weather patterns hitting the host cities during the Winter Olympics since their beginning — and, big surprise, the Winter Olympics are heating up, with Sochi among the warmest of the last century. Here it is in more detail: The global rise in temperature could mean that the…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 12

WH Auden told JRR Tolkien to cut the love story from Lord of the Rings

Well, not all of the love stories, necessarily — just Aragorn and Arwen, which he described as “perfunctory” and “unnecessary.” Do you agree? And what other fictional love stories would you have advised their authors to drop? In a previously unpublished letter from Tolkien to his publisher Rayner Unwin (currently up for auction, if you…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 12

A look inside the gorgeous world of “Dark Data”

Today, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab data scientists showed us some of what they’ve been doing with the massive amounts of data they’ve collected — and how you can do it, too. Video: Visualization of the 1236 exoplanet candidates observed by Kepler, created by Jer Thorpe In a Q&A, JPL data scientist Rob Witoff, explained how…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 11

The First Map Showing All the Connections in Your Brain’s White Matter

Scientists have created the first map of the ways that the white matter in our brains connects with itself, and with our grey matter. The takeaway? It works like a scaffold, researchers say — and some connections are much more important than others. Top image: 3-D models of connections between white matter in the brain…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 11

Ria Misra

What it looks like when an octopus decides to steal your camera.

California might start putting warning labels on soda

The great lakes are now frozen enough for a plane to land on the ice

Will the technology of the future even be recognizable to us?

Watch a live feed of a giant asteroid as it zips by earth today

Watch Bill Nye debate climate change with a congresswoman

How an ice storm uproots a tree

Scientists now know why this mysterious rock suddenly appeared on Mars

Why do trolls annoy you online? Because they’re sadists.

The GIF Party doesn’t start until you get here!

The time President James Garfield wrote a mathematical proof

WHOA. A giant lightning bolt just struck the world’s tallest building

Are photographic memories real — and could you have one?

Your brain no longer knows the difference between emoticons and emotion

Was Deus Ex: Human Revolution a re-imagining of Robocop?

What would Google, Apple, and Facebook look like if they built cities?

A climate map showing every Winter Olympics ever!

WH Auden told JRR Tolkien to cut the love story from Lord of the Rings

A look inside the gorgeous world of “Dark Data”

The First Map Showing All the Connections in Your Brain’s White Matter

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

As Starship V3 Lags Behind, Blue Origin Prepares Third Launch of New Glenn

The New Movie From Takashi Yamazaki Could Be the New ‘Pacific Rim’

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