Americans Rebel Against Their Surveillance State in Preview for Comic Young Terrorists

Matt Pizzolo and Amancay Nahuelpan’s new near-future political thriller Young Terrorists hits shelves this week, a striking take on 21st century America and a group of young rebels who want to disrupt it. But what are they fighting for? Find out in an exclusive preview, right here on io9! We’ve ready the first issue of…

The Ignatz Award Nominations Are a Big Win for Women Cartoonists

The Ignatz Awards, the top award for indie and small-press comics, just announced its 2015 nominees. More than half the nominees are women, an increasingly common phenomena in comics awards. Female creators dominated in the Minicomic, Online Comic, and Promising New Talent categories, which favor up-and-coming new artists. Three creators scored three nominations apiece: Jillian…

Scientists have identified one of the earliest flowering plants on Earth. Montsechia vidalii likely lived and reproduced below water. The discovery of the 130-million-year-old fossil suggests aquatic plants were common in the evolution of flowering plants, and that aquatic habitats facilitated their diversification. Photo credit: Gomez et al., 2015/PNAS | Illustration: O. Sanisidro, B.G., and…

Yes, Paleo Dieters, Ancient Humans Ate Carbs Too

Yes, yes, you can tell me all about why I definitely shouldn’t be eating those mashed potatoes in a moment. But right now, I’ve got some news for you (and some potatoes to eat). A new study in September’s Quarterly Review of Biology attempts to do some forensic reconstruction of ancient human diets using an…

This Glorious Fan Comic Explains the Importance of Music in Daredevil’s Life

With his heightened non-visual senses, it makes sense that music would take on a special significance for superhero Matt Murdock. This Daredevil fan comic explores Murdock’s relationship with music and how it has helped keep him sane. Tor.com pointed us toward this fan comic by writer Gleb Lipatkin and artist Dima Ivanov, which takes place…

The Joys of Purging Your Collection

Books, comics, movies, action figures—they all accumulate. And though we wanted them more than anything when we got them, getting rid of them is almost better than buying them in the first place. Here are the unexpected pleasures to be found while you thin out your collection. The Fun of Sloughing Off Detritus There may…

Someone Made an Interactive Sculpture Out of Ferrofluid and it is Mesmerizing

Ferrofluid is a magnetic liquid, invented by a NASA engineer in the 1960s, that has, in recent years, become a popular medium among scientifically inclined artists. Ferroflow is an interactive desktop sculpture that makes it possible to play with ferrofluid—needless to say, we want it. Creator Matt Robinson calls Ferroflow “a modern day, high tech…

This Bedtime Book Uses Psychology Tricks To Make Kids Fall Asleep Fast

There’s a new weapon in the war on bedtime that might finally give parents the definitive advantage over their kids. The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep is a new children’s book written using specific psychological techniques that help kids relax and quickly doze off. Self-published by a Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist named Carl-Johan…

How Horror Brings Human Beings Together

Horror stories can get our blood pumping and our hearts racing, but what is the social benefit of scary tales? In a roundtable on horror fiction for Mind Meld, Pretty Little Dead Girls author Mercedes M. Yardley shares an oddly sweet take on the positive side of fear. I love to use fear as a…

9 Star Wars Toys That Were Canceled Before Anybody Could Buy Them

Star Wars merchandising is infamous for making a toy out of almost everything in the movies and beyond. That fervor is something we’ll be seeing again next month, when new toys for The Force Awakens come out. But not every Star Wars toy planned has actually been released! Here are nine that never saw the…

Hayley Atwell Wants to Be Doctor Who and I Will Destroy Anyone Who Tries to Stop Her

In a casual Twitter Q&A session, Agent Carter actress Hayley Atwell was asked if she might want to make a guest appearance on Doctor Who. Her answer was no… only because she wants to BE the Doctor. So. Who do I have to kidnap and hold against their will to make this happen? Here’s the…

Europe’s First Farmers Were Shockingly Violent

Archaeologists working in Germany have uncovered evidence of a violent clash between a pair Early Neolithic farming communities, a grim encounter that resulted in a surprising number of deaths—and may have even involved torture. Violence on this scale isn’t what immediately comes to mind when we think of Europe’s first farmers, but as a new…

How Humans Became One of the Most Compelling—and Human—Shows on TV

What does it mean to be human in a world where A.I. doesn’t just exist, but is an ordinary facet of life? AMC’s Humans, which wrapped up this past weekend, has been asking that throughout its run. It hasn’t quite given us all the answers yet, but what it has given us is some of…

The Art of Lego Scale Modeling Will Make You Wish You Were a Better Builder

The beauty of Lego is that anyone, be they a toddler or retired, can use the toy to build whatever they can imagine. However, there are some Lego fans who are a lot better at turning a pile of plastic bricks into a masterpiece, and some of their most amazing creations have been collected into…

Vic and Igor Are the Original Science Bros in the First Victor Frankenstein Trailer

I have no idea how to feel about this trailer for Victor Frankenstein. James MacAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe have a great chemistry as the doctor and his assistant, respectively, and I love how the movie seems to be doubling down on the mad science aspect of the classic story. I even like Victor and Igor…

What Are You Working On?

Are you painting a series of Hubble watercolors? 3D printing a full zoo of extinct animal figurines? Building an epidemiology videogame? Bring all those secret and not-so-secret projects you’ve been working on out into the light—because it’s io9 show-and-tell time! Tell us about your current project—what it is, how long you’ve been working on it,…

These Two Moons Smashed Together to Produce Saturn’s Unusual F Ring

A new theory proposes that Saturn’s outermost ring formed in the wake of an ancient collision between two icy satellites, and that similar collisions may account for comparable ringed structures around other planets. Saturn’s discrete F Ring is a narrow 62-mile (100-km) band located some 2,110 miles (3,400 km) away from the outer edge of…

Cooking Garlic the “Wrong” Way Can Make It Turn Blue

People who cook garlic have sometimes been alarmed to see their garlic turn green, blue, or turquoise as it cooked. What the hell happened? Bacterial infestation? Poison added by assassins? Actually, it was just chemistry. I personally have never seen garlic turn blue, but after reading about it I know what I’m going to do…

Is The Prometheus Sequel Hitting The Brakes on Neil Blomkamp’s Alien 5?

Could a member of Rogue One’s cast be a character from the original trilogy? The Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon reveals Rocket Raccoon’s origin. Gotham casts another Batman villain—with a twist. Plus, J.J. Abrams on piecing together what we’ve seen of The Force Awakens, and a look at The Last Kingdom. Spoilers! Neil Blomkamp’s Alien…

Warner Bros. is developing a Carl Sagan biopic. They’ll have the help of Ann Druyan, Sagan’s widow, who is going to be a producer on the film. [The Tracking Board]