What Are The Best Short Stories of the Year So Far? (June 2015 edition)

It’s a grand time to be a fan of short-form speculative literature. There are dozens of magazines, many of which are consistently amazing, publishing hundreds of stories on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. Here’s the problem: there are dozens of magazines, publishing hundreds of stories. It’s not possible to read every story that comes…

Sugary drinks kill 184,000 people each year through diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, according to new research from Tufts University. “It should be a global priority to substantially reduce or eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages from the diet,” notes lead researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, who says these drinks have no health benefits. Image: Mike Mozart/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Here’s A Clip That Shows The Fatal Flaw In Stitchers

Another episode of Stitchers airs tonight on ABC Family. And I’ve been watching the show, though I haven’t recapped it since the first episode. But, as this clip from last week’s episode shows, Stitchers has a fatal flaw that makes it damn near impossible to buy into. Spoilers… What you’re looking at there is a…

Why Genisys Had to Destroy Terminator In Order to Save It

Sometimes in order to make something new, you have to get rid of the old. And certainly, after the last few movies in the Terminator series, the franchise desperately needed something new. We spoke to Genisys writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, as well as director Alan Taylor to discuss how the newest installment reinvents…

How To Get Started (And Get Ahead) In Science Fiction Self-Publishing

To self-publish or not to self-publish… That is the question more and more aspiring authors are asking themselves these days. And with good reason—self-publishing has come a long way in the decade since it really hit the market and many of the blatant scams of the past have been outed by an increasingly well-informed author…

Here’s the First Teaser for Oliver Stone’s Snowden Movie

The first teaser for the upcoming movie about Edward Snowden has just been released. And frankly it’s not much to look at. But we still can’t wait. Even if Oliver Stone is a shit historian (and he really, really is) he has a fun way of turning our garbage world on its head. Simply titled…

Galileo’s Many Inventions Helped Redefine Our Place In The Universe

Galileo is considered one of the greatest astronomers of all time. His discovery of Jupiter’s major moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) revolutionized astronomy and helped speed the acceptance of the Copernican Model of the universe. However, Galileo is also known for the numerous scientific inventions he made during his lifetime. These included his famous…

The Perfect Purple Dye Comes from Milking Snails, of Course

We know the Cleopatra’s sails were dyed with Tyrian purple. We know that Roman emperors dyed their new robes Tyrian purple as a sign of wealth. What we don’t know, exactly, is what this legendary purple looked like. But we do know where it comes from—namely, “snail milk.” Snails on near-opposite sides of the world…

What You Probably Don’t Know About the Most Famous Case in Neuroscience

In 1845, a meter-long iron rod pierced the skull of Vermont railway worker Phineas Gage. The resulting changes to his personality forever changed our perception of the human brain. But what happened next to Gage is rarely covered in textbooks — a problematic oversight, say psychologists. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could survive something…

The New Ghostbusters Proton Packs Look Homemade in the Best Way

If you and some friends decided to try and make some proton packs from the old Ghostbusters, they’d probably look like the proton backs in the new Ghostbusters. Director Paul Feig took to Twitter yesterday to reveal the brand new costumes for his 2016 film and today, he put up a second photo, this one…

Eight Books You Need To Know About To Understand The Hugo Awards Snafu

This year’s Hugo Awards controversy is confusing. There are two kinds of puppies! Are the puppies against diversity, or literary snobbery? And so on. But really, this is all about books, and particularly what kind of books we’re supposed to celebrate. So here are eight books that can help you understand the Hugo mess. But…

What Was the Huge Flash of Light Over the Southeast U.S. Last Night?

Something lit up the sky over a whole swath of the lower Eastern states last night, catching eyes all the way from Florida up through West Virginia. So what are we looking at here? A meteor, perhaps, or a fireball? Nope, it’s actually something a lot stranger. NASA finished up the analysis of this footage…

Marvel Just Revealed Its Entire “All-New, All-Different” Comic Universe

Whoa. We’ve been getting dribs and drabs of reveals for Marvel’s upcoming universal reboot over the past week, but it looks like the jackpot has just hit: Comics retailers across the world have received previews for 45(!) of Marvel’s new series, and it sounds like it’s a whole lot of crazy. The previews book leaked…

Are These “Double-Muscled” Pigs the Future of Meat?

By editing a single gene, researchers from South Korea and China have engineered pigs that produce about twice the amount of muscle as normal pigs. The goal is to produce leaner meat and at higher yields, but early results show it could be a long time before this jacked-up pork appears on your dinner plate.…

Vampire Hunter D Starts Hunting Vampires Again in a New Animated Series

Before Alucard was hunting his vampiric kin on Hellsing there was Vampire Hunter D. A cult favorite among those people who knew the word “anime” back in the ‘80s, D spawned a sequel movie titled Bloodlust in 2000, and now will star in a new animated series! But note I said “animated” and not “anime.”…

This Is What the New Ghostbusters Will Wear

Director Paul Feig is getting understandably excited about the release of Ghostbusters 3. Due to hit theaters July 22, 2016, the long-awaited follow up to the 80s classic will star Kristin Wiig and an all-star, all-female cast. And based on Feig’s recent tweets, this is what they’ll wear. First, you’ve got those jumpsuits. You know,…

Which Book Do You Read the Most Often?

Is it a reference book? A work of fiction? Tell us about the book you’re rapidly wearing out, and why you keep going back to it. Maybe it’s something you use for work or a hobby. Or maybe it’s just a book that you love to re-read. Whatever it is, tell us about it, how…

How One of My Favorite Childhood Literary Heroines Poisoned a Child

Anne of Green Gables is a children’s classic and deservedly so. In one dramatic scene its heroine, Anne Shirley, uses ipecac to save a dying child. Here’s what ipecac would actually have done, and why it fell out of favor. Anne Shirley, the orphan girl taken in by a couple of curmudgeonly old siblings, has…

Spoilers and Rumors for Ant-Man, Civil War, Doctor Strange, and More!

It’s an MCU blowout as Kevin Feige discusses Black Panther’s origins, the tone of Spider-Man, and the potential for the Wasp in future movies. Plus, Guillermo Del Toro leaves Justice League Dark, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gets an official title, Wayward Pines could get a second season, and more. To Me, My Spoilers! Vertigo…

Who would be the Inside Out-style voices in your head? Salon asked thirteen comedians that question, including Inside Out star Amy Poehler, who says she calls Phyllis Smith (Fear) all the time just to hear her voice.