The New Strain Trailer Shows A Lot Of Questionable Character Judgment

Guillermo del Toro’s gross vampire virus series The Strain will return to FX this summer, and we’ve got the new season two footage to prove it. The new trailer shows vampires 1, humans 0, and it doesn’t look like things are getting better anytime soon for our heroes. Looks like Eph (Corey Stoll) and his…

Comcast’s 4K Set-Top Box Is a Key Missing Piece of the UltraHD Future

Comcast’s new X4 set-top box willfinally deliver 4K content to whatever 4K TV you’ve got—bringing a key piece of the UltraHD future to a huge chunk of the market. Comcast has been experimenting with 4K delivery since late last year when it launched Xfinity in UHD. The product delivered a smattering of 4K content via…

Last Night’s Episode Of The Flash Was A Groddamn Delight

The Flash did it. It actually did it. It brought an evil, talking gorilla with psychic powers to primetime TV, and made it work better than it had any right to. But what’s most amazing about “Grodd Lives” is that Grodd himself wasn’t the best part of the episode — Iris West was. I know…

Scifi Heroine Honor Harrington Returns To Comics In This Prequel

David Weber’s interstellar Naval officer Honor Harrington is coming back to comic books next month — but before that, a team of female creatives is coming together to write three prequel webcomics starring Honor. io9 is proud to exclusively unveil Facet of Honor’s first story, Cubs! Set between Honor’s recent return to comics in the…

10 Real-Life Animal Husbandry Techniques That Alien Zoos Will Use On Us

So you ‘ve been abducted and placed in an alien zoo, put on display for other aliens to gawk at. The good news is that you’ll probably get free food; the bad news is they’ll probably try the same tricks on you that our zoos play on Earth animals. Here’s all the ways these zoos…

100 Years Ago, This Man Was The Original Patent Troll

The term “patent troll” wasn’t coined until the late 20th century, used to describe someone who filed a patent in order not to manufacture products, but to collect licensing fees. But more than 100 years ago, a patent attorney was a proto-patent troll, exploiting the system to profit off of the burgeoning auto industry. George…

Just what is a “normal” temperature? The answer depends on where and when you’re asking the question. This interactive map from NOAA lets you see the answer not just for all the months of the current year, but for every year since 1895 in your immediate locale. Image: Maximum temperatures for January 1895 / NOAA.

Behold The Oldest Known Relative Of Modern Birds

Introducing Archaeornithura meemannae, a newly discovered species that is now the oldest-known member of an evolutionary branch that includes all living birds. Illustration: Zongda Zhang. A.meemannae lived about 130 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. It’s now the earliest member of the Ornithuromorpha clade ever found, and its discovery is setting back the…

Agents Of SHIELD‘s Bloody Schism Goes To The One Place We Never Expected

I’ll give Agents of SHIELD this much — I didn’t see the biggest twist in last night’s episode coming, at all. The storyline involving Robert Gonzales has been on the boil for months, but it didn’t go where I expected. And then there’s Agent 33. Spoilers ahead… Actually, a good amount of last night’s “Scars”…

Check Out Maisie Williams’ Badass Outfit On The Doctor Who Set

We still don’t know who (or what) Maisie Williams is playing when she appears on the next season of Doctor Who, but thanks to these first photos of her in costume, we now know she may be playing an even bigger badass than Arya Stark. Check it: Is this the Dread Pirate Arya? I’m so…

Which Book Most Needs To Become A Movie Or Series?

There have been plenty of movie and TV adaptations of our favorite books that have made us wish that the filmmakers had just left well enough alone. Today, though, we want to know which story still needs to be lifted off the page and onto the screen. Maybe it’s a book that hasn’t even been…

We Accidentally Turned The Entire Statue Of Liberty Into A Battery

You probably know that the Statue of Liberty underwent a massive restoration in the 1980s, but you may not know why. Well-meaning attempts to conserve the statue ended up turning it into a battery and ripping it apart. To understand how we oopsed our way into nearly destroying one of the most iconic American monuments,…

Lucasfilm Finally Confirms Plans For A New Indiana Jones Film

Kevin Feige discusses the importance of Thor’s Age of Ultron storyline for the future Marvel movies. Get another clear look at Iron Man’s Civil War suit. Has Sony narrowed down its choice of director for Spider-Man? Plus, teasers for the finales of The Flash, The Originals, and Once Upon A Time. Behold, Spoilers! Top image:…

This Animated Short Envisions Fears As Adorable Life Savers

Nata Metlukh’s graduation project takes a lovely turn, following a man whose phone reveals fears as black dots living on everyone’s shoulders. As you encounter the thing you fear, they grow in size and power. But then the short takes a twist, explaining why we should embrace our fears and why the man with no…

This Table Doubles As an Interactive Maze Game

The Labyrinth Table is a design by Benjamin Nordsmark. Underneath a piece of glass is a maze with three figures that can be controlled handles on the bottom of the table. It’s made of maple and steel, the handles are strong magnets and can be moved to anywhere on the surface. Here it is in…

Wear This Amazing Doctor Who/Beauty and the Beast Art on Your Feet

These shoes are printed with the work of Karen Hallion — whose art we heartily recommend — and are $69.99 from Shoe Fury. This particular print, showing a team-up we’d love to see, is called “Adventure Awaits.” [via Blogtor Who] Contact the author at [email protected].

Does The Machine Have A Plan? A Clip From Tonight’s Person Of Interest!

As we go into tonight’s season finale, it seems as though all is lost for the Machine Gang on Person of Interest. But wait — we’ve got an exclusive clip from tonight’s episode, in which Finch and Root still seem to have a few moves left. Person of Interest airs tonight on CBS at 10…

Syfy & Amblin Will Turn Brave New World Into A TV Series

Aldous Huxley’s landmark scifi novel Brave New World is headed to the small screen but with an interesting set of partners, Syfy and Amblin Television. Alright… we’re listening. Syfy dropped a huge press released that announced their partnership with Amblin Television to develop a scripted series based on the book everyone should have read in…

Delightful Short Film Traces A Rock’s Journey Over Millions Of Years

In the short animated film An Object at Rest, we see a sleepy, anthropomorphized rock changing and moving over the course of eons. But the rock’s journey really speeds up — and its rest interrupted — once humans enter the picture. Animator Seth Boyden already wowed us with his cheerful short film about a Venus…

What Animals Have Been To Space?

In the latest episode of Universe Today’s Guide To Space, Fraser Cain talks about the non-human animals that we’ve catapulted to Earth’s orbit and beyond. When we think of spaceflight, we think astronauts. You’re a human, you perceive the Universe with your human-centric attitudes. You… specist. The reality is that the vast number of living…