Here’s Your Opportunity To Help Name The Features Of Pluto And Charon

In July, New Horizons will pay a visit to Pluto and Charon. The historic flyby is expected to reveal surface features of these objects in extraordinary detail. Now, NASA and the SETI Institute, along with the International Astronomical Union, want your help naming these features. Image: Artist impression of Pluto and Charon (NASA/New Horizons/SETI Institute)…

Valiant Really Wants To Remind You Why Its Comics Deserve To Be Movies

Valiant Entertainment turns 25 this year, and are celebrating their anniversary with a big convention tour across the US — not just to celebrate the company’s milestone, but also to make sure you know everything there is to know about their characters before they’re all turned into the next cinematic comic universe. https://gizmodo.com/the-newest-live-action-comic-universe-will-be-from-vali-1690480022 The 25th…

This Is The Drug In The Rolling Stones’ Song “Mother’s Little Helper”

When The Rolling Stones sang “Mother’s Little Helper” back in 1966, they weren’t talking about drugs. They were talking about a specific drug that was prescribed for everything from severely ill mental patients to recovering alcoholics to comfortable middle class people who sometimes felt anxious. It was called “Miltown.” Before Miltown, the best most mentally…

The Russo Bros. Will Direct Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 And 2

Hey, the dynamic duo of directors we all love from Captain America: The Winter Soldier are coming back to Marvel to take the Avengers across a very ambitious finish line. Yep, the Russos are tapping out Joss Whedon, and that’s fine by us. On the heels of the new announcement that the Russos are making…

There Are Untold Sums Of Money Hiding In Your Poop

America’s collective human waste contains millions of dollars worth of energy, water, and even rare and valuable metals like gold and palladium. The question is: How do we extract it? Image Credit: Heather Lowers, USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory At Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports on the work of USGS researcher Kathleen Smith, which she…

Scientists Have Transplanted Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Cells

For the first time in over 3,000 years, the functional components of wooly mammoth DNA have been brought to life (albeit in a petri dish). The achievement represents an important step towards potential efforts to bring the extinct species back. The experiment was performed by accomplished geneticist George Church of Harvard University. To do it,…

io9 March Madness Sweet 16: Game of Thrones vs. Firefly!

io9’s March Madness continues apace, and we’re kicking this week off with the sweet sixteen. Well, technically the there are only fifteen — Star Trek’s managed to hang in on both the TV and Movie side of this bracket. But is there any chance of a Star Trek vs. Star Trek final? Only one way…

Syfy’s New Greek Myth Drama Olympus Looks Divinely Terrible

If you’re a lover of Greek mythology like me, you’ve been constantly disappointed whenever anybody tries to depict Zeus, Hercules or their ilk on screen, because these movies and TV shows are always terrible. Based on this first trailer, Syfy’s Olympus does not appear to be an exception. First, here’s the official synopsis. Warning: If…

One less reason to be excited about upcoming movies: The Moon and the Sun, the movie version of Vonda McIntyre’s beloved historical fantasy novel, has had its release date pushed back from April 12, 2015, to “TBA.” Dammit. Contact the author at [email protected].

Last Man On Earth Solves Its Pesky Incest Problem

Phil and Carol have spent the last couple episodes of The Last Man on Earth trying to procreate so they can save the human race — but does that mean their kids will have to have kids with each other? Phil comes up with a plan to spread out the gene pool, but naturally, it…

The Strangest Discoveries That Made Me Fall in Love With Science Again

Even for people with the right inclination, the sciences aren’t always easy to enjoy. They’re exacting frustrating, and slow-to-advance — but also ever-changing. And sometimes, the most unexpected things can make you rediscover them all over again. Here are the strangest things that made me love each of the sciences. Top image: NGC 1999, image…

The Cutest Sock Puppets In The Universe, The Clangers, Are Back!

One of the weirdest things ever to air in British TV was The Clangers, a show about weird little creatures made of wool, who live on the Moon. (Doctor Who fans will remember it as the Master’s favorite TV show in “The Sea Devils.”) And now the Clangers are coming back after 40 years —…

Last Year’s Breakout Novel Girl With All The Gifts Is Becoming A Movie

The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey was easily one of our favorite novels published last year — and Joss Whedon agreed with us. So it’s fantastic news that this book is becoming a movie called She Who Brings Gifts, starring Glenn Close. According to reports in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, besides…

Researchers Have Uncovered The Secrets Of The Velvet Worm’s Slime Jets!

The velvet worm hunts by bombarding its prey with a double barreled burst of slime. Now, scientists have figured out how these ooze-cannons work. GIF via NatGeoWild. Researchers led by Andrés Concha, of Adolfo Ibañez University in Santiago, used high speed video to determine that the velvet worm’s flailing slime cannons move too quickly to…

This Mission: Impossible 5 Trailer Is As Ridiculous As It Needs To Be

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, a.k.a. Tom Cruise’s excuse to feel again, has released a big, bombastic trailer. And excuse me, but is that a GUN FLUTE? Let’s list off all the insane shit Cruise is seen doing in this trailer: Getting trapped in some sort of poison gas chamber. Riding VERY fast in a…

The 9 Weirdest Implications Of The Many Worlds Interpretation

According to the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics, we live in an infinite web of alternate timelines. It’s a serious claim that carries some rather serious scientific, philosophical, and existential baggage. And here are the nine weirdest possible implications. Illustration by Tara Jacoby. A few years ago we did an explainer on the Many…

Game Of Thrones Finally Admits The Show Will Spoil The Books

This was becoming increasingly obvious, but Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have finally confessed out loud the TV show adaptation, which looks to end several years before George R.R. Martin releases the series’ final volume, will be spoiling several aspects of the books. Here’s David Benioff speaking to the Oxford Union…

Marvel’s New Bi-Monthly Anthology Puts The Spotlight On Female Heroes

Marvel’s not been afraid to champion the female side of their roster recently, but now they’re going whole hog with a new anthology collection that will gather stories from their most prominent female-led comic series into one collection. Rolling under the banner of A-Force Presents — named for the upcoming all-female Avengers team that will…

The Last 200 Years Of U.S. Immigration In One Chart

Just how much has the United States depended on immigrants to build itself throughout its history? This chart lays out the last few hundred years of the nation’s immigration rates to show how pivotal it was. The work of Natalia Bronshtein of Insightful Interaction, this chart uses data from the Department of Homeland Security’s Yearbook…

Hollywood heard you! Ruairí Robinson’s proof-of-concept film The Leviathan is on track to become a full-length feature. X-Men writer and producerSimon Kinberg has signed onto the project as producer with Neill Blomkamp onboard as executive producer. Let’s hope something great comes out of this.