These Fantastic Buildings Are Like Wedding Rings For Giants

When a giant wants to put a ring on it, what can he or she do? Maybe reach for one of these beautiful marvels of architecture. Some of them are ring-shaped, some are other open shapes — but they all achieve an incredible marvel of negative space. The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., designed by Gordon…

“He Said, She Said”: Is There Any Cooler Way To Show Dialog In Fiction?

So you’ve written some sparkling dialogue, and even made sure your characters don’t all have the same “voice.” But there’s still a problem with your dialogue — you feel weird writing “he said” and “she said” over and over again. Is there any way around this? What can you do to avoid this repetition? https://gizmodo.com/all-your-characters-talk-the-same-and-theyre-not-a-hi-5379280…

An Intriguing New Series Sees A Superhero Join A Heroic Team…As A Mole

A new series from Brian Joines and Jay Faerber tells the tale of a superhero infiltrating a team of heroes to uncover their darkest secrets this week, but that’s not all. She-Hulk comes to a close, Boom! presents a weird new horror story about Somali pirates, and there’s more collections than you can shake a…

Images From Famous Books Hide In The Secret Compartments Of These Rings

There is more to jewelry designer Theo Fennell‘s rings than meets the eye. Many of his piece contain secret compartments and hidden paintings, paying tribute to books like The Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Wizard of Oz. Up top, you can see Fennell’s Wizard of Oz ring,…

This Clip Will Make The Wait For Tonight’s Person Of Interest Agonizing

Here’s an exclusive clip from the new episode of Person of Interest, airing tonight. Warning: if you watch this very noir-ish clip, then you’ll have a really hard time waiting until tonight to see the rest of the episode. Proceed at your own risk! Spoilers below… In tonight’s “Black and White,” it looks like we’re…

Our Closest Look At Ceres Reveals A Surface Riddled With Craters

As we get closer and closer to Ceres, we keep seeing new things. Initially, it was just the barest outline of the dwarf planet, then a strange selection of white spots, and, in these newest, sharpest images yet, you can see its mysteriously scarred surface. This duo of images, captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on…

Everything You Never Knew About The Making of Conan The Barbarian

What is best in life? Seeing a classic sword-and-sorcery hero brought to the big screen, with an iconic bodybuilder in the lead role. But how did Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian become such a classic film? The path to glory was long and twisted. Here’s everything you never knew about the making of Conan.…

The 5th Episode of Haphead Takes You Down the Rabbit Hole

io9 is proud to be bringing you new episodes of indie series Haphead every week. Created by Jim Munroe, Haphead is the story of a VR gamer in a near-future dystopian Toronto. In the fifth episode, Maxine copes with the loss of her rebellious punk dad — and disturbing accusations from the authorities. If you’ve…

A Breathtaking Short Film About An Airship Raided By Pirates

As the short film Cloudrise opens, we see two lovers on the verge of tragedy. Their airship is on fire, and they’re still high above the clouds. But as we learn what happens before — and after — that moment, their story becomes richer and far more exciting. Denver Jackson directed and animated Cloudrise, and…

The Truth Behind Interstellar‘s “Scientifically Accurate” Black Hole

You’ve probably heard that the black hole in Interstellar was a simulation of unprecedented scientific accuracy. You may also have heard that its creation led to an “amazing scientific discovery” having to do with the shape of its accretion disk, which loops over and under its dark, central shadow. Neither of these claims is true.…

People Once Believed the Arteries And Heart Were Filled With Air

Almost everything we consider common knowledge today was once a total mystery. Around the second century AD, no one in the western world knew that the arteries, veins, and heart were filled with blood. Most thought they were filled with air. Here’s how one man disproved that theory. Do you know what you’ll find if…

Incredible New Images Show Rosetta’s Comet Up-Close

This past weekend, the Rosetta spacecraft passed within just 3.7 miles (6 km) of the surface of Comet 67P. The images it sent back show the surface of this alien world in extraordinary detail, including some features never seen before. This four-image montage was taken by Rosetta on February 14 during its first dedicated close…

A new study has shown that pregnant mice can pass traits to offspring through bacterial DNA. The discovery means scientists will have to increasingly consider the role of microbes when working to understand how genes influence illness and health. Image: Depiction of a DNA molecule unwinding from a chromosome inside the nucleus of a cell…

Sleepy Hollow Starts The Season’s Endgame With Its Boldest Twist Ever

After what felt like a whole season of treading water, Sleepy Hollow revealed its huge end-of-season twist in “Awakening,” the first half of a two-part finale. Is the second part going to be a disaster? Maybe. Is it still the biggest move of the season? Totally. That twist, of course, is the reason this episode…

This Twitter Rant Might Change How You Think About Female Characters

At this point, the debate over “strong female characters” has gotten a bit stale. Movies and TV keep serving up tough women, but they mostly still don’t come across as actually “strong characters” in any meaningful sense. So this Twitter mini-rant by science fiction writer Ada Hoffman is incredibly useful. Hoffman’s tweets speak for themselves…

Possible Deadpool Casting Call Reveals A Few More Marvel Characters 

Dammit, we are excited about the Deadpool movie and these potential casting calls could reveal a bunch of really great characters who may (or may not) be accompanying Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller as they give this insane character his own feature film. These character descriptions appeared under the code name WHAM on the casting…

10 Lesser-Known Egyptian Gods That Are Absolutely Terrifying

Egyptian mythology has a lot of gods. Some of them have loomed large in pop culture and the public imagination: Ra, Apophis, Anubis, Isis, Bast, Osiris, etc. Some are far more obscure. But that in no way diminishes how scary they are. Here are 10 absolutely terrifying Egyptian gods that you might not have heard…

Listen To All The Stuff MP3 Compression Leaves Out

MP3s have become so ubiquitous that we often forget it’s a compression format. When music gets trimmed to one-tenth of its original size, lots of information deemed “unimportant” gets tossed out. Here’s what we’re missing. The video up top is called “moDernist.” Ryan Maguire, a Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University…

Author Lauren Oliver Is Here To Talk To You About Rooms

In February, the io9 book club read Lauren Oliver’s Rooms. Today, from 11 – noon (Pacific time), she’ll be here to answer your questions about writing ghost stories, multi-generational fiction, and anything else you want to know. https://gizmodo.com/io9-book-club-is-in-session-lets-talk-about-rooms-by-l-1683570761 Start asking Oliver your questions in the comments section right now and she’ll answer as many as…

Why Doesn’t English Have A Gender-Neutral Pronoun?

Referring to a single person who may be of any gender in English can be tricky. It can be awkward to use words like “one” or phrases like “he or she,” and many a grammarian hates using “they” as to refer to a single person. How has English gotten this far without such a convenient…