A Lego Pirate Is Sacrificed To A Colossal Wave In The Name of Science

Rogue waves are a little-understood phenomenon of ocean dynamics. The colossal swells, which seem to appear out of nowhere in otherwise calm seas, were reported for centuries before their existence was confirmed in 1995. To better understand them, scientists have recently taken to modeling the strange swells with wave tanks and Lego. FYFD’s Nicole Sharpe…

At Last, an Official Ant-Man Movie Poster!

It’s weird to see Paul Rudd looking all noble like that, but the suit is great. And the ant steed is perfect. This is Marvel’s teaser poster for the long-awaited Ant-Man movie, released today at Comic-Con, and featured on Entertainment Weekly.

The View of the Space Elevator Is Beautiful From Here

If you want to get a good look at the long tether linking the space elevator platform planetside to the orbital station they built inside a hollow asteroid, you really need to be in orbit. I come to the forward viewing deck to see it whenever I can. This lovely image is from Joao Silva,…

The Visual Storytelling In This Short Cartoon Is Oscar-Worthy

Seriously, if you want to see how animation can be used to create innovative narratives, take a few minutes out of your day to watch Drifters. Three people wake on a train that they don’t remember boarding, and we quickly get to see how they all got there. Ethan Clarke made Drifters in 2012 as…

“The Time to Call for Diversity Is Now” for Arabian Nights Movies

Warner Bros. is set to make a 7-film series based on the Arabian Nights. And screenwriter Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) says the time is now for people to call for the cast to be diverse and not whitewashed. Image via Mobion

This Wonderful Novel Could Be the First Steampunk Tale

Most histories of that wonderful subgenre of science fiction called “steampunk” list Ronald Clark’s 1967 novel,Queen Victoria’s Bomb as the first. But was this really the first steampunk novel? Here’s another possible contender. There are certainly almost as many definitions of steampunk as there are for science fiction, but there does seem to be a…

Tales Of Lab Experiments Gone Horribly Awry

Sometimes, everything goes beautifully in the lab: Your equipment works perfectly, your data sets are neat, and your results eminently publishable. And then sometimes, everything goes horribly, horribly wrong. These lab stories are all firmly in that second category — and, yes, there WILL be fire. Quantum_Sheep When this little sheepy was about 10 or…

The Astonishing Treasures of Underwater Art Galleries

Art can take you to another world — and sometimes that means you actually have to put on an oxygen tank. These underwater artworks and galleries are the closest you’ll get to experiencing art on an alien planet. An underwater art gallery of Andreas Franke, on the sunken USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, sunk off…

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meet 8/5 to Discuss The Girl with All the Gifts

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading The Girl with All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey (we reviewed it here ). We’ll meet on August 5 to discuss it. Join us! We’re hoping Carey will join us later that week to talk about the book. What is this io9 Book Club all about? We…

Welcome to Comic-Con 2014!

io9 has arrived at Comic-Con, and of course the zombie apocalypse has already begun. One of the hotels has been wrapped to look like Terminus, the iconic Walking Dead location. We’ll be here for the next five days, bringing you the latest news and insanity from pop culture central. Photo via @ashleyelizabeth Get ready for…

Orphan Black Is Getting A Comic—But How Will It Work With The Show?

Our favorite cloning drama Orphan Black is getting a storytelling double of its own—a comic book series set in the show’s universe. But what kind of stories will the comic tell without meddling with the show’s storyline? IDW has announced that it will start releasing the Orphan Black comic series early in 2015, but there…

TV Shows That Are Guaranteed to Freak You Out

For some reason, I love to watch insanely scary and weird shit in the summer — and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. But just one movie isn’t enough. I want a TV series that will routinely make the hair walk off my head. What do you recommend? Post pictures, video, and links!…

First Look At Arrow Sidekick Roy Harper As Arsenal

Looks like Roy Harper is graduating to the superhero majors in Arrow season 3. The hotheaded and occasionally rage-fueled, super-powered sidekick will be getting his own uniform this year, and here’s the first official picture. Actually, I think actor Colton Haynes’ new duds looks even better than Stephen Amell’s green Arrow costume, although I’m not…

Offshore Wind Farms Are Turning Into Artificial Reefs

Wind farms are built offshore to take advantage of strong coastal winds. But scientists have learned that there is an unexpected environmental price to pay for these environmentally-friendly energy generators: the farms are causing havoc for the ocean’s food chain. When fastened to the ocean floor, wind farms sometimes act as artificial reefs that serve…

The Most (And Least) Obscure Hit Songs Of The Last 114 Years, Graphed

It’s not often that you get the chance to say, “You probably won’t know this song, it’s pretty obscure” about a hit song. Now, thanks to this graph, you can. Image and list credit: Very Small Array Very Small Array put together this graph of the hit songs that either went on to become cultural…

Space writer Elizabeth Howell has launched a new website that’s all about astronaut activities in space. Spaceshippers will feature writeups about the daily ongoings aboard the ISS, astronaut interviews, and, of course, plenty of gobstopping photo and video footage from aboard humanity’s orbital outpost. Check it out!

No, It’s Not Your Imagination — Your Dog Is Actually Feeling Jealous

Humans share basic emotions like anger, sadness, and joy with other animals. But for a long time, scientists argued that complex cognition is necessary for secondary emotions like jealousy and guilt. Owners see those emotions in their dogs all the time, however — and now it turns out they may be right. Photo by MaraZe…

A ‘Nano Vaccine’ That Combats Dust Mite Allergies

Scientists at the University of Iowa have developed a vaccine that combats dust mite allergies by naturally switching off the body’s immune response. It’s welcome news for the millions of people who suffer from mite-induced breathing difficulties. Nearly 84% of households in the United States contain dust mites — microscopic organisms that feed on organic…

Congress Basically Admits They Are Reptilians

Congress Edits is a Twitter bot that tweets every time a person in US government anonymously edits Wikipedia. This is our favorite edit so far, in which an anonymous person in the House of Representatives added a denial to an article on U.S. politicians being secret alien lizards. https://gizmodo.com/congress-is-still-editing-wikipedia-a-lot-heres-how-1605295946 Here’s the passage in question, with…

Split-Personality Pulsar Switches From Radio To Gamma-Rays

Another snapshot of our strange universe: astronomers recently caught a pulsar — a particular kind of dense star — switch off its radio beacon while powerful gamma rays brightened fivefold. “It’s almost as if someone flipped a switch, morphing the system from a lower-energy state to a higher-energy one,” stated lead researcher Benjamin Stappers, an…