Elvis Presley’s porcelain tooth is touring Great Britain to raise awareness of mouth cancer, which kills 5 people a day in the UK. The tooth is on loan from a Canadian dentist who bought it at an auction for $11,000. An entourage of Elvis impersonators is accompanying the tooth, while dentists provide free oral exams.

The 10 Biggest Misconceptions About the First World War

This year marks the centenary of the start of the First World War, a conflict that still rouses considerable debate and controversy. It’s also a war that’s shrouded in many myths and misconceptions — and these ten are among the worst. Above: Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks at the Battle of Somme. 1.…

Claire North Unmasked! Why 1 Life Isn’t Enough For Harry August Author

There’s been a lot of speculation about the identity of Claire North, the pseudonymous author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Some thought she might be Clive Barker. But now, her true identity is revealed, and Catherine Webb tells us why she needed more than one life. Claire North is actually Catherine Webb,…

The British Museum Is Crowdsourcing The Bronze Age

If you’ve ever wanted to be an archaeologist or a museum curator, now is your chance. A new open source crowdsourcing platform, called Micropasts, is asking the public to help catalogue more than 30,000 prehistoric artifacts discovered over the past two centuries. The project—a joint initiative of the British Museum and the UCL Institute of…

The Most Fantastic Little Moments From Last Night’s Arrow

Last night’s Arrow was a connector episode. There was some downtime to absorb last week’s shocker, and a lot of set up for the final two episodes. But we didn’t need big changes, because there were seven truly great little moments. 7. Bad Decisions Finally Catch Up to Thea Queen We open with the funeral…

Ann Leckie’s novel Ancillary Justice has won the UK’s prestigious Clarke Award! We read the novel for io9’s book club, and Leckie came to chat with io9 readers about it.

Villains of Amazing Spider-Man 2: “This is OUR Origin Story!”

One thing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has going for it is villains. It’s got heaps and heaps of villains. So many villains. And we spoke exclusively to both Electro and the Green Goblin on why this movie is really all about them. io9: My first question is for Jamie. Was there ever any chance that…

Here’s Exactly How Much Time You’ve Spent Binge Watching Your Fave Shows

We are, all of us, unrepentant, instant-gratification-obsessed binge TV-watchers. Fact. And while it somehow doesn’t seem so bad to settle in for a weekend with the Underwoods or Bluths or the gang from TGS, seeing the actual breakdown of time it takes to watch popular series from start to finish is… Yiiiiikes. Neilsen Top Ten…

The Fastest Animal (Relative to its Size) Is Really, Really Fast

The world’s fastest land animal (again: relative to its size) is Paratarsotomus macropalpis, a sesame-seed-sized mite native to southern California. Scientists recently clocked P. micropalpis traveling 322 body lengths per second – which, to scale, would be like a person running 1,300 miles per hour. Photo Credit: Samuel Rubin (W. M. Keck Science Center, Pitzer…

Duration Of An Exoplanetary Day Measured For The First Time

A distant Jupiter-like world has been shown to feature the fastest rotational speed ever observed in a planet. Called Beta Pictoris b, it’s a gas giant that’s located 63 light-years from Earth and about 10 times more massive than Jupiter. Observations from the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) determined its rotation rate — a blistering…

Plush Toy Vigilantes Battle Their Greatest Foes—The Evil Sock Monkeys

In a city run by corrupt sock monkeys, the forces of Mega Plush patrol the streets, knocking the literal stuffing out of any toy that stands in their way. Matt Burniston directs the Mega Plush series of short films, introducing us to four stuffed animal vigilantes. The first film gives us the leader Mega Bear:…

The Vampire Mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows Is A Must-Watch

If the words “Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement stars as one of three vampires sharing an apartment” doesn’t get you, then just watch this trailer for the hilarious faux documentary, which focuses on the trials and tribulations of the afterlife more than bloodsucking. I think you’ll be convinced. My favorite joke is how they…

Are Massive Hydropower Projects Worth A Dam?

After a two-decade lull, a brisk building boom of hydropower mega-dams is underway from China to Brazil. Lured by the promise of a nearly inexhaustible source of electricity, governments are spending billions of dollars. But a new study suggests that those countries are unlikely to see a return on their investment. Massive dams have always…

People Have Suffered From Gluten Intolerance For At Least 2,000 Years​

Analysis of the skeletal remains of an affluent young woman who lived in Tuscany some 2,000 years ago shows that celiac disease has existed since ancient times — as has the practice of avoiding certain foods. The woman’s remains were found in an ancient tomb at the Cosa archaeological site on the Tuscan coast in…

All The Times Science Fiction Became Science Fact In One Chart

Not every science fiction story is meant to predict the future, but some of them have forecast future events with incredible accuracy. This timeline sketches out some of the most exciting examples of times that science fiction became fact. It’s the work of io9-reader Isabelle Turner (who used, among other sources, this io9 open channel)…

Wonderfully Surreal Photos From The American Museum Of Natural History

Earlier this week, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) launched its Digital Special Collections site — an online archive of more than 7,000 images that includes seldom-seen, scientific illustrations from the AMNH Rare Book Collection, and backstage glimpses of the museum’s famous dioramas. Spanning the AMNH’s 145-year history, the images were previously available only…

New TMNT Trailer Features The Good, The Bad And The Shredder

If you’re looking for something good in this newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trailer, you’ve got it: lots of new shots of the Turtles, the first semi-decent look at Shredder, and the jeep scene is legitimately pretty cool. Of course, if you’re looking for something bad, the Turtles still have those highly disconcerting nostrils. Now…

We Don’t Know The Sinister Six After All. Plus New Game Of Thrones Set!

There’s tons of info about the new apes in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Tricia Helfer is returning to Syfy. A new castmember joins the Marvel cartoon Big Hero 6. The writer of Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel is joining Doctor Who. Spoilers now! Top image: The Dawn of the Planet of…

Astronomers Discover An Entire Cluster of Stars Tossed From Its Galaxy

Scientists have seen hypervelocity stars before, but this is the first time they’ve ever observed an entire star cluster thrown from its host galaxy. Named HVGC-1, it’s traveling at a rate of 2 million miles per hour — and its ultimate fate is to drift through the cosmic void for all time. Top image: Artistic…

Turn Yourself Into A Dragon With These Handcrafted Masks And Gauntlets

Here’s something we never knew we wanted: lovingly crafted leather and resin masks in the shapes of dragons’ heads with matching gauntlets. They’re the perfect accessory for the humans in your dragon army. Artist Sarah M. posts commissions of her dragon costume pieces at her Static Creature Facebook page and you can check out her…