Disturbing Pollution Map of California Confirms that Freeways Are Evil

Reporters at the Los Angeles Times have used data from the California EPA to put together a fascinating interactive map that shows levels of pollution, water toxicity, and ozone concentrations over California. Surprise — most of the environmental impact is around freeways. You can visit the map to search for any region you’d like within…

The 10 Weirdest Calculations You Can Make Online Right Now

Chances are, you’ve used one of the many useful calculating tools available online: How much would a monthly mortgage cost me with today’s interest rates? What time is it on another continent? But there are far more exotic and weird calculators on the Internet. Here are ten of the most unusual. 1) Build Your Home…

Beware The Batman Will Return In The Most Embarrassing Way Possible

When last we heard of Beware the Batman, WB’s latest DC animated series, it had been mysteriously yanked from the Saturday morning DC Nation block after a mere 11 episodes. Now CN will finally air the remaining 15… but at 3:00 am on Saturday nights. The show will join the Toonami block at the impressively…

More People Need To Know About Carolyn Porco

We didn’t think it was possible to love Carolyn Porco – team lead of NASA’s Cassini Mission – any more than we already did. We were wrong. This interview – in which Porco discusses her fascination with astronomy and planets, and how that fascination led her down her remarkable career path – was conducted by…

The First All-Drone Band Is Actually Pretty Good

Drones can be used for so much more than delivering Amazon packages and killing people! For instance, they can also play a pretty mean cover of “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” KMel Robotics designed and programmed the hexrotors to play it and other songs, and the drones’ first live performance will be USA Science & Engineering Festival…

Nightmare: Disney Turning “It’s A Small World” Ride Into A Movie

Disney has decided to turn the nightmare song loop that is their “It’s A Small World” ride into a feature film. Good luck getting this song out of your head today. Originally created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, no one at Disney thought it would become an iconic section of each theme park…

If you’re in the Berkeley area tonight, 4/23, come see io9 editor Annalee Newitz talk about mass extinction and survival at Moe’s Books. That’s at 7:30 in the venerable bookstore’s basement, and admission is free. See you there … if you survive!

​Why That Game Of Thrones Scene Upset Us More Than The Red Wedding

Greetings, all! Your friendly neighborhood post-apocalyptic fake mailman here, ready to answer your letters! And, apparently, deliver a bunch of Chinese restaurant menus? I have no idea where they’re coming from. I just open my mailbag and they’re already in there. It’s kind of freaking me out. Spoilers for this past weekend’s Game of Thrones…

Should We Try To Resurrect Extinct Species?

Genetic tech is getting better and better. Should we be using it to bring back extinct species? KQED took a look at some of the different attempts all around the world to bring back species that have gone extinct — some of them from long ago, like the wooly mammoth, and some of them from…

The First Known Binary Supermassive Black Hole In An Ordinary Galaxy

For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a pair of supermassive black holes at the center of an inactive galaxy. The unique objects were discovered because they ripped apart a star when the ESA’s observatory just happened to be looking in the right direction. In an active galaxy, black holes are continuously fed by…

Medieval Manuscripts Depict The Taxonomy Of Dragons

The British Library is commemorating St. George’s Day with an extraordinary gallery of dragon illustrations culled from its digitized medieval manuscript collection. The online bestiary reveals dragons in all their forms, ranging from the familiar Smaug variety to lizard-like animals with duck feet to winged leonine creatures. Dragons were near-ubiquitous in medieval manuscripts, serving as…

Just How Many Major Characters Will Die In Walking Dead Season 5?

Lou Ferrigno’s going to play the Hulk one more time! Could Star Wars return to being a summer-movie franchise? Bill Paxton wants to join the Avatar sequels. And a familiar face could be joining The Amazing Spider-Man 3. There’s a report from someone who saw an hour of How To Train Your Dragon 2. Spoilers…

Science writer Mara Grunbaum, the “weird animalologist” behind the dementedly hilarious science tumblr WTF Evolution?, is publishing a book of the same name. It’s due out this fall, but you can pre-order a copy at Amazon right now.

Space Girls Just Want To Have Fun, In Beach Babes From Beyond

You haven’t heard cheesy science-fiction dialogue delivered with total aplomb until you’ve watched this snippet of Beach Babes From Beyond, in which the eponymous Beach Babes steal their daddy’s Space T-Bird and fly to the forbidden planet… Earth. Dialogue gems from the above snippet include: “Boys are like from another planet.” “Can’t live with ’em,…

What If Harry Potter Was A Cyberpunk, 1980′s Anime?

It would look A LOT like this. This gem was created by Nacho Punch, the brains behind the Star Wars Anime. The Patronus Charm is really pretty great. Well done. [via Nerd Approved]

At Last, We Know What Those Mysterious, Undersea “Bio-Duck” Noises Are

The “bio-duck” noise is a mysterious sound that submarine operators and scientists have been hearing in Antarctic waters since the 1960s. Nobody was sure what generated the repeated, quack-like pulsing sound — until now. Photo by Ulrich Peter Here’s a sample of the bio-duck noise. In a paper to be released tomorrow in Biology Letters,…

Finally, Someone’s Getting Shit Done On The Tomorrow People

As frustrating as The Tomorrow People can get, and as dim as the Tomorrow People often are, at least this show offers a few reasons to cheer sometimes. Like the scene immortalized in this GIF. Spoilers ahead… GIF via Natasha Rowanoff. Above is the awesome moment from the end of the episode, where Hillary blows…

Brace Yourself: Madeline Ashby Is Writing About The Singularity!

We’re shaken up from the weirdness in vN, Madeline Ashby’s novel about artificial consciousness and self-replicating machines. And now, she’s written a novel about The Singularity, when artificial intelligence surpasses our own and everything changes. We’ve got a cover reveal, and some details, below. First up, here’s the cover of Ashby’s new novel Company Town,…

Physics Students Try To Create A “Street Fighter” Hadouken Fireball

Anybody who has played Street Fighter is familiar with the awesome power of the “Surge Fist” attack, otherwise known as the Hadouken Fireball. While some of us might be intimidated by the thought of tapping into this primal energy, a group of students are determined to recreate it—by setting a dodgeball on fire. Okay, so…

The Food Police Sent Their Best Mechs To Enforce The Latest Bans

Robots might not have any appreciation for food, but with a quick genetic scan, the Sanctions Enforcement mech could determine whether oysters came from the Eastern Independents’ floating farms or if the maitakes had been harvested from the Buru Matsukaze fleet. Concept art by Dmitry Sorokin. Cyberpunk RPG [Dmitry Sorokin Design via Feng Zhu Design…