Artist turns a classic space opera cover into a beautiful scale model

Talk about a labor of love. Sculptor Grant Louden took Colin Hay’s beautiful illustration (left), which appeared on the cover of a reprint of James Blish’s The Star Dwellers, and recreated it in a beautifully detailed sculpture (right). Over at Louden’s website, he gives a detailed account of his 3-D reconstruction of the cover —…

The robotic future won’t look anything like what you imagine

In late autumn, I walked through drifts of crunchy leaves in Berkeley’s warehouse district to find a strange lab on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Inside, on a work bench surrounded by tidy coils of wire and electrical tape, two geeks were building the next robot revolution. But there were no Google-esque dog armies…

Vin Diesel announces a fourth Riddick movie is coming

The third installment of the Riddick franchise may have turned our favorite antihero into a peeping tom, but that didn’t stop it from being a huge hit on DVD. And because of that, Riddick is getting another movie! The LA Times is reporting that Riddick was the best-selling DVD and Blu-ray title during its first…

Why campiness succeeds — and why it fails — in Batman

What have we here? Oh, just ’60s-era Batman going surfing with the Joker, and making use of some spray-on shark repellent, like one does. But what makes this campy adaptation of Batman work, while Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin didn’t? After taking a look at some of the forgotten plot holes and oddities of the…

Two ways to look at the Jukes, America’s most “degenerate” family

The Jukes are not a real family. Juke is a made-up surname, assigned to a sprawling, impoverished family by a Victorian scientist. That scientist wanted the family to get a hand up. The next scientist to study the Jukes wanted them eliminated entirely. Max Juke was born in the first half of the 18th century.…

io9 Book Club reminder: Meeting 2/11 to Discuss The N-Body Problem

This month, we’re reading Tony Burgess’ disturbing (and funny) post-zombie novel The N-Body Problem. We’ll meet on Feb. 11 to discuss it! We’re hoping Burgess will join us later that week to talk about the book. What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book we’ve all…

Humans have been controlling fire for at least 300,000 years

Archaeologists working at Qusem Cave in Israel have uncovered a 300,000 year-old hearth. It’s the earliest evidence of repeated fire building over a continuous period by humans. Anthropologists estimate that humans first discovered fire about a million years ago. What we don’t know, however, is when our ancestors first starting using it on a regular…

Behold Tom Hiddleston’s shirtless audition for the role of Thor

Before he transformed into the greatest Marvel villain of all, Tom Hiddleston originally auditioned for Chris Hemsworth’s role as Thor. And we now have a tiny glimpse of that audition tape — and it is awesome. The gifs come from the soon-to-be released Thor: The Dark World DVD extras. One of the special features will…

What graphic novel should be required reading in high schools?

High school is when you learn a lot of the truth about being a grown up — and sometimes, the teachers will try to give you a heads-up, with reading lists that include Catcher in the Rye or whatever. But what graphic novel ought to be on every high school’s required reading list? Please include…

Overlords Among Us: Amazing Artwork of Clarke’s Childhood’s End

People have been trying for years to get a movie of Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End off the ground — and there has been some amazing artwork depicting Clarke’s Overlords. Including a design by creature-designer extraordinaire Wayne Barlowe, and drawings by Batman artist Neal Adams! While working on the post about “entry level” science fiction…

​Captain Mal and the Serenity finally fly again in This Week’s Comics

Yes, the fan-favorite Firefly crew are finally back in action, thanks to Dark horse’s new series, while the Dredd movie gets a comic sequel as well. Plus Snowpiercer, super-Brits, Captain Jane T. Kirk (really!) and more, all in this week’s comics! New Issues Dark Horse: • Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1: Six months after…

Yes, the Google Bus is affecting rental prices in San Francisco

The Google bus riots were one of the most futuristic protests that the San Francisco Bay Area has ever seen. But is the protesters’ rage against rich techies misplaced? According to one city planner, there is some truth to the idea that these shuttles raise rents. The bus riots were complicated, but one issue that…

No, this isn’t the stormy surface of a remote gas giant, but rather a swirling vortex atop a heated soap bubble. Shot by a high-speed camera, the image is helping scientists understand how these spinning complex structures form, whether they be in a bubble, a tropical storm or Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Image: Hamid Kellay.

The Towering Glory and Infinite Weirdness of Post-Soviet Architecture

These surreal photographs from Frank Herfort’s Imperial Pomp – Post Soviet Highrise series show us the strangest post-Soviet buildings of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia. Two golden towers in Astana, Kazakhstan, also called as ‘the beer cans’ by locals, built in 1998 An office building in Moscow, Russia Grand Park Towers (Khodynsky Bulvar 5), 414 ft…

Here’s what it would look like to fly directly into a nebula

Ever wondered what it would be like to look out the window of a spaceship as it travels through space? Wonder no more. This video gives you a spaceship’s-eye view as you blast off from a mountain range in Earth, fly through the stars, then move closer and closer to a distant brightness in the…

Sorry, Intelligence, but your princess is in another castle.

Last night’s Intelligence had a bit of a video game plot going on: each time the characters thought they’d reached their goal, they were presented with a new challenge. And yet, the fact that it was light on the emotional drama and heavy on the mission made this episode the best yet. Congratulations, Intelligence, you…

This is what Weird al Yankovic looks like as a My Little Pony

In a word, weird. But this is no fan art — Yankovic will guest-star on this week’s episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, as a pony named, and I am not making this up, “Cheese Sandwich.” Here’s the official synopsis of “Pinkie Pride,” which airs this Saturday at 10:30 am EST: An elated…

The Best “Entry Level” Science Fiction Books to Convert Your Friends

A lot of the greatest science fiction and fantasy books are not for newbies. They can be daunting for new readers, because they assume you’ve already read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. But what are the best “entry level” science fiction and fantasy books? We asked some top editors and writers, and here…

What if Lost Girl made The Amityville Horror into softcore porn?

This week’s Lost Girl was sort of a monster of the week, sort of getting the band back together, sort of softcore porn – all of which has me hoping the show has found its soul again. In the primary storyline, Bo hops off the magic train and lands in a dusty old house just…

A New Scientific Model that Defines Alien Intelligence

Should we ever detect an extraterrestrial civilization, or any kind of alien life for that matter, it’s a safe bet they’ll look very different from us. They’ll also probably think in a way that’s completely foreign to what we’re used to. Here’s how experts believe we might be able to predict what the minds of…