Real-Life Mysteries That Would Make Great Episodes of Sleepy Hollow

During this sports-induced hiatus, we’re missing the historical and mythological free-for-all of Sleepy Hollow. (Dracula tried, but George Washington didn’t even cameo! Whatever, show.) So to fill the void, here are five real-life historical mysteries that we’re dying to see Sleepy explore. 1. The Wythe House What it is: Home to the “father of jurisprudence”…

Thrilling short film Lunar shows us prison life on the Moon

Set in the year 2057, future Los Angeles citizens are under constant fear of being sent away to LUNAR penitentiaries. That’s right people it’s a MOON PRISON! Lunar, by Tyson Wade Johnston, shows one man’s struggle to break out of the Lunar Prison. A place no-one has ever escaped from, ever.

Let’s just debunk every flu-vaccine myth in one fell swoop, shall we?

Here for sharing far and wide is a collection of the most common myths and misconceptions surrounding flu vaccines, debunked point-by-point with lucid, thoroughly referenced explanations. Remember: if you’re going to argue with an anti-vaxxer, it’s important to know your stuff. https://gizmodo.com/dont-forget-to-get-your-flu-shot-1402004133 Top photo by Karoly Arvai via Reuters “I could be wrong,” writes science…

What superpower would you want to abuse for personal enjoyment?

We all know that superpowers equal responsibility, and heroism, and all that. But there’s also the fantasy of getting a superpower and just using it for your own selfish ends. What superpower do you wish you had… so that you could just have fun with it? Please include a picture or clip that conveys the…

These Golden Girl Minifigs Are Perfect

If you grew up in the 1980s addicted to network TV, your guilty pleasure every Saturday night was probably watching the Golden Girls. A show about four older single women sharing a house in Miami, Florida doesn’t sound that entertaining on paper, but damned if Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia weren’t entertaining. And while the…

Beauty and the Beast turns its only good story into a love triangle

Who remembers Obsession by Calvin Klein? Because Beauty and the Beast could totally copy that ad campaign, having its characters say cryptic things about their pasts and relationships right into the camera, and it would work just as well as what we’re actually getting. Spoilers ahead. . . Remember how Cat was all about moving…

The probably doomed Highlander remake gets director #3

Summit Entertainment has been trying to reboot the Highlander franchise for five long years, but they’ve been unable to find a director with that special talent of “waiting around indefinitely while the film languishes in development hell.” Maybe the third time will be the charm. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, best known for his second-unit work on Snow…

This is how scientific romances should be done

I can’t help myself anymore – I have to talk about my obsession with the Showtime series Masters of Sex. It is the epitome of a scientific romance, exploring the messy overlap of science and social science, as well as personal and professional passions. Plus, it’s about sexology. https://gizmodo.com/11-works-of-sexology-that-will-blow-your-mind-with-sci-5985191 This series is based loosely on…

NASA to Launch Next Mars Mission November 18th

Earlier this month, the government shutdown threatened to postpone the launch of NASA’s Mars MAVEN spacecraft until 2016, at the expense of tens of millions of dollars to the Agency’s already cash-strapped Planetary Science Division. Now, NASA says the orbiter is prepared to lift off on its originally scheduled launch date of November 18th. https://gizmodo.com/how-is-the-government-shutdown-affecting-nasa-1434152709…

Go inside Taissa Farmiga’s twisted mind in Mindscape

There are lots of stories where someone goes inside someone else’s mind or memories… but the person visited is seldom as creepy and unsettling as American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga seems to be, in Mindscape. As far as I can tell from this trailer, Mark Strong is a psychic, who has the power to go…

Watch the first 8 minutes of Fox’s Almost Human right now

Future Karl Urban hates robots, HE JUST HATES THEM. So imagine his anger when he’s paired with an android partner, on J.J. Abrams new show Almost Human. Which you can now watch eight minutes of right here, right now (unless you live in the UK). Urban’s character and Michael Ealy’s robot cop have pretty good…

The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Oryx and Crake

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. In September, we read Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! For those unfamiliar with the io9 book club, here’s how it works: You read the book. We create a special book club post on io9 when the…

Genealogist Builds a Family Tree Connecting 13 Million People

By using data culled from genealogy websites, computational biologist Yaniv Erlich has put together some of the largest family trees ever seen, including a single pedigree comprising 13 million individuals — some of whom date back 500 years. Erlich recently presented his work at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting in Boston. His…

Yoda hams up his death scene in more new Return of the Jedi footage

It’s weird how all this lost Star Wars footage keeps popping up, but it’s certainly fun. The newest find is alternate footage of Yoda’s final scene in Return of the Jedi, which reveals Yoda was going to take forever to die before some editor mercifully trimmed it down. And there’s a major revelation, too! https://gizmodo.com/original-star-wars-gag-reel-is-the-best-thing-youll-see-1453466539…

All the Most X-ceptional Things We Saw in the New X-Men Trailer!

The first X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer appeared today, and it’s chock full of dramatic moments, with every mutant ever and a perilous journey back through time. We pored over dozens of screencaps to bring you every great moment, and all of the hints, in this epic trailer. Here’s our complete rundown. https://gizmodo.com/x-men-past-and-present-gather-in-the-first-days-of-futu-1453988847 This…

Dear god. This triceratops is made of pumpkins.

Attention overly ambitious pumpkin carvers of the Internet: Can you top this ceratopsid? No. No you cannot. This three-horned installation is one of the many incredible pumpkin arrangements featured at 2013’s Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze. This year’s epic jack-o-lantern festival (it’s held annually in upstate New York) features over five-thousand hand-carved pumpkins arranged into sea…

Are Humans Hardwired to Detect Snakes?

The “snake detection theory” holds that snakes played a significant role in the evolution of humans and other primates. They molded our brains, shaped our visual systems, and helped us survive. Now there is new evidence to back up this unusual theory, which explains both our agile minds and our uncanny ability to sense the…

Tell NASA how you feel about human spaceflight today on Twitter

NASA wants your ideas about how the United States can build a sustainable human spaceflight program. That’s right — the space agency wants to hear from you! Today! Ariel Waldman, who is part of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human Spaceflight writes in to tell us more: On Tuesday, October 29, any tweets…

Another amazing short film gets a feature deal. We loved Beyond, the short film about a woman exploring space. And now it’s on tap to become a feature film from Syfy Films, the movie arm of Syfy.

Ask A Neurobiologist About Brain Imaging — and the Science of Fear!

Joy Hirsch is a professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology and one of the early developers of the fMRI — the imaging technique responsible for teaching us much of what we know about the brain’s structure. She’s here today to answer our questions about the brain, imaging, and fear! Dr. Hirsch is currently on her way…