Get ready for a truly insane Star Wars: Episode VII casting rumor!

Benicio del Toro (and Lloyd Kaufman) join the ever-expanding cast of Guardians of the Galaxy. Check out a 13-minute Man of Steel featurette while Henry Cavill and Hugh Jackman discuss their superhero futures. Joss Whedon shares some hints for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Plus the latest World War Z and Pacific Rim videos! Spoilers! Top image…

This woman is bodypainted with a gene linked to breast cancer [NSFW?]

Model Jessica Brown is painted with genetic imagery taken from scientific literature, by bodypainting expert Victoria Gugenheim as part of a new piece in the Guardian. These include an X chromosome on her leg, and a DNA helix on her torso with the visualization of the BRCA1 gene, linked to breast cancer. Talking to the…

This is the End clips reveal a much funnier movie than we’d expected

Good news! This is the End, the post apocalyptic horror show featuring comedians playing themselves, looks actually funny. Like laugh out loud funny. Plus Emma Watson shows up in two of these clips and absolutely steals the show. Could this movie be… actually awesome?

A New Science Fiction Anthology About Exoplanets That Really Exist

People keep writing science fiction stories about their own made-up planets — but there are plenty of real exoplanets out there to obsess about now. And two scientists from the Kepler Spacecraft decided to gather some sort fiction about them. Steve Howell is a lead scientist on Kepler, an astronomer at Kitt Peak, and the…

Abaddon’s Gate is literary space opera at its absolute best

The books in The Expanse series have all been terrific reads. Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who write under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey, have said their writing style is basically “make it awesome.” The latest book in the series, Abaddon’s Gate, more than achieves that goal, adding to the reputation they’ve achieved thus far.…

It’s time we did away with the stigma surrounding mental health

Earlier today, President Barack Obama kicked off the White House’s National Conference on Mental Health by calling for more honest, open and understanding discussions about mental health and its far-reaching effects. The conference is geared toward raising awareness about mental illness, and is part of the administration’s continuing effort to address gun violence and mental…

A Treasury of Flying Cars, from the Golden Age of Aviation

Every time you get in a traffic jam, you dream of pulling a lever, adding wings to your car, and soaring over the rest of the poor drivers. And then you wonder: Where’s my flying car? The truth is, flying cars have existed for decades. You just wouldn’t want most of these. Here’s the totally…

A Classic Doctor Who Creator Forced to Rewatch 1980s Special Effects

This is kind of amazing. Andrew Cartmel, the script editor of Doctor Who back in the late 1980s, is forced to rewatch some special effects sequences from his time on the show and rate them according to how they look today. Poor guy. [BBC News]

Zombies, aliens and Erik Estrada invade this week’s DVDs

There’s quite a mixed bag of movies and TV series this week, but now all I can think about is Zombies Vs. Aliens Vs. Erik Estrada. Come on, Syfy, make that original TV movie happen. You know you want to. • Warm Bodies The romantic zombie comedy, or rom-zom-com, based on Isaac Marion’s novel and…

It’s official: The sale of Night Shade Books is going through

For the past two months, the fate of Night Shade Books has been up in the air. Would the beloved indie science fiction press go bankrupt, or would a buy-out by two entities, Skyhorse and Start, go through? Now, at last, we know — Night Shade will continue as an imprint of the two larger…

When would you want to be cryogenically frozen? (And for how long?)

Let’s say you’ve been offered a working cryochamber, with its own fuel supply. You can freeze yourself whenever you want, for as long as you want. What age would you like to be when you’re frozen? And when would you like to wake up? I was at the io9 meetup this Saturday, listening to Annalee…

This “alien bluegrass band” movie is seriously delightful

The History of Future Folk is a light and zippy alien comedy, which feels like Flight of the Conchords but with a touch of Blues Brothers and a touch of Safety Not Guaranteed. If that sounds like your cup of tea, you should definitely check it out. Luckily, Future Folk is available on Video On…

One Day You’ll Be Able To Touch Everything On TV (Yes, Everything)

Designed to allow persons with visual impairments to touch and feel objects being referenced on TV, this haptic feedback system will no doubt get co-opted for less benevolent uses like advertising, and of course, adult entertainment. Haptic feedback systems like this have existed before, but what sets this new version apart is its ability to…

In case there was any doubt, Wired has absolute proof that women really do watch Game of Thrones. With charts.

The Venture Bros. return (finally) and it’s like they never left

If you didn’t know that the season 4 finale of The Venture Bros. aired back in 2010, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it aired just last week, based on the season 5 premiere “What Color Is Your Cleansuit?” Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick haven’t missed a beat in these past three years, and The…

Massive collection of Man Of Steel pics are full of Super Spoilers

Zack Snyder’s Superman movie is about to take flight, and the visuals in the most recent trailers look astonishing. A slew of high-res photos has just been released, and they show off just how pretty this film will look. Plus… some major spoilers. What do these shiny new images reveal? Christopher Meloni and Lois Lane…

The Russian Eccentric Who Wants to Make Surrogates a Reality

In preparation for the upcoming Global Futures 2045 conference, the New York Times has put together a quick preview, including a biopic of its ambitious founder, the Russian entrepreneur and ‘immortalist,’ Dmitry Itskov. Armed with the tagline, “Towards a new strategy for human evolution,” GF2045 will be taking place in New York City during the…

Why do we sit through the brutality of Game of Thrones every week?

Ever since we lost Ned Stark, Game of Thrones has been turning into a more and more chaotic show, in which horrific events befall various characters in a seemingly random fashion every week. This one loses a hand, that one gets crossbowed to death. So why do we keep watching it? Are we just sadists?…

The Video Game You Never Saw in Wreck-It Ralph!

Wreck-It Ralph showcased the worlds of Fix-It Felix Jr., Hero’s Duty, and the racing video game Sugar Rush. But there was another video game world you never got to see Extreme Easy Living 2! Which is basically one of those strange beach volleyball games where CG girls jump up and down, a lot. The cut…

Could we find alien civilizations using infrared light?

Instead of listening for radio signals, a group of astronomers is proposing that we search for extraterrestrials by detecting their planet’s exaggerated heat signatures — signatures that could be detected in the infrared. But to do so, we’d have to build the largest telescope this world has ever seen. Writing in Astronomy Magazine, a team…