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The Seagull Nebula spreads its wings across 100 light-years

This beautiful image is an up-close look at one of the universe’s best examples of pareidolia: the Seagull Nebula, also known as the Parrot Nebula or Eagle Nebula, depending on your ornithological preference. Point is, this is one gargantuan bird. Just like the Man in the Moon, the face on Mars, and, for some reason,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Holy crap, normal water can behave like bouncing rubber in space

When you’re aboard the International Space Station, every day (understandably) brings new excitement. NASA astronaut and chemical engineer Don Pettit has been documenting these small daily wonders along with the American Physical Society on YouTube. In his latest video, Pettit demonstrates how microgravity transforms everyday water into bubble fluid — and sometimes an impromptu tennis…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

New Legend of Korra scene shows off the The Last Airbender version of American Gladiators

We’ve seen a bunch of scenes from Avatar: The Legend of Korra so far, but this might just be the craziest. From the Korra Nation fan site, here’s a look at Korra’s professional bending team — The Fire Ferrets — in action. It’s like ultimate frisbee with flamethrowers! Hat tip to Syafiqjabar of Mars.

Television Cyriaque Lamar

Nature Photos That Will Rock Your World

If you’re in Washington DC soon, you might be in for a major treat — the winners of the 2011 Windland Smith Rice Awards for nature photography are going to be on display at the Smithsonian. And judging from what we’ve seen, these are some of the most vibrant, exciting nature photos that have come…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

This four-winged dinosaur is helping rewrite the book on prehistoric plumage

What color were the dinosaurs? It’s a question that people have puzzled over for close to 200 years, and one that many long believed to be unanswerable. But a few years ago, scientists discovered that microscopic structures called melanosomes could be used to reveal prehistoric creatures’ true hues. Now, an international team of researchers studying…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What Hypnosis Really Does to Your Brain

Most people agree that hypnosis does something to your brain — specifically something that makes people make fools of themselves at hypnotist shows. But how does it actually affect the human brain? Can it make people recall events perfectly? Are post-hypnotic suggestions a bunch of baloney? What is the truth about hypnotism? Top image: Shutterstock.com…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Brazilian police recruit Batman to lower city’s crime rate

Unbeknownst to DC Comics, a new sequel to The Dark Knight Returns is unfolding in the Brazilian city of Taubaté. Police have recruited 50-year-old military retiree and local Batman impersonator André Luiz Pinheiro to patrol crime-ridden neighborhoods. And unlike other fictional superheroes who have made the jump to the corporeal realm — such as the…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Why Is Everyone On Mars British? And Other Pressing John Carter Questions, Answered!

We had a lot of important questions for Disney’s John Carter. For example: Why are all the Martians British? What’s with the tattoos? And why do people keep calling these tan people “Red Martians?” We asked the cast, crew and director Andrew Stanton our most pressing questions about John Carter, and here are their answers.…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Conservatives Deeply Outraged by Science Fiction Story From 1992

Derrick Bell’s story “The Space Traders” is one of science fiction’s scariest thought experiments — because of what it reveals about human nature. It’s a misanthropic tale in which aliens arrive on Earth and offer America the solution to all our problems, in exchange for all of our black people. For Bell, who spent years…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Twin NASA Probes Start Mapping Lunar Gravity

The twin GRAIL probes have just begun their science mission and will use a precision formation-flying technique to map Lunar Gravity, as depicted in this artist’s rendering. Radio signals traveling between the two spacecraft provide scientists with exact measurements which will result in the most accurate gravity map of the moon ever made. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech…

io9 Ken Kremer - Universe Today

Quantum Suicide: How to Prove the Multiverse Exists, in the Most Violent Way Possible

Quantum mechanics says objective reality doesn’t exist, that instead all we see are probabilities collapsing into one particular configuration… and all other possible realities might just exist together in a quantum multiverse. Here’s the deadly experiment that could help you to test that very idea. First, let’s take a look at two major interpretations for…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Battlestar Galactica disco jacket is the coolest article of clothing you never owned

Well, maybe a few of you lucky bastards did. But the rest of us can only imagine a bygone discotheque with Giorgio Moroder on full blast, Muffit II blowing rails in the ladies’ water closet, and the spectral outlines of Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six getting drunk in a corner somewhere. Semi-Related: Jaws and Alien…

Television Cyriaque Lamar

Watch hermit crabs try new shells on – including a glass bottle

Hermit crabs survive by borrowing shells abandoned by other sea creatures. It’s quite unusual to actually witness one switching shells, however, which is why this video is so special. What it reveals is that hermit crabs are actually quite picky about what shells they’ll use — even going to far as to discard one after…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The “QWERTY Effect” is changing what words mean to us

Back in the 1870s, a newspaper editor named Christopher Latham Sholes rearranged the letters on typewriters so that the keys would stop jamming. The result was the QWERTY keyboard… and his innovation has actually fundamentally altered how we think about words. That’s the idea put forward by Kyle Jasmin of University College London and Daniel…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

What’s Next on TV? The Lowdown on 6 Pilots Now Filming

Is genre television an endangered species? Terra Nova’s canceled, and some other network science fiction shows are reportedly on the firing line. So it might seem like next fall will be a wasteland — but don’t fear. Besides NBC’s Beautiful People, which we told you about a while back, there several other science fiction and…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Diving for elephant fish eggs

University of Cambridge biologist Andrew Gillis studies the embryos of elephant fish, distant relatives of sharks with long, trunklike snouts. But how, exactly, do you get an elephant fish embryo? You go diving for them, of course. In this video, Gillis describes how he gets these fish embryos and what he finds inside their eggs.…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How realistic will Danny Boyle’s movie about shapeshifting dogs be?

Oscar award winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who worked with Danny Boyle on 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire, gave us an update on their next collaboration: translating Toby Barlow’s lycanthrope book Sharp Teeth into film! Find out which Hollywood dogs might make the casting cut! Plus more news on his current project: adapting the second Hunger…

Movies Meredith Woerner

This plucky “Beetlecam” photography droid gets in hungry lions’ faces

To capture the lions of Masai Mara on camera, British wildlife photographer William Burrard-Lucas devised with an ingenious solution — his wheeled, shielded, and camouflaged Beetlecam. After teasing out the kinks of his first model, he set this new version to roam around the Kenyan savannah. As you can see above, Beetlecam’s thick hide was…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

What’s next for the Star Wars Expanded Universe? Sith death cults gone wild!

This June, author John Jackson Miller returns to the Star Wars universe with Escape, the next chapter of his Knight Errant comic book and prose series. In this upcoming five-issue comic miniseries — which is set 1,000 years before Episode 1 — Jedi heroine Kerra Holt must clean out an entire galaxy full of Sith,…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

This strange sponge owned the world’s first known skeleton

This rather bizarre organism is Coronacollina acula, which lived on the seafloor about 550 million years ago. This sponge-like creature doesn’t look like much of, well, anything, but its discovery throws a whole new light on the evolution of skeletons. Coronacollina acula dates back to the Ediacaran Period, which spans from 630 to 542 million…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Seagull Nebula spreads its wings across 100 light-years

Holy crap, normal water can behave like bouncing rubber in space

New Legend of Korra scene shows off the The Last Airbender version of American Gladiators

Nature Photos That Will Rock Your World

This four-winged dinosaur is helping rewrite the book on prehistoric plumage

What Hypnosis Really Does to Your Brain

Brazilian police recruit Batman to lower city’s crime rate

Why Is Everyone On Mars British? And Other Pressing John Carter Questions, Answered!

Conservatives Deeply Outraged by Science Fiction Story From 1992

Twin NASA Probes Start Mapping Lunar Gravity

Quantum Suicide: How to Prove the Multiverse Exists, in the Most Violent Way Possible

The Battlestar Galactica disco jacket is the coolest article of clothing you never owned

Watch hermit crabs try new shells on – including a glass bottle

The “QWERTY Effect” is changing what words mean to us

What’s Next on TV? The Lowdown on 6 Pilots Now Filming

Diving for elephant fish eggs

How realistic will Danny Boyle’s movie about shapeshifting dogs be?

This plucky “Beetlecam” photography droid gets in hungry lions’ faces

What’s next for the Star Wars Expanded Universe? Sith death cults gone wild!

This strange sponge owned the world’s first known skeleton

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Amazon Slashes 50% Off Keurig K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker, Now a Budget Alternative to Breville and Nespresso Espresso Machines

Sun’s Latest Outburst Complicates Planned Launch of Artemis 2

Instagram Will Finally Let You Lurk to Your Heart’s Content—for a Price

Popular Sweetener Found in Protein Bars Tied to Stroke, Blood Clot Risk

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

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