io9 | Page 4183 of 5931 | We Come From the Future

Can Mountain Dew really dissolve a mouse carcass?

An attempt to win a small court battle this week has put Mountain Dew in peril of losing a much larger war. PepsiCo, the soft drink’s parent company, defended itself against a man who claimed he found a dead mouse in a can of the citrus soda. Experts called in by PepsiCo’s lawyers offered a…

io9 Natalie Wolchover - Life's Little Mysteries

Darth Vader was tasered and pepper-sprayed in Florida

You may not know that Darth Vader lives a very questionable lifestyle off-camera. When not making Star Wars films, the Sith Lord has been known to rob banks and exploit ill-conceived Ukrainian property laws. The intergalactic ne’er-do-well’s latest imbroglio takes us Orlando, Florida, where an intoxicated Vader attempted to take a nap…in the middle of…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Tons of new details for the Nicolas Cage insanity that is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance!

Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, and Ciaran Hinds take us inside the new Ghost Rider. Batman quotes existential philosophy in The Dark Knight Rises. Plus more on Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time, Chuck, Being Human, and The Vampire Diaries. Nothing but spoilers from here on out! Top image from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

DVD Subscription Services Keep Getting Worse

Netflix had a rough 2011. Between its ill-conceived price hike and its even more ill-conceived DVD spin-off company, Qwikster, the movie rental company couldn’t win. And now external factors (read: the studios) are making things even worse—not only for them, but also Blockbuster and Redbox—by delaying new releases. According to AllThingsD, Warner Bros. is providing…

Movies Adrian Covert

Robots need lizard tails, say scientists

Remember the infamous scene in Speed where a bus jumps a fifty foot gap in an elevated freeway? Of course you do, because every physics teacher from that day on illustrated that moment as something that could never, ever happen. Although the freeway was elevated, the bus was careening down a flat section. It would…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Picture of the Day: January 5, 2011

WE’RE ALL WE’VE GOT | Orphaned elephants pour red dust over each other’s bodies to protect against the sun and insects, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust centre in Tsavo East national park, Kenya. Photo by Barcroft Media, via Guardian. Thanks to Alex Ogle. Want to read today’s io9 stories a different way? Check out…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Sabertooth predators had huge forelimbs

Sabertoothed cats weren’t just modern cats with huge freaking teeth. They also had immense and muscular forelimbs. In fact, there were a number of other large-toothed carnivores beyond the smilodon, and new research by Julie Meachen, a paleontologist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, NC, shows that they all might have had big,…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Did slavery cause rapid natural selection among African Americans?

Ashley Michelle Williams has a fascinating article over at theGrio about a recent study that offers evidence that the harsh conditions of slavery subjected the African American population to strong evolutionary pressures. This could help explain what appear to be recent mutations in the genomes of African Americans. Williams writes: Researchers found that of the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

An Optimistic History of the Next 40 Years

It’s 2012, which means you’ll be hearing more than your fair share of apocalyptic and gloomy scenarios soon. To help counteract the tide of misery, Tau Zero Foundation founder Marc Millis writes an optimistic future history of the next four decades. Top image: NASA/JPL “If we have learned one thing from the history of invention…

io9 Marc Millis - Centauri Dreams

Delightfully weird Banach-Tarski video will make you wish you were a bigger math geek

An oversimplified explanation of the mind-numbingly paradoxical Banach-Tarski theorem states that a solid sphere can be cut into non-overlapping pieces (geometricians would say that such a ball has been “decomposed”), and reassembled in a new arrangement, such that the end result is two identical copies of the original sphere — conservation of mass be damned.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

America’s X-37B spaceplane is “probably” spying on China

The US Air Force’s high-tech, unmanned X-37B spaceplane launched on March 5, 2011, entering low Earth orbit with the mission designation USA-226 and a set of tantalizingly vague mission parameters: to “demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force.” Now, a report in Spaceflight magazine claims to have uncovered…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

It’s official: our favorite Sherlock Holmes is playing a Star Trek villain

The Star Trek sequel just got a lot more fascinating. Benedict Cumberbatch — who’s been rocking our screens as the BBC’s Sherlock Holmes and voicing Smaug in The Hobbit — will play a villain in Trek 2. (Or Trek 12.) Which means he’ll probably have a lot of scenes with Peter Weller, who’s playing the…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Editor Jo Fletcher predicts horror fiction will make a comeback

The last time horror fiction was a thing, during the 1990s, the market flooded with terrible trend-following books, and the inevitable contraction killed or prevented the careers of some talented horror-smiths. Now, Jo Fletcher with Jo Fletcher Books predicts a new horror comeback, among other trends, in an interview with SFX: Horror is making a…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

A zebra shark has produced babies by “virgin birth” four years in a row

Zebedee is a captive zebra shark in the Burj aAl Arab hotel’s aquarium in Dubai. It has never met a male shark in its entire life, and yet for the last four years it has successfully, miraculously produced healthy offspring. This shark is displaying parthenogenesis, which literally means virgin birth. In parthenogenesis, embryos develop without…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

What’s the difference between writing science fiction and strategizing about the future?

Over at Boing Boing, vN author Madeline Ashby has a great discussion of the difference between creating Strategic Foresight (attempting to predict variables for a strategic outlook) and writing science fiction. It’s a really useful, quick primer in how to think about the future. Including not just identifying trends, but figuring out the underlying factors…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Hey everybody, the American Akira is dead! Again!

Remember that unkillable American Akira adaptation starring Kristen Stewart and the other Tron Guy (not that one) as Kaneda the neighborhood suds dealer? According to THR, Amerikira is dead until producers figure out how to lop ~$25 million off of director Jaume Collet-Serra’s $90-million production: The project […] is being shut down in the face…

Movies Cyriaque Lamar

10 Ways of (Semi) Scientifically Quantifying Desire

Though desire and its associated effects – lust, love, aggression, ambition – are generally the purview of poets, that hasn’t stopped generations of thinkers from trying to explain it scientifically (and pseudoscientifically). Can desire really be described using the scientific method? Here are ten ways that researchers have answered that question with a resounding “yes.”…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Over A Dozen Reasons To Get Excited About Comics This Winter

What science fiction and fantasy funny books will debut during the wee months of 2012? There’s new UFO drama from Vertigo, Brian Wood penning Conan The Barbarian, and the X-Men and Avengers gearing up for fisticuffs. Here’s a slew of brand new titles coming to comic stores soon. Fantastic Four: Season One (Marvel) Starting in…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

Wachowskis Teaming Up With Natalie Portman for a Space Epic?

Natalie Portman was supposed to star in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity before she dropped out and was replaced by Sandra Bullock. But now that Portman is coming back from her maternity break, she’s reportedly considering starring in another spacey movie — the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending. Or at least, the Wachowskis are actively courting her. What is…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The answer to the most famous unanswerable fantasy riddle

“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” This question has been posed in many situations. It has been pondered by great minds. It is the most unanswerable famous riddle of all time, and it has an answer. Well, technically this riddle has many answers. People have had a lot of time to think up…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Can Mountain Dew really dissolve a mouse carcass?

Darth Vader was tasered and pepper-sprayed in Florida

Tons of new details for the Nicolas Cage insanity that is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance!

DVD Subscription Services Keep Getting Worse

Robots need lizard tails, say scientists

Picture of the Day: January 5, 2011

Sabertooth predators had huge forelimbs

Did slavery cause rapid natural selection among African Americans?

An Optimistic History of the Next 40 Years

Delightfully weird Banach-Tarski video will make you wish you were a bigger math geek

America’s X-37B spaceplane is “probably” spying on China

It’s official: our favorite Sherlock Holmes is playing a Star Trek villain

Editor Jo Fletcher predicts horror fiction will make a comeback

A zebra shark has produced babies by “virgin birth” four years in a row

What’s the difference between writing science fiction and strategizing about the future?

Hey everybody, the American Akira is dead! Again!

10 Ways of (Semi) Scientifically Quantifying Desire

Over A Dozen Reasons To Get Excited About Comics This Winter

Wachowskis Teaming Up With Natalie Portman for a Space Epic?

The answer to the most famous unanswerable fantasy riddle

Apple Removes iPhone Vibe Coding App from App Store

China’s Biggest Social Media Celebrity Is… Kris Jenner?

Up to $1,550 Off on pCloud: Pay Once, Protect Data Forever for World Backup Day

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

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

Let us help find what you are looking for...