io9 | Page 4570 of 5931 | We Come From the Future

There’s a scientific reason why a pinch of salt makes things sweeter

Ever wonder why salted chocolate and caramel taste even better than unsalted? Or why adding a pinch of salt to cookies makes them sweeter? A group of researchers has found evidence that it’s because you have intestinal cells in your taste buds. That’s right – your intestines are full of sugar sensors, and some of…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Frustrated Berliners build oversized kaleidoscopes to block subway ads

Subway advertising is a risky proposition for the advertiser because you’ll never know if someone will remix your ad into, say, Darth Vader chugging a beer. In Berlin’s Friedrichstraße U-Bahn station, advertisers have eschewed print completely and have taken to projecting commercials on the subway’s walls. The city’s street artists have adapted accordingly: A couple…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

We’re one step closer to cheap, abundant biofuel

Biofuels are made from carbohydrates and fats in corn and other feedstock. This is a wasteful process because it leaves behind all the protein, a far more abundant substance. As a result, one of the big questions for alternative energy researchers is how we can pull biofuel from protein. Especially because proteins are also present…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How does fire behave in zero gravity?

We all know about how fire behaves in outer space: It doesn’t. All those action movies were wrong. Fire needs oxygen and oxygen isn’t abundant outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Fires can happen inside a contained, oxygenated environment in space, but they don’t behave the way they do on Earth. The Earth’s gravity imposes a lot…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Eric strips down in the first footage from True Blood season 4

Hooray — it’s almost time for more of the vampire humpy-hump show, True Blood! Watch the first clip from season four, in which Vampire Eric wanders around lost and naked. Spoilers below… It’s no huge secret that this new season of True Blood will be playing with the magical plot from Charlaine Harris’ book series,…

Television Meredith Woerner

Gary Oldman says this might be the best Batman movie yet. Plus why Iron Man 3 might be like a Tom Clancy story!

Director Shane Black is bringing Iron Man 3 into a realer world. Noomi Rapace explains why her character in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus isn’t just a Ripley clone. Plus a super spoiler-y look at Doctor Who’s possible big bad! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Conan. The Dark Knight Rises Commissioner Gordon portrayer Gary…

Television Alasdair Wilkins

Philips Takes Pity and Does a Passive 21:9 Gold Series 3DTV for Cheaper 3D Glasses

You may be sold on active 3DTVs being better than passive, but there’s no denying the latter’s glasses are much much cheaper than active shutter frames. Adding to last year’s active 21:9 3DTV launch, Philips’ 50-inch Gold Series TV converts 2D to 3D. There’s also a nifty gaming feature, where dual-player games are split on…

Television Kat Hannaford

Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide

If you’ve been meaning to try out Linux but felt too overwhelmed, we’ve got all the info you need to get started. Here are our five lessons on getting a working Linux partition up and running. Lesson 1: Why Install Linux? – Everyone’s heard about this thing called Linux, but you may still be wondering…

io9 Whitson Gordon and Kevin Purdy

How an iron rod to the skull changed neuroscience forever

On September 13, 1848, an accidental explosion drove a meter-long iron rod through the skull of Vermont railway worker Phineas Gage. Incredibly, Gage survived, but the lingering side-effects provided science its first clues about how the brain affects our personality. The rod was driven straight up through the skull, passing just under the left eye…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Were the Rocky Mountains sucked out of the ground?

The Rockies are a geological mystery, a massive mountain range located far away from the nearest continental plate boundary. So without crashing plates to push the Rockies out of the ground, how did they form? The answer might be suction. Mountains – particularly huge mountain ranges – generally form at the boundaries of continental plates,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Motion capture suits may someday allow you to control a robotic twin

The applications of motion capture technology go beyond Andy Serkis hopping around as Gollum, whispering to his Precious. Korean roboticists are researching the ways in which motion capture could someday aid humans in controlling a mechanical (or dare we say, a mecha?) doppelganger. This footage comes to us from Professor S.Y. Shin of the Korean…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Who’s the secret Chairman of the Adjustment Bureau?

Want to know who was the mysterious Chairman that controlled the Adjustment Bureau in George Nolfi’s new film? So did we — so we asked the director and got a few more clues to this person’s identity. He also explained why all the members of the Adjustment Bureau are men. Spoilers ahead! Last week, we…

Movies Meredith Woerner

The sexbot who came between two best friends

Cat Rambo has just published a terrific story over on Lightspeed magazine, called “Long Enough and Just So Long.” It’s a spiky, bittersweet character study of two best friends, and how their relationship is changed when they meet a recently-liberated sexbot on the Moon. Rambo’s hardscrabble future, set in space colonies that are still developing,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Del Toro’s Mountains of Madness not happening after all?

Less than a day after we heard that Guillermo del Toro was set to start shooting At The Mountains of Madness as soon as June, it turns out the studio has balked at the $150 million price tag and R-rating. According to Deadline, del Toro may sign on to direct Pacific Rim as his next…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Beastly is a harbinger of Twilight knockoffs to come

This is how I imagine the pitch meeting. “It’s like Twilight meets She’s All That, but with a gritty, urban feel and a cameo by an Olsen twin!” Beastly is an odd new paint-by-numbers teen genre flick, a hodgepodge of contrived romance and gothic horror. Its lineage can be traced straight back to Twilight. It’s…

Movies Annalee Newitz

The Dark Knight, Too Triumphant?

Batman can’t fly. Not in the comics. Not in the movies. Not even in the upcoming video game Batman Arkham City, despite what you might infer from some of the game’s screenshots. The Dark Knight of Arkham City nevertheless seems like a more powerful Batman than the one we last played in Batman Arkham Asylum.…

io9 Stephen Totilo

New Riddick movie will feature alien seduction

The director of The Chronicles of Riddick, who is also directing the new Riddick film, took to the internet to answer the fans questions. The good news: it’ll be more like Pitch Black, the first film. In a very short video post on his facbook page, Diesel asked Twohy to answers the fans questions and…

Movies Meredith Woerner

A startling new take on siege tactics, from Raymond E. Feist’s new novel

You might think you know what to expect from a siege — waiting, climbing, possibly some siege engines. But the invaders in Raymond E. Feist’s A Kingdom Besieged have a wily, alarming spin on the idea. Check out this exclusive excerpt from Feist’s new novel, in which a prince learns that he may be getting…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Marvel editor’s tweet inspires webcomic starring Deadpool and Charlie Sheen

You may have heard that beleaguered Hot Shots: Part Deux thespian Charlie Sheen has been having a bit of a strange time lately, what with his free verse interviews about tiger blood and warlocks and whatnot. Anyway, last week Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso asked fans if they’d like to see a meeting of Sheen…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

6 Limitless clips show you how your brain is better on drugs

Six clips from Neil Burger’s drug-centric thriller Limitless demonstrates why it might be better for some people to stay on drugs. Watch Bradley Cooper go from poor schmuck writer to slick, paranoid psycho! Limitless, which is about “a copywriter [who] discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities,” will be in theaters…

Movies Meredith Woerner

There’s a scientific reason why a pinch of salt makes things sweeter

Frustrated Berliners build oversized kaleidoscopes to block subway ads

We’re one step closer to cheap, abundant biofuel

How does fire behave in zero gravity?

Eric strips down in the first footage from True Blood season 4

Gary Oldman says this might be the best Batman movie yet. Plus why Iron Man 3 might be like a Tom Clancy story!

Philips Takes Pity and Does a Passive 21:9 Gold Series 3DTV for Cheaper 3D Glasses

Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide

How an iron rod to the skull changed neuroscience forever

Were the Rocky Mountains sucked out of the ground?

Motion capture suits may someday allow you to control a robotic twin

Who’s the secret Chairman of the Adjustment Bureau?

The sexbot who came between two best friends

Del Toro’s Mountains of Madness not happening after all?

Beastly is a harbinger of Twilight knockoffs to come

The Dark Knight, Too Triumphant?

New Riddick movie will feature alien seduction

A startling new take on siege tactics, from Raymond E. Feist’s new novel

Marvel editor’s tweet inspires webcomic starring Deadpool and Charlie Sheen

6 Limitless clips show you how your brain is better on drugs

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

‘Supergirl’ Will Feature David Corenswet’s Superman in a Sort of Big Brother Role

Report: FDA Set to Unban RFK Jr.’s Favorite Peptides

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

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

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

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