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Doctor Who and the Ponytail of Doom!

BBC America just aired the Doctor Who episode “Amy’s Choice” this past evening, but we mistakenly posted our recap last week. You can read it here, and feel free to discuss the episode in the comments below.

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Get ready for the grasshopper and cricket swarms this summer

The US Department of Agriculture warns that this summer could bring massive outbreaks of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets. Grasshopper and cricket swarms can decimate farmlands, causing economic losses as well as food shortages. From the USDA website: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is expecting potentially heavy grasshopper outbreaks…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Hold our entire galaxy in the palm of your hand

The Spitzer Space Telescope crew have stitched together 800,000 frames of data into an enormous mosaic of our galaxy. This is just a tiny glimpse of the whole shebang, showing the Milky Way’s violent stellar coming of age. [APOD]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Meeting your future self isn’t what it’s cracked up to be

“Grrl” travels forward in time 15 years to meet her present-day self, in this awesome installment of the webcomic Cat and Girl. Understandably, her 1990s self is a bit disappointed. [Cat and Girl]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The truth is self-evident: Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness isn’t about gender

It’s 1970, and with this Hugo winner — Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness — we finally got the ladies up in here! And the men too! And of course, the menwomen. So this is daunting. I mean, these are always daunting, but The Left Hand of Darkness — that’s daunting. It’s…

Books & Comics Josh Wimmer

Scientists create electromagnetic ‘black hole’ out of metamaterials

A new, carefully synthesized material is a point of no return for certain kinds of light. Light despite flinging itself full speed at the universe like a tramp, is very persnickety about what it will and won’t be absorbed into. Io9 has already done posts about how x-rays refuse to have anything to do with…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

So what comes next after steampunk and zombies?

Our imaginations are caught between two unstoppable empires: the retrofuturistic world of steampunk, and the shambling hordes of zombies. The only thing more popular than a steampunk world or a zombie world is steampunk with zombies. But what’s next? Lately, it’s been occurring to me that maybe the love of steampunk and the fascination with…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

“We broke the ocean”: Cherie Priest on the oil spill

Boneshaker author Cherie Priest writes a heartbreaking, unsettling essay about the Gulf of Mexico disaster, and the responsibility we all share. When I was about nine years old, I moved to Texas with my mom and sister. Our new home was in Orange, about six miles from the Sabine River, and maybe half an hour…

io9 cherie priest

How to turn your old Astro van into an Appa

Last year, Tyler Anderson designed a concept van modeled on the Appa, a giant flying bison from animated series Avatar (The Last Airbender). Now some fans are using his design to convert their Astro van into mobile art. Over on Facebook, a group of Avatar fans are documenting a “1985 Chevy Astro that is being…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Snoop Dogg shot first! Star Wars’ Cantina scene reimagined with some new additions…

You have to love this new Adidas ad, featuring Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Daft Punk and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher in the classic cantina scene. Mostly for Snoop Dogg’s response to the classic “My friend doesn’t like you” line.

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Stonehenge at Night, 1944

In 1944, Harold Edgerton, one of the forefathers of stroboscopic photography, produced an extraordinary image of Stonehenge. According to the authors of Stopping Time, that image was commissioned specifically as part of a larger military/optical experiment: Illuminated by a 50,000 watt-second flash in the bay of a night-flying airplane 1500 feet above the ancient monoliths,…

io9 Geoff Manaugh

Finally, you’ll be able to make a robot breakdance in orbit

Meet SpaceJustin, a new telepresence robot designed to go into space and do the pop-and-lock maneuvers that are too hazardous to humans. SpaceJustin’s developers showed him off before the start of the International Aerospace Show in Germany. More pics below. Daft Punk needs to recruit this robot to join their back-up dancer team right away.…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

It’s Dead Duck Day!

Fifteen years ago today, Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker stumbled across the first example of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Now, lovers of weird science around the world celebrate this discovery with Dead Duck Day. I’ll leave it to the brilliant minds at Annals of Improbable Research to lay it out for you: On June…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Robert A. Heinlein wasn’t really a libertarian after all

Robert A. Heinlein’s novel The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is a seminal libertarian text, and Heinlein inspired many people to become libertarians. But Heinlein’s own views were more varied, and his work dabbles in many different political philosophies. [Mises.org]

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Mechanized fossils from our robotic future

In a far-off future, archeologists could trace the post-human history of the world by examining the fosilized remains of gynoids and cyborg cats. Creatures of the Mechazoic Era imagines what they might find when the Singularity is a distant memory. Artist Throwing Chicken (also known as Chase Black) meticulously researched and sculpted these artifacts from…

io9 Lauren Davis

The BP Effort Feels Way Too Much Like This

Watching BP’s continued, repeated failures would almost be funny if it weren’t so gut-wrenching. If only there were a perfect analogy for how it felt watching the unraveling, in hilarious comic strip form. Oh, look, here’s one! [Penny Arcade]

Books & Comics Brian Barrett

The geological survey ships of summer

You know it’s summer when the cartographers’ ships arrive, their pilots trying vainly to remap the world that’s shifted so much under the crush of ice. These are just a few images from Nicolas Bouvier, a Seattle-based concept artist who works on Microsoft games and also designs book covers for Pyr Books. His work always…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Vampires, ghost towns and Futurama: io9’s Summer TV Guide

Stargate is ending, Lost is over and Fringe has already blown our minds with its huge spring finale. So what should you watch this summer? Don’t worry, we’ve got a round up of all this summer’s big TV shows. Neighbors From Hell An interesting adult cartoon about a stereotypical sitcom family, of hell demons. After…

Television Meredith Woerner

5 real diseases that could make you act just like a zombie

Zombies have dominated science fiction for years. But they don’t actually exist, right? Wrong. There are several real-life diseases that could make you act like a zombie. If we’re going to talk about zombie-like diseases, we first need to decide what the symptoms of being a zombie actually are. Obviously, the big one – you…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The greatest SF universes that include both magic and science fiction

What happens when you have magic and spaceships? Or gods and mad scientists? Some of the most exciting worlds in science fiction also include fantasy elements — and here are our 12 favorites. It really feels as though the cutting edge of speculative fiction lately is stories where neither magic nor science can fully explain…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Doctor Who and the Ponytail of Doom!

Get ready for the grasshopper and cricket swarms this summer

Hold our entire galaxy in the palm of your hand

Meeting your future self isn’t what it’s cracked up to be

The truth is self-evident: Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness isn’t about gender

Scientists create electromagnetic ‘black hole’ out of metamaterials

So what comes next after steampunk and zombies?

“We broke the ocean”: Cherie Priest on the oil spill

How to turn your old Astro van into an Appa

Snoop Dogg shot first! Star Wars’ Cantina scene reimagined with some new additions…

Stonehenge at Night, 1944

Finally, you’ll be able to make a robot breakdance in orbit

It’s Dead Duck Day!

Robert A. Heinlein wasn’t really a libertarian after all

Mechanized fossils from our robotic future

The BP Effort Feels Way Too Much Like This

The geological survey ships of summer

Vampires, ghost towns and Futurama: io9’s Summer TV Guide

5 real diseases that could make you act just like a zombie

The greatest SF universes that include both magic and science fiction

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

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

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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