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The Battle of the Books: Gulp vs. Gut

If you want to know everything that happens to a piece of food between the grocery store and the toilet, these are the books you want to read. But in a fight between Gulp, by Mary Roach and Gut, by Giulia Enders, which will come out on top? The Contenders Ice Man Gut is the…

Meanwhile in the Future: Endangered Animals Live in Armored Zoos

Many scientists believe that the Earth is approaching another mass extinction event. Between deforestation, pollution, hunting, and general human encroachment, all sorts of species are at risk of going extinct. In this week’s future, humans give up on saving species where they live and instead put them in armored zoos. Let’s start with logistics. Right…

This is Not an Image of an Animal Using Jets to Move Itself Around

This laser-light illumination of particles in water appears to show us how a creature moves around by using carefully-directed jets of water, up and down its entire body. But that’s not what we’re actually seeing. What we’re seeing is a whole colony of animals moving through carefully-directed jets of water up and down the length…

McDonald’s Will Serve Breakfast All Day, Thanks to Kitchen Upgrades

It’s been just over two years since Gizmodo wondered publicly why McDonald’s didn’t serve breakfast all day. And that was already years after hungry citizens everywhere wondered why they could eat Egg McMuffins for dinner. Now, McDonald’s has heard our call: All day breakfast will be available across America on October 6. So why didn’t…

A Critical Look at Where Classic Mythology and Science Fiction Collide

I know in the Venn diagram of “science fiction lovers” and “classic Greek and Roman literature,” there’s not exactly a ton of overlap. But for those like myself who are fans of both, or for those who enjoy taking a more scholarly examination of scifi, have I got a book for you. It’s Classical Traditions…

America’s Already Building a Wall on the Mexican Border, It’s Just Digital

Donald Trump wants to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. But whether you agree with his plan or not, America’s already doing it. The wall just happens to be digital. The idea for a brick-and-mortar wall with Mexico has gone through fluctuating degrees of popularity over the past few decades. But whenever the plan…

Nothing Is Classier Than GoldenEye N64 Cartridge Cufflinks

If you thought showing up to a fancy shindig in a full-on tuxedo was as classy as one could get, you probably weren’t aware that someone on Etsy was selling tiny GoldenEye N64 cartridge cufflinks to perfectly complete that ensemble. Arguably the best game on the N64, and possibly one of the greatest video games…

io9 Book Club Is In Session: Let’s Talk About Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora!

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. This month, we’ve read Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book we’ve all read together, and then we have an online…

Seabirds Are Eating Tons of Plastic, and the Problem is Getting Worse

A new study on seabirds has come to a disturbing conclusion: Their bellies are filled with plastic. Up to 90% of marine birds alive today may have ingested plastic, and by 2050, that number could be as high as 95%. “This is a huge amount and really points to the ubiquity of plastic pollution,” said…

Star Wars Rebels Season 1 is a Must-Buy Blu-ray for Star Wars Fans

If you’ve been salivating for Star Wars: The Force Awakens without an outlet for that excitement, you haven’t watched Star Wars Rebels. Its home on Disney XD allowed some to write it off as just a kids’ show, but Rebels is much more than that. And now, you can devour the first season on Blu-ray.…

Going to DragonCon in Atlanta this weekend to show off your cosplay swag? Look for Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Project Secret Identity. Gizmodo is co-sponsoring this weekend-long project to photograph cosplayers — and protect anonymity and privacy at the same time! You have a right to be in disguise. Contact the author at [email protected]. Public PGP…

SNES Controller Backup Battery: Now You’re Really Playing With Power

Even if you haven’t touched a Super Nintendo in 20 years, you probably still remember the first time you held its near flawless controller. So why not indulge in a little nostalgia with this $87 portable charger that looks like an SNES controller, minus all the Doritos stains. With a 10,400 mAh battery inside you…

Google Makes It Easy to Find Sex Inventions in the US Patent Database

Inventors have been coming up with devices to improve sex for decades. But before Google digitized all the records of the US Patent and Trademark Office to launch their Patent Search feature, if enterprising creators wanted to check whether their ideas were truly original, they had to search the sex patents by hand. According to…

Sesame Street’s Version of Clash of the Titans is Vastly Superior to the Film

Things I love: Pegafish, Moo-dusa, “Release the cracker!” Things that are clear improvements over the 2010 version of this film: Cookie Monster instead of Sam Worthington. Plus, this one comes with a lesson on focus and memory. Everything here is better than the 2010 film. h/t researchgrrrl Contact the author at [email protected].

You Can Now Buy the Standards Manual Behind NASA’s Lost Logo

You know it when you see it: The smooth, soaring typeface with two uncrossed A’s. NASA’s so-called “worm” logo is a beloved symbol of space exploration even decades after it was retired. Now, thanks to two designers in New York City, you can relive the glory days of design and America’s space agency on your…

The Final Lessons From This Year’s Hugo Awards Clusterfrak

The Hugo Awards are over, and the result was a dramatic rejection of the two “Puppies” campaigns to pack the ballot with a narrow selection of authors. But what does it all mean, and what happens now? Some of science fiction and fantasy’s leading lights have been offering their opinions. If you’re still not up…

Strychnine: A Brief History of the World’s Least Subtle Poison

Like most awful poisons, strychnine got its reputation early. Unlike most awful poisons, it was rarely mistaken for anything else. Here’s why strychnine is one of the world’s most common, but least subtle, poisons. Strychnine’s Origins Strychnine is an alkaloid, which makes it the evil cousin of drugs like caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, and theobromine. All…

Make Your Own “Inverted” Glass Harp with Just One Glass

The glass harp is a simple concept: fill up a bunch of wine glasses with water, “tuning” each one by varying how much water is inside (because the pitch at which said glass will resonate depends on the level of the water inside). But now you can make a new kind of glass harp, with…

Watch a Soyuz “Soft Landing” from Gentle Detachment to Brutal Controlled Crash

We’ve teased that the term “soft” landing is utterly inappropriate, but our latest video makes that painfully clear. The preparation, waving goodbye, and gentle undocking are a deceptive moment of calm before the parachutes fling open and the chaos begins. The Soyuz spacecraft is currently the only way for astronauts to get to and from…

Syfy has renewed both Dark Matter and Killjoys for second seasons, thirteen episodes for the former and ten for the latter. When the shows return in 2016, they’ll join new shows The Magicians and The Expanse and returning show 12 Monkeys.