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The Empty Quarter Is The Largest Sand Sea On The Planet

This is a tiny fragment of the Empty Quarter, a sand sea larger than France. Ar Rub’ al Khali is an erg that stretches across four countries, covers most of the Arabian Peninsula, holds half as much sand as the larger Sahara Desert despite being 1/15th the size, and is absolutely gorgeous. A small fraction…

This Is What It Might Be Like to Fly Through a Giant Space Habitat

Want to live in a space city? You can’t move there next week, but artist Micah Ganske has designed an incredible VR experience where you drive a small spacecraft through an O’Neill cylinder, a massive tube-shaped space habitat that spins to create gravity so that people can build cities and farms on its inner surface.…

The Best Way to Ruin the New Force Awakens Trailer? Jar Jar Binks.

You know what made the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer especially great? A distinct lack of Jar Jar Binks. But some people, it seems, just want to watch the world burn. It’s amazing what a little video editing can do. The new Force Awakens trailer, for instance, was an instantly lovable global sensation.…

In 2014, Italian archaeologists discovered a 15th century skeleton of a young woman, dubbed “witch girl” because she was buried face down. But new analysis of her bones has shown she suffered from scurvy, an ailment whose frightening symptoms (seizures, bleeding) likely led to her becoming an outcast.

Everything You Need to Know About Drug Incarceration Rates Across the US

The United States has only 5 % of the world’s population, but 25 % of its prisoners. The biggest contributing factor to our booming prison population? Drugs, drugs, and more drugs. The Coalition Against Drug Abuse has just released a report investigating how federal drug sentencing varies across the country, pulling statistics from a 2013 report by…

An Iceberg Rises Above The Frozen Water Of Greenland’s North Star Bay

As a support scientist for NASA’s Operation IceBridge mission, Jeremy Harbeck spends most of his time processing data at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. But it was on a recent visit to Greenland that he snapped this striking composite image of an iceberg frozen into North Star Bay. According to NASA: He had…

Two Candy-Crazed Monsters Battle For Sweet-Tooth Supremacy In This Short

Brown-eyed beastie Chubzilla may seem like a harmlessly delusional fellow (except for all the indiscriminate stomping), but don’t get between him and dessert. Seriously, DON’T. This thesis film was co-directed Elizabeth Lee and Dominik Koscinski, students at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. [Via Kuriositas]

Astronomers Found a Gas Giant Orbiting Surprisingly Close to a Tiny Star

Astronomers watching a small red dwarf star 500 light years away were surprised to notice a brief dip in its already dim light. But they quickly identified the source of the change: the darker mass of a planet passing between the distant star and our vantage point on Earth. The star HATS-6 is about half…

Philly’s New Bikeshare Program is Already Kicking Ass

Move over, Seattle and New York. Philly may not be a first-gen adopter, but I’m proud to say my city’s pay-t0-ride biking service is already a smash hit, with over 8,000 rides and 2,400 new members in its first week alone. Top image: Jason Priem / Flickr For a big city, Philly is admittedly a…

Tom Hardy Does Double Duty As The Kray Twins In Legend Trailer

Looks like Tom Hardy will continue to prove his versatility (huge blockbusters, period films, one romantic comedy, that movie where he was alone in a car the entire time) with Legend, in which he plays British gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray. Here’s the Roy Orbison-a-rific trailer. As you may recall, “the most dangerous men in…

Bad News: Here’s A Wildfire Prediction Map (There Is No Good News)

After a winter of record-low precipitation and record-high temperatures, I almost can’t bear to look at the wildfire forecast for summer. But here it is. And boy, is it ugly. It’s not much of a surprise, really, with “exceptional drought” conditions already blanketing most places in the West. But this is pretty darn awful. Released…

If Apple Made BB-8 Droids, They’d Be Adorable

JJ Abrams’s rotundly adorable new BB-8 droids are already primed to steal the spotlight in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But if you were wondering whether the droids could get any cuter, the answer is, yes, if Apple got involved. Designer Martin Hajek, who also brought us the Apple-ized lightsaber, has just unveiled his latest…

Texas Storm Spawns Baseball-Sized, Windshield-Smashing Hailstones

A severe storm front in Texas spawned many inches of rain, multiple tornadoes, and hail huge enough to smash windshields last week, according to the National Weather Service. (Thankfully, no injuries were reported.) This baseball-sized hail fell April 26 near Rising Star, 150 miles southwest of Dallas. Photo: Ben McMillan via AP

Guess What? The Full Moon Did Not Help Kate Middleton Have Her Baby

The Duchess of Cambridge had her long overdue baby this morning, two days in advance of the full moon. The only reason I bring up the moon is that yesterday, the media was reporting that a full moon Monday might just trigger a royal birth. Only thing is, that’s a crock of crap. Top image:…

Two Leading Biologists Discuss The Next Step In Saving The Planet

Edward O. Wilson made his name by arguing that human society and the natural world are governed by the same principles. Sean B. Carroll made his name by unifying the study of humans and animals, showing that development in both is driven by the same fundamental molecular and genetic processes. So what happened when these…

The Obscenely Extravagant Beach House Yacht You Can’t Afford

Ever wake up in the morning thinking “man, I sure wish I could combine my beach house and my yacht”? Probably not, because most of us don’t have the financial assets to even hypothetically entertain such wild ideas. Enter the “X-EASY” yacht, which does the imagining for you. This 55 meter-long concept boat, designed by…

On Sailor Moon Crystal, Friendship Basically Is Magic

Sailor Moon Crystal is back after a terrible relapse into old habits. However, this week there’s a welcome break from infodumping nonsense, which leads to an interesting mediation on one of Sailor Moon’s core beliefs: the power of friendship, and how without it people can stumble into their darkest moments. Much of Act 21 is…

io9 Newsstand: The Best Stories from the Week of April 26 – 30

Just two more April stories to check out this week (the May stories mostly aren’t out until Monday). A short, fun tale of alien invasions and a beautiful story for library lovers. In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages | Uncanny Magazine Perhaps, for a while, some citizens remembered the old library,…

The GOP’s New Budget Proposal is a Big Middle Finger to Earth Science

The GOP is trying to eviscerate NASA’s Earth science program. At best, the House Science Committee’s new budget proposal would slash NASA’s Earth science funding by $300 million. At worst, the Earth sciences stand to lose over half a billion federal dollars. Top Image: NASA Earth Observatory Reminding us, yet again, that the anti-science, climate…

Josh Trank Will Not Direct The Second Star Wars Anthology Film After All

The official announcement came directly from the Star Wars website: Fantastic Four director Josh Trank, a mysterious no-show at the recent Star Wars Celebration convention, will not direct the second Star Wars Anthology film after all. Here’s the statement that was posted yesterday: Josh Trank, who was attached to direct the second Star Wars Anthology…