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Papercuts: Future Primitive 

Sometime in the next 48 hours, you’ll likely be on a long drive, stuck at a hellish airport, or surrounded by the full chattering force of your extended family. If you’d like a moment of calm and quiet, put on Papercuts’s “Future Primitive.” The last time I’d listened to Future Primitive was in fact in…

These Modernist African Churches Look Like Spaceports

Africa is full of amazing 20th century architecture, whether it’s an almost forgotten piece of Italy, or some incredible space-age buildings. But fewer people realize the space-age, modernist style was adapted to church architecture, too. Here are some of the most breathtaking African churches built in the 20th century. https://gizmodo.com/asmara-eritrea-a-forgotten-piece-of-italy-in-africa-1654869639 https://gizmodo.com/the-most-astonishing-space-age-buildings-in-africa-1546195360 The Neo-Gothic Church of…

Cremation Urns Replicate The Deceased As Action Figures

If you have any doubt that 3D printing is a transformative technology, then look no further than the cremation industry where companies can rapidly customize urns designed to be enduring keepsakes. But, one Vermont company has gone to the extreme by duplicating your loved one’s head for urns shaped as action figures. Yes, we’ve seen…

All The Clues And WTF Moments In The New Jurassic World Trailer

The Jurassic World trailer gave us some amazing dinosaur action, but also raised lots of questions. We’ve broken it down, frame by frame, to try and find some answers. And we need to have a serious discussion about Chris Pratt’s raptor biker gang. Wild speculation ahead! The Jurassic World trailer was a very emotional experience…

Dinosaur Nerds Are Already Mad At Jurassic World

The trailer for the new movie Jurassic World was released today. It looks fun! But some science-minded folks are already pouncing on the dino-filled movie for inaccuracies. Brian Switek, author of the book My Beloved Brontosaurus, writes that the film’s fictional super-intelligent, genetically-modified dinosaur shouldn’t have thumbs. Something about Brian’s tweet makes me think he…

What’s Your Worst Holiday Travel Horror Story?

We all have one of those holiday travel stories. That time you got to the airport and realized you forgot to click the buy button on the ticketing site. That time you stepped onto the train platform and the zipper on your suitcase broke sending all of your sweaters onto the tracks. That time you…

This is what happens when you bombard a GoPro with X-ray beams

Sploid reader Andrew Seltzman sent us these videos of his custom-made radiation-shielded GoPro camera going under an industrial irradiator and getting bombarded by X-rays. Reminder: Getting irradiated by a particle accelerator doesn’t give you superpowers. I think. [The industrial irradiator] uses a particle accelerator to irradiate samples on a moving cart with a high energy…

The Latest Morpheus Test Flight Cuts Out Before It Even Begins

The downright futuristic Morpheus prototype lander kicked off its newest round of testing with an anticlimactic soft abort ending the test before it started. At least this wee frog got a great view of the excitement! Top image: Morpheus fuelling up with liquid natural gas for a tether-test (left). Small frog hitching a ride on…

When Should a Psychiatrist Refuse to Treat a Patient?

If you were a psychiatrist assigned by the government to make torturers feel better about their lives, what would you do? That’s not a rhetorical question. Back in the 1950s, the psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon was forced to answer that question, in his own life. Photo: Algiers, 1960. By Nicolas Tikhomiroff These days Fanon…

Stunning Drone Footage From Beneath The Ice Of Antarctica

Scientists use a range of techniques—from satellite observations to drilling holes—to measure sea ice thickness. Usually, such efforts look down at the sea floor. But, by equipping an underwater drone with upward-looking sonar, researchers were able to create the first high-resolution 3D maps of Antarctic sea ice. This video footage shows the 6.5-foot-long SeaBED autonomous…

Gotham Has Fully Succeeded In Justifying Its Kid Bruce Wayne Character

So Gotham is basically a live-action cartoon, and in addition it is pure crack at this point. And last night’s episode showed just how far the “young Bruce Wayne” element has come, from its troubled beginnings. Spoilers ahead… As long as Barbara Kean and Renee Montoya stay in bed together (and off camera) for a…

The Power Rangers meet Tron in these futuristic redesigns

We’ve featured the amazing work of Isaiah Stephens on io9 before, and he continues to deliver some amazing stuff with these decidedly Tron-esque redesigns for the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. https://gizmodo.com/disney-princesses-dress-up-as-their-favorite-heroines-1448206336 Stephens’ upgrades the spandex of the original Rangers into full on body-armour that mashes the the LED-infused gear of the Tron universe with the…

30 Years of Amazing Criterion Collection Art Packed Into a Single Book

Today the Criterion Collection released a 306-page book full of the designs it has commissioned since 1984, including covers, supplemental art, concept art, and more. Criterion Designs is a coffee table book we can all believe in. And maybe you want this for Christmas? You definitely want this for Christmas. Or you could buy it…

The coldest ground-level temp ever recorded on Earth was -128.6 degrees F

It looks like winter has already arrived for much of the U.S. But you can feel a bit better by putting things in perspective. At least it’s not -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the coldest temperature ever recorded by humans at ground level on this planet. Yes, it dipped to -128.6 F (or a chilly -89.2…

The First 3D Printer in Space 3D-Printed Its First Object

While you were probably wishing Thanksgiving break would start already, the astronauts on the International Space Station made history. They 3D-printed a spare part for the 3D printer. In space. We obviously saw this one coming, since a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship dropped off a 3D printer custom-manufactured by Made In Space earlier this month.…

A More Efficient Solar Panel Can Be Made With Old Blu-Ray Discs 

Yes, a Blu-ray copy of Police Story 3: Supercop was destroyed for the sake of science. It turns out that the nanostructure of Blu-ray disc makes them especially well-suited to soaking up light—exactly what you’d want with a solar panel. A group of researchers at Northwestern managed to make more efficient solar panels based off…

This is definitely the most heartwarming story you’ll read today. A woman adopted a paralyzed stray dog she found dragging himself across a beach in Thailand. Now healthy, with a wheelchair, Leo the dog is living the squirrel-chasing life in Canada. The Dodo has the story.

How Much Food Can You Actually Eat This Thanksgiving?

Let’s talk total Thanksgiving tonnage here. How much Butterball-plus-fixins can you reasonably jam down your yaw this Thursday? Basically: You could eat a lot more if it wasn’t for all the saliva you have to make to break it down. According to this video by Vsauce3, the average human stomach can comfortably hold about three…

“Infodump,” “Mary Sue” And Other Words That Authors Are Sick Of Hearing

Science fiction and fantasy readers are in a constant dialogue with their favorite stories. At conventions, workshops, and online, people geek out about their favorite books. But sometimes, authors get a little tired of the same old memes. Ten authors told io9 about the writing terms they’d like to see retired. https://gizmodo.com/10-writing-rules-we-wish-more-science-fiction-and-fan-5879434 Top image: Blue…

io9 Book Club Is in Session! Let’s Talk About Prince Lestat!

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. In November, we read Prince Lestat, by Anne Rice. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! For those unfamiliar with the io9 book club, here’s how it works: You read the book. We create a special book club post on io9 when the…