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The Problem with “Nature vs. Nurture” When It Comes to Sexuality

Orphan Black is one of the most intelligent, nuanced, and ambitious shows on television, thanks in no small part to the contributions of science consultant Cosima Herter. Recently, she wrote an essay dealing with the nature vs. nurture debate, and it’s fantastic. In her essay “Variability and Perturbations of the Spiral Universe Inside Us,” which…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Retro-Future Is Littered With Print-Outs

I print nearly everything: Boarding passes, itineraries, and all the online papers that I use for research to write this blog. I know this makes me a weirdo — these things don’t “need” to be converted to paper form. But believe it or not, I’m living much closer to the paper-filled future that was imagined…

Tech News Matt Novak

SOSUS: The US Navy’s Long-Range Undersea Ears for Spotting Soviet Subs

At the end of World War II, just as relations between the US and the Soviet Union were beginning to freeze, America found itself dangerously vulnerable to Soviet ballistic missile submarine attack. To counter this potential nuclear threat to the Eastern seaboard, the US Navy set about devising an ingenious system of underwater listening stations…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

An Engineering Approach That Makes Turkey Frying a Bit Less Dangerous

Outdoor frying is notoriously dangerous business, mostly due to the precarious combination of fire and propane tanks with moist food and large volumes of scalding hot oil. Here, food expert Alton Brown shows you how to build a free-standing “fry derrick” so as to avoid injury or, worse yet, making a fool of yourself on…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

A History Of Human Civilization, As Told With Toilets

The 14th International Architecture Exhibition, entitled Fundamentals, has opened in Venice. True to its theme, an entire gallery in the Giardini’s central pavilion has been turned into a “throne room” devoted to one fundamental invention that has spanned time and cultures for millennia: the toilet. “No architectural treatise declares the toilet as the primordial element…

io9 Mark Strauss

This is exactly how I imagine the zombie apocalypse hitting Los Angeles

Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A self-absorbed narcissistic runner transforms into an ugly zombie during his jogging routine while mayhem ensues behind, without him noticing it. It’s the E3 2014 animation short announcing the new survival horror video game Dead Island 2—and it is a lot of fun to watch. SPLOID is a new blog about…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi

Giant Asteroid Zooms Close to Earth, Revealing an Odd Shape

A near Earth brush — but not close enough for impact — by this giant 1,200 foot asteroid provided the perfect opportunity to get a closer look at the asteroid (and its odd shape, like a slightly jagged peanut) with these pictures, some of the sharpest images of an asteroid ever taken. Top image: Asteroid…

io9 Ria Misra

World Cup Refs Are Wearing Smartwatches That Alert Them To Goals

At today’s opening match between Brazil and Croatia, the referees will be wearing smartwatches that read “GOAL” and vibrate when a team scores. No, it’s not punishment for the infamous Frank Lampard disallowed goal of 2010. It’s part of a new “unhackable” goal line detection system, the first to ever be used in the World…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

In Defense of Raccoons

Raccoons have a bad reputation. They eat our trash. They give us rabies. They raid our crops. They invade our attics. But, c’mon. They’re also amazing. Here are all the reasons why raccoons deserve our attention — if not always our respect. Photo by Paxon Woelber, via Wikimedia Commons

io9 Annalee Newitz

Weird tiny fish has the strongest suction powers in the animal kingdom

The Northern Clingfish is one of the weirdest animals I’ve ever seen. It has a suction cup on its belly that can tightly hold onto anything, no matter how rough and irregular the surface is. The cup’s grip is so strong that, if you had them on your hands, you would be able to climb…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

How Yesterday’s Huge TweetDeck Vulnerability Happened

If you use TweetDeck in any capacity, you’re probably aware of a nasty little bug that was running rampant around TweetDeck’s hallowed columns yesterday afternoon. But what, exactly, was causing all the retweeted trouble? Computerphile’s Tom Scott breaks it down. It all has to do with cross-site scripting, a vulnerability that allows hackers to inject…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Anti-conformity Research Led to Freud’s Best Sarcastic One-Liner

There are plenty of tests that study conformity, but measuring anti-conformity is a tougher proposition. How do you measure something that is only evident after you make your influence felt? Researching this led to some interesting experiments, and the best line ever delivered by Sigmund Freud. Conformity experiments have revealed some horrible truths about human…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Behold The First Life-Sized Aliens Xenomorph Queen Ever Built

Some of the early versions of the creatures from the Alien franchise are nearly as frightening as the final version. This isn’t one of them. The proof-of-concept Aliens xenomorph queen was a very rough version of the creature, consisting of black garbage bags over foam. In this video, Aliens director James Cameron is directing the…

Movies Lauren Davis

Deals: Attack on Titan, Farscape, Roger Rabbit, Mario Kart 8

Surprisingly, Mario Kart 8, which is selling very well, is still on sale for $49. We don’t expect this to last too much longer, so grab the wheel while you can. As we’ve noted before you can still register your copy of Mario Kart 8 with Club Nintendo to grab a free game. [Mario Kart…

io9 Shane Roberts

12 Futuristic Forms of Government That Could One Day Rule the World

As history has repeatedly shown, political systems come and go. Given our rapid technological and social advances, it’s a trend we can expect to continue. Here are 12 extraordinary — and even frightening — ways our governments could be run in the future. 1. Noocracy Similar to Plato’s “government of the wise,” a noocracy would…

io9 George Dvorsky

7 Siri Tricks You Might Not Know About

Apple’s voice-activated assistant is now a well-known personality in his/her own right, but unless you’ve taken the time to dig into all the features that Siri offers you might not realize just now capable it is (particularly since the arrival of iOS 7). Here are seven ways to get Siri working harder for you. 1.…

Gadgets David Nield

Frozen Ant Rafts Could Teach Us How to Make Self-Assembling Robots

A writhing mass of fire ants floating across the water is thing of horror and a marvel of engineering. But how do you study the architecture of ever-squirming ants? By flash-freezing them and coating in glue, as scientists did for a recent study. Ant rafts, it turns out, are more complicated than you might think,…

Tech News Sarah Zhang

You Can Finally Buy the Wheelchair Professor X Would Use

The Whill started life as an innovative device designed to give manual wheelchairs an electric motor so they were self-propelled. But since its inception, the Whill has evolved into a full-fledged personal mobility device with a unique control mechanism and even smartphone connectivity. And as promised late last year, the Whill is finally available for…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Why Are Countries Still Using Fake Bomb Detectors?

Earlier this week, a group of 10 militants armed with guns and grenades entered Karachi’s Jinnah international airport, where they killed 28 people and themselves. Reports suggest they managed to get past security because the airport continues to use a bomb detector exposed as a fraud in 2010. The so-called bomb detector, the “ADE 651,”…

io9 Mark Strauss

These Five Amazing Houses Just Won Awards For Being Small and Cheap

Last month, we looked Chicago’s tiniest buildings of the year. Now, the national chapter of the American Institute of Architects has unveiled its 2014 Small Projects awards, which honor buildings on the smaller end of the spectrum. Their list includes five houses that were built small, on smaller budgets. So, what qualifies as cheap in…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

The Problem with “Nature vs. Nurture” When It Comes to Sexuality

The Retro-Future Is Littered With Print-Outs

SOSUS: The US Navy’s Long-Range Undersea Ears for Spotting Soviet Subs

An Engineering Approach That Makes Turkey Frying a Bit Less Dangerous

A History Of Human Civilization, As Told With Toilets

This is exactly how I imagine the zombie apocalypse hitting Los Angeles

Giant Asteroid Zooms Close to Earth, Revealing an Odd Shape

World Cup Refs Are Wearing Smartwatches That Alert Them To Goals

In Defense of Raccoons

Weird tiny fish has the strongest suction powers in the animal kingdom

How Yesterday’s Huge TweetDeck Vulnerability Happened

Anti-conformity Research Led to Freud’s Best Sarcastic One-Liner

Behold The First Life-Sized Aliens Xenomorph Queen Ever Built

Deals: Attack on Titan, Farscape, Roger Rabbit, Mario Kart 8

12 Futuristic Forms of Government That Could One Day Rule the World

7 Siri Tricks You Might Not Know About

Frozen Ant Rafts Could Teach Us How to Make Self-Assembling Robots

You Can Finally Buy the Wheelchair Professor X Would Use

Why Are Countries Still Using Fake Bomb Detectors?

These Five Amazing Houses Just Won Awards For Being Small and Cheap

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