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The Ten Most Bizarre Theories About Why the Dinosaurs Went Extinct

One fact that paleontologists have always agreed upon is that the dinosaurs are all dead. Beyond that, there’s been plenty of room for disagreement—especially concerning the cause of the giant reptiles’ extinction. Here are 10 of the most unusual theories. 1. Rickets! According to a 1928 report in the Science News-Letter, Harry T. Marshall, a…

Google just pushed out some very nice-looking standalone apps for both Docs and Sheets.

The waves of Clark Little make me want to move to Tulum ASAP

Photographer Clark Little takes stunning images of shorebreak waves. He explains how he developed his style and found success, throwing himself and his camera into the action—and taking a beating for his art—in this video. While some photographers focussed on capturing conventional shots from the safety of the sidelines, Clark spent eight years in the…

These Are The Most Polluted Cities In America

Did yours make the list? Photo Credit: Ben Amstutz | CC BY 2.0 If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, or California’s Central Valley, the answer is a hacking, hawking “yes.” The greater basin, and California’s major, midland valley, still have the worst air quality in the country, according to the American Lung…

The Pentagon Can’t Keep Track of Ammo So It’s Destroying $1B in Bullets

Outdated technology and government wastefulness seem to go hand in hand, but this time the two are combining for a startlingly huge money sink: the Pentagon is planning on destroying $1.2 billion in excess bullets and missiles, some of which could still be used by troops. And it’s all because the military has no way…

The Low-Carbon Emission Diet Plan

A new study says that annual carbon emissions from global agriculture can be reduced by as much as 50-90% by 2030. Among the recommended reforms is changing our food consumption patterns, which could eliminate the equivalent of 2,150 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Agriculture accounts for roughly one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions,…

Ask A Hydrologist Whatever You Want About The Droughts In The U.S.

Jerad Bales is an engineer and hydrologist, he’s here today to answer our questions about the recent droughts in the U.S., water quality, and what we can expect for the future of water. Dr. Bales is the Acting Associate Director for Water at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). His research focuses especially on water resources,…

How Oklahoma Botched an Execution with Untested Drugs

Tuesday night was horrific. After weeks of controversy, Oklahoma had planned to execute two convicted murders with untested lethal injection drugs. As many had feared, the drugs didn’t work like they were supposed to, and one lethal injection drugsof the prisoners suffered in front of an audience. That prisoner, Clayton Lockett, died of a heart…

In Case You Missed It…

The Space subsite covers all sorts of stories from stargazing to planetary exploration, and from explainers on geological phenomena to marvelling at pretty places. Here’s stories from April that you may have missed. Not everything gets shared to the io9 main page. Here’s the April stories exclusive to the Space Subsite: Stargazing at Dark Sky…

Tiny Robots Add Physical Controls and Dials To Giant Touchscreens

If there’s still one complaint we all have about touchscreens, it’s that we sometimes miss physical buttons. Whether it’s a game controller, or a keyboard, having tactile feedback is often a better solution—sometimes. Which is what led to the development of these tiny robot Thumbles that roll onto a touchscreen as needed to provide temporary…

Unprecedented Images Show The “Dim Matter” That Connects All Galaxies

Using the Cosmic Web Imager, astronomers from Caltech have captured the first three-dimensional images of the intergalactic medium (IGM) — the diffuse gas that connects galaxies throughout the universe. Above: The Lyman alpha blob in emerging galaxy cluster showing gas filaments flowing into blob (as shown by arrows). Astronomers have theorized about the presence of…

This Floating Lab Can Sequence DNA in Real Time, Anywhere in the World

Until now, sequencing the genomes of many marine animal species has been all but impossible, what with the need to transport delicate specimens thousands of miles back to a terrestrial laboratory. But thanks to this mobile genomics lab created by the University of Florida, researchers will be able to run a specimen’s DNA without returning…

From Dusk Till Dawn’s‘s “Pandemonium” Doesn’t Exactly Go As Advertised

Chaos! Exposition. Chaos! Exposition. Exposition. Exposition. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly “Pandemonium” last night, but there was some really fun action. Look, I know. I know there’s no way anyone’s going to be happy watching the TV show remake things from the movie. But the first 20 minutes of last night, with the vampires and the…

5 Painfully Clever Flash Drive Tricks We Wish We’d Thought Of

Most of us see our USB flash drives as expendable, one-trick ponies—good for storing and sharing files and not much else. But with the appropriate knowledge, that little mess of gigabytes in your pocket has the potential to be so much more. After scouring a recent Quora thread calling for useful (and largely unknown) thumb…

Why Is Zack Snyder The Only Director Of The DC Cinematic Universe?

Greetings, dear readers! I regret to inform you that the price of stamps is going up yet again. I know it feel like I — I mean we, the totally real U.S. Postal Service — just raised them, but our costs are unfortunately still rising. Mainly bullets. Bullets and food. It’s the post-apocalypse out here…

How to make bottle rockets with liquid nitrogen and water

This guy builds rockets with bottles and water, adding liquid nitrogen, turning them upside down and boom, instant propulsion: The nitrogen expands very fast on top of the warmer water, turning violently into gas, and pushing the bottle up. And in case you worry about how he’s handling liquid nitrogen—I did too—apparently it’s not that…

Satellite Image Interpretation of Chernobyl

Daydreaming about traipsing around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone made me wonder just how idyllic this accidental-wildlife refuge really is. Local camera-trap photography is downright sexy with wolves, lynx, eagle, and deer, but the satellite images paint a duller picture. Wildlife is thriving without pesky humans in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Photography credit: Dr. Sergei Gaschak…

Venezuela Is Turning Thousands of Abandoned Cars into Houses

While many people think countries like Norway are leading the way with recycling programs, an ambitious new idea in Venezuela takes things to a whole new level. The country just announced that it will start recycling abandoned cars, motorcycles, and bikes in order to build houses from their raw materials. “We have sent 10,485 automobiles,…

Finally, a Map For Your Complaints About NYC’s Worst Streets

Speeding cars! Jaywalking! Cyclist… behavior. As part of Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan, which aims to cut traffic deaths to zero, the city just launched an interactive map where you can report any number of complaints about the hazards of street life. The map went up less than 24 hours ago, but it already…

If Only The Actual Future Had Been As Cool As These Cars

Beginning next month, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will exhibit 17 concept cars from the early 1930s to the 21st century that pushed the limits of imagination and changed the automobile from an object of function to a symbol of future possibilities. The four-wheeled fantasies — brought together from across Europe and the…