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A Charming Vintage Figurine Set That Memorializes A Famous Murder

The 1827 killing of Maria Marten came to be known as “the Red Barn Murder,” a crime so sensational that it spawned its own genre of art. And Red Barn Murder commemorations are still highly sought-after. Exhibit A: this charming ceramic rendering, which sold for nearly $20,000 in 2010. The auction house description gives more…

Static Shock Is A School Teacher On A Mission In This Heartfelt Fan Film

Electrogenesis may not have the slick production values of some of the fan films we’ve seen, but what it lacks in budget, it makes up for with its story of Virgil Hawkins as a teacher who has left Static behind. But when a student comes to him for help, Virgil realizes the world may still…

25 Doors From Around The World

I asked you to photograph some doors. And you gave us a peek into the intricate, gorgeous, and sometimes flat-out depressing possibilities that await us all from across the globe. Tobacco Lunch This is an old door to what was a lunch counter in the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC. The door is less…

Should Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Just Be Dumped In the Ocean? 

There is no permanent solution for Fukushima’s radioactive water, which has been leaking out of storage tanks again and again. Could the best option actually be just letting all into the ocean? Over at Nautilus, Eliza Strickland has a snappy summary of the problem with Fukushima’s radioactive water, which is at 620,000 gallons and counting.…

Why Franklin Richards Is The Most Ridiculous Character In All Of Comics

Franklin Richards, the son of the Fantastic four’s Reed Richards and Sue Storm, isn’t just a young hero-in-training, but one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe. And chief among those powers is being completely insane, as these facts will prove. Franklin is 47 years old. Not in actual years, of course. But…

Giant Leak Shows Us How The Final Oculus Rift Looked in 2014

Sometimes, all it takes is a little digging in a website’s style sheets to find a vein of gold. In this case, an enterprising Reddit user discovered a set of gorgeous high-res images of the final Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and a never-before-mentioned game controller—two days before Oculus’s big reveal. Whoops! Oculus founder Palmer…

Jon Bernthal Will Play The Punisher In Daredevil Season 2!

Ever since Daredevil’s second season was confirmed, we’ve been speculating as to who from Marvel Comics could show up alongside Matt Murdock. While everyone wondered about Bullseye and Elektra, instead Marvel have revealed that another anti-hero is headed to Hell’s Kitchen: Frank Castle himself! Jon Bernthal, whom io9 readers might be more familiar with as…

Vincent Bugliosi — who prosecuted Charles Manson and wrote the best-selling true crime classic, Helter Skelter, about the trial — has died at age 80. Despite a long, successful career, he lamented last year that “I can no more disassociate myself from [Manson] than I can jump away from my own shadow.”

The Boy Who Built A 500 Million-Degree Nuclear Fusion Reactor

The following excerpt is from The Boy Who Played with Fusion by Tom Clynes. The book, released today, tells the story of science prodigy Taylor Wilson, who by age 14 had built a 500-million-degree nuclear fusion reactor. Taylor toggles another switch, energizing the vacuum pumps. He and Brinsmead and Phaneuf watch the gauge as the…

Go vote for this more menacing version of the Lego Hulkbuster armor

Lego’s official Hulkbuster set left quite a lot to be desired in terms of size, detailing, and overall awesomeness. After all, Iron Man’s giant suit was the real star of that recent Avengers flick. So Raymond Chow took it upon himself to build a better version—a much better version—that you can now vote for over…

Why Apple’s Health Tool for Women Is a Big Deal for Diversity in Tech

There were hints right away that yesterday’s WWDC keynote would be different. Tim Cook opened with an anedcote about an Apple-sponsored scholarship competition to engage students in technology careers, specifically mentioning that the winner was a 12-year-old girl from New York. Yes, there were more women onstage at an Apple WWDC keynote than in the…

A Great TT Documentary Is Coming

Our friends at Studio Kippenberger are on the Isle of Man right now, following independent rider Tom McHale as he competes in the deadliest race on earth. Watch this trailer and you’ll see why we’re excited. IOM TT – Trailer from STUDIO KIPPENBERGER on Vimeo.

Tuesday Game Room: The Calm Before The Storm Edition

It’s the week before E3, and not many people want to put games out. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t any — the Elder Scrolls go online on consoles, and Lego life, uh, finds a way with the new Jurassic World tie in. Excited for E3? Come talk about it in this week’s Tuesday Game…

A Look at the Final WTC Skyscraper, and the Design That Was Rejected

We finally have our first look at the World Trade Center’s skyscraper, thanks to a Wired exclusive today. But wasn’t this building already unveiled years ago? And wasn’t it designed by someone else? Wasn’t it under construction? Your memory serves. 2 World Trade Center was originally designed by the British architect Lord Norman Foster back…

Here’s How Hormone Therapy Aids Gender Transition

People who are transitioning genders want to look like the sex they’re transitioning to. Hormone therapy can help with that, since the characteristics that help us distinguish men and women by sight—breasts, relative muscle mass, the shape of the face, and so forth—are created by the sex hormones our gonads start secreting at puberty. Both…

A Little Number Theory Makes The Times Table A Thing Of Beauty

Most people will probably remember the times tables from primary school quizzes. There might be patterns in some of them (the simple doubling of the 2 times table) but others you just learnt by rote. And it was never quite clear just why it was necessary to know what 7 x 9 is off the…

A Tiny Transforming Dolly That Can Stay Attached to Your Camera

Your digital camera has become far more than just a tool for snapping birthday pics. It’s a full-on portable cinematography tool. And with Edelkrone’s new compact Pocket Skater 2 dolly, you can easily capture professional-looking tracking or moving shots. The three-wheeled Pocket Skater 2 is easily the smallest dolly you’re going to find that can…

Start Memorizing Your Six-Digit iPhone Passcode

If you have an Apple device new enough to have TouchID, you’ll need to start thinking of new passcodes for iOS 9. Apple is getting rid of the four-digit passcode* in its upcoming software upgrade. *Correction: I didn’t look through the options closely enough before hitting publish. While the new default is six-digits, you can…

Head Transplants: Science or Science Fiction?

Valery Spiridonov of Russia wants a new body. His body’s muscles are wasting away from a rare disease called Werdnig-Hoffman disorder, which kills most people by age 20. Dr. Sergio Canavero of Italy is expected to announce at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in Annapolis, Md., in…

When You’re a Scientist You Can Play With Lasers and Vortices All Day

Studying fluid dynamics is one of the most spectacular fields of physics, not least because smoke vortices and fluid currents are beautiful at every scale. Imagine watching them take shape from your office chair at work every day. This cool photo of Laser Doppler velocimetry and particle image velocimetry was taken at the MAX Fluid…