Latest

All the Science-Related Issues The U.S. Will Be Voting On Today

When voters go to the polls today, they will be confronted with 146 referenda and initiatives in 41 states and the District of Columbia. Among the measures are several related to science and the environment, including genetically modified food, hunting and disease research. The GMO labeling initiatives on the ballots in Oregon and Colorado have…

You’re About to Have More Options Than “White Emoji” and “Racist Emoji”

Racial diversity amongst our emoji has been an issue for a while, especially now that more and more of our teens are regressing into a pictogram-only lifestyle (because words are dead). Thankfully, it sounds like the Unicode Consortium has heard our cries—diverse emojis are coming. And not the racist kind. While the new skin tones…

Amazon Prime Gets Even Better With Unlimited Online Photo Storage

Amazon Prime, which we’ve often called the best deal in technology, just became even better thanks to a new cloud-based photo backup service called Amazon Prime Photos. The new service appears to work like many other online photo repositories: You’ve got the ability to add photos to you Amazon Cloud Drive from the web, your…

Wearable Marvel Sleeping Bags Prep You For Some Really Heroic Dreams

If you’ve never seen or heard of the Selk’bag wearable sleeping bags before, you’re getting up to speed at the perfect time. You can think of them as a one-piece pajama for adults except with the same amount of insulation you’d find in a sleeping bag, so they’ll keep you extra warm at night. And…

This is how much better Batman ’66 looks on Blu-Ray

The classic Batman TV show is heading to Blu-Ray and DVD for the first time next week, and to celebrate Warner Bros. have started putting out clips to show the extent of the quality coming out of the transfer process. Bat-Fans, prepare to Batusi with delight! It’s kind of amazing to see the quality of…

Should Boston Become A City Of Canals?

Boston, like a number of coastal cities, is facing a tricky problem in the coming years: Sea levels are rising, and rising quickly, leaving cities more and more at risk for intense flooding. Could building a canal system help keep Boston high and dry? A report from the Urban Land Institute takes on the question…

The Secrets Behind Harry Houdini’s Ten Greatest Illusions

There is an unwritten rule among magicians never to reveal how a trick is done. So when a 2004 exhibition explained Harry Houdini’s illusions, magicians around the world were apoplectic. David Copperfield called it a breach of magic protocol, and performers declared that they would boycott the exhibition. Many claimed to still use Houdini’s tricks…

You’re Going To Freak Out When You See Young Felicity Smoak On Arrow

We all know that this week’s episode of Arrow is titled “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak,” and will reveal… well… the secret origin of Felicity Smoak. Turns out the computer whiz used to be a goth girl, but wait until you see her. I’ll say this: She looks Endlessly awesome. Ready? Yeah. Felicity is…

Are Environmentalists About To Suffer An Epic Defeat At The Polls?

Today, the most expensive midterm election in U.S. history is wrapping up. Among the big spenders were environmental groups, who shelled out an unprecedented $85 million to put climate change at the top of the political agenda. Surveys indicate that, at least in the short run, they failed. The issue that has resonated most in…

UK Security Chief: Privacy Has Never Been an Absolute Right

Major US technology companies are “in denial” as to how their services are being used by extremist groups, says Robert Hannigan, the new head of UK intelligence agency GCHQ. Calling out Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp by name, Hannigan has requested that tech companies be more cooperative in sharing user information, stating that “privacy has never…

How to detect when someone is lying just by the way he talks

We all carry a portable lie detector at all times and it’s called ears. According to this Ted Lesson we can tell if someone is lying just by analyzing his language. This technique called “Linguistic Text Analysis” is based on the difference between how we structure sentences in invented and true stories. SPLOID is delicious…

What Do A Pregnancy Test And A Roman Goblet Have In Common?

The Lycurgus Cup is a Roman goblet, recently found to make use of nanotechnology to change color. Know what else changes color? A pregnancy test! Amazingly, both of these objects use similar nanotechnology. The Lycurgus Cup Romans are known for two things: fighting and having a good time. The Lycurgus Cup celebrates the triumph of…

HP Just Built a Gaming Laptop. Seriously.

Once upon a time, a tiny company called VoodooPC built some of the most incredible gaming computers around. Now, its owner HP is paying homage with the Omen — the first serious gaming laptop the company has ever made. No, the Voodoo brand is not coming back, and the Omen doesn’t offically have “VoodooDNA,” despite…

Chris Hadfield’s “Space Oddity” Is Back After Copyright Wranglings

Remember Chris Hadfield’s goosebump-inducing cover of “Space Oddity?” Well, after the Canadian astronaut’s one-year agreement with David Bowie expired this past May, the video — which had amassed 23,489,187 hits — was taken down from YouTube. Now, some five months later, it’s back. Here’s what happened. “When David Bowie wrote and recorded ‘Space Oddity’ in…

The Internet Archive’s Free Online Arcade Gives You Over 900 Games

If you were planning a productive morning of work, you may want to reschedule: the Internet Archive has created an online arcade which lets you run over 900 classic games right there, in your browser. Not all of them work perfectly, but dammit, there are just so many. Scrolling through the selection on offer will…

The Scientists Who Confirmed That Drugs Make Movies Better

Ever been dragged to some horrible film and wondered what it would take to make it bearable? All the way back in the ’60s, scientists had the answer for you: It’s drugs! (And possibly a better screenwriter.) The two-factor theory of emotion states that our emotions are dependent not just on our minds, but on…

What Have You Been Working On?

It’s time to clear out the secret projects you’ve been working on in your labs, basements, studios, garages, and offices, and bring them out into the light! That’s right — it’s io9 show-and-tell time. Tell us what projects you’ve been working on lately — whether you’re working on understanding the inner workings of a particularly…

Saturn’s two largest moon—Rhea and Titan—line up for the Cassini orbiter. Rhea’s pock-marked surface provides a beautiful contrast to the golden glow of Titan—though they’re both actually made up of largely similar material. [ESA]

More U.S. measles cases have been reported in 2014 than any year in the past two decades. Indigenous circulation of the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, but travelers abroad can bring it into the U.S. A false sense that there is little or no threat is one key reason for declining U.S. vaccination rates.

What Cameo Will Connect Ant-Man to the Rest of the Marvel Movies?

See for yourself just how much wear and tear R2-D2 has had in Star Wars: Episode VII. Michelle Gomez explains Missy’s role in the Doctor Who finale. Steven DeKnight talks which classic movies will inspire Daredevil. And Tom Cruise is doing his craziest Mission Impossible stunt yet. Spoilers now! Top image: Ant-Man Star Wars Anthony…