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Americans are more likely to work nights and weekends compared to citizens of other developed countries. In addition to spending more hours on the job, nearly 30% of Americans work weekends and — shockingly — more than a quarter toil away after 10pm. But people who work the extra-long hours tend to be highly educated…

Gwen Stacy takes on the mantle of Spider-Woman in this new One Shot

It seems Marvel’s on a bit of a female superhero kick recently, what withthe new Thor making an impressive mark, but it gets even better with a new one-off Spider-Man comic that’s set in an alternate universe where Gwen Stacy is bitten by Radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker – and gets a way cooler…

How to Upgrade to an iPhone 6 Without Getting Ripped Off

If you’re due for an upgrade, iPhone day is a lot of fun. Look at this shiny, new thing that can be mine for just a few bucks or even totally free! But if you’re not eligible for an upgrade, it’s a little more Look at this thing I cannot afford! It doesn’t have to…

Sesame Street’s Star Wars Parody Is Predictably Adorable

Remember that classic scene in Star Wars where Only One Cannoli tells Flan Solo to “Use the Four”—a simple counting trick—as a surefire method to curb his craving for his sidekick Chewie? No? Oh wait, yeah—that’s from Star S’mores, this perfect parody brought to you by the lovable muppets of Sesame Street. Of course, this…

Archaeologists Have Discovered a Very Naughty Puritan in Boston’s Past

Boston is a goldmine for urban archaeologists. The city’s history goes back hundreds of years, and construction projects often unearth caches of historical items that are have been almost perfectly preserved. Such is the case with a buried outhouse, which revealed the naughty life of the lady who used it. As this NOVA video explains,…

A Custom, All-GIF Keyboard Is Coming to iOS Because Of Course It Is

Now that iOS 8 is opening its arms to the various third-party keyboards of the world, we’re finally starting to see the fruits of many a developer’s labor. But PopKey has gone above and beyond the call of duty with a fully customizable keyboard that’s all GIFs all the time. Just like god intended. From…

Why Does Rabies Damage Your Body With Such Scary Speed?

A terrifying feature of the deadly rabies virus is how fast it moves along the body’s nervous system toward the brain, at speeds approaching half a meter per day. Its speed has been a medical mystery – but now researchers have a promising new lead that could explain how rabies spreads. Above: An electron micrograph…

New Ultralight Ceramic Cubes Can Be Squished and Recover Like a Sponge

A CalTech scientist and her team just announced the development of one of the strongest and lightest materials ever created. It’s light enough to float like a feather, and so uniquely strong, it can be crushed and completely recover its shape. And—get this—it’s made of ceramic. The combination of features is made possible by building…

Beloved Lone Wolf Adventure Books Return as an RPG

The Lone Wolf series may have been the apex of the 80s “choose your own adventure” craze, combining non-linear novels with game stats and dice rolling. They were essentially solitaire RPGs, so their reinvention as an actual RPG makes perfect sense. I distinctly remember playing through the Lone Wolf books around age 11 or 12,…

Inside the Former Soviet Union’s Secret Nuclear Test Cities

Though it played out on the international stage, the arms race between the United States and the USSR took place mainly in rural, isolated parts of the world. The Americans tested their nuclear bombs on a desolate patch of Nevada. The Russians chose a barren polygon-shaped patch of what is now Kazakhstan. The photographer Nadav…

These Flare Gas Trucks Get High on Their Own Supply

America is undergoing a fossil fuel renaissance thanks to a resurgent natural gas industry. But with many new wells being built far from existing oil pipelines, crews often vent excess gas. One such field in North Dakota is putting that gas to work running the company’s fleet of field equipment. The natural gas industry has…

An Airbus A330 Recently Flew Into A Hailstorm — And This Is The Result

Earlier this week, an Air Europa Airbus A330 travelling from Madrid to Buenos Aires flew directly into a rather serious hailstorm, receiving serious damage to the nose and both windshields. Top image via Aviation Herald. Up until that point, things were rather uneventful on the 12-hour flight. But during the final 20 minutes things got…

Whoa–Water Ice Clouds Suspected In Brown Dwarf Beyond The Solar System

What are planetary atmospheres made of? Figuring out the answer to that question is a big step on the road to learning about habitability, assuming that life tends to flourish in atmospheres like our own. Artist’s conception of brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5, which may host water ice clouds in its atmosphere. Credit: Rob Gizis (CUNY…

The Greatest Black Women In Superhero Comics (Who Aren’t Storm)

Whenever anybody asks about black women in comics, the immediate response is to bring up Storm. But Storm isn’t the only black woman to rock superpowers and a costume. Here are 20 other black female characters in superhero comics who deserve more love and attention. Monica Rambeau (codename: Spectrum) was a lieutenant in the New…

A Simple Stamp Turns a Beach Into a Temporary Chess Board

Even if the water’s too cold to take a dip, there’s still lots to do on a beach besides soaking up the sun. With this cube stamp you can even resort to playing board games without the risk of losing anything in the sand, because this chess board and its pieces are all temporary. The…

These Abstracted Views of Barges Might Give You Vertigo

Barges and other huge and slow watercraft are common yet mysterious objects . What are they carrying? Who dwells on on their decks? In his photo series, titled “Floating Aspect”, Hungarian photographer and freelance photojournalist Gyula Sopronyi answers these questions in an elegant way, showing us abstract and intriguing micro worlds. You can stare down…

Robert Downey Jr. may have joined the Assassin’s Creed movie

Early reports have started coming in that Robert Downey Junior may have joined the cast of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed movie as a character that fans of the video game series are already very familiar with – Leonardo Da Vinci. Wait, what? Originally reported by Moviepilot and since removed, Downey Jr. has apparently been cast as…

Hot Jupiters Create Chaos for Their Stars

New research shows that star-snuggling hot Jupiters, despite being only a thousandth of the mass of their host suns, make their host stars wobble like a spinning top. Top image: Artistic impression via Hubble Space Telescope. Hot Jupiters were among the very first exoplanets ever discovered. Their existence caught astronomers completely off-guard, not only because…

The Plan to Turn Our Aging Oil Rigs Into Skyscraper-Sized Reefs

Off the coast of Southern California, there’s an underwater city. A thicket of almost 30 enormous steel oil rigs, each as large as a skyscraper, bolted to the floor of the ocean. Most of them are elderly, aging giants—and soon, the state will need to make a decision about whether to rip them up or…

io9 Newsstand: Best Stories of the Week for September 8 – 13

One of the best ways we, as a culture, process the tragic things that happen in our lives (individually or as a group) is through stories. Fiction is powerful that way. And there’s been a lot of powerful fiction written about and around 9/11. If you’re up for it and still working your way through…