Biology

10 Limits to Human Perception … and How They Shape Your World

Every human has limits. You can only run so fast, jump so high, and go for so long without water. But what about restrictions upon our five senses, those tools that we use to perceive and understand our surroundings? Here are ten limitations on human perception that have a direct impact on how we understand…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Have we broken Olympic records for the last time?

With the 2012 London Games fast approaching, sports fans and pundits alike are wondering how many records athletes will break this year. And it’s hard to blame them — after all, world records were broken in 33 separate events four years ago in Beijing. So why are the experts predicting far fewer records this time…

io9 George Dvorsky

Frequent Cell Phone Users Slobber More

It’s always funny—if a little gross—when you see a friend launch a spot of spittle across the room as they chat on the phone. But new research suggests that frequent cell phone users actually slobber more, making those discharges all the more common. The study, carried out at the Vidhya Shikshan Prasark Mandal’s Dental College…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

A totally worthless map of European penis sizes

You’re looking at one of the many maps included in Bulgarian designer Yanko Tsvetkov’s ingenious Mapping Stereotypes project, a collection of national stereotype maps designed “from the point of view of regular bigots.” Like the rest of the maps in Tsvetkov’s collection, the penis plot is amusing, well-designed, and deserving of skepticism. Let’s be clear…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Biologists resurrect a 500 million-year-old gene by splicing it with bacteria

In a scenario eerily similar to Jurassic Park, scientists working at Georgia Tech have successfully revived an ancient 500 million-year-old gene by hybridizing it with modern E Coli bacteria. The new strain of bacteria, which has now survived through 1,000 generations, may help scientists better understand the evolutionary trajectories taken by primitive organisms. The experiment,…

io9 George Dvorsky

When animals tell lies

We’ve long shed the idea that the animal world is a noble one, untainted by the supposed sins of humanity. But some people still cling to the idea that it’s an honest one. They’re wrong. Animals lie, it seems, all the time. Not as an instinctive defense, but as a sneaky way of getting what…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

These fish lure unsuspecting mates with genitals camouflaged by fake food

Evolution seems to know no bounds when it comes to shaping organisms in a way that’s meant to help them survive and reproduce — a process that often leads to some pretty bizarre characteristics and behaviors. And now, thanks to the work of biologists Niclas Kolm and Göran Arnqvist, we can add another example to…

io9 George Dvorsky

10 Reasons Why Oxytocin Is The Most Amazing Molecule In The World

Though often referred to as the “trust hormone” oxytocin is increasingly being seen as a brain chemical that does a lot more than just bring couples closer together. New research is suggesting that oxytocin plays a crucial part in enabling us to not just forge and strengthen our social relations, but in helping us to…

io9 George Dvorsky

Breakthrough silk compound could lead to longer-lasting antibiotics and vaccines

One of the major hurdles of getting a number of drugs into the developing world is that they need to be kept chilled to remain effective. A breakthrough technique using silk proteins has found a way around the need to keep cold, and could mean drugs that stay usable at high temperature for months —…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Deaf people use the hearing parts of their brain to sense touch

It’s often said that when you lose one sense you heighten the others — and now we have scientific evidence to back it up. New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience has shown that people who are born deaf process the sense of touch differently than people who are born with normal hearing. The…

io9 George Dvorsky

Artist creates genetically modified Elvis-mouse hybrid

The King may be dead, but his memory lives on in the form of a genetically engineered mouse created by Royal College of Art graduate student, Koby Barhad. The “genetically cloned model” of the late rock legend is part of an art project called, All That I Am — an attempt to explore a number…

io9 George Dvorsky

Why Eugenics Will Always Fail

I don’t think I’m taking a bold stance by saying that any real attempt at eugenics is indefensible. Practically speaking, though, eugenics is just as much of a bust as it is morally. We can’t positively select for “better people,” and we may face dire consequences if we try to weed out genetic problems, too.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

New scientific studies reveal three effective weight loss strategies

With the huge amount of research invested into diet and weight loss, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with trying to match your attitudes and diets to what publications seem to suggest. With that in mind, here are three suggestions from papers presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive…

io9 Tim Barribeau

The Science of Sight, in Interactive Cartoon Form

Our eyes are wonderfully complex biological devices, which most of us take for granted. But do you know that our perception of detail varies massively across our field of view? Or understand why we can walk in the dark but not read? This interactive cartoon does a great job of explaining those complex ideas and…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

This clam isn’t actually licking a table, is it?

What’s that? You haven’t seen the video of the clam “licking” salt off a table? Well sit back and enjoy the uncanny spectacle that is a tonguing clam… then understand this: that’s no tongue. Despite appearances, that’s actually the clam’s “foot,” a muscly appendage used for surveying, burrowing into, and transporting itself across the sandy…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Check out these spectacularly beautiful images of the ocean’s smallest, weirdest creatures

Planet Magazine has published a stunning gallery of some recently discovered sea-based microorganisms. These images of the wondrously bizarre phytoplankton and zooplankton were taken by researchers aboard the Tara Oceans, a ship that only recently returned from its two-and-half-year journey. The top image of Polychaeta a was photographed by Christian Rouviere. The Tara Oceans expedition…

io9 George Dvorsky

World’s Fastest Camera Catches Cancer at 36.7 Million FPS

There are plenty of insanely fast ways to acquire images, but in a lab in UCLA, engineers have created the world’s fastest 2D camera. It’s so fast, it can image 36.7 million fully-2D frames every second—and it could revolutionize the way screen for cancer. The camera is actually part of a microscope set-up, and it…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Scientists use trout to unlock the secrets of magnetic cells

This trout looks guilty for a reason. It’s hiding one of nature’s most intriguing mysteries: the secret of magnetoception. For decades, behavioral experiments have suggested that a variety of animals possess this ability to sense — and navigate by — the Earth’s magnetic fields, but identifying what, exactly, endows these animals with their sense of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How to steal food from a pride of 15 hungry lions

Stranded in Africa and in need of a meal? Why hunt it down yourself when you can nick it off a pride of Lions? Sound crazy? I agree. But it can be done. This practice — swiping food from another animal’s kill — is known as kleptoparasitism, and while it’s especially common and well-documented within…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Nazi breeding program that resurrected an extinct species

An indelible characteristic of fascist ideology is the celebration of a mythic past, an over-the-top nostalgic fixation often accompanied by attempts to restore things to the way they used to be “back in the good ol’ days”. For the Nazis, this meant a return to Old Germania — the old Germany of the Nibelungenlied —…

io9 George Dvorsky

10 Limits to Human Perception … and How They Shape Your World

Have we broken Olympic records for the last time?

Frequent Cell Phone Users Slobber More

A totally worthless map of European penis sizes

Biologists resurrect a 500 million-year-old gene by splicing it with bacteria

When animals tell lies

These fish lure unsuspecting mates with genitals camouflaged by fake food

10 Reasons Why Oxytocin Is The Most Amazing Molecule In The World

Breakthrough silk compound could lead to longer-lasting antibiotics and vaccines

Deaf people use the hearing parts of their brain to sense touch

Artist creates genetically modified Elvis-mouse hybrid

Why Eugenics Will Always Fail

New scientific studies reveal three effective weight loss strategies

The Science of Sight, in Interactive Cartoon Form

This clam isn’t actually licking a table, is it?

Check out these spectacularly beautiful images of the ocean’s smallest, weirdest creatures

World’s Fastest Camera Catches Cancer at 36.7 Million FPS

Scientists use trout to unlock the secrets of magnetic cells

How to steal food from a pride of 15 hungry lions

The Nazi breeding program that resurrected an extinct species

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

‘Supergirl’ Will Feature David Corenswet’s Superman in a Sort of Big Brother Role

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DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

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