Science

Should Google be Able to Read Your Genome?

Gene-sequencing technology is taking off, but George Church at Harvard University is taking it to the next level: he wants to sequence the genomes of 100,000 people. Right now, about 12 human genomes have been sequenced and Church’s ambitious plan is likely to cost cost around $1 billion to complete. Recently Google — who in…

io9 Michael Reilly May 2

Alien Plants of Many Colors

The first extraterrestrial life we spot will probably be plant life, but what will it look like? There’s a good chance it will be blue, purple, red or even black. A team of scientists examined what makes Earth plants green, then modeled the evolution of plants on worlds with different kinds of stars or atmospheres.…

io9 Ed Grabianowski May 2

Regrowing Fingers Using Pig Bladders

Lee Spievak regrew his fingers from powdered big bladders. While tinkering with his model airplane two years ago, Spievak accidently sliced a half inch off of the middle finger on his right hand — nail and all — in the propeller. Doctors told him he’d never get it back, but his brother Alan sent him…

io9 Michael Reilly May 1

On the International Space Station, You Can Watch Star Wars But Not Star Trek

In a stroke of weird genius, the people at GovernmentAttic.org issued a FOIA (freedom of information act) request to the US government to reveal the contents of the multimedia library on the International Space Station. Probably happy that they weren’t being asked about the Patriot Act, the government happily complied, supplying us with a 13-page…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 1

Antibiotics Can Prevent Bacteria From Becoming Drug-Resistant

You’ve probably heard that all the antibiotics we take are breeding new generations of drug-resistant bacteria. In fact, many diseases we once killed easily with Penicillin now require mega-doses of super-antibiotics like Cipro. While researchers have known for a long time that bacteria are developing resistance to drugs, they weren’t sure how the tiny organisms…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 1

The Fake List of 500 Scientists Who “Doubt” Global Warming

An infamous list from the Heartland Institute of 500 scientists with doubts about global warming — often waved around among policy-makers as “proof” that there are still doubters within the scientific community — turns out to be at least 10 percent fake. When the DeSmog Blog posted the actual list yesterday, 45 scientists whose names…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 30

Coming Soon: Recycled Electricity

What if, instead of using energy once we could recycle it? A new way of generating electricity from truck traffic at the Port of Oakland in California is doing just that, a promising step toward the coming electricity cycle. Nature is defined by cycles — the water cycle, the carbon cycle, and so on. Humans…

io9 Michael Reilly Apr 30

We Can Predict When Stars Will Explode

Need to get rid of a bunch of space trash, or jumpstart a wormhole? Now you can, at least if you can get near enough to a neutron star when it’s heading into explosion mode. Using NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), some astronomers have made an extraordinary breakthrough: they’ve discovered how to predict when…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 30

Scientists Propose Flashing Mirrors on Moon to Catch ET’s Eye

Far more serious than beaming a salted snack advert into space, scientists at Pennsylvania State University in State College suggest that if we really want to catch the attention of aliens, then we should cover half the moon in mirrors, and send coded flashes of light into space. Always assuming ET’s not too bored by…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Apr 30

Clones Bred to Sniff Drugs

It’s hard to find dogs that have just the right set of attributes to sniff for drugs, which is why South Korean Customs officials got their favorite drug-sniffing dog cloned. The seven clones (four are pictured here) have all grown up to be excellent sniffers — though only one in ten dogs usually passes drug-sniff…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 30

Scientists Do Micro-Origami, Make Tiny Drug-Delivery Package

Researchers at USC’s Information Sciences Institute produced this amazing pyramid, around 30 microns across, which may one day be used to deliver precise micro- or nano-doses of medication. The structures, dubbed “voxels” are made of silicon, cut into flats and then folded up and sealed to enclose tiny volumes of space inside. The team hasn’t…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Apr 30

20 Science Books Every Scifi Fan (and Writer) Should Read

Click to viewYou can’t have great science fiction writing without great books about science. Ever since the nineteenth century, when Charles Darwin’s classics On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man took the reading public by storm, popular science writing has been inspiring fictional thought experiments, as well as possibly less-inspiring political debates.…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Apr 29

The Data Is In: Brain Implants Can Make You Happy

For over a decade researchers have been treating many different ailments, including depression, with electrodes lodged deep in the brain. Devices like this Soletra brain implant deliver electrical impulses to a targeted brain region, essentially creating artificial activity in an area that the brain won’t activate on its own. While there have been anecdotal reports…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 29

A Natural Landscape in Microns

It looks like an alien city on the edge of a canal. But this is actually just a few microns across — it’s a scanning electron microscope image by Fatih Buyukserin. What you’re seeing are polymers stuck to a silicon mold full of beehive-like cells. This nano-city even has its own flowers made of wire.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 29

Glass Micromachine Makes Silk the Same Way Spiders Do

A team at the Technical University of Munich in Germany has designed a glass chip pierced with micro-sized tubes that act the same way as spider silk glands, and can be used to replicate the initial stages of natural silk production. It’s an interesting development since production of artificial spider silk has proven difficult in…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Apr 29

What Happens to Brains Experiencing “One of the Most Potent Hallucinogens Known”

Salvia, also known as salvia divinorum, is a smokable hallucinogen that’s still legal in most parts of the world. People order it via the internet and smoke tiny quantities to experience what many call an experience so intense that many people call it “spiritual.” The high lasts for just a few minutes, and includes intense…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 28

Nanogauze Uses Ancient Tech to Staunch Blood

One of the main reasons why people with deep wounds die is blood loss. But now a company is marketing an amazing new form of gauze, made with nanotech, that can induce fast blood-clotting in a wound to stop bleeding and save lives. The truly weird part? The nanotech involved is actually an ancient technology:…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 25

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Right now you can buy over 600 consumer products that contain some kind of nanomaterial or nanotechnology, and it turns out that a lot of them are edible. The Emerging Nanotechnology Project has compiled a comprehensive list of consumer items that companies are billing as “nanotech,” grouping them into categories like “health” (which includes food)…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 25

Robots Learn By Doing Improv

Your household robot won’t just clean and make repairs, it will come up with clever, novel solutions to problems by improvising. This hallmark of artificial intelligence is a little closer to reality thanks to a robot named Kurt3D. In a recent test, Kurt3D figured out how to activate a switch and open a door by…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Apr 25

Life Expectancy Going Down in the United States

In some parts of the United States, medicine has not improved the average life expectancy — and in fact, the average lifespan has been going steadily downward since the 1980s. No, immigration is not to blame for these shifting numbers. These are U.S. citizens in hundreds of different counties whose lives are getting shorter while…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 23

Should Google be Able to Read Your Genome?

Alien Plants of Many Colors

Regrowing Fingers Using Pig Bladders

On the International Space Station, You Can Watch Star Wars But Not Star Trek

Antibiotics Can Prevent Bacteria From Becoming Drug-Resistant

The Fake List of 500 Scientists Who “Doubt” Global Warming

Coming Soon: Recycled Electricity

We Can Predict When Stars Will Explode

Scientists Propose Flashing Mirrors on Moon to Catch ET’s Eye

Clones Bred to Sniff Drugs

Scientists Do Micro-Origami, Make Tiny Drug-Delivery Package

20 Science Books Every Scifi Fan (and Writer) Should Read

The Data Is In: Brain Implants Can Make You Happy

A Natural Landscape in Microns

Glass Micromachine Makes Silk the Same Way Spiders Do

What Happens to Brains Experiencing “One of the Most Potent Hallucinogens Known”

Nanogauze Uses Ancient Tech to Staunch Blood

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Robots Learn By Doing Improv

Life Expectancy Going Down in the United States

Southwest Is About to Limit Power Banks on Flights

Damn, the ‘Power Rangers’ Reboot Could’ve Had Four Movies

The Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Team Wants to Go the Distance

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Will Please Gross Horror Fans

Somehow Paramount’s ‘Avatar’ Movie Has Leaked, Too

The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

OpenAI Says Elon Musk Is ‘Injecting Chaos’ with Recent Legal Maneuver

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

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