Science

Tongue-Shooting Action in Doom

Doom is one of those rare naratives that works both as a violent video game and a violent movie. Here, in the film version, you can see why. A weird virus/mutation/science whatsit has gotten loose in a research station on Mars. It’s turning everybody into angry monsters who shoot tongues. But that’s not all: apparently…

Movies Annalee Newitz Feb 13

Science Nerds Crush Boston at AAAS, Starting Tomorrow

As you read this, I’m on a plane zooming to Boston where I will meet up with a zillion other science geeks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I’m speaking on a panel about science blogging on Saturday afternoon, along with several other distinguished panelists including Patricia Campbell,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 13

Virtual Caveman Becomes Humankind’s Newest Slave

Cavemen aren’t just useful for stupid Brendan Frasier movies and Geico commercials. Scientists at the University of Calgary created a giant virtual hospital patient called CAVEman—CAVE is an acronym for cave automated virtual environment—and made him a guinea pig for all things anatomical. By collaborating with graphic artists, the scientists made 3-D images of everything…

io9 LISA KATAYAMA Feb 12

Tattoos Might Be the Best Way to Deliver a Cancer Vaccine

If you’ve ever considered getting a tattoo, it’s probably for aesthetic purposes. That’s all well and good, but in the near future getting a tattoo might be the best way to deliver vaccines, so if you go in for a new ink job you could also protect yourself from any number of diseases, including some…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Feb 12

A New Generation of Superold People, Created Without Genetic Tinkering

Living to be 100 years old is going to become more common in the twenty-first century, even if we don’t make any great leaps forward in medical technology. The Archives of Internal Medicine today published a study showing that genetics account for only about one-fourth of the variation in human life span. That means 75…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 11

Germans Launching Fish Into Space in the Name of Science

Today, in a display of the poor prioritization of science projects in Germany, German scientists will launch 60 fish in to space, presumably to figure out how to make fish sticks taste better. Actually, the poor fishies will experience six minutes of weightlessness in order to see how they handle motion sickness. Apparently, they get…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Feb 11

Russian Scientists Claim Secrets of Time Travel to Be Unlocked Later This Year

Time travel may be possible! But probably not! And even if so, not for a long time! But time travel guys, time travel! Some Russian mathematicians claim that when the atom-smashing machine at the European Particle Physics Centre near Geneva opens for business at the end of April, one of the results of wee particles…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Feb 11

Get Innoculated at Your Local Tattoo Vaccine Parlor

Tattoos may provide the vaccines of the future. A new study shows that using a vibrating tattoo needle to deliver vaccine produces 16 times more antibodies than a typical injection, which goes into muscle tissue. So will we be going down to our local tattoo parlors to get vaccine serum tattoos instead of ink? Not…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 7

Pollution is Mutating Your Sperm at an Alarming Rate

People living in areas with airborne toxins and pollution are likely to develop 60 percent more mutations in their sperm than people living in areas with relatively clean air. Sperm mutations could lead to infertility for the man, or might make his children suffer any number of birth defects. Will this quickly lead to a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 6

Mr. Wizard Knew That Girls Liked Science Too

At the very same time during the 1950s that some young women wondered why they should study science when all they wanted to do was get married, and magazines aimed at teen girls and women did their best to simultaneously both dispel and uphold the stereotype of the masculine female scientist, Don Herbert was busy…

io9 Peril Feb 5

The First Child to Have Three Genetic Parents

In three to five years, a baby will be born with two genetic mothers and one father. This could prove to be a boon for polyamorous families of the future who want to have children with more than two parents. A team of British researchers working with embryos have now perfected the three-parent babymaking technique.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 5

Itch-Free, Temperature-Regulating, Sex-Preventing Pajamas Created

If pajamas get itchy when you wear them to bed, I have a great solution: sleep naked. If that’s not an option for a self-hating person like yourself, some fancy new PJs have been developed that are totally “itch-free” and will even regulate your temperature. They’re made from a fabric called Dermasilk, which is apparently…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Feb 5

Why Housewives Need Science, 1955

Did you ever wonder why young, single women should waste their time in science class when they could be out tracking down eligible men? Listen and learn as Dad and Mom explain to their skeptical daughter Betty how science benefits married women, as well as those waiting for Mr. Right, in this clip from Why…

io9 Peril Feb 4

Geoengineers Will Prevent Rain Over Olympic Stadium in China

The top of China’s “bird’s nest” Olympic stadium is open to the elements, and therefore the government has ordered the Beijing Meteorological Bureau to make sure it won’t rain during the games. The Bureau has already had some success preventing light rain, but heavy rain is harder to control. They’ll use two different “seeding” techniques…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 1

New Adhesive Microfiber Gloves Let You Scale Glass Walls

Soon we’ll have special gloves and shoes that allow us to climb smooth, vertical surfaces — and even walk across ceilings. A team of researchers at UC Berkeley has created a plastic microfiber that imitates the “stickiness” of gecko feet, which are covered in tiny hairs that attach to smooth surfaces. Already, the researchers are…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 31

Flying, Smelling Robots Will Create Pollution Maps

Want to know if it’s a bad air day and you should stay inside to avoid airborne toxins? If you live in Japan, you can check a robot-created map to find out exactly what the pollen content of the air is in any given place at that moment. These cute, round robots with their friendly…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 30

Radio-Controlled, Implantable Sperm Valve is New Vasectomy

Vasectomies are a great form of birth control, but the downside is that they’re hard to reverse. Now researchers in Australia have come up with a penis implant that could control sperm flow at the flick of a switch. Operated via remote control, the implant would act as a sort of valve, blocking sperm sometimes…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 29

Triumphant Return of Polar Ship, After 500 Days Stuck in Ice

Late last week, the science ship Tara returned from its mission to study climate change in the polar ice region. Here it is, about to dock in Norwegian Spitzberg. Its long journey through the polar region left it deliberately stuck in ice off the coast of Siberia for 500 days. If you look at the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 28

Everything You Need to Know About the Madness of Nikola Tesla

When you hear the name Nikola Tesla, chances are you think of the Tesla coil or the 80s metal hair band. Tesla was the first real mad scientist of the twentieth century: Not only did he invent that coil and alternating-current electricity (which you’re probably using right now to read this), but he also researched…

io9 Kevin Kelly Jan 28

Chameleons Use Color to Communicate, Not Hide

Though most people believe chameleons use their color-changing abilities for camouflage, a new study released today proves this is incorrect. In fact, chameleons evolved the ability to transform skin color quickly to send messages to other chameleons. In a careful analysis of how and when chameleons change color, a group of researchers from South Africa…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 28

Tongue-Shooting Action in Doom

Science Nerds Crush Boston at AAAS, Starting Tomorrow

Virtual Caveman Becomes Humankind’s Newest Slave

Tattoos Might Be the Best Way to Deliver a Cancer Vaccine

A New Generation of Superold People, Created Without Genetic Tinkering

Germans Launching Fish Into Space in the Name of Science

Russian Scientists Claim Secrets of Time Travel to Be Unlocked Later This Year

Get Innoculated at Your Local Tattoo Vaccine Parlor

Pollution is Mutating Your Sperm at an Alarming Rate

Mr. Wizard Knew That Girls Liked Science Too

The First Child to Have Three Genetic Parents

Itch-Free, Temperature-Regulating, Sex-Preventing Pajamas Created

Why Housewives Need Science, 1955

Geoengineers Will Prevent Rain Over Olympic Stadium in China

New Adhesive Microfiber Gloves Let You Scale Glass Walls

Flying, Smelling Robots Will Create Pollution Maps

Radio-Controlled, Implantable Sperm Valve is New Vasectomy

Triumphant Return of Polar Ship, After 500 Days Stuck in Ice

Everything You Need to Know About the Madness of Nikola Tesla

Chameleons Use Color to Communicate, Not Hide

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

Google Displayed Polymarket Bets as News ‘In Error,’ Google Says

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

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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