Ultraviolet

Filthy Best Western Is Equipping Its Housekeeping Crew with Forensics-Detection Devices

Black lights and ultraviolet light wands—typical tools of the trade, if you’re a forensic investigator on the look out for germy DNA and body fluid stains—will be wielded by the housekeeping crews at all 2,200 North American hotels in the Best Western chain by the end of 2012. Reasonable conclusion: filth and grime abound at…

Tech News Molly Oswaks May 29

Why are so many vampire stories so weak?

Kim Newman is not just an acclaimed film critic and pop culture expert — he’s also the author of a Dracula-themed alternate history book series, beginning with Anno Dracula. So he knows what he’s talking about when he says that a lot of recent vampire stories, well, suck. To celebrate the re-release of his second…

io9 Kim Newman May 7

High-energy radiation reveals a pair of secret Vincent Van Gogh paintings

This portrait of two half-naked wrestlers was painted by Vincent Van Gogh when he was an art student in Antwerp. It’s been hiding in plain sight for over 125 years, and its discovery also confirmed another disputed Van Gogh painting. These two wrestlers were painted around 1885, when Van Gogh was a 32-year-old art student…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 26

Porting Your Digital Library to Ultraviolet Cloud Might Cost You Four Bucks a Title

If you want to copy that movie you already own to the Ultraviolet cloud at your local Walmart, you may need to pull out your wallet. Reports are circulating that this “convenience” will cost as much as four dollars a title. Walmart is holding a press conference later today in conjunction with Universal, Paramount, Warner…

Gadgets Andrew Tarantola Mar 13

Hollywood’s Digital Movie Locker Finds a Home in Amazon and Samsung’s Hallways

The UltraViolet Initiative hasn’t exactly been the iTunes-killer Hollywood had hoped for. The File-Locker system, designed to simplify the process of owning one piece of content across multiple formats, has floundered in its first few months with poor reviews, unhappy customers and little industry support. But now that Amazon and Samsung have both invited UltraViolet…

Gadgets Andrew Tarantola Jan 10

Mad Scientists Have Created a Glow in the Dark Dog

For some reason, crazy scientists from South Korea have created a dog that glows in the dark. Seriously. The beagle, named Tegon, was cloned and genetically modified so it lights up when you put it under ultraviolet light. It sounds completely gimmicky and terrible but the South Korean scientists said building the glowing dog could…

Tech News Casey Chan Jul 28

Why we won’t know when birds evolve

According to scientists, birds have been evolving in a very specific way. And it looks like, given their abilities, they’ll continue to evolve. We just won’t be able to see it. As we find out more about animals, we understand that the human being is a sadly hobbled beast. We lack the ability to sense…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jun 23

Reindeer are the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light

There’s a reason that certain wavelengths are known as “visible” light, because those are the wavelengths that humans and most animals even remotely like us can see. But one mammal can see in ultraviolet light…and it’s all because of snow. On the light spectrum, ultraviolet fits in right between visible light and X-rays. It’s invisible…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 26

Why does the Moon make scorpions glow in the dark?

Between their pincers and poisonous stingers, you’d really think that scorpions are already more than scary enough for one species. But that still leaves their unearthly – and unexplained – ability to glow a strange blue color in ultraviolet light. Scorpions have the rather unusual ability of fluorescence, giving them an eerie blue color if…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 15

Lasers Can Turn Your Hair Into an Hourly Forensic Record

Using delicate lasers to ionize but not burn difference sections of your hair for precise chemical analysis, this new forensic method can theoretically tell what you ate and where you were in the world on an hour by hour basis. (Usually, the entire hair gets mashed up into one vague average sample.) “Carbon tells you…

Tech News Brian Lam Apr 28

Hollywood Openly Wants to Turn Netflix Into a Cesspool of Shitty Movies You Don’t Want to Watch

It’s been obvious for a long time that Hollywood is not exactly BFF with Netflix, most obviously manifested in the rental windows that make subscribers wait a month for new movies—if not longer—as Hollywood tries to milk as much DVD revenue as possible before it all dries up. Despite Hollywood’s efforts to cramp its growth,…

Movies Matt Buchanan Mar 8

What science fiction and horror flicks are on Hulu these days?

Hulu’s scifi and horror pages are chock full of worthwhile movies, even if the selection skews towards the ridiculous and low-budget. Here’s the cream of the crop. Apologies to our international readers! – Krull: It inspired some weird weddings! – Real Genius: A futurist classic! – Ultraviolet: Dystopian sexy vampires! – Short Circuit: 1980s robots…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Sep 4

A Total Recall remake from the director of Underworld and Live Free Or Die Hard?

Nobody thinks a Total Recall remake is a good idea, but it’s still happening. And now it’s been announced that Underworld director Len Wiseman is in final talks to direct, from a script by Equilibrium/Ultraviolet director Kurt Wimmer. This will be a new “contemporized” adaptation. The press release quotes Wiseman: I’ve always been fascinated with…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders Jul 29

Ultraviolet Spotlight Reveals Oil Spill At Its Most Psychedelic

The oil disaster in the Gulf has produced some profoundly distressing imagery, from photographs of oil-soaked animals to satellite shots of the slick’s sprawling tendrils. But these are a little bit different. https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-evil-dark-tentacles-of-bps-oil-5554519 Black lights, best known for their use in seedy after hours establishments, head shops, and college dorm rooms, are being put to…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Jul 27

Salt makes paranoid dystopia hot again

Kurt Wimmer is best known as the writer-director of two paranoid dystopian films, Equilibrium and Ultraviolet. But as writer of Angelina Jolie’s new film Salt, out today, he brings the same paranoid sensibility to the here and now. Spoilers ahead! The plot of Salt is a classic spy tale: Evelyn Salt is a super-decorated CIA…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jul 23

Share Movies via UltraViolet Spectrum

The long-planned DECE scheme to unify our digital downloads through one globally compatible “digital locker” is near completion, with the service—now known as UltraViolet—set to launch this fall. That logo is going to be everywhere. https://gizmodo.com/deces-plans-for-digital-movie-purchases-may-confuse-and-5439325 The likes of Samsung, HP, Nokia, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Intel and Best Buy are among the tech world leaders…

Movies Gary Cutlack Jul 20

Bacteria-Killing UV Water Pitcher Reminds You What You Might Be Drinking

The Restore Clean Water System from HoMedics claims that its built-in ultraviolet lights will kill 99.9999% of bacteria, 99.99% of viruses and 99.95% of microbial cysts in your drinking water. Wait, what’s in my water? Chalk this up to one of those ignorance is bliss situations, maybe, but I don’t really care that this pitcher…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert May 8

WaterMill Automagically Pulls Clean Drinking Water from Thin Air

A bit like Dean Kamen’s miraculous water distiller, only not quite so fancy or miraculous, is the WaterMill drinking water collector. It’s basically a clever dehumidifier that collects airborne water and filters and purifies it with an ultraviolet sterilizer, providing you with up to 3.2 gallons of water per day. And before you start thinking…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Oct 1

Scientists Build Portable Life-Signs Detector: Tricorder 1.0

A team of US and UK scientists have invented a portable scanner that may be useful in the hunt for life on Mars. And it sounds a whole lot like a Star Trek tricorder: it uses a beam of ultraviolet laser light and detects fluorescence from organic molecules, so it works remotely and doesn’t damage…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Jun 24

The Science Fiction Gadgets That Make You Go… Wha?!

We have a serious love affair with the cool gadgets of science fiction, but every now and then one will come along that will make you scratch your head and say “What!?” Yes, even in the world of scifi, you can sometimes go a bit too far. Check out our list of beyond-the-pale gadgets. https://gizmodo.com/six-awesomest-scifi-gadgets-that-fit-in-your-pocket-335306…

io9 Kevin Kelly Apr 23

Filthy Best Western Is Equipping Its Housekeeping Crew with Forensics-Detection Devices

Why are so many vampire stories so weak?

High-energy radiation reveals a pair of secret Vincent Van Gogh paintings

Porting Your Digital Library to Ultraviolet Cloud Might Cost You Four Bucks a Title

Hollywood’s Digital Movie Locker Finds a Home in Amazon and Samsung’s Hallways

Mad Scientists Have Created a Glow in the Dark Dog

Why we won’t know when birds evolve

Reindeer are the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light

Why does the Moon make scorpions glow in the dark?

Lasers Can Turn Your Hair Into an Hourly Forensic Record

Hollywood Openly Wants to Turn Netflix Into a Cesspool of Shitty Movies You Don’t Want to Watch

What science fiction and horror flicks are on Hulu these days?

A Total Recall remake from the director of Underworld and Live Free Or Die Hard?

Ultraviolet Spotlight Reveals Oil Spill At Its Most Psychedelic

Salt makes paranoid dystopia hot again

Share Movies via UltraViolet Spectrum

Bacteria-Killing UV Water Pitcher Reminds You What You Might Be Drinking

WaterMill Automagically Pulls Clean Drinking Water from Thin Air

Scientists Build Portable Life-Signs Detector: Tricorder 1.0

The Science Fiction Gadgets That Make You Go… Wha?!

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