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How will the White House's brutal budget cuts affect NASA? [Space]

Phil Plait -- Bad Astronomy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:35:00 PST

The White House has called for draconian cuts to NASA's budget, forcing the Agency to shelve undertakings that run the gamut from ambitious planetary missions to educational outreach. More »

The deranged 1989 Swamp Thing PSA, wherein our hero yells at children [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:25:00 PST

Around the time The Return of the Swamp Thing hit theaters in 1989, the mossy hero collaborated with Greenpeace on this bizarre anti-littering public service announcement. I'm pretty sure Swamp Thing used his eco-powers to transform those children into peat mummies once the cameras stopped rolling. More »

Star Wars: A New Hope, told entirely as an infographic [Star Wars]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:55:03 PST

Want to relive Star Wars: A New Hope quick, fast, and dirty? Then check out this amazing chart that maps out the entire movie in a series of easy-to-follow icons. Bravo to artist Wayne Dorrington.

If you have $50 million, this roller coaster that simulates weightlessness could be yours [Concept Art]

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:45:00 PST

Most roller coasters try to keep regurgitating riders to a minimum. But with this coaster by BRC Imagination Arts, queasy patrons may be inevitable. The design firm has taken a cue from NASA's KC-135A "Vomit Comet" aircraft and drafted plans for a coaster that mimics microgravity for up to nine seconds. The only downside? Such a ride costs a pretty penny. More »

Ravers getting high off of cobra venom in India [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:45:00 PST

Remember those rare cases of down-and-out souls getting loaded off of snake bites? Well, it looks like cobra venom has gone mainstream for a certain demographic of Indian partygoer. More »

Get all the latest sequel news on John Carter, Real Steel, Ghost Rider, and The Adventures of Tintin! [Video]

Alasdair Wilkins — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:00:00 PST

Matt Smith drops the mother of all tantalizing Doctor Who hints. Dark Knight Rises producer Emma Thomas reveals what Bane and Catwoman bring to the final Batman movie. Plus Robert Kirkman addresses a persistent Walking Dead rumor! More »

Alcatraz is dragging. With mines. [Tv Recap]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:43:57 PST

Remember last week, when we said Alcatraz was getting sorta interesting? Well... we may have spoken too soon. "Paxton Petty" was an exceedingly dull outing, in which the criminal mastermind of the week was a mad bomber, with like four bombs. More »

Picture of the Day: Feb. 14, 2012 [Picture Of The Day]

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:56:44 PST

DWARF GALAXIES FEED ON EACH OTHER | A "stealth merger" of two dwarf galaxies, as discovered by an international team of astronomers led by David Martínez-Delgado of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. More details at Universe Today.

World's tiniest chameleon is the size of match's head [Evolution]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:40:00 PST

Meet Brookesia micra, the newly discovered world's smallest chameleon. This wee creature was discovered on an island off of Northern Madagascar, where a biological expedition found these tiny beasts snoozing in vegetation a mere four inches off the ground. Juvenile specimens of Brookesia micra are the size of a match head, whereas the adults can be eclipsed by a press-on nail. Explain the researchers of this miniature reptile:

Artist transforms bonsai trees and empty cans into insane Lilliputian cities [Mad Urbanism]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:45:00 PST

Japanese artist Takanori Aiba has taken bonsai trees, food packaging, and even a tiny statue of the Michelin Man and constructed miniature metropolises around these objects, thus creating real-life Bottled Cities of Kandor. Explains Aiba of his artwork: More »

Human memory works just like a bird foraging for food [Psychology]

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:30:00 PST

The human brain is arguably the most powerful machine in the known universe, its inner workings an profound, impenetrable mystery. Except when it comes to remembering things. In that case, it's basically the same thing as a bird finding dinner. More »

The galactic haze that surrounds the Milky Way is a baffling mystery [Astronomy]

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:17:32 PST

Back in late 2010, astrophysicists spotted two gargantuan, gamma-ray emitting bubbles mysteriously coming out of the galactic center. Now the bubbles have an equally baffling companion: a strange haze of microwaves that extends through the galaxy, and "defies explanation." More »

Smoke Monsters and Side Boob dominate Being Human [Video]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:15:24 PST

Everybody is getting laid and dead on Being Human. At first glance, this seemed like a jam-packed episode of Syfy's supernatural soap opera. But on further inspection, we're not sure if the copious side-boob and smoke-monster sessions actually put an interesting plot into this week's episode. But then again, there were copious side boob and smoke monsters. More »

For the first time ever, scientists can control human brain cells using quantum dots [Neuroscience]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:52:29 PST

What if you could treat conditions ranging from Alzheimer's to blindness, all with a flash of light? Researchers think it's possible — and they plan on using tiny particles called quantum dots to do it. More »

Intangibility cloak could make buildings "invisible" to earthquakes [Mad Science]

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:46:13 PST

Invisibility cloak research focuses on how to make light waves pass through an object as though nothing is there. Now what if you took that same basic principle and applied it to other types of waves — like those of vibration? More »

Jon Snow goes to Iceland in the new Game of Thrones making-of video [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:35:00 PST

The latest on-set video from Game of Thrones takes us beyond The Wall to the wilds of ~~the Frostfangs~~ Iceland. Watch as the Night's Watch tromps around a glacier and looks extremely fricking cold. No filming at an indoor ski slope for these guys. Hat tip to Radiosilence! More »

Watch the first 2 minutes of the biggest buzz-maker from Sundance 2011, The Sound of My Voice [Video]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:47:01 PST

Last year's indie darling, Sound of My Voice, is finally getting its big-screen debut thanks to Fox Searchlight. The film, directed by Zal Batmanglij, is about a pair who try to infiltrate a cult, hoping to expose it as a sham. The group is led by Brit Marling, who claims to be from the future. Here are the first couple minutes. More »

Why Helium was the Dark Matter of its Day [History]

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:38:01 PST

We know it's out there. It makes up a sizable chunk of the universe. We see evidence of it in stellar objects through modern scientific tests. And yet we can't find it anywhere. What is this mysterious substance? It's helium, circa the mid-nineteenth century. More »

Nic Cage, God of Acting [Video]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:12:11 PST

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance comes out this weekend — which means we have a chance to pay tribute to one of the all-time great cult-movie method actors. Nicolas Cage has gone from serious Academy Award-winning actor to bee-eating B-movie wizard. More »

A visual account of the 22-year vertical trip into Lake Vostok [Geology]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:50:12 PST

On February 5th, more than twenty years after they first started drilling, Russian scientists finally broke through the last remaining layers of an ice sheet that has separated Lake Vostok from the rest of the world for twenty million years. More »

Why McG's new romcom is secretly a Star Trek movie [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:40:00 PST

Today is Valentine's Day, a holiday which commemorates the armistice between global cacao manufacturers and the prophylactic industry after their centuries-long shadow war. To capitalize on this day of demure remembrance, the popcorn-industrial complex has released This Means War, a new motion picture event by director McG (Terminator Salvation, the music video for Sugar Ray's "Fly"). More »

DNA-tangling molecule could revolutionize treatments for cancer and HIV [Chemistry]

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:53:15 PST

Some of the most deadly human diseases work by worming their way inside your DNA, attaching themselves to the cell's chromosomes. This makes them almost impossible to remove. But a new molecule designed to bamboozle rogue DNA could change everything. More »

And now, Apollo 17 astronauts singing. On the Moon. [Video]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:20:00 PST

Let's say you're an astronaut. You're on the Moon. You're hundreds of thousands of miles away from home, and the only thing between you and near-vacuum conditions is a cumbersome space-suit that affords about as much maneuverability as a body cast. What do you do? More »

Give your valentine one of the biggest roses in the Universe [Space Porn]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:12:34 PST

When it comes to Valentine's day, flowers are kind of boring. Do they smell nice? Yes. But they also reek of unoriginality. Face it, people, the bouquet of roses has been done. More »

Alan Moore sums up everything that's wrong with the entertainment industry [Quote Of The Day]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:00:46 PST

From Co.Create's excellent article about the controversy over the Watchmen prequels, Alan Moore explains everything to you: More »

Watch the first 7 minutes of NBC’s new alternate reality drama Awake, right now [Video]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:41:17 PST

Check out the first seven minutes for the TV show we've been waiting all year for, NBC's Awake. Jason Isaacs stars as a detective who's stuck in two realities that diverged after he had a car accident with his wife and son. In one reality his wife survived and his son died, but in the other his son survived and his wife did not. The first episode will air on March 1st at 10PM. More »

10 Worst Mistakes That Authors of Alternate History Make [Daily 10]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:33:04 PST

The past is another country — but an alternate history is a whole new world. The best alternate histories can make you see the real history of our world in a whole new way, and make you realize that events that seem like they were inevitable... may not have been. More »

There's even more sexy Abe in the international trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [Video]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:35:00 PST

Yesterday we saw the first-ever trailer for Timur Bekmambetov's hyper-stylized supernatural flick Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. If you enjoyed masculine Abe chopping trees in slow motion with his axe, then you're going to love this new trailer with double the carnage and hot-dead-president action! Dance for us rail-splitter, dance! Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will hit theaters on June 22. More »

Moebius, angry trucks, and the B.P.R.D. invade comic books on Wednesday [Comics We Crave]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:25:00 PST

Happy Valentine's Day, kiddos! For those of you who hate this 24-hour celebration of doilies and copulation, rejoice in the fact that absolutely nothing Valentine-themed is hitting the comic book stands tomorrow! Yay! Let's see what's in store for your hungry eyes. More »

Behold, the Aztec mecha and Mayan cyborgs of our Mesoamerican future [Concept Art]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:25:00 PST

The works of Mexico City artist Raul Cruz envision a far-off future where Aztec and Mayan aesthetics mesh with yet-to-be-invented technologies. More »

Babies can understand what you're saying at just 6 months old [Psychology]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:05:00 PST

Babies are easy to underestimate. This is understandable; after all, when most of us interact with an infant, we see a clumsy, messy creature — one more adept at stringing together strange gurgling noises than distinct consonants and vowels. More »

Transformers 4 is coming. Also, Michael Bay won't stop directing Transformers movies until the heat death of the universe. [Transformers]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:55:50 PST

Michael Bay is rebooting his own franchise...that is only six years old. In two summers, Bay will release Transformers 4, thus continuing the Bayhem. This is not entirely surprising, given that the vremp-vremp-vremp movies print their own money. On the plus side, maybe this "reboot" means they'll kill off Shia LaBeouf's character. More »

io9's Official Valentine's Day Cards, For That Special Geek In Your Life [This Is A Disaster]

Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H. — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:00:00 PST

This is Garrison Dean, io9's resident viscount of photoshopperie, reporting in. Much like your significant other, I've been distant, busy with work, and just not fulfilling your needs. But it's Valentine's Day! And on Valentine's Day, I can make up for all my shortcomings and patch our fragile relationship with a short, cheap, burst of branded sentiment. And that is exactly what I have for you here!

Cost of Living, a 10-minute movie about bored security guards at a monster factory [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:15:00 PST

A few weeks back, we took a look at production video from director BenDavid Grabinski's short scifi movie Cost of Living, which stars Bret Harrison (Reaper) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) as two night-shift security guards with terrible existential malaise. More »

Find out what's ahead on Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, G.I. Joe 2, and more! [Video]

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:00:00 PST

Writer Seth Grahame-Smith explains why Tim Burton's Dark Shadows isn't your ordinary summer movie. Not one but two Beauty and the Beast movies are headed our way. Plus a Game of Thrones actor joins Tom Cruise in Oblivion! More »

Picture of the Day: Feb. 13, 2012 [Picture Of The Day]

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:30:00 PST

ARE YOU MY MUMMY? | Concept art from Beyond Beyond, a new animated movie from The Great Bear director Esben Toft Jacobsen, about a boy who lives on board a ship that has its own greenhouse and fishing nets. Until one day the boy's father goes searching for provisions, and the boy receives a distress call with a clue to his mother's whereabouts. See more art at Twitchfilm.

Why China's most incendiary new political novel had to be science fiction [Quote Of The Day]

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:00 PST

Chan Koonchung's dystopian novel The Fat Years has caused an uproar in China and been translated into many languages, including a U.S. edition. In The Fat Years, everybody in China forgets everything that happened during a six-month period, and meanwhile the country becomes more propsperous, based on denial and selective amnesia. More »

A luminescent portrait of cell movements in a developing embryo [Video]

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:56:03 PST

Imagine if you could track the movement of every single cell in a developing embryo, tracking what each stem cell turned into. It could allow you to reverse-engineer the construction of an organism. University of Cambridge zoology researcher Matt Benton is tracking the movements in beetle embryos using movies like this one, observing the way cells move in the hope that we can untangle the mystery of embryonic development - and maybe evolutionary development, too. More »

This is the year the Large Hadron Collider finds out the truth about the Higgs boson [Physics]

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:30:00 PST

The Large Hadron Collider will soon resume its search for new particles, and it's kicking its energy levels up a notch to do it. CERN's research director promises we will know the truth about the Higgs boson by the end of 2012. More »

Controversial new theory claims life got its start in Russian hot springs [Biology]

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:00 PST

The fossil record reveals the last 3.4 billion years of life on Earth. But before then, when life first emerged, we have next to nothing. The consensus view is that life began in the oceans... but there might be another, weirder, possibility. More »