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We could spot alien civilizations from the light of their cities

There’s no surefire way to find evidence of alien civilizations — indeed, they’re basically all long shots — but a new method could reveal the existence of aliens just like us. And we’ve almost got the technology needed to do it. It’s always dangerous to assume that another intelligent species would evolve along the same … Continued

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Lightspeed Magazine’s captain is now also its engineer

John Joseph Adams launched Lightspeed Magazine just a couple years ago, and so far it’s gotten some great buzz as well as plenty of award nominations. https://gizmodo.com/john-joseph-adams-sees-your-dystopian-future-starts-a-5385210 Top image: Elena Bespalova, via Lightspeed Magazine Now the magazine’s owner, Prime Books, is spinning it off, and Adams is taking over ownership. He’s also going to be … Continued

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Russia just launched its first interplanetary mission in 15 years

At 3:16 EST, Russia launched its first interplanetary mission in 15 years. The unmanned Phobos-Grunt probe is designed to drop a lander onto the surface of Phobos — one of Mars’ two moons — and acquire soil samples from its surface before returning to Earth some time in 2014. But the relationship between Russia’s space … Continued

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Read a five-page preview of Locke & Key: The Guide To The Known Keys!

Courtesy of IDW Publishing, here’s an exclusive sneak peek of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s Locke & Key: The Guide To The Known Keys, a one-issue rundown of the series’ many powerful keys and a heart-rending story set in the early 1900s. The issue’s out tomorrow (11/9), and here’s a synopsis courtesy of IDW: This … Continued

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If you’re going to hell, pray you don’t get sent to the Chinese version

We’re big fans of Hieronymus Bosch-style artwork showing the Christian Hell in all its glory — but Bosch pales in comparison to this art collection of (what we’re assuming) is Chinese Hell. There’s one form of punishment that’s just needle rain and another that’s some sort of a bee and scorpion tornado. As opposed butchering … Continued

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New DNA analysis reveals what cavemen were really painting 35,000 years ago

The artistic skill and attention to detail on display in prehistoric cave paintings is nothing short of astonishing, but one unsolved mystery is whether prehistoric humans simply painted exactly what the saw, or if the art was more symbolic. And recently, we’ve come a lot closer to answering that question. Some key pieces of evidence … Continued

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How to Shrink a Human Head

Because we know you were dying to know. This video features Piers Gibbon — a British explorer, author, and National Geographic TV show host — describing the head-shrinking process long performed by the Shuar people of Ecuador and Peru. Below is a quick recap of the process, also provided by Gibbon, in a recent interview … Continued

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First Detailed Look Inside the Childhood of a Lost Species

How did mammoths grow up? It’s a simple question, but one that has been difficult to answer. Much of what paleontologists know about the great Ice Age beasts come from teeth, bones, and comparisons to living elephants, but our knowledge of their early lives has been restricted by a lack of well-preserved mammoth calves. Now … Continued

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For the first time in 75 years, an entire genus of mammal is on the brink of extinction

You’re looking at three of the last known hirola on Earth. Since the 1970s, unregulated hunting, habitat destruction and drought linked to climate change have driven the number of these large African antelopes living in Kenya and Somalia from over 14,000 to fewer than 400. Of course, countless species go extinct every day — even … Continued

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Watch David Tennant go full douchebag in a new Fright Night featurette!

Was there any other character created this year that surpassed David Tennant’s great heights of douchebaggery as Fright Night’s magician, Peter Vincent? There’s a reason the Fright Night 2 rumors hinted at an all-Tennant sequel — because he’s hilarious. Now here’s a glimpse at some additional Vincent material in a special behind-the-scenes feature about his … Continued

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Jobs That Kill: What is the deadliest profession?

A child born today in a first world country can expect to live 80 to 90 years. But could your choice of profession play a role in increasing — or dramatically decreasing — your lifespan? Some jobs can cut decades off your life expectancy — including some seemingly benign, everyday professions. Here’s a look at … Continued

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5 clips from Arthur Christmas will awaken your cold, black heart

Believe it or not, the latest addition to the Christmas movie genre, Arthur Christmas, is kind of fun. When we caught a sneak peek, we were impressed with how this Aardman Animations film plays with the mythology of Santa Claus, and turned the reign of Claus into into a bit of a monarchy. https://gizmodo.com/new-arthur-christmas-footage-stuffed-our-stockings-with-5846719 These … Continued

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One of the galaxy’s youngest stars surrounds itself with massive nebula

A giant star known as IRS 4 is one of the rare stars that’s actually younger than the human race. Formed just 100,000 years ago, it’s already leaving its mark on the cosmos, creating that huge hourglass-shaped nebula. Of course, exactly which star is IRS 4 might not be immediately obvious. The massive star in … Continued

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The 10 Most God-Awful Movies About Greek Mythology

Are Greek gods just automatically camptastic? The Immortals looks like it will push mythological glitter to its absolute limits — but there’s been a long history of insanely goofy movies about Hercules, Zeus, Perseus and other Hellenistic bruisers. Something about taking the already-ludicrous “sword and sandal” genre and adding shouty gods to the mix just … Continued

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This week, Spider-Man hangs out with his avenging friends!

Hey, comics are out tomorrow! Spider-Man’s attending a superheroic coffee klatch, Frankenstein’s in a surly mood, Mike Carey’s got plenty o’ stuff on the stands, and John Byrne’s Fantastic Four is collected in a book so burly it can cause concussions. First Issues Marvel pulls out some big guns this week with several high-profile releases. … Continued

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A First Glimpse at Philip K. Dick’s Mesmerizing, Previously Unpublished Work

Philip K. Dick, author of Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is perhaps one of the most lauded science fiction writers of our time (And certainly one of the most adapted. Hollywood has made versions of 21 of P.K.D.’s tomes, including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.) Yet, until now, readers … Continued

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Brian K. Vaughan Adapting Stephen King’s Under The Dome for Showtime. Can it compete with HBO’s Dark Tower?

HBO might be getting Stephen King’s Dark Tower but Showtime just landed Lost writer and Y: The Last Man creator Brian K. Vaughan to help them adapt his novel Under The Dome into an ongoing series. Deadline is reporting that Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) has been tapped by Showtime to pen the … Continued

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This is the most mind-bendingly awesome piece of art you’ll see today

I’ve watched this video several times now, and I’m still not exactly sure how NYC artist Dev Harlan managed to pull off the light-show voodoo featured in his video-projection sculpture “Parmenides I,” featured in the clip up top. Based on the video, and others like it, it’s clear that the projectors used to generate the … Continued

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Why is Buckaroo Banzai such an enduring classic?

Over at Den of Geek, there’s a great tribute to Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which celebrates the film’s cheerful illogic and its richness of invention. As Jeff Szpirglas writes: The real delight of Buckaroo Banzai is its incomprehensibility. Unlike the incomprehensibility of movies like John Boorman’s Zardoz, or even 2001: A Space Odyssey, … Continued

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The acousto-optical effect that uses lasers to see sound

If you’ve ever sat in a sound “dead zone” in a movie theater or concert, you know what it’s like to be at a loud event where everything sounds muffled and distorted. Luckily, lasers may soon put an end to these dead zones. The UK’s National Physical Laboratory has figured out how to use lasers … Continued