Whether taking us to a very, very ancient Martian surface, giving us the chance to play detective with some found clues dropped by future travelers, or just warning us about the worst of the future's entry-level jobs, these stories present us with some very complicated timelines. And they do it all in just six words.
Coral bleaching is among nature's spookiest reactions. One day, a section of coral is teeming with life and color. Then, suddenly, all that's left is the bleached out outline of that empty coral, a ghost coral in empty waters. And we could be headed for a truly landscape altering coral bleaching this year.
Sometimes, just a few words are enough to build a universe. So take six words of your own, and tell us some science fiction stories!
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The golden color and shine of iron pyrite (which is responsible for its nickname, "fool's gold") may grab all the attention. But, there is another element of its appearance that is every bit as dramatic: It's tendency to form into these incredibly precise, almost machine-like cubes.So how does it do it? The question…
How bad was your winter? How you answer that question depends, of course, on where you're answering it from. Climate Central has put together a calculator that shows you just where in the spectrum of your city's wintry history this year falls in terms of temperatures over the last 120 years of winters.
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At 4:39 (PST) this morning, after over seven years and three billion miles of travel, NASA's Dawn spacecraft was pulled into Ceres' orbit, becoming the first ever mission to orbit around a dwarf planet.
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Cue up your favorite playlists, GIFs! It's time for a party.
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If you've had a chance to dig into that cache of recently discovered fairytales (and if you haven't, visit our exclusive look at one of the tales), you may have noticed something about them: They are unusually dark. Here's why these new versions might be a little grimmer than the ones you are familiar with.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] has announced the long-predicted El Niño for this year has finally arrived. But it doesn't look quite like we thought it would.
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Maria Tatar is the translator of the newly discovered trove of fairytales, lost for over a century, but just recently uncovered. Ask her all your questions about The Turnip Princess, the history of fairytales and folklore, and anything else you want to know!
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Whether you want to throw your two cents in for a well-loved classic or for an under-appreciated potential classic we want to know: What's your very favorite cartoon series, ever?
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We don't usually think of cells as particularly dramatic. But, as you can see in this video, the life of a white blood cell is fraught with hidden strangeness, beauty, and, yes, drama.
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A previously lost treasure trove of fairytales has, after 150 years, been uncovered. Here, take an exclusive first look at one of the collection's stories, involving an enchantment, a series of clever tricks, and a crow who is not quite what he seems.
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Science is full of ideas and facts that, even when they're most plainly stated, can still be incredibly slippery. But sometimes all it takes to have that eureka moment when everything clicks into place is a single, perfect picture.
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You probably already knew that William Gibson wrote an unused screenplay for the third Alien movie. But did you realize how much the first couple of Alien films have in common with Gibson's work, and in particular his Sprawl trilogy? Find out where alien parasites and a cyberpunk classic connect.
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The best part about watching Jeopardy! at home is playing along to see if you can beat whichever contests happen to have shown up that day. But could you really win? This chart games out the best strategy for you to do so.
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Whatever you've been working on in your garages, labs, sewing rooms, workshops, kitchens, studios, theaters, and mad scientists lairs, it's time to bring it out into the light and let the rest of us in on it. That's right, it's io9 show and tell time!
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Science fiction is filled with both incredible inventions that became reality and incredible inventions that we hope will become reality at some point in the future. But, then, there is also a third category of inventions that, while amazing, have some unexpectedly troubling implications.
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Soup dumplings are a food that are as impressive from a technical standpoint as they are from a taste one. Not only are they delicious, they also raise certain architectural questions: Particularly, just how did that soup get in there?
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No one sets out to make a dystopia, but there are some futuristic inventions that seem ripe for unintended consequences. So set aside that killer robot you've been putting together in your garage and for goodness sake halt your lab work on that food replacement pill, and tell us about your own personal tech nightmares.
