Gizmodo

Following a last-minute scrub early Monday morning, SpaceX successfully launched four astronauts on a one-day trek to the International Space Station.Read more...

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If you walk into a brick and mortar therapist’s office, a receptionist will tell you if there’s no availability. It’s probably a safe assumption they won’t charge you for the therapy sessions they aren’t giving you, either. Allegedly, neither of those things are true on Talkspace, a popular mental health app that…Read more...

Scientists in China say they’ve begun to develop what could be the first of a new and improved generation of sunscreens. In mice, their experimental polymer appeared to provide greater protection against ultraviolet radiation than commercial products. It also wasn’t absorbed through the skin and seemed to be non-toxic…Read more...

Every so often, dictionaries spruce up their database of lexicography in order to get with the times. Dictionary.com is no different, and announced this week the new additions to the website’s catalog of words.

A rare species, once common but thought to be extinct in the eastern U.S. for decades, has been rediscovered loitering at a Walmart.Read more...

Joe Biden gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from government devices earlier this week. Until now, most politicians intent on punishing TikTok have focused solely on banning the app itself, but, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters, federal agencies must also “prohibit internet traffic from reaching the…Read more...

Havana syndrome, the bizarre malaise that has impacted over a thousand U.S. foreign service members all over the world, is still a total mystery. Indeed, even as the government has attempted to explain away some of the weirdness, it’s pretty obvious we still have no fucking idea what this thing is.Read more...

We already knew Matthew McConaughey had been cast to voice the title character on Agent Elvis, and thanks to this new trailer for the Netflix series—the first adult animated project from Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse studio Sony Pictures Animation—we’ve got an even better idea of what to expect from this mash-up…Read more...

Elon Musk presented Tesla’s much-hyped “Master Plan 3" on Wednesday, in the company’s first “investor day” livestream. But, instead of revealing a new Tesla model, specifying the date of the repeatedly delayed cybertruck launch, introducing a more affordable electric car (as previously promised), or announcing some…Read more...

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Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley knew they had a huge task in front of them when they started working on the Dungeons & Dragons script that had been floating around Hollywood for a few years (the Honor Among Thieves subtitle wouldn’t come until later in the process). In a new interview with Variety,…Read more...

A year ago saw the opening of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, an attraction at Walt Disney World aiming to bring interactive experiences to a new level with its three-day vacation in “space.” A blend of LARPing, immersive theater, and Disney Cruise, Galactic Starcruiser takes Star Wars fans and their families on…Read more...

Rocket Lab is riding the wave from last year’s success, gearing up for rapid back-to-back launches from sites in New Zealand and the United States. One of the planned launches will initiate a new partnership with U.S. space tech company Capella Space.Read more...

OpenAI, the makers of DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, has practically become the tech world’s go-to for implementing AI. On Wednesday the company announce it’s making it easier for developers to jam large language models down the pipe of every app and site who wants it. But more than that, it wants to let any company that ends…Read more...

The Daniels might be tearing up awards season right now as the incredible Everything Everywhere All at Once racks up accolades, but their latest work is just as eclectic and delightful: taking queer icon Jennifer Coolidge and transforming her into a high camp Power Rangers villainess to die for.

Launched in mid-2022, the V-Moda S80 on-ear headphones didn’t gain much traction. Initially priced at $400, in just less than a year, their price has been slashed down to $170, and rightfully so. For $400, the S-80s lacked a number of features you’d normally take for granted at that price point, like ANC. We’re not…Read more...

George Soros may want to to hack the atmosphere to refreeze the Arctic.

Airbnb users who themselves may have done nothing wrong can be banned from renting vacation spots if they are deemed “closely associated” with another user who has already been banned. The short-term rental company says the plan is intended to bolster safety on the platform, but tech advocacy groups speaking with…Read more...

Construction of the Tiangong Space Station was only completed late last year, but China already has big plans to expand on its low Earth orbit project.Read more...

The Mandalorian loves itself a reference, whether it’s vaunted Star Wars heroes, elements of expanded universes past, or name drops and teases of its producer’s prior work in the galaxy far, far away. But rarely does the show drop Chekov-style references—linking to the past to set up a future to come.

Cell phones are so ubiquitous now that it’s almost easy to forget we’re not literally attached to them. Your iPhone lives in your pocket, not your head. But Martin Cooper, the man credited with creating the first cellphone, thinks even that’s about to change.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested Wednesday with dozens of other activists during a protest in front of several Norwegian government ministry buildings, demanding that the government shut down a wind farm.

Guess what Meta’s virtual/augmented reality team has got cooking up? We were already aware that the Meta Quest 3 was likely being planned for this year, but the company also apparently plans to come out with limited “smart glasses” in 2025, with full AR glasses following by 2027. Of course, Meta is planning to pack…Read more...

Season three of The Mandalorian is here and in its first episode, it’s basically the same old show. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Depends on what you’re expecting to get from it. If you’re expecting fun action sequences, interesting Star Wars Easter eggs, and Grogu being incredibly adorable, the show’s return…Read more...

In September 2022, NASA deliberately crashed its DART spacecraft into a small asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth, in an attempt to redirect its trajectory as a test-run for any future rock that might threaten Earth.

In a new Esquire profile, Chris Pine speaks candidly about his leading man roles, his earnest hero typecasting, and the tentpole franchise that turned him into a household name: Star Trek. The 2009 reboot of the beloved series quickly fueled two sequels, but the rumored fourth movie has yet to materialize.

Yet again, another report based on U.S. intelligence sources has re-re-realleged that the mysterious “Havana syndrome” wasn’t brought on by some foreign adversary wielding strange energy weapons. As to any other possibilities for hundreds of U.S. officials experiencing a constellation of symptoms while working…Read more...

Researchers scrutinized the genomes of hundreds of Ice Age hunter-gatherers from across Eurasia and found that many people stayed in southern Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, the coldest part of the last Ice Age.

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), the Donald Trump-backed shell company angling to take the former president’s social media platform Truth Social public, has run into yet more trouble. The corporation has been warned it is in danger of being delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The Hakuto-R spacecraft won’t land on the Moon until April, but the private mission is already in the record books.Read more...

Watchmen and The Leftovers were two of our favorite series in recent years, and now creator (and future Star Wars director) Damon Lindelof’s new show is nearly upon us. Mrs. Davis stars Betty Gilpin (GLOW, The Hunt) as a nun who sets out to destroy the title character—described as “the world’s most powerful AI.” The…Read more...

Pesky lunar dust is an annoying obstacle for astronauts landing on the Moon—it sticks to pretty much everything. New research from Washington State University may have cracked the code for keeping space suits dust-free, in which pressurized liquid nitrogen was used to literally blow the dust from surfaces.

If you thought your wallet would have a break after all the new Lego sets that finally became available today, think again. To help celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary, Lego announced a handful of new Disney-themed sets enroute in the coming months, including its next series of collectible minifigures.Read more...

A Washington woman with tuberculosis who has refused treatment for over a year is set to be arrested as a result. According to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, the woman had repeatedly disobeyed court orders to stay isolated until she completed treatment. A local judge has now issued a warrant for her…Read more...

Blue Origin’s chief architect, Gary Lai, provided an update Tuesday on the investigation into the failed launch of the company’s New Shepard rocket in September of last year. Troublingly, it’s what he didn’t say about the ongoing investigation that’s giving us cause for concern.

Let’s get streaming! Welcome to the latest edition of io9's streaming column the Nerd’s Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most.

Have you ever used TikTok for such a long time that you felt like your brain was going to melt and leak out of your ears? Well TikTok now has a plan (albeit certainly not foolproof) to prevent teens and children using the app from endlessly scrolling. In the next few weeks, all users under 18 years old will receive a…Read more...

An Insulin drugmaker announced it is making its drug more affordable for some diabetics and is capping the out-of-pocket cost at $35 per month. Eli Lilly is making Insulin immediately available to seniors on Medicare. It’s welcome news to the many Americans who rely on insulin, as the cost of care has soared in recent…Read more...

Details are coming out about the Stranger Things stage play, titled The First Shadow. While it’s an original story, it’s deeply rooted in the world of Hawkins, Indiana and takes place in 1959, a good two-ish decades before the show, which (famously) takes place in the 80s. It follows some younger versions of the…Read more...

A fast-tracked, vague Republican bill granting the Biden administration the ability to impose a nationwide TikTok ban moved a step closer toward legality on Tuesday after passing a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The sweeping new legislation, if passed into law, would grant the Biden administration the…Read more...

Tesla is gearing up for its first annual investor day and the release of the company’s third “master plan” at 4pm ET on Wednesday, March 1, at Tesla’s Austin, Texas Gigafactory. CEO Elon Musk is expected to take to the stage at the investor day and outline his vision for his the company’s future, an exercise that will…Read more...

Did you know that the last letter in Sony TV model names determines the production year in alphabetical order? Say goodbye to the K Models of 2022. Sony just introduced the new L lineup. We visited Sony London Headquarters and Sony New York Headquarters to untangle all the new information about the latest Bravia TVs…Read more...

Dune spinoff Sisterhood has hit some major problems. Get a look at Picard and Crusher together in new images from Star Trek: Picard. Star Wars: The Acolyte finds itself some new directors. Plus, what’s coming on Quantum Leap. Spoilers get!

Four months after Elon Musk took the helm at Twitter and promised to make it a loud-mouthed, free-for-all wonderland, the company has released yet another in a long line major speech policy changes, this time announcing a “zero-tolerance approach” towards violent speech in a reversal of its previous stance. So much…Read more...

Actor Matthew McConaughey is reportedly getting paid more than $10 million a year by cloud computing giant Salesforce to be the man to tell regular folks they want to “create more opportunities” clap. That they want “less cancellation and more conversation, prioritize conservation, and empower future generations” …Read more...

NASA’s X-57 Maxwell team is a winner of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for designing a fully electric propulsion aircraft and new aeronautic technologies in the process.

SpinLaunch is a winner of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for seeking to build a groundbreaking centrifugal launch system that can deliver small satellites to orbit cheaper, faster, and with reduced environmental harm.

Scientists at the Population Council, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and elsewhere are winners of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for developing an innovative male contraceptive gel.Read more...

Elizabeth Clare’s airborne eDNA project is a winner of the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair for demonstrating a way to use airborne DNA to reveal which species are present in an environment.