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July is here, and it's brought with it an almost overwhelming array of new sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books. Whether you're in the mood for magic, monsters, or mysteries-or some combination of all three-io9's monthly list of new releases has you covered.

The cosmos is a hostile but beautiful place; from Earth, its phenomena-from our Sun and the aurorae it generates to nebulae and distant galaxies-are worth capturing.Read more...

A few mosquitos in Florida have tested positive for the the parasite that causes malaria. The finding follows multiple confirmed human cases of the disease-four in Florida and one in Texas-believed to be the first domestically acquired instances of malaria in the U.S. in 20 years. The newly reported mosquito test...Read more...

Let's get streaming! Welcome to io9's latest edition of 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. (And sometimes, just the ones that we like most.)

It looks like baby talk isn't just for humans. New research this week suggests that dolphin mothers also adopt a higher-pitched tone during certain forms of communication with their young.Read more...

Apple TV+ viewers are in for a busy summer of sci-fi. In addition to Silo, which just wrapped its first season and was renewed for another, Foundation season two arrives July 14-and now we know Invasion season two (not to be confused with Marvel's Secret Invasion over on Disney+) will be premiering August 23.Read more...

Dylan Mulvaney, a trans influencer who was sponsored by Bud Light for two Instagram posts, is speaking out after receiving hate mail and threats while reportedly receiving no support from the beer company. The sponsorship garnered a mass anti-trans response and calls for a boycott which has decimated Bud Light's sales...Read more...

Casting continues for the long-awaited third Tron film and now, for the first time in a long time, we think this movie might actually be happening. No, seriously.Read more...

Reddit is facing a crisis both in its user base and its finances. After protests and backlashed ravaged the platform in the wake of Reddit opting to charge for access to its API, the company's valuation has been sliced.

Some lucky person just became a millionaire by opening a pack of cards. That's because it has been revealed that the rarest, most sought-after card in the entire new Lord of the Rings expansion of Magic: The Gathering has been found.Read more...

An outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to two surgery clinics in Mexico appears to have claimed more lives. This week, the Centers for Disease and Prevention updated its case tally, reporting seven confirmed or probable deaths linked to the outbreak. Officials are still trying to contact everyone at potential risk...Read more...

Although the Fourth of July isn't until next Tuesday, most Americans will be lighting up the bbq, setting off fireworks, and heading to the beach this weekend to celebrate early. Lego is getting in on the festivities, too, with the reveal of a new bright red 1961 Corvette model: an icon of American automotive design.Read more...

Like the rest of us, Lego apparently can't help but be distracted by thoughts of long weekends, vacations, and trips to the beach. The lineup of new building sets arriving in July is about as lengthy as the amount of work you get done on a July Friday afternoon-there's just three worth adding to your collection.

When does a squirrel become a pancake? Answer: Apparently, when the world becomes a griddle. It's officially sweat season for humans in the U.S., which means it's sploot season for squirrels. And if you don't know what that means, keep reading.

Apple and Google may soon have a new app store competitor to deal with. Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly working on a way for users in the European Union to directly download apps through a new type of Facebook ad. If successful, the move could potentially shake up the current duopoly of app...Read more...

Google employees booed the company at its second annual drag show following the company's decision to reverse its support for the event. Google withdrew its support of the planned drag show after some employees signed a petition saying the event was offensive to their Christian religion.Read more...

In February 2013, an asteroid about the size of a house punched its way through Earth's atmosphere and broke apart over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast was so strong, it left a bright streak in the skies and triggered a powerful shockwave, shattering glass and resulting in the injury of over a 1,000 people.Read more...

After Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law that requires teens and kids to get parental consent before signing up for social media, that law is now in the crosshairs of a tech trade group called NetChoice, which filed a lawsuit against it.

One thing that has enchanted the internet almost as much as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse itself has is getting glimpses from artists into the work that made the movie such a visual treat. Now, some of that work is about to be collected into a sumptuous new artbook, and io9 has your first look inside.Read more...

Twenty-five years after the Game Boy Camera first debuted back in 1998, fans are not only still enjoying lo-fi, black and white, pixelated photography, they're also re-engineering the camera to make it better, even going so far as to shrink it down to the size of a regular Game Boy cartridge.Read more...

Now that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is almost here, director James Manfold is ready to head to the swamp. Speaking of, Phoebe Waller-Bridge hopes you haven;t seen the last of Helena Shaw. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds explains the niceties of storming a castle. All thus and mch mre, because the spoilers are...Read more...

Google is trying out a new show of force to keep users from watching YouTube videos without ads. Some users are reporting that the company will allow access to just three videos before prompting to either disable ad blockers or otherwise pay Google for the privilege of ad-less viewing.Read more...

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Warnings about artificial intelligence (AI) are ubiquitous right now. They have included fearful messages about AI's potential to cause the extinction of humans, invoking images of the Terminator movies. The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has even set up a summit to discuss AI safety.

When I got a chance to try out Apple's Vision Pro headset several weeks ago, there was one big difference between what I wore and the display models shown off by Apple.

The list of Star Wars projects that have started and never seen the light of day is very long. Heck, we even made one ourselves. However, arguably the most intriguing of those was a Boba Fett movie by director James Mangold. Mangold, the director of Logan, The Wolverine, and 3:10 to Yuma was working on a Fett film...Read more...

This July, not only will Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny be playing in a theater near you, Harrison Ford will turn 81 years old. Suffice to say, when the actor who brought Indy, Han Solo, and Jack Ryan to life says this is his last time with the hat and fedora, we believe him.Read more...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court made prosecuting online harassment more difficult. In a 7-2 ruling on Tuesday, SCOTUS determined that a lower court's decision to convict and imprison a Colorado man for stalking was flawed. The majority opinion in the case (Counterman v. Colorado), authored by Justice Elena Kagan,...Read more...

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Google says it plans to remove Canadian news links from its search results and other major products once Canada's hotly contested Online News Act takes effect in the coming months. The bold show of force comes less than one week after Meta announced it would cut off Canadian users' access to news links on Facebook and...Read more...

It's the end of June and tens of thousands of Americans have struggled through sweltering heat throughout this month. Texas has seen a pretty long heat wave that has brought on triple digit heat, and heat indices higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in some cities. Residents have cranked up the air...Read more...

Women job candidates were allegedly asked sexually explicit and personal questions while interviewing for a position at Bill Gates's private investment office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The women went through an extensive screening process and were reportedly asked intrusive questions including if...Read more...

Ghosts melting Nazis. Rocks healing villages. Immortality is real and so are spaceships. Indiana Jones movies are often defined by their shocking, genre-breaking endings, and the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is no different. Things get... pretty crazy there at the end, so let's talk about it and see...Read more...

Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are battling some kind of unknown skin disease, new research out this week suggests. The study found photographic evidence that these orcas have been developing more and more mysterious lesions over the years. It's not clear yet how harmful this trend may be, but it's the latest...Read more...

Strange New Worlds is always going to be playing with fire when it brushes up against a legendary episode of the original Star Trek. The nature of its place in the series' timeline, its wheelhouse in remixing spins on classic tropes, the comparisons will always be there. Last season, it proved it could play in those...Read more...

Have you caught your breath yet? Warner Bros. just dropped an incredibly massive trailer for Dune: Part Two and it gives us an even better ideaof all the awesomeness Denis Villeneuve is getting ready to drop on the world. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check it out at this link. Then, once your...Read more...

California officials have recently voted to permanently protect the otherworldly western Joshua tree, as the desert plant faces challenges caused by development and climate change.

The Webb Space Telescope recently peered into a gassy region of the Orion Nebula and managed to spot a carbon-based molecule that could be a cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry," according to a European Space Agency release.

What's mightier than a Power Ranger? Tax breaks. Or so seems to be the reason that the Power Rangers TV series, which has been filming in New Zealand for the past 20 years because of its relatively low cost, will be made somewhere else for its next and 31st season.

It's not exactly been the greatest of times, public relations-wise, when it comes to Warner Bros. lately. Whether it's The Flash speeding headfirst into disaster, its CEO becoming the perpetual media industry villain of the week, or HBO Max's troubled relaunch as simply Max. But! A small glimmer of good news.Read more...

Thea Guanzon's debut novel, The Hurricane Wars, takes inspiration from the myths and culture of her native Philippines-but it also draws on elements universal across fantasy fiction, including secret magic and forbidden romance. io9 has an exclusive excerpt to share today from this new author.

After debuting in Japan, earlier this year, Sony is finally ready to bring Mocopi-the company's smartphone-based wearable motion-tracking system-to the US, and while it arrives with a slight price bump, it's still a far more affordable alternative to building an entire mocap studio or surrounding a room in sensors.Read more...

After more than 50 years, NASA's pending return to the Moon could encompass more than just leaving footprints on its surface, as it could entail efforts to mine the Moon for resources-an initiative that could start early next decade.Read more...

Update: June 29, 12:55 p.m. ET: Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first commercial flight, with the Unity spaceplane reaching a maximum altitude of 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers). The mission ended at 11:42 a.m. ET, with a successfully runway landing at Spaceport America, New Mexico. Unity, which released...Read more...

The Chinese spy balloon captured images and video surveillance using American technology, U.S. officials reported on Thursday. The balloon, which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this year, likely didn't transmit the information back to the Chinese government based on a preliminary investigation, ...Read more...

Weather is big news in Alaska. In a place where many people's lives and livelihoods are directly tied to the environment, knowing what's in the forecast is often a question of survival. Very soon though, the state's most reliable source of meteorology media is set to disappear.

An industry watchdog group says the judge tasked with ultimately determining the fate of Microsoft's $68.7 billion bid to acquire Activision Blizzard should recuse herself because her son works at Microsoft. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley revealed the family connection during a pre-hearing conference last...Read more...

One of the great joys of the last few weeks leading up to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been getting to see Harrison Ford open up. We've seen him cry, we've seen him joke, and now we get to see him play with Legos.Read more...

The Federal Trade Commission is set to launch an antitrust case against Amazon, thefourth against the retail king this year and the biggest one yet, according to a report in Bloomberg.

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