Journal Defends Its Publication Of Controversial Human Embryo Study

The science world was rocked last week by news that geneticists in China had modified the DNA of human embryos. In the face of mounting criticism, science journal Protein & Cell has issued a formal response explaining why it chose to publish the controversial study. As we reported last week, Junjiu Huang and colleagues at…

How To Crack A Master Lock In Eight Tries Or Less

Security researcher Samy Kamkar developed a web app that can help you crack Master Lock’s ubiquitous padlock in a matter of minutes. Fiddling with your lock as described in this video gives you three numbers, which the app uses to generate eight three-number sequences, one of which will open your lock. See also: H/t Boing…

On Person Of Interest, It’s Always A Trap

Last night’s episode of Person of Interest felt ridiculously rushed, with 100 important developments crammed into an hour and a lot of implausible twists. But it still had some really fascinating ideas — including the question of how quick you should be to deem other people expendable. Spoilers! Basically, “Asylum” was about people walking into…

Missouri Owes Its Odd State Shape To Just One Guy

The shape of Missouri mostly makes sense: It’s bounded by straight lines and river routes, except for one deviation, where suddenly the state’s shape juts out randomly. It’s called Missouri’s bootheel — and it owes its creation to just one guy. In response to our question about fascinating stories hidden in our maps, commenter jtwood…

Nightmare Video Game Turns Your House Into A Horror Movie—NOPE NOPE NOPE

Behold a smart phone game so clever/horrifying we’ll probably never play it. Night Terrors is a game that puts ghosts into your home. Never use your phone again! Want to experience movie-level horrors right in the private hell of your own home? Then Night Terrors, the Indiegogo-funded game app is for you. Because who wouldn’t…

Is There A Right Reason To Put A Zoo Animal On Anti-Psychotics?

It’s tough to know what drugs zoos and parks use to keep their animals calm. The zoos themselves usually aren’t talking. Some trainers and researchers do reveal what animals are “on,” and the news, while troubling, isn’t all bad. Blackfish’s Legacy The documentary Blackfish drew attention to SeaWorld and the way animal abuses there were…

Watch A TED-Talk Audience Member Move Someone Else’s Arm With Her Mind

Neuroscientist Greg Gage created quite a stir during a recent TED-Talk when he used a simple, inexpensive DIY kit to enable an audience member to move the arm of another participant. [TED]

10 Truly Bizarre Stories About Taxidermy

Taxidermy is a skill and art form that many think is plenty weird all on its own, even though it was practiced by luminaries like Charles Darwin and Theodore Roosevelt. It stretches from the lows of PT Barnum’s Feejee Mermaid to the highs of the myriad museums of natural history to the macabre artistry of…

Even Hollywood Has Some Major Doubts About Warner Bros.’ DC Movie-verse

There have been plenty of fans who have complained about Warner Bros.’ attempts to replicate Marvel’s money-generating Cinematic Universe with DC. But they’re not the only ones — some Hollywood executives also doubt WB can pull it off, because the studio seems to be going about it in the worst way possible. All this comes…

A Surprisingly Dark Webcomic About A Girl Warrior Aiding An Ex-Unicorn

On its face, Natalie Riess’ webcomic Snarlbear sounds like a candy-coated fantasy: a young girl is transported to the Rainbow Dimension, where she ends up fighting monsters and trying to help a cursed unicorn prince reclaim his throne. But the world Riess creates is actually much more sinister. Snarlbear has a somewhat familiar opening: an…

This “Liver On A Chip” Lets Researchers Forgo Animal Testing

Testing new drugs on animals can be costly, cruel, and ineffective. In the quest to identify an alternative, a U.K. biopharmaceutical company has developed a “liver on a chip,” an important advance in the effort to minimize, and even put an end to, animal experimentation. Image credit: CN Bio Innovations via Bloomberg Testing experimental medicines…

Barry’s Best-Laid Plans Go Completely To Hell On A Game-Changing Flash

In the DC TV universe that Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim have created with Arrow and The Flash, we’ve all been waiting for two events: For Oliver and Felicity to finally do it, and for Harrison Wells to be reveal his true identity to the Flash and his friends. It’s been a very good week…

Could You Ride The Backwards Brain Bike?

The “backwards brain bicycle” is built for frustration. It turns right when you turn left, left when you turn right. Destin, of YouTube channel Smarter Every Day, thought it would be easy to translate his mechanical knowledge of how the backwards bike works into a smooth ride. He was wrong (for a few months, at…

If You Haven’t Been Watching Agents Of SHIELD, You’ve Cheated Yourself

Last night’s episode of Agents of SHIELD was a terrific action movie, a major gamechanger for the TV show, and a prelude to Avengers: Age of Ultron, all rolled into one. But it was also a huge present to those of us who’ve been watching the show since the beginning, proving that it was all…

X-Men: Apocalypse Concept Art Reveals Professor X Still Has His Hair

The next mutant movie, X-Men: Apocalypse, is going to take place in the ‘80s. And director Bryan Singer has warned that while this will be an X-Men movie, it’s going to also be a massive monster movie at the same time. Well, at least Professor X still has his hair. Empire Magazine got to spend…

With Just Hours To Live, MESSENGER Continues To Snap Pics Of Mercury

After four years in orbit around Mercury, NASA’s MESSENGER mission is coming to an end. With its maneuvering propellant depleted, the probe is expect to crash onto Mercury’s surface tomorrow. Here are some of the last pics taken by MESSENGER we’ll ever see. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. MESSENGER…

The Heroes Of Star Wars Rebels Could Make Their Way To Live-Action

Good news for you Star Wars Rebels fans. Despite the fact the animated show is set in-between Episodes III and IV, producers Simon Kinberg and Dave Filoni have declared that it’s possible for Ezra, Hera, Kana and the others to show up elsewhere in the Star Wars universe — and possibly in the live-action movies…

That ‘60s-era, one-of-a-kind NASA tele-lens that appeared on Ebay out of Germany has found a buyer for $33,500. Among the specs for the 180-lbs. lens (which the seller claims was part of the Saturn V mission) is the vaguely Faustian detail that the original cost to the buyer was “1 family home.” Dark.

What’s The Greatest Space Photograph You’ve Ever Seen?

Space is not just an incredible scientific and travel destination, it’s also a site for some killer photoshoots. Today, we want to know about the most incredible space pics you’ve ever encountered. Will it be a close-up view of some far away galaxy? An astronaut selfie? A GIF of a comet behaving rather unusually? A…

How A Judge Named “Learned Hand” Changed Scientific History Forever

In 1900, a new wonder-drug was discovered and patented. Over the next 10 years multiple companies protested that patent, which led to a man named Learned Hand making rules about a scientific discovery, while declaring that he probably shouldn’t be allowed to do so. It was the 1890s, and John Jacob Abel believed he was…