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First Ever Lab-Grown Muscle That Can Heal Itself in Living Creatures

Anyone who’s ever torn a muscle will be grateful for that fact that the fibers can repair themselves. But now, researchers have developed lab-grown muscle that can achieve the exact same thing. Researchers from Duke have finally developed artificial muscle that contracts powerfully and rapidly, integrates into mice quickly—and can even heal itself, both in…

This is a huge wall of solar cells being tested prior to their installation on European Space Agency satellites. Solar arrays are a must-have for the majority of space missions, and virtually all spacecraft these days use thousands of individual solar cells to harvest power from the sun. (Photo credit: Airbus Defense and Space/ESA)

The Sleep Experiment Tribute To A Clockwork Orange

Professor Ian Oswald had a long and distinguished career in sleep research, discovering what happened, mentally and physically, while we sleep. He contributed much to society. But he garnered a little bit of infamy for one particular experiment… It was early in his career, and it wasn’t cruel, but it does resemble a scene in…

Battlestar Galactica Is Getting Rebooted As A Movie Franchise

Universal has put the long-rumored Battlestar Galactica movie on the fast track. Variety says the movie will be a “a complete reimagining of the story,” which will be written by Transcendence screenwriter Jack Paglen. No director has been attached to it yet, although since former rumored director Bryan Singer will be working on X-Men: Apocalypse…

Made for a Marathon: The Science of Long Distance Running

What drives people to run a marathon? Join Hayley Birch as she tackles 26.2 miles, aided by science. We moved into our flat over a year ago. Not a single picture has been hung. We haven’t painted or wallpapered and it took us 13 months to put up a shelf. Redundant audio formats sit, blanketed…

Is Chiwetel Ejiofor Going to Be the Next James Bond villain?

There’s some confirmation that Peter Mayhew will return as Chewbacca in Star Wars. Samuel L. Jackson discusses where Nick Fury will go after Captain America 2, while Captain America 3 is going up against Batman Vs. Superman. Plus Wreck-It Ralph 2 seems to be happening. And everything changes in Game of Thrones season five. Spoilers…

Brookstone’s CEO Explains to Conan Why It’s Going Bankrupt

Just why is it that Brookstone is going bankrupt? In this video, Conan tries to get to the bottom of just where the retailer went wrong. Was it the garden trowel that doubles as a karaoke mic? The Wi-Fi oven mitt? The salad bowl MP3 player? Or any of the other dumb household items that…

This Is the First Instagram From Space

We see wonderful images from space all the time, but now you can expect them to come dripping in Hudson, Sierra or Toaster—because Instagram has finally made it into space. This is the first ever Instagram from outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Fittingly, it’s a selfie from American astronaut Steven R. Swanson, sat in the International…

Fusion Centers: The 78 Local Intelligence Hubs Spying on Us All

While NSA surveillance has been front and center in the news recently, fusion centers are a part of the surveillance state that deserve close scrutiny. Fusion centers are a local arm of the so-called “intelligence community,” the 17 intelligence agencies coordinated by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The government documentation around fusion centers is entirely…

How Public Spaces Make Cities Work Better

While buildings may provide the beating corporate hearts of the world’s cities, it’s the public spaces that help bring together their inhabitants as a community. In this talk, Amanda Burden explains how public spaces make cities work better. Animal behaviorist turned city planner, Burden cites examples around New York City—from tiny pocket parks to long…

Intel’s Thunderbolt 2 standard has received an update: now, it can be used to pair computers together—even Macs to PCs—to allow data transfer at speeds of up to 10Gbps. That’s pretty quick.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile Review: Edit RAW Photos On Your iPad, Sort Of

Adobe’s Lightroom is a staple in the editing workflow of most photographers. The new, much-anticipated mobile version shows off a clever workaround for handling RAW files in a simple, if limited, interface. What is it? An iPad app (with future versions for iPhone and Android devices) that lets you sync and edit non-destructively from photos…

Hypnotize Yourself with These Flashy Lights and Funky Beats

Groove your case of “The Mondays” away with these get-fresh jams and undulating geometric forms in “abstract composition 140101” by animator sinsynplus. It’s incredible what he does with just squares and circles. Turn off the lights and put it full-screen to get the full effect.

The Porsche 911 Targa hardtop convertible is as cool as any Transformer

Jalopnik says that the top of the Porsche 911 Targa is completely bonkers. I think I agree. Instead of the entire hard top roof disappearing into the car like other hardtop convertibles, the 911 Targa gets to keep the slick curved glass back while in topless mode. Awesome. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

This video reveals the origin scenes of the Internet’s most famous memes

Memes are so damn clever at capturing emotion and feeling that they’re pretty much the clearest way to communicate on the Internet. Need to explain your disappointment in something? Throw up that facepalm. And though most pop culture junkies can figure out where most memes and image macros come from, this video shows the exact…

This Robot Is A Crash Test Dummy For HAZMAT Suits

Introducing Porton Man, the UK Ministry of Defence’s answer to the Pentagon’s Petman. And like the U.S. version, this robot will be subjected to a series of unpleasant scenarios, including chemical and biological contamination. So you don’t have to. Indeed, the point of the £1.1 million (USD $1.8 million) robotic mannequin is to test light-weight…

Trying to Sleep in a City Can Sometimes Be … Disturbing

Your room is in a maze of other rooms, and your building is nested inside other buildings. Sand from the desert is building up inside, or is it sugar from the dessert? It’s pouring and roaring, and the walls are multiplying and dividing and HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY SLEEP? This beautifully paranoid, delightfully intricate portrait…

The A-Z of dancing: A dance style for each letter of the alphabet

Here’s an unofficial guide to the ABC’s of dancing. Watch incredibly toned and tanned people more beautiful than your most beautiful friend perform different dance moves for each letter of the alphabet. Basically, all the moves you think you can do in your head but look completely foolish trying in real life. T is for…

Cows Force Plane To Make An Emergency Landing

If it’s not birds, it’s cows. Over the weekend, 390 cows were being transported by Boeing 747. As the plane was somewhere over the Irish Sea, a fire alarm went off, and the pilot was forced to give a mayday call and make an unscheduled landing. Only there wasn’t a fire. It turns out that…

An Exclusive First Look At The Knobbit, An Unexpected Porn Spoof

Yes, it was bound to happen. The folks who brought you Game of Bones and Buffy The Vampire Slayer XXX are now bringing you The Knobbit. Which is just what it sounds like. We’ve got the first trailer exclusively at io9 — it’s work-safe, except for a bit of swearing. Plus scroll down for a…