Biology

Five Brain-Manipulating Technologies That Prove Dollhouse Exists Right Now

Joss Whedon’s new show Dollhouse is about a secret organization that supplies mind-wiped sex ninjas to the rich. It’s not set in the future because neuromanipulated technoslaves could exist today. Here’s proof. 1. We can erase people’s memories. Back in October a study was published in Neuron that proved an enzyme called CaMKII can erase…

Television Annalee Newitz

Researchers Close to Decoding What Makes Viruses So Hard to Kill

This week researchers announce that they’ve created a perfect reproduction of a virus shell (pictured). That’s the ultra-tough outer layer found on most viruses that allows them to drill into cells and reproduce. The team of researchers at Rice took three years to produce this image, using hundreds of x-ray diffraction images to create the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

An Enzyme That Gives Your Body Energy – Modeled in 900 Kilos of Glass

Your body cannot run without the enzyme ATP-synthase. It manufactures ATP, a molecule that provides energy to cells. And now glass artist Colin Rennie has sculpted this crucial enzyme out of 30 meter-square glass plates. The Medical Museion in Copenhagen just put Rennie’s amazing and bizarre work on display, and it was so heavy they…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Heal Your Wounds with Lasers

We’re one step closer to Star Trek’s medical tricorder. Doctors say they’ve successfully used a new laser technology that closes wounds by inspiring torn tissues to grow back together at a rapid clip. Technology Review has a terrific, detailed story about the laser tool and how it works. While lasers are crucial to the process,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A New Explanation for the Way Humans Evolved from Apes

It’s Charles Darwin‘s 200th birthday, and we still don’t know why humans and chimps share 99 percent of their DNA, yet are such different animals. A new study published today advances a weird new theory. A group of researchers at the University of Washington have discovered that there is one area where human and ape…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Deadly Relative of Ebola Virus Came to U.S. Last Year

Officials at a Denver hospital admitted over the weekend that they treated a case of deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever last year. Marburg is related to the Ebola virus, made infamous in bestselling book The Hot Zone, and kills 80 percent of those who contract it within days after exposure. The man who was treated in…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Goats Genetically Engineered to Produce Drugs in Their Milk

On Friday, the US Food and Drug Adminstration stopped dragging its feet and acknowledged that tomorrow’s drugs are just as likely to be made in the bosoms of goats as they are to come out of a laboratory. The latest craze among drug makers is “pharming,” or the practice of creating special, genetically-engineered animals that…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Could a Vaccine Stop the Obesity Epidemic?

Doctors say Americans are experiencing an “obesity epidemic” because so many more people are overweight today than they were even 20 years ago. Now research shows the epidemic may be caused by a (curable) virus. Or at least, the cure for obesity may not be having a healthy diet and getting exercise. It may be…

io9 Annalee Newitz

World’s Biggest Snake Could Live Again

Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains of the world’s biggest snake, which was 13 meters long (over twice as big as this giant anaconda, pictured). Though they lived 60 million years ago, such snakes could re-evolve. A team of researchers from the University of Toronto at Mississauga found the creature’s remains in Colombia. This is quite…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How Fish Collaborate to Hunt (and To Be Prey)

This image shows something astonishingly cool: A group of about 50 sailfish collaborating to round up a massive ball of sardines. Both schools move in tandem as if they represent two collective minds. This photograph was taken by diver/photographer Paul Nicklen for National Geographic. In a related video, he recounts exactly how the 8-foot-long sailfish…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Most Awesome Science Video About DNA Ever Made

It’s hard to explain DNA replication, transcription, and protein building in an accessible but non-dumbed-down way. This quick, elegant video does it, though: You get the full story with helpful visualizations. via Information Aesthetics

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Biggest Sexology Breakthroughs of the Past 130 Years

Sexology, or the study of human sexuality, is a science at the nexus of biology, neurology, psychology and sociology. And like any science, sexology has its eureka moments. Here are some of the biggest. These breakthroughs are roughly in chronological order. Non-procreative sexual behavior is common In 1886, a psychiatrist named Richard von Krafft-Ebing revolutionized…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Meet the Ancestor of All Animals on Earth

This humble, gooey Trichoplax is a “living fossil” whose progeny include everything from humans to snails. And now, say scientists, it has revealed something very strange about our brains. Scientists have long searched for a common ancestor of all animals, suggesting perhaps that sponges might be it. But now the sponge has lost its status…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Biology Rocks with Concert Posters for Academic Lectures

Somebody over in the Biology Dept. at University of North Carolina understands that science just freakin rocks. That’s why they commission a local indie poster designer to create flyers for their lectures. These posters were all created by North Carolina’s The Merch, a group of designers who usually create party invites, band posters, and awesome…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Reseachers Say “Hobbit” People Were Not Human

Several years ago, a group of intriguing, ancient fossils were uncovered: Their bodies and skulls looked human, but they were incredibly tiny. Scientists named them Homo floresiensis, and the popular press called them Hobbits. Now a group of American researchers says they’ve examined one of the Hobbit skulls in minute detail, and they are certain…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Rare Collection of Victorian Glass Microbes

This gorgeous glass sculpture of an Actinophryid, an ocean microorganism, is over 100 years old. It’s one the few surviving scientific models of tiny, swimming creatures created by a father-son team of glassmakers. A few years ago, Wisconsin Zoological Museum worker Paula Holahan opened some cabinets that hadn’t been touched for decades. Inside, she found…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Designer Babies Are a Terrible Idea

Recently, we asked whether designer babies were OK. I’d like to reopen that discussion, because it’s such a complex question, with no easy answers. So let me start by saying: No, obviously they are not. https://gizmodo.com/will-it-soon-be-acceptable-to-select-the-sex-of-your-ba-5114848 It’s pretty open-and-shut, to my mind; and frankly, I’m surprised to have seen any support at all for tweaking…

io9 Josh Wimmer

Cocaine Makes You Altruistic, Say Scientists

Bees that are high on cocaine behave more altruistically than sober bees do. Scientists report today in The Journal of Experimental Biology that coked-up bees are much more enthusiastic about helping other bees find food. Illinois entomologist Gene Robinson and his colleagues say this “enthusiasm” manifests itself when the bees perform their “waggle dances” (pictured)…

io9 Annalee Newitz

First Designer Baby to Be Born in UK

This week, the first truly designer baby will be born in Britain. She’s the offspring of a woman whose family had an incredibly high incidence of early breast cancer – all traceable back to a specific gene that causes a predisposition for the disease. Without intervention, her baby would have had a 50-80% chance of…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Mutant Cat of Minsk Initiates a Neural Connection with Its Host

AP photographer Sergei Grits caught a mutant in the act of mind control earlier this year at a cat exhibition in Minsk, Belarus. These exhibitions are a perfect cover for hyper-evolved cats planning revolution.

io9 Annalee Newitz

Five Brain-Manipulating Technologies That Prove Dollhouse Exists Right Now

Researchers Close to Decoding What Makes Viruses So Hard to Kill

An Enzyme That Gives Your Body Energy – Modeled in 900 Kilos of Glass

Heal Your Wounds with Lasers

A New Explanation for the Way Humans Evolved from Apes

Deadly Relative of Ebola Virus Came to U.S. Last Year

Goats Genetically Engineered to Produce Drugs in Their Milk

Could a Vaccine Stop the Obesity Epidemic?

World’s Biggest Snake Could Live Again

How Fish Collaborate to Hunt (and To Be Prey)

The Most Awesome Science Video About DNA Ever Made

The Biggest Sexology Breakthroughs of the Past 130 Years

Meet the Ancestor of All Animals on Earth

Biology Rocks with Concert Posters for Academic Lectures

Reseachers Say “Hobbit” People Were Not Human

A Rare Collection of Victorian Glass Microbes

Designer Babies Are a Terrible Idea

Cocaine Makes You Altruistic, Say Scientists

First Designer Baby to Be Born in UK

The Mutant Cat of Minsk Initiates a Neural Connection with Its Host

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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