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A groundbreaking new therapy in which white blood cells were reprogrammed to attack cancer cells is showing great promise after more than 90 percent of terminally ill leukemia patients had their symptoms disappear completely. For the new therapy, white blood cells were extracted from terminally ill cancer patients, and then genetically reprogrammed to better recognize…
It’s been a bad week for people’s phones, and it’s not getting any better: A Danish security firm’s found malware that ravages your Android phone with a single text—erasing data or sending rogue calls and texts. Denmark-based security firm Heimdal detected the malware, called “Mazar,” which sends text messages that include an ostensibly harmless multimedia…
Mattel’s BOOMco line already has the rights to turn Halo’s iconic weapons into toy blasters. But there’s nothing stopping Hasbro and Nerf from making blasters that only happen to look like they’re from the Halo universe, which probably explains its new Alien Menace line. The more expensive of the two models, the $40 Alien Menace…
Damn, these figures are a pretty fantastic likeness of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Revealed at Toy Fair this past weekend, these two 1/6th scale figures come from QMx, which is best known for its equally stunning Star Trek ship models. These aren’t the company’s first attempt at figures at this scale—it previously issued some…
There was a lot of love for the Rebellion when it came to flying toys revealed on Force Friday back in September of last year. But at this year’s Toy Fair, Spin Master is finally giving the Empire its due with a flying RC version of Darth Vader’s custom TIE Advanced X1 fighter. A pair…
After a few days of silence and idiots playing with the Unix gods and bricking their phones, Apple has finally acknowledged the bug that bricks phones with their clocks set to January 1, 1970. Curiously the support document on Apple’s site doesn’t list the well-known January 1 date, but May 1970 instead. That makes things…
Originally unveiled at last year’s Toy Fair, Nerf is expanding its Rival line this year first with the fully-automatic KHAOS MXVI-4000 we brought you back in January, and now the pump action ATLAS XVI-1200 that fires two rounds at your target with every squeeze of the trigger. Where as the $70 KHAOS MXVI-4000 is Nerf’s…
Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked to provide a response to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The result, animated by by Loaded Pictures, is a rousing, heartfelt speech about the country and the science it undertakes. Take a watch. [Vimeo]
Want to make sure you back something up indefinitely? Then you could do worse than a digital data storage technique that uses laser light to store 360 terabytes of information on nanostructured quartz for up to 14 billion years. Developed by researchers at Southampton University in the UK, the technique uses femtosecond laser pulses to…
The Sony spin-off Vaio has announced that it plans to merge with the computer divisions of its rivals Toshiba and Fujitsu as early as next month to form a Japanese “PC giant.” With the PC market in decline, Hidemi Moue—the chief executive officer of Japan Industrial Partners which controls Vaio—has announced that it expects to…
Google’s Project Loon is an ambitious plan to float internet into the life of anyone who is currently without. But after a series of setbacks, the service is finally going to be tested by carriers this year. Re/code reports from the annual TED conference in Vancouver that the project has come out the other side…
Samsung’s next flagship smartphone has already been given the full leak treatment, but in case there was any doubt left, Samsung Indonesia has an unlisted teaser page and video. I assume this is a dumb leak, and not a desperate PR effort. The page and YouTube video, spotted by Phone Probe look like they’re meant…
Last year saw some high-profile Surface tablet ripoffs, so it’s only logical that the trend will continue in 2016. Huawei, best known for its line of affordable Android smartphones, just teased the image above in advance of Mobile World Congress next week. The details aren’t really clear, but do they need to be? https://gizmodo.com/the-world-finally-admits-microsoft-surface-was-the-shit-1730622015 From…
Here’s something for all you hardcore party animals: when you can’t get to the rave, you now have the option of the “Audiopill.” It’s a miniaturized sound system housed inside a plastic microcapsule that you can swallow to groove internally to those sweet beats. And yes, it’s as crazy dangerous as it sounds. According to…
Spider silk is nature’s Kevlar. It’s stronger than steel, it’s waterproof, and you can stretch it as much as 30 to 40 percent before it snaps. Now biophysicists at Johns Hopkins University think they know the secret to spider silk’s remarkable elasticity: protein threads that serve as stretchy “superstrings.” The researchers describe their work in…
It’s like this whole bike race is in fast forward or something. But it’s actually just on an abandoned bobsled track on the mountain Trebevic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The speed that the bikers reach and the angles at which they are riding are totally insane so it’s best for us mere mortals to stay…
A new observation tower will be built in Dubai, and it’s already being billed as an “architectural wonder that will be as great as Burj Khalifa and Eiffel Tower.” That’s great, but what I really want to know is this: Will it catch on fire? The new tower’s design, a contemporary take on traditional Islamic…
Unless required by your reality TV series, you don’t always need to completely disconnect from civilization when you venture into the great outdoors. And BioLite, makers of a compact stove that can keep your gadgets powered, is introducing three new ways to make camping a little more comfortable. The BioLite CookStove is a simplified version…
I’m of the opinion that only mattress companies should be able to celebrate Presidents Day. But that’s not particularly popular, given the swarm of Brands™ wishing us all a happy Presidents Day on Twitter. KFC definitely takes the cake for weirdness. Or drumstick. I don’t know. The year 2016 is just too weird for me…
