As powerful as the gene-editing technique Crispr is turning out to be—researchers are using it to make malaria-proof mosquitoes, disease-resistant tomatoes, live bacteria thumb drives, and all kinds of other crazy stuff—so far US scientists have had one bright line: no heritable modifications of human beings. On Wednesday, the bright line got dimmer. MIT Technology […]
After a two-month glut of blockbusters leading up to the holiday shopping season, new releases are in a bit of a lull, which means there wasn't a lot left in gaming news this week beyond controversy, lawsuits, and … well, more controversy. Hope you're in the mood for reading about bad behavior (and consequences for […]
Update: On December 20, 2017 the House approved the GOP's overhaul to the nation’s tax code. A provision in the plan had originally proposed taxing graduate students’ tuition waivers. But in the final version of the combined House-Senate tax bill, which now makes its way to President Trump to be signed into law, tuition waivers […]
Humans are pattern seekers. It’s how we’ve always made sense of the world: Our ancestors wouldn’t have survived if they hadn’t realized that plants tend to flourish after rainfall or that sabertooth tigers tended to eat them. But sometimes we’re just a little too good at finding meaning in the noise, occasionally unable to separate […]
Chemotherapy is brutal. The drugs are delivered in near-toxic doses to penetrate tumor tissues, indiscriminately vanquishing the patient’s appetite, hair, and immune system alongside cancer cells. Scientists have tried everything from nanoparticles to homing-beacon bacteria to better target the disease. Now researchers at Germany’s Institute for Integrative Nanosciences are deploying a natural-born infiltrator: sperm. The […]
Gone is the boss who loved first-class travel to places like Morocco and Rome, forced his staffers to find him an apartment (and a used Trump hotel mattress), and asked fast-food executives to hire his wife. But EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's many scandals haven't been the real bugaboo for environmental advocates—rather, it's been his rollback […]
This week's Replay is all about the power of gaming communities—the power they have to make ongoing games really entertaining, the power they have to put pressure on corporations, and the power they have to, well, be really quirky and odd. Let's go! Fortnite's New Season Lands with Spooky Aplomb First up, the biggest news […]
One month ago, a dog I have never met died. His owners are YouTubers Simon and Martina, a Canadian couple who make videos about the delicious food they eat in Tokyo, where they live. After their extremely old, extremely beloved dog, Spudgy, peacefully passed away, they took to YouTube to drink and cry and tell […]
This story originally appeared on CityLab and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Until she moved to Fresno, California in 2003, Janet DietzKamei had never experienced asthma. But after just a few years in a city notorious for its filthy air—the American Lung Association lists it in the five worst US cities for air quality—DietzKamei found herself in […]
The first meme of 2018 was Mariah Carey publicly complaining that, prior to her New Year’s Eve performance, no one had brought her “hot tea.” It was funny and in keeping with Carey’s legendary diva antics, but it was also a GIF-able summation of the year’s desperate need for soothing. President Trump had closed out […]