John Hafernik, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University, thinks he knows what’s behind the mysterious disappearance of honey bees. The self-described absent-minded professor collected some of the bees to feed to a praying mantis but forgot about them. He returned to find the bees had been consumed from the inside out by Apocephalus borealis (Figure A), a parasitic fly native to North America. The fly injects its

The tricorder is the Swiss Army knife of the Star Trek Universe, a handheld device capable of scanning and instantly diagnosing a patient (human or otherwise). The earthly applications aren’t lost on trekkie Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation & Grand Challenges Canada are investing $38.5 million to replicate a tricorder, which would be a literal life safer in developing countries where doctors typically wait days for results.

As part of its effort to become a world leader in robotics, South Korea will start using robot prison guards next spring. Unlike the deceptively cute Jailbot featured in Superjail!, these R2-D2s with smiley faces are genuinely benign. Creator Lee Baik-Chul programmed the robots to monitor inmates for abnormal behavior. “But the robots are not Terminators. Their job is not cracking down on violent prisoners. They are helpers. When an

It’s long been known that the heat from laptops can decrease sperm count but a new study from the Nascentis Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Cordoba says that the electromagnetic radiation produced by Wi-Fi networks could be even worse. Researchers exposed the sperm of 29 healthy men, aged 26 to 45, to a Wi-Fi enabled laptop for 4 hours and found that 25% of the sperm had stopped moving and

A group of physicians has just released the coffee table book to end all coffee table books. Stuck Up! 100 Objects Inserted and Ingested in Places They Shouldn’t Be is a collection of 100 X-ray images showing foreign objects ingested or inserted into human bodies, “accidentally” or on purpose. The photos are accompanied by deep commentary: Patients who suffer from the problem of having a bottle stuck up their rear

A NASA-affiliated scientist is asking: Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? The paper, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, theorizes that extraterrestrial environmentalists may destroy humanity to save the planet. After all, if human tree huggers are willing “to advocate harm to their own civilization by drawing upon universalist ethical principles, then it is at a minimum plausible that ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence] could advocate harm to humanity following

Normally being called a caveman implies being too masculine, but archaeologists in the Czech Republic have revealed that they also had a feminine side, literally. The team unearthed a 5,000-year-old man buried on his left side, a practice typically reserved for women. “We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a transvestite or third-gender grave in the Czech Republic,” said archaeologist Katerina Semradova.

University of Washington professor Magnus Feil told his students to “push the boundaries of current upper-limb prosthetic design.” Differently-abled The students simulated life as an amputee by taping up one hand and soon realized that their restricted hand was still capable of simple tasks like bracing objects. “That was an important discovery–that it doesn’t always make sense to recreate a hand or fingers,” said Feil. “It’s more important to look

Researchers at Harvard have reversed the aging process in mice. First they prematurely aged the mice by genetically engineering out telomerase, an enzyme that creates protective caps on the end of DNA strands called telomeres. The mice suffered from a variety of age-related afflictions such as testes reduced in size and depleted of sperm, atrophied spleens, damage to the intestines, and shrinkage of the brain along with an inability to

The Science Channel’s new series Through the Wormhole looks at life’s big mysteries, and what bigger mystery is there than “Is There a Creator?” In this premiere episode, astronomer Rich Terrile takes intelligent design to a whole new level by suggesting that God is a programmer and we are the program. Quantum Mechanics, the branch of mathematical physics that deals with atomic and subatomic systems, shows that when you zoom

The future is finally here! Inspired by a 2008 exhibition called “Back to the Future” French artist Nils Guadagnin set about recreating the floating skateboard featured in the movie Back to the Future II. Guadagnin calls it “a reflexion on the multiple possibilities of how to give a sculpture full spatial autonomy.” That’s my kinda sculpture! The hoverboard can only support 2kg (4.4 lbs.) and it requires magnets beneath it,

Scientists have discovered 123 new species of animals, insects and plants in the Heart of Borneo, a protected region since 2007. Among them is the green and yellow colored Ibycus rachelae, dubbed the “Ninja Slug.” The name isn’t derived from its stealthiness but rather from its martial arts style of love making. The Ninja Slug shoots its mate with “love darts” made of calcium carbonate and spiked with hormones that

In the classic 80s movie War Games, all that stood between us and global thermonuclear war was a computer’s calculation that tic-tac-toe is unwinnable. Well “XXX” your ass goodbye! The iCub, an open source robot being developed across 11 European universities and institutions, just demonstrated its computer skills at the Humanoid Robotics Symposium at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (video below). The toddler-like robot is capable of 53 distinct

“The Great Sperm Race” (link) is a new flash game in which players assume the role of a sperm and must navigate their way through the acid filled hellhole known as the “Vagina” while steering clear of Leukocytes, white blood cells, which eat sperm. Fortunately, unbeknownst to your 8th grade Health Teacher, the Cervix is filled with power pellets that make you invulnerable to these cock gobblers. The game is

Youtube user & self-described black man, Desi Cryer, recently uploaded a video titled “Hewlett Packard computers are racist” which demonstrates how his webcam has no problem tracking white faces, but as soon as his “blackness enters the frame, it stopped.” HP is certainly looking at Desi now. The video has reach over 1.2 million views. HP says that they are looking into the problem and that “The technology we use