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For the first time, doctors in the United States have used cutting-edge CRISPR technology to treat cancer patients. Two cancer patients participating in a study with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are being treated for myeloma and sarcoma with the technique.First reported by NPR, the CRISPR study comes after the technique achieved a level of infamy around the world for being mishandled by Chinese scientist He Jiankui. After attempting to use the CRISPR techniques of genetic editing on infants, He faced the brunt of near-global condemnation from both his fellow scientists and the Chinese government....

The hedges are trimmed. You’ve got a full tank of propane for the grill and plenty of fixin’s. The cooler is stocked. Your neighbors are due over in a few minutes. Then you see it. A mysterious brown patch on your lawn that was not there a couple of days ago. Your good mood evaporates quicker than dew in a drought. The fact of the matter is that the harmful microorganisms that put a damper on your party didn’t just appear....

The potato launcher, a beloved spud-flinging project for DIY tinkerers everywhere, is grandfather to most non-lethal gas-propelled armaments, like the paintball gun and the crowd-pleasing T-Shirt cannon.And the reason for its popularity is obvious. Potato launchers are relatively easy to make, inexpensive, and dependable—with plenty of power and excitement packed in as well. The modern version is typically a combination of plastic pipe, pipe fittings, and a device that ignites flammable gas inside the gun’s combustion chamber....

The world’s steepest funicular railway, or cliff railway, is now up and running in the Swiss Alps. Just over a mile long (1,720 meters), the railway begins in a valley near Schwyz, Switzerland. It then travels to the even tinier town of Stoos, which has around 100 residents, that sits on a picturesque plateau without a car in sight. The funicular railway will be a mode of regular transportation for Stoos residents....

Touchscreens are small, slick, responsive, and ubiquitous these days but it wasn’t always the case. While touchscreens were invented in 1965 and have been sold since the early 80s, YouTube channel Lazy Game Reviews takes a look at one of the earliest successful attempts at a mass-produced touch screen, the IBM 8516 Touchscreen CRT Monitor from 1992.View full post on Youtube The screen can’t quite keep up with speeds, going to fast or too slow makes it finicky....

As the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, displaced Gulf Coast residents temporarily housed in about 140,000 travel trailers are still discovering the health effects of elevated formaldehyde levels within the homes. Hundreds of residents have reported acute to severe respiratory problems, and a few have blamed high formaldehyde levels for a family member’s death. Hearings before the House Oversight Committee have led to disputes as to whether the faulty trailers–15,000 of which were still occupied, as of mid-July–are the responsibility of the government or of the companies that manufactured them....

Think of a Factory Five kit car as the ultimate adult Lego set. The premise: An average weekend warrior, armed with basic tools and about 250 hours of spare time, can build a hot rod, a midengine supercar, or a replica Shelby. Spend $19,990 for Factory Five’s Mk4 Roadster kit, add an engine, transmission, wheels, and paint, and you have a sweet Cobra for less than $35,000.Yes, the term “kit car” still carries a bit of pejorative sting....

Believe it or not, I installed a beautiful hardwood floor by myself in just one weekend. How? I chose a DIY-friendly floating floor. Unlike typical hardwood flooring that must be nailed or glued down, floating floors are simply laid down over a thin foam-rubber pad. They aren’t fastened to the subfloor at all.For this project, I chose the very latest in floating-floor material: Lyptus flooring manufactured by Weyerhaeuser. It’s made from fast-growing eucalyptus trees that are harvested on sustainable, environmentally responsible plantations....

Fact: Beer is one of the best scientific creations of all time, right up there with fire and the wheel. Scientists at the European Union want to naturally speed up the evolution of yeast in order to find the next generation of flavors.They’re combining their techniques with CRISPR, trying to balance genetic research with natural growth.Few technologies have endured as long as alcohol. The process of fermenting beverages dates as far back as the Neolithic area, with documented examples found in prehistoric China going back to 500 BC....

This week, warplanes from the Air National Guard 174th Fighter Wing will be flying training missions over the desert outside Nellis Air Force Base, trying desperately to compete during simulated combat over the high Nevada desert. Their foes are F-22 Raptors, stealth airplanes that can identify and destroy foes before their targets even know they are there.The stakes are high–careers can be made and pilots’ lives ended as dozens of warplanes share airspace in faux combat....

CABOT, Vt. — I think a lot about conservation. It’s not a popular subject in American culture — just look at our fondness for SUVs and 4000-square-foot homes — but even so, it’s the best, easiest way to reduce energy costs and dependence on foreign oil that we’ve got. Being off-grid puts you in a conserving state of mind, like or not. Most days, we run our 2200-square-foot home on less than 3 kilowatts of electricity per day....

Media Platforms Design TeamSince the early 1900s filmmakers have tried to take advantage of our two eyes by making 3D movies. Now, thanks to an influx of relatively affordable 3D TVs, you can enjoy the extra dimension outside of the movie theater—with videos you’ve shot yourself.For big-budget movies, cinematographers use two cameras linked together and separated with a beam splitter. But unless you have Hollywood-level money to throw around—a rig costs at least a few thousand dollars—you’re better off with a cheaper dual-lens camera, which can achieve the same effect....

Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur in one of the spots where such a find was considered highly unlikely—northern China. Not only were dinosaurs thought to have never existed in this part of the world, but this specimen of long-necked, gigantic herbivore dates back 15 million years before others like it were thought to exist.The discovery was made in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and dates back to around 174 million years ago....

CHICAGO – It’s very easy to wax nostalgic about the original Dodge Challenger. Quick, loud and wrapped around slippery-looking sheetmetal, it was a dream car for any kid of the 1970s. Right? Well it must have been a dream come true, or guys wouldn’t still be shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for them at auction today. Not so fast there, Cochise: The original recipe wasn’t without a bad taste or two....

There are certain similarities between the ill-fated journeys of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302: Both were flying Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft and both crashed just minutes after takeoff, sending a combined total of 346 people to their deaths in a span of five months. According to the New York Times, another galling similarity unites the two tragedies: Neither plane was equipped with a critical safety feature that could have potentially averted the disaster, because airplane manufacturer Boeing charged an extra fee that both airlines opted not to pay....

Coaxing a dog can be a struggle, especially if you don’t have a frisbee or something like it on hand. Researchers in Japan, however, have figured out how to command a canine’s attention and even direct its movements from a remote vantage point, using a light-emitting vest. This might look like a zany cybernetics project at a glance, but the pup is only being manipulated by its jacket, which is rigged with several flashlights....

The Air National Guard is using drones that are normally tasked for combat operations to perform aerial surveys of areas hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The drones allow the Guard to assess disaster-stricken areas quickly and decide which are the most in need of assistance.Air Force Lt. Gen Scott Rice, director of the Air National Guard, told Military.com the Air Guard is using MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones to patrol parts of Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey, and will also use the aircraft over Florida after Hurricane Irma has passed....

What’s the fastest animal in the world? You might guess a cheetah, a sailfish, or a peregrine falcon. According to new research, however, all of those are wrong. The fastest animal in the world is an ant. Specifically, the “Dracula ant” native to Southeast Asia and Australia, which can move its mandibles over 200 miles per hour.A team of researchers was studying the Dracula ant—scientific name Mystrium camillae—in order to understand how its mandible mechanism works....

Working to alleviate climate change can often seem like a lost cause. Just this week, fears about a change in the jet stream set off more apocalyptic headlines suggesting it’s too late for us to reverse the damage to our environment (other scientists strongly disagreed). But now we have proof that not all is lost: a study published in Science yesterday shows that the hole in the ozone layer, Earth’s protective chemical shield which absorbs most of the sun’s UV rays, is actually starting to heal....

A company called CCT Energy Storage just put Lonsdale, South Australia firmly on the map. In late March, the start-up unveiled the very first high-density thermal battery, which out-performs its lithium-ion and lead-acid counterparts many times over. Called a Thermal Energy Device (TED), the modular unit stores electricity as latent heat, which can be converted back into energy on demand. A standard TED unit can store 1.2 megawatt-hours of power and has a life expectancy of at least 20 years....