A lifelong bookworm and a fantasy geek, Sarah Chaffee had for years admired Dungeons & Dragons from afar. “In the culture I grew up in,” she says, “it was very much like, ‘D&D is devil worship.’” In college, after getting some distance from her religious community, Chaffee says she couldn’t wait any longer: She bought…
For decades, scientists have been tinkering with genes—cutting and pasting bits of DNA into organisms like plants, bacteria, and mice. So, of course, they thought about the possibility that one day someone might use such tools to alter human genes, even human germlines—making changes to people’s DNA that they’d pass on to future generations.In 2012…
With the November presidential election just over 60 days away, recent actions and reports over the last week from all three of the government departments responsible for protecting the vote raise new concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment to a free and fair election. Even as senior government officials continue to raise alarms about foreign…
Since 1980, the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center has plumbed the depths of the most macabre of sciences: the decomposition of human bodies. Known colloquially as the Body Farm, here scientists examine how donated cadavers decay, like how the microbiomes inside us go haywire after death. That microbial activity leads to bloat, and—eventually—a body…
Hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to execute commands and malicious scripts on websites running File Manager, a WordPress plugin with more than 700,000 active installations, researchers said on Tuesday. Word of the attacks came a few hours after the security flaw was patched. ARS TECHNICAThis story originally appeared on Ars Technica,…
Many of my fellow outdoor enthusiasts have found this summer puzzling. A lot of traditional summer pastimes, like crowded beach houses and outdoor evening concerts, have become taboo. Friends of ours that have never considered camping (and peeing) outside are now asking us for our best tips and tricks—and to borrow our gear. Camping is…
When Sean Lane founded his health tech startup, Olive, in 2012, he looked to the giants of Silicon Valley for inspiration. Google had a corporate chef, so Olive hired one too. Apple had a gym on its campus, so Olive built one of those. It also added an on-site barbershop and a hand-built arcade room…
Dollar bills ripple through the air like confetti as Shawty Lo’s propulsive club anthem “Dunn Dunn” blasts from the speakers. Women dance around the room, bathed in purple lighting. It’s another night at the Pynk, one of Mississippi’s hottest strip joints, and there’s money to be made. Tonight, Mercedes—played by Brandee Evans—is the main attraction.…
There’s been a slow renaissance in home coffee machines in the past few years. Fancy cafés and “waves” of coffee culture got most of the attention, but in the background, Mr. Coffee and his friends have been upping their game.Experts justifiably snub home coffee makers. My favorite coffee reference, Jessica Easto’s 2017 Craft Coffee, effectively…
It was a warm afternoon in July, and Hal Fearn was sitting in his camouflage jeep in the parking lot of a mostly empty IHOP in Southern California. Fearn, a physicist at California State University, Fullerton, bided his time by singing along to the a cappella covers pumping through his stereo. He hadn’t loitered long…
