Since the end of 2007, police in the UK have run a secret network of fully-furnished fake apartments and townhouses, solely for the purpose of capturing local burglary suspects. These are called “capture houses.”

First experimented with in the city of Leeds, capture houses are “secret homes fitted with covert police cameras, which film raiders and unique chemical sprays which contaminate intruders have led to further arrests in the area,”
… Read More → "Fully-furnished fake houses in UK run solely to trap burglars"

The University of Washington envisions a future where our bodies will be tuned to heal us just as easily as software is built to entertain us — and it’s come up with a method that could eventually turn this idea into a reality. University researchers have developed a programming language that engineers could use to build artificial DNA molecules that can be embedded into human cells. While the language is still in its infancy and not far enough along for use in the medical industry, the university says it hopes its creation will eventually be … Read More → "New programming language could code DNA to deliver drugs and detect diseases"

If you predicted the decline of deadtree books or the rise of services like Netflix streaming, say, 25 years ago, you’d be considered a damn good prognosticator. But what if you predicted those things back in 1964—before the internet even existed? Amazingly, a scientist from IBM did just that, long before any of these things were widely considered possible, much less inevitable.

Read More → "This IBM scientist predicted Netflix before the internet even existed"

Some 200 years after Mary Shelley used lightning to breath life into Frankenstein’s monster, scientists have copied her idea to power a phone.

The proof-of-concept experiment was conducted at the University of Southampton in collaboration with Nokia.

The mobile firm warned users “not to try this at home”.

Harnessing nature in this way could provide power sources where electricity is in short supply, said experts.
… Read More → "Scientists use lightning bolt to charge mobile phone"

Given that iPhones can already be used to perform skin exams, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re now able to do eye exams, too. Researchers from Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary have devised a way of using the phones to perform fundus photography, which is the photographing of the retina. While the iPhone just requires an app and a lens to perform … Read More → "One more use for the iPhone – eye exams"

Philip Beesley is a Canadian architect who is passionate about embedding interactivity into spaces, but not in the sterile sense of smart homes. Instead he has spent the last decade creating jungle-like environments where shape-memory alloys make plastic fronds recoil when touched, crystalline nests glitter at the command of microprocessors when viewers approach, and beakers of chemicals hang like exotic fruits and spritz ginger and musk into the … Read More → "These robotic jungles want to eat you"

When you brush your teeth, you probably miss the plaque hidden in the nooks and crannies of your chompers. But that’s because your toothbrush is a generic product made for thousands of different people with thousands of different mouths, to say nothing of human error (read: laziness). Blizzident, on the other hand, is created from a 3D scan of your very own mouth. When it’s time to brush, you just bite down … Read More → "A crazy 3D-printed mouthpiece that brushes your teeth for you"

… Read More → "Listen to a story told in a 6000-year-old extinct language"

There’s a deceptively still body of water in Tanzania with a deadly secret—it turns any animal it touches to stone. The rare phenomenon is caused by the chemical makeup of the lake, but the petrified creatures it leaves behind are straight out of a horror film.

Photographed by Nick Brandt in his new … Read More → "Any animal that touches this lethal lake turns to stone"

Wojtek was a Persian bear cub who was adopted by a unit of Polish soldiers training under the British Army in the Middle East during World War II. The 22nd Transport Company, Artillery Division, raised him the best they could to be a good soldier. Wojtek fit in quite well, as his favorite activities included wrestling and drinking beer. When the unit was deployed to Europe, the only way they could take Wojtek with … Read More → "The bear who fought in World War II"