Author: Shaunacy Ferro

When an Aedes aegypti mosquito bites someone infected with the deadly dengue virus, the virus in turn infects the mosquito. After completing its life cycle in the insect’s gut, the virus makes its way into its saliva, where it can spread infection the next time the mosquito bites. But new research from Johns Hopkins University points toward a way to stop dengue from ever making it to that stage by protecting the mosquito from being infected itself.

As they described in a study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the researchers genetically engineered Ae. aegypti to alter the production of two proteins that the mosquito naturally makes to fight off the infection. When the mosquitos were engineered to produce more of these proteins—known as Dome and Hop—in the mosquito’s version of the liver, they had fewer copies of the dengue virus in their guts once they were infected, and fewer copies in their salivary glands. They also produced fewer eggs than non-engineered mosquitos.

“If you can replace a natural population of dengue-transmitting mosquitoes with genetically modified ones that are resistant to virus, you can stop disease transmission,” lead author George Dimopoulos explains in a press release. To make the plan viable, though, the mosquitos would have to compete with their wild brethren to become the dominant mosquito type, converting the population to the disease-resistance kind of mosquito.

Unfortunately, the technique is only relevant to the transmission of dengue, so it can’t protect people from other deadly mosquito-born viruses like Zika. However, stopping dengue’s spread could prevent some 400 million deaths a year. The CDC lists dengue as a leading cause of death in tropical and subtropical regions.

Muggles no longer have to travel to Orlando’s Wizarding World to get a taste of the magical Potter story. A Harry Potter-themed restaurant just opened in Brooklyn, offering pasta plates worthy of a wizard, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Pasta Wiz serves dishes like Magical Meatballs and a Dragon’s Blood smoothie in a hall designed to mimic the Hogwarts castle. Owner Alex Dimitrov told Gothamist that the most magical part of the restaurant is that it will serve up a hot plate of pasta just three to five minutes after you order. Because this is the Brooklyn version of Hogwarts, the menu is all organic and features vegan options like non-dairy parmesan cheese.

New York City is no stranger to movie-themed bars and pop-ups, like the Tim Burton bar that opened in 2015. But the Big Apple is only the latest of several different cities around the world to embrace Harry Potter-themed dining. Toronto has a bar called The Lockheart; Islamabad, Pakistan has a Harry Potter Café that opened in 2015; and Singapore has another outpost of the latter restaurant called Platform 1094.

[h/t Entertainment Weekly]

All images courtesy Pasta Wiz via Facebook

New York is getting pickled. According to The Wall Street Journal, not one, but two new pickle restaurants are opening in the city. Two existing pickle outfits are expanding their wares to other locations.

The previously retail-focused Pickle Guys is moving to a new space with both a restaurant and retail shop, and they will be serving up fried pickles of all sorts. It’s expected to open early this year. (Presumably, they’ll still be selling their branded mousepad, because nothing says “computer work” like a good pickle.)

And an Upper West Side pickle restaurant, Jacob’s Pickles, is opening up a sister restaurant called Maison Pickle, opening on Saturday, January 14. The pickles will share a menu with several different takes on the French dip sandwich.

Here’s to hoping the city doesn’t sour on its pickle love.

[h/t The Wall Street Journal]

There are plenty of international borders where you can stand in two places at once, but in some places, standing at the border is an even more unusual experience. Some countries have discrete cities completely surrounded by foreign territory; other international borders run straight through a single town. In Belgium, there are five separate enclaves that belong to Germany, for instance.

The travel agency Just the Flight created this infographic of unusual international boundaries around the world. Test your knowledge below:

Candles can be expensive, so it’s a bummer when you can’t use them anymore. Every so often, a wick will get buried in the wax, making it impossible to light. Sure, you can dig it out with some scissors or the end of a fork, but that’s not the most elegant fix for your favorite candle. There’s a better method, one endorsed by eHowhome. You just need to melt some wax off the top.

If you’ve got a long reach lighter, just hold it over the surface of the candle until enough wax melts to expose the wick. This may take a few tries, but persevere. Your wick will eventually be available and ready to use.

During training, members of the military fire hundreds of thousands of bullets and artillery at firing ranges. Unfortunately, many of those shells are never retrieved, posing an environmental issue: they don’t degrade for hundreds of years. So the military wants to find a way to make biodegradable bullets, complete with plant seeds, according to Engadget.

The Department of Defense is soliciting proposals for biodegradable ammunition loaded with seeds that will grow into plants beneficial to the environment—ones that eliminate contaminants from corroding ammunition. The seeds would only start growing after a few months in the ground.

It’s not necessarily carelessness that leaves ammunition lying around where it can corrode and cause environmental damage. Sometimes the cartridge casings become lodged several feet underground, making it impossible to find them. Other times, civilians might find the casings, but not know whether to pick them up or not.

With so many training rounds manufactured and used by the Army each year, a new type of bullet could have an enormous impact. If these rounds could be used on the battlefield, the significance would be even bigger.

Proposals are due on February 8.

[h/t Engadget]

To make yourself seem like a more competent person around the office, you should do a little stand-up at the water cooler, according to a new study spotted by BPS Research Digest. But be sure to judge your audience well, because an ill-timed or misguided attempt at humor could land you in hot water.

In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology [PDF], researchers from the Wharton School and Harvard Business School discovered, through eight different experiments, that humor can signal confidence, whether the jokes land or not. And perceptions of confidence tend to make people see others as competent. But if the jokes were inappropriate (rather than neutral or just badly told), people found the joke-teller to be less competent, harming his or her status in the group.

First, researchers used a pool of 457 people to determine how appropriate people perceived nine different jokes to be. They then used these results in a series of subsequent experiments, which involved participants being serious or humorous in front of an audience, telling different jokes that were either funny or not funny, and manipulating audience laughter to see if people responded differently to comments they thought other people found funny.

“Successful joke tellers are viewed as higher in confidence, competence, and status, and are more likely to be nominated as group leaders,” they concluded. They found if the jokes were inappropriate (the “that’s what she said” variety of joke did not fare well), however, or if no one laughed at them, it could decrease the status of the teller, making people see them as less competent.

The researchers’ advice is to proceed carefully in risky social situations. “It is possible that the contexts in which humor may be most beneficial are also those in which humor is fraught with risk,” they write. “Ultimately, our prescriptive advice is to use humor with caution.”

[h/t BPS Research Digest]

Northern California’s famed Pioneer Cabin Tree, a giant sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park that was carved out to form a tunnel big enough to drive through, fell down during a recent rainstorm, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGATE. The tree had been a tourist destination for more than a century.

In the late 19th century, the owners of the Calaveras North Grove carved out the tunnel in the tree in response to a similar tree tunnel in Yosemite that was drawing visitors away from Calaveras. The tree was chosen because a large fire scar already prevented a tree top from growing [PDF]. At one point, the park even allowed cars to drive through the tree, but recently only hikers have been allowed to pass through its trunk.

The tree toppled over around 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, January 8 during a heavy rainstorm. Sequoias have shallow roots, and the trail around it was completely flooded, likely resulting in its fall. The tree “shattered” on impact, according to a park volunteer who witnessed the incident.

It’s not that unusual for giant sequoias to fall over unexpectedly, especially in soggy ground. In 2011, two giant sequoia trees, each around 1500 years old, fell over along the Trail of 100 Giants in Sequoia National Forest, destroying that section of the trail. The Yosemite tunnel tree that sparked the carve-out of the Calaveras tree in the 1880s, the Wawona Tunnel Tree, collapsed in 1969. The Los Angeles Times reports that most old sequoias die by falling, especially when wet soil combines with their extreme weight to tip over an already-leaning tree. The Pioneer Cabin Tree had been leaning for several years prior to its fall.

[h/t SFGATE]

By 2020, we could finally have our flying car. A new drone created by the Israeli firm Urban Aeronautics can carry passengers, ferrying up to 1100 pounds at speeds of up to 115 miles per hour, according to Reuters.

Around the size of a regular car, the Cormorant AUV (named after the aquatic bird) completed its first solo flight in November—mostly successfully, although there were some issues with onboard sensors. Although it hasn’t yet met all FAA standards, Urban Aeronautics CEO Rafi Yoeli notes that, thanks to the 39 patents they’ve filed, they’re way ahead of the competition.

The vehicle has an estimated cost of about $14 million, and is scheduled for a 2020 release.

The drone uses internal rotors instead of propellers, so unlike a helicopter, it can fly between buildings and among power lines safely. It could potentially be used as a kind of drone ambulance, evacuating the wounded from conflicts or disasters where it might be dangerous to send pilots, or to deliver people into spaces too tight for a helicopter to navigate.

[h/t The Daily Mail]

The Cadbury Creme Egg is a candy in its own class when it comes to Easter-themed confections. But we’ve just learned that even the best snacks have some room for improvement. Behold: the Cadbury Oreo Egg.

There is a catch, because of course there is. As Refinery 29 reports, it’s currently only available in Canada. The cookies-and-cream interior is a bit like a crushed-up Double Stuf Oreo nestled in the warm embrace of the Cadbury chocolate egg shell.

Look at this basket of goodness:

Easter candy season can’t come soon enough. Cadbury has not yet responded to our request (demand) for comment on when it will arrive stateside.

[h/t Refinery 29]