This Single Molecule Drives Cancer Cells to Suicide

A team of researchers has identified a single molecule, called TIC10, that kick-starts the body's tumor-destroying systems—causing a chain reaction that can kill cancer dead.

In a series of experiments in mice the researchers, from Pennsylvania State University, found that TIC10 activities the gene for a protein called TRAIL—that's short for tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand—which causes cancerous cells to commit suicide. Wafik El-Deiry, one of the researchers explains:

"TRAIL is a part of our immune system: all of us with functional immune systems use this molecule to keep tumours from forming or spreading, so boosting this will not be as toxic as chemotherapy."

A series of experiments provided evidence that TIC10 works on a wide range of tumors, including breast, lymphatic, colon and lung cancer. While the TRAIL protein has been targeted in the past, it's never been exploited as successfully—something the researchers put down to the small size of the molecule TIC10. There's a hidden benefit, too, because TIC10 seems to cause healthy cells to join in the fight, too. Nature explains:

[I]t seems that TIC10 activates the TRAIL gene not only in cancerous cells, but also in healthy ones. This gives it enormous potential to create a 'bystander effect', in which apoptosis - or cell death - is induced in cancer cells immediately next to healthy ones. Healthy cells are also stimulated to increase the amount of TRAIL receptors on their cell surface. These receptors can then bind to the adjacent cancerous cells, triggering their demise. "It's almost like TRAIL-plus - it does so much more," says El-Deiry.

Of course, this initial testing has all been done in mice—and it remains to be seen if it will work as well as in other creature. That's why the next step is to test the molecule in humans. Keep those fingers crossed. More here.

New Ancient Evidence Confirms That An Asteroid Killed All the Dinosaurs

For most of us laypeople, it's an accepted truth the dinosaurs were wiped out by a big ol' asteroid that smashed into the Earth, easy as that. For scientists, however, there's always been some question as to whether or not that was actually the case. But some new revelations have proven that we dummies were right in our gross over-simplification all along.

It's been known for a while that there was a catastrophic asteroid collision millions of years ago while dinosaurs roamed the Earth. It was definitely about 9-miles wide, and definitely hurtled into Chicxulub, Mexico, leaving a 110-mile crater. Likewise, it definitely caused an explosion two million times bigger than the biggest thermonuclear device ever, launching an epic dust cloud that blocked out the sun. But—but but but—according to previous evidence, all that could have happened as early as 300,000 years before the actual extinction of dinosaurs, meaning there might have been different/additional cause.

Turns out probably not. Go figure, but that catastrophic impact was enough to do the trick, according to a new paper published in Science. Scientists from Europe and the US have been able to look at the crater's dust and narrow the impact down to a mere 11,000 year window, which is incredibly small in geological terms. As it happens, the impact was practically simultaneous with the mass extinction. Sure, Earth hadn't been at its strongest immediately before impact, but it was definitely the asteroid that kicked off all the dying.

So that's that. Mystery (re)solved, and lucky for us, the story hasn't changed. Good thing too; it's such a good one. More here.

Buy This Glowing Antler Lamp Instead Of Shooting Bambi’s Mom

Looking for that perfect home accent to hang over your fireplace? Instead of grabbin' yer guns and heading out into the woods to bag a trophy buck, you might want to consider trying to coerce artist Chen Bikovski to start selling her brilliant deer lamps that recreate a set of antlers using shafts of light.

Inspired by the origami used in children's pop-up books, the lamp features a large pull tab on the bottom that causes the deer's ears to extend and its internal lighting to turn on. It's light enough to hang on any wall, and more importantly, there's no taxidermy fees involved and you don't have to spend a week cleaning blood off the roof of your car. More here.

Secretly We All Want This Toilet-Paper-Holding iPad Stand

We all use our smartphones and tablets in the bathroom, but there's an unwritten rule that you do it discreetly, and don't really brag about touching your device while touching your... well, you get the idea. So while on one hand it's easy to be disgusted by CTA Digital's toilet paper/iPad stand, on the other we're probably all quietly reaching for our credit cards.

Even at $45 the iPad Pedestal Stand is a steal since it keeps the two most important things we've come to rely on in the bathroom in easy reach. And a gooseneck mount means it's easy to position your tablet at the optimal viewing angle. The only thing missing is a much needed splashguard, and a bottle of touchscreen-friendly disinfectant. More here.

Why Bother Boiling When You Can Toast Your Eggs Instead?

For all the Wi-Fi enhanced, Facebook-integrated appliances that are slowly invading our kitchens, most people still employ the same method of cooking their eggs that their heathen ancestors in the 1920's did: a pot of roiling water. But filling a pan, bringing it to boil, and setting the timer are all hassles we'll never again have to face once the Eggxactly hits market later this year.

The Eggxactly is a single-serving cooker that boils eggs in their shells, without water or open flame. According to the product website, you simply load an egg into the device, set the dial for your desired level of firmness, and tap the top to start. It reportedly uses just one percent of the energy used by conventional boiling and prevents yolk browning due to overcooking.

The Eggxactly is currently undergoing CE testing and should start shipping by the second half of 2013. There is no firm ship date or price set (its estimated to be about £25 plus shipping and handling) but you can pre-order one off the Eggxactly website here.

Ionizing Blaster Stops Dust From Sticking To Your Camera’s Sensor

If you're tired of 'dust-busting' every single photo you take in Photoshop, you can solve the problem at its source with this ionizing FireFly air blaster that promises to neutralize the static charge on dust particles so they easily fall off your camera's sensor.

FireFly's $130 DSC-2000 comes with a Giottos Rocket Blower so it packs plenty of oomph, but the secret sauce here is a 9-volt battery-powered box that produces negative and positively charged ions. So it neutralizes the dust particles' staying power while blasting them away. It isn't the perfect solution, though; the dust is still inside your camera and has the potential of sticking to the sensor again. But the blower includes a 20 micron filter so you aren't blasting in more dust during the process, and the touch-free approach certainly reduces the potential of damaging your camera's most crucial component. More here.

Will Nokia’s Next Lumia Get a 41-Megapixel PureView Image Sensor?

Released last year, the PureView 808 was essentially a prototype phone. It ran Nokia's dying—and now officially dead—Symbian operating system but its 41-megapixel, one-inch image sensor was a beast. Now, The Guardian reports what people have been speculating and rumoring since Nokia dropped the PureView 808 nearly a year ago: The 41-Megapixel sensor is destined for a Nokia Windows Phone.

According to the Guardian, a new Windows Phone 8 handset with the large image sensor is on the way. It will be called EOS, and it will arrive at the end of the month at the MWC trade show in Barcelona. Now the first part of that rumor is pretty ridiculous and hard to swallow. Canon has been using the EOS name for 25 years for its system of interchangeable lens cameras. It would be foolish—and possibly illegal—for Nokia to use the same name for an imaging-heavy phone. More here.

Evasi0n iOS 6.1 Jailbreak Tutorial

evasi0n 1.0 is an untethered jailbreak for all iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and iPad mini models running iOS 6.0 through 6.1

>>DOWNLOAD LINK<<

More links in case they are too crouded:

evasi0n-win-1_0_rar

evasi0n-win-1_0_rar

evasi0n-win-1_0_rar

evasi0n-win-1_0_rar

evasi0n-win-1_0_rar

Links for Mac and Linux HERE.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

- MacOSX 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8

- Windows (XP minimum)

- Linux x86/x86_64 (Kernel >= 2.6.24, libgtk+-2.0 >= 2.24.13)

SUPPORTED FIRMWARES:

- iOS 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, and 6.1

INSTRUCTIONS:

- Backup your device using iTunes (or iCloud) before using evasi0n. If something breaks, you'll always be able to recover your data.

- Those who use backup passwords in iTunes must disable them for now.  After doing so, iTunes makes a brand new backup.  Please wait for that backup to complete before proceeding!  Feel free to re-enable your backup password after jailbreaking.

- Please disable the lock passcode of your iOS device before using evasi0n. It can cause issues.

- Launch evasi0n, plug in your device, and click "Jailbreak". Just sit back and observe its progress.  Watch for any steps you may be asked to perform.

- Avoid all iOS and iTunes related tasks until evasi0n is complete. Why not just enjoy a brief break from the computer to stretch your legs?

- If the process gets stuck somewhere, it's safe to restart the program, reboot the device (if necessary by holding down Power and Home until it shuts down), and rerun the process.

FAQ:

If you have any questions regarding the jailbreak process or jailbreaking in general 

please go to the Jailbreak QA dedicated website: http://www.jailbreakqa.com

or see their help page for evasi0n: http://www.jailbreakqa.com/pages/evasi0n-help

or try /r/jailbreak on Reddit: http://reddit.com/r/jailbreak

CREDITS:

evasi0n is a production of @evad3rs. http://evad3rs.com

iOS 6.1 Jailbreak for iPhone 5, iPad 4/Mini and All Other Devices

The new evasi0n untethered jailbreak tool takes just 5 minutes to liberate your iOS device and allowing you to install the third party applications, themes, cydia tweaks and more. All you need is a computer, running Windows (XP minimum), Mac OS X (10.5 minimum) or Linux (x86 / x86_64), an iPhone, iPad or iPod running iOS 6.0 through 6.1 (you may check in Settings / General / About => Version) and a USB cable to connect the device to the computer. Download link here.

Supported Devices:

1. iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS on iOS 6.0 and above.
2. iPad 4, iPad 3 (The New iPad), iPad 2 and iPad 1G on iOS 6.0 and above (All WiFi/GSM/CDMA models).
3. iPod touch 5G, iPod touch 4G on iOS 6.0 stock IPSW and above.

Evasi0n - iOS 6.x Jailbreak Noon EST

We probably have the release time for the evasi0n jailbreak. The progress bar on the evasi0n website is now showing the status as 98% complete.

An eagle-eyed reddit user has noticed that the progress bar is increasing ~0.0091/min. This means that at that pace, the progress bar will hit 100% at February 4th, 2013 at 17:00 UTC (or February 4th, 12:00 pm EST, which could be the possible release time for the evasi0n jailbreak.

Please note that this is just a speculation, there has been no confirmations from the evad3rs dev team.

If the release time is indeed 12:00 noon EST, then check out the table below to find out when evasi0n jailbreak will be released in your time zone:

More here and here.

Is the PlayStation 4 Arriving on February 20th?

Well here's something we weren't expecting. Sony just teased us with a super secret, super mysterious, super probably a new PlayStation (because, what else?) event next month. Let's start speculating and freaking out about a new console war.

Scientists Have Created Crystals That Are Almost Alive

Man-made life is a thing of fiction, relegated to things like Frankenstein. But scientists are coming close to something almost like it. New light-affected crystals developed by scientists at New York University are very close to being alive, so close it makes you question what "being alive" really means.

The crystals are microscopic cubes of hematite that can conduct electricity under certain wavelengths of blue light. As a result, when they're in a hydrogen peroxide soup, the right light can make them swim around, merging into larger crystals, breaking apart, and doing it all again. And then, when the light goes out, they stop.

Paul Chaikin, one of the authors of the paper recently published in Science, notes that this gives the little things metabolism and mobility, two of the criteria required to be considered "alive." They just happen to lack the ability to reproduce, for now. Another of the authors, Jérémie Palacci, put it this way to Wired:

[We] show that with a simple, synthetic active system, we can reproduce some features of living systems. I do not think this makes our systems alive, but it stresses the fact that the limit between the two is somewhat arbitrary.

There's nothing really to suggest that these crystals might suddenly learn to replicate, but they do provide something of a window back in time, when the building blocks of life may have been quite similar to this, before they began to multiply and become actual life. In the meantime, Chaikin and Palacci are working on a different particle that has metabolism and can replicate, but not move. If these two projects manage to learn from each other, we could be in for something really wild. More here.

Kim Dotcom’s Offering a Cash Reward If You Can Smash Mega’s Encryption

A few weeks into its existence, Mega is holding up pretty well. It's fended off its first round of takedown requests and is still crouched safely behind its wall of protective encryption. In fact, Dotcom is so confident in that encryption, he's offering free money to anyone who can break it.

The €10,000 ($13,850) reward was announced by way of a tweet, with a blog post on the subject promised later today. From the get-go, Mega has been taking a lot of tips from the cryptography community, which has been picking apart the service's security and providing what amounts to a pro bono encryption spell-check. This challenge should serve as an effective solicitation for a little more.

Google, Dropbox, Firefox and others also offer money for bugs, but Kim Dotcom is being pretty singularly antagonistic in his approach; this is a challenge. And if a hacker could find his or her way through Mega's encryption, it would be well worth the 13 grand, considering that's really the linchpin of this whole service. But the real question is: does that also apply to the US government? More here.

This Smart Mirror Lights Up at Your Very Presence

You're so beautiful. That is, at least according to Simple Human's newest sensor mirror that automatically lights up when it sees your face.

That's kind of poetic, but don't get all narcissistic weirdo and fall in love with a cordless electronic looking glass. Not after what happened last time. Still, the USB-charging, $200 sensor mirror makes for a quirky addition to your bathroom vanity, with a system called tru-lux that mimics natural light, so you don't look as ghastly as you might under harsh fluorescent bulbs. Besides, it's ok to be a little bit into yourself. This is just extra validation. More here.

This Sleeping Bag Is Every Sub-Zero Camper’s Dream/Nightmare

Whether you prefer to spend your summers in the Arctic or simply miss the suffocating warmth of a mother's womb, Nemo's newly launched Canon -40 sleeping bag may just cure what ails you (unless it's the latter in which case please seek professional assistance).

The 850-fill goose down sarcophagus features two vented "gills" on the front of the bag along with zippered arm hole openings on either side, which could come in handy when cooking, moving around base camp, or escaping from your heat-smothering nightmare.

The PrimaLoft insulated Stove Pipe hood design, however, is really what sets the Canon -40 apart from other sub-zero sleepers. Nemo apparently looked towards the Inuit communities of the high north for inspiration, and the questionably sufficient air hole mimics their centuries-old design by essentially pre-warming the freezing air before you inhale. Given the all-encapsulating design, it's hard not to wonder how someone prone to tossing and turning would fare and/or live to see morning. We'll be left wondering for a while longer, as the Canon -40 won't hit the market until fall of 2013 for a cool $1000 a pop. More here.

A Heart-Shaped USB Hub Is Full of Love and Ports

Hearts are cheesy, sure, but they're also fun and adorable—especially this time of year. Buy into the silliness of Valentine's Day with these cute little USB hubs.

They're made by GreenHouse, which you could surmise is a Japanese company, based on the fact that the hubs are so kawaii! Each one has four USB 2.0 ports a piece and come in pink, red, and gold for $26 a piece. They might be girly and sappy, but don't lie, you want to embrace that part of yourself. More here.

The 64GB Surface Pro Will Have Just 23GB of Usable Space

The Verge has learned that the 64GB version will offer up just 23GB of space to the user.

It seems the Windows 8 install, built-in apps, and a recovery partition will consume 41GB of the total storage space, leaving just 23GB—that's 36 percent—of storage for the user. Perhaps it's time manufacturers started quoting available storage space in their ads, too? More here.

iPhone Owners Run Up the Biggest Bills

A new report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reveals that iPhone owners run up the biggest cell phone bills—spending far more than other smartphone users.

The report reveals that 60 percent of iPhone users—or at least, those who were polled—spend more than $100 per month on their plans. Above that, 10 percent spend $200 or more—and only 6 percent spend $50 or less. Compare that to Android, where 12 percent pay less than $50.

So, why do iPhone users spend more? It's almost certainly down to the fact that, through necessity, iPhone users tend to be on more expensive data plans to begin with. More here. 

A Beautiful Look at the Galaxy that Will Collide With Us In 4 Billion Years

In four billion years, Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way. That will be an amazing view—but until then we have to look at it from a distance. This new photo by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory shows a beautiful view. From NASA:

The glow seen here comes from the longer-wavelength, or far, end of the infrared spectrum, giving astronomers the chance to identify the very coldest dust in our galactic neighbor. These light wavelengths span from 250 to 500 microns, which are a quarter to half of a millimeter in size. Herschel's ability to detect the light allows astronomers to see clouds of dust at temperatures of only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. These clouds are dark and opaque at shorter wavelengths. The Herschel view also highlights spokes of dust between the concentric rings.

I just can look at these space images all day long. More here.

The 128GB iPad Is Real and It’s Here

As expected, Apple let a 128GB iPad out of the bag today. And there's almost zero chance you should buy it.

The new iPad has the same retina display as its brothers, and the same design, and the same guts, with one notable exception: a metric crap-ton of storage. More storage than any decent or sane human being could ever want from a pure tablet, at a cost—$800 for Wi-Fi only and $930 for 4G—that no decent or sane human being could ever want to spend on one. Do you know how much laptop that kind of money can buy you? You're almost at Surface Pro/MacBook Air levels of expenditure for an A6X chip and Temple Run 2.

Even if you're the type of person who flocked to the mega-storage iPods of yore, don't be lured in by Big Poppa iPad's siren song. Unlike the heady days of 2007, your music and movies andDon't Trust the B— downloads live in the cloud now, not on your device. That's where Apple and everyone else has been pushing people for years, precisely because gigundo-storage devices are expensive and absurd and absurdly expensive for the common man.

And that's okay! Apple doesn't expect you to buy a 128GB iPad, not unless you're a professional-grade buyer, like an architect or a supervillain, with all the resources and massive AutoCAD storage needs that implies. The 128GB iPad is like a $300/head steakhouse dinner. It goes on the corporate account.

Like all the other iPads, the new kids come in black and white, and you can buy them starting next Tuesday. Or rather, your IT manager can. More here.