It's the stuff of science fiction made into science facts: a team of Japanese scientists have managed to turn human blood cells into stem cells, and then into immature human eggs.

While the potential for medical benefits is vast, there's a dark side to this, as explained by Rob Stein of All Things Considered on NPR:

Theoretically, babies someday could be made from the blood, hair or skin cells of children, grandmothers, even deceased people. "So there are some very weird possibilities emerging," says Ronald Green, a Dartmouth bioethicist.

People could even potentially make babies from cells stolen from unwitting celebrities, such as skin cells left behind on a soda can or follicles from hair clipped at a salon.

"A woman might want to have George Clooney's baby," Green says. "And his hairdresser could start selling his hair follicles online. So we suddenly could see many, many progeny of George Clooney without his consent."

Photo: immature human cells (pink) created using stem cells derived from blood cells / Saitou Lab

This is the kind of magic you see when you attach a video camera to a microsope. The winners of the eighth annual Nikon Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition have been announced! The competition is the video extension of the long-established Small World still photography competition. This year's first prize winners are Dr. Elizabeth Haynes and Jiaye "Henry" He, who recorded a zebrafish embryo developing its nervous system over 16 hours, seen above. Below is the second place winner, from Dr. Miguel A. Bandres and Anatoly Patsyk, showing a laser propagating inside a soap membrane.

See the other winners and honorable mentions -in motion- in the winners gallery. Meanwhile, entries are open until April of 2019 for the Nikon Small World Photomicrography competition.

(Videos courtesy of Nikon Small World)

You'll want to remember this if you are ever forced into Karaoke against your will. -via reddit

An employee of the Maryland Zoo found an injured box turtle that couldn't walk, and brought it to the zoo's hospital to see if anything could be zone. His fractured under-side shell was glued together with splints, but how to keep him up off the ground while he heals? The solution was a frame built of LEGO pieces! It could be a year before the frame can be completely removed, but meanwhile, he's getting around just fine. -via Mental Floss

Is this guy the reincarnation of Beethoven?

When pizza delivery driver Bryce Dudal saw a baby grand piano at the Varchetti house, he asked if he could play a little song. The Varchettis agreed, and Dudal played a little something from memory: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata Third Movement.

Now, who doesn't like a side of Beethoven with your pizza?

Via VideoSift

If you're a neighbor of Keith Smith, you'll know that the grass is always greener and intricately maintained in his yard.

Smith, a groundsman at a golf club in Birmingham, England, sure mows a lot of grass. In fact, you can say that he's a bit obsessed with mowing:

A garden wizard has spent 273 hours mowing an amazing geometric pattern into his front lawn - using an antique lawnmower from the 1940s.

Keith Smith, 41, cut his grass three times a DAY for three months throughout the summer - spending 21 hours a week on his unique creation - to be crowned champion at this year's Creative Lawn Stripes Competition.

Photo: @AlletMowers - via Laughing Squid

My son has parked his bike by this lamppost just about every day for the last year. This morning, this sticker had appeared. Absolutely made our day. People can be so brilliant. Thank you, whoever did it pic.twitter.com/rYC8jCTD5L

— Christie Dietz (@asausagehastwo) September 24, 2018

Some observant stranger noticed that Christie Dietz's son parked in the same spot every day. That someone would take the time and trouble to produce this sticker is just adorable. Next, they need to take another photo of the post with the sticker on it to produce a meta-notice. -via Metafilter

Professional photographer and mother of two Samantha Bishop of Roaming Magnolias Photography wanted a nice family photo of her kids. Her son Levi, however, has autism and doesn't like having his photos taken.

So Bishop came up with a genius solution. She wrote:

My son, Levi, is autistic. He doesn't like having his photos taken because he gets uncomfortable with things like eye contact and smiling on command. So instead of begging and pleading for a few good photos, this year him and Lola went a different route. Why not let him wear a t-rex costume and make the best of it?

View the rest of the photoshoot over at RoamingMagnolias's imgur gallery - via Boing Boing.

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新しい @gopro #Hero7Black で衝撃映像撮れた 4K60fpsの安定化オンで撮ったからここまで驚いて全部撮れてた！こんな楽しいカヤックはじめて！！音声も海とかのガチャガチャ音ないし最高 @barekiwi getting octopus smashed into his face by a seal⁉️ I’ve never had such an amazing kayak everrrrr!! I am super stoked that the new @goproanz #Hero7Black captured without missing a thing although we shook so much, #hypersmooth the stabilisation managed it so well!! I made a little montage to show how good the audio came out!! No noises super clean!! Thanks to @kaikourakayaks @purenewzealand @kaikouranz @goprojp @howtodadnz @snapair for such an epic trip!! #gopro #ゴープロ #ゴープロのある生活

A post shared by TAIYO MASUDA (@taiyomasuda) on Sep 23, 2018 at 12:34am PDT

A seal came out of nowhere to say hello to this kayaker. In the face. With an octopus. Smack!

Remember the water bottle flipping craze that swept the Internet a couple of years ago?

The premise of bottle flipping seems simple: throw a plastic bottle filled with water, have it flip once in the air and then land upright. Turns out, it's not as easy as it sounds.

Enter physics! A team of first-year physics students from the University of Twente in the Netherlands have solved the secret of the perfect bottle flip:

"In physics, this is called conservation of angular momentum," [study co-author Mees Flapper] said.

With the right amount of fluid to slow the bottle's spin, the container loses rotational speed and appears to pause at a horizontal position. The maneuver culminates in a descent that is nearly vertical, "followed by a smooth landing," the study authors reported.

Read the rest of the study over at LiveScience

Or view the video clip above.

(Image: Alvaro Marin)

Saturday Night Live is aired live from New York, of course, so the production team are always on their toes. At the same time, the skits feature cast members impersonating real people and characters wearing over-the-top silly costumes, which must be completely changed during commercial breaks. The wardrobe department handles all this, plus finding, designing, making, and rehearsing with those costumes, with only a week to get it all right. Then they start all over again. -via Laughing Squid

A Pennsylvania dachshund named Patches developed a brain tumor the size of an orange. The cancer invaded her skull and pushed her head up in a large lump. Patches' family was referred to the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, where veterinary surgical oncologist Michelle Oblak recommended surgery.  

Normally in a case such as this, the tumor and a portion of the skull would be removed, and a titanium mesh fitted in place, Oblak told the Canadian Press. Instead, Oblak and her colleagues used a new procedure in which a 3D-printed skull cap is specially fitted for the canine patient, which the researchers claim is more precise and less costly than conventional methods. Incredibly, the titanium cap replaced 70 percent of Patches’ skull, which had to be removed during surgery. Oblak said researchers in the UK have done something similar, but on a “significantly” smaller scale.

Naturally, this kind of surgery raises questions about the expense, but the article does not address that. The surgery came through a teaching hospital that does research, which may contribute to the development of such techniques for humans eventually. Anyway, the surgery was successful, and you can see before and after pictures of Patches at Gizmodo. -Thanks, WTM!

(Image credit: Michelle Oblak)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is getting the musical treatment! -via Metafilter

This is a never-ending elevator pic.twitter.com/zIg1gfrJeb

— INSIDER (@thisisinsider) September 23, 2018

In the Prague City Hall in Prague, Czech Republic, there's a paternoster elevator that's always running. All you have to do is hop on ... but don't miss. There's an obvious reason it's also called the "elevator of death!"

During the first of Ernest Shackleton's three Antarctic expeditions, he brought along some "fun stuff" for when they were isolated indoors, which included a printing press, ink, and paper. Over the winter of 1908, the men published a book called Aurora Australis, which they wrote, illustrated, printed, and bound themselves. The content was an eclectic mix (as were the binding materials).      

Shackleton served as editor, and solicited submissions from the crew. He chose to include everything from an interview with an Emperor Penguin to a tongue-in-cheek, faux-Biblical account of the expedition. In one chapter, an anonymous messman details the trials and tribulations of his job. In another, the geologist Douglas Mawson describes an journey to an imaginary place called Bathybia, hidden inside an Antarctic volcano, where fungi grow and temperatures reach a balmy 70 degrees.

The expedition crew produced 100 copies of the book, of which 70 are still known to exist. Read the story behind Aurora Australis at Atlas Obscura. The book is available to read online here.