Beaker Hill’s bureau at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute has picked up on another major breakthrough…or maybe we read about it in the Washington Post. Those tricky HSCI guys threw a curve ball this time, though, because this work did not actually involve stem cells at all! Instead, researchers Doug Melton and Qiao “Joe” Zhou were able to take a common type of mouse cell and, using some chemical wizardry, converted them into the mouse’s......

-- Who needs MIT hackers when the MBTA Charlie system can fail on it's own? [Zeroday] -- World-record-breaking attempt or largest scale chain mail scam of all time? Send your business card to this Somerville teen and find out! [Wicked Local Blog] -- Gov. Patrick sat down at the keyboard in Denver for about 40 minutes of live-blogging to answer questions. [Blue Mass Group] -- Abraham Lincoln's version of the afterlife involves riding a......

Whether it's self-navigating robotic cars, hacking Charlie, or cracking the game of blackjack to win millions from Vegas casinos, the kids at MIT tend not to leave any stone unturned, and last week continued the trend. A team of MIT engineers announced the development of a tiny batteries partially assembled by viruses. The batteries, checking in at a scant 4 micrometers wide (compared to the 17-181 micrometer width of human hair), have similar performance characteristics......

Wired updates us on the MIT Charlie card hacking situation. A restraining order was issued and the students' talk at Defcon was canceled. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the students, criticized the ruling as limiting free speech. Ironically, the students' vulnerability assessment report that the MBTA filed with its lawsuit contains even more compromising information than the students planned to present in their talk. So, basically, by filing a lawsuit, the T raised more......

Universal Hub points out that three MIT students who hacked the Charlie Card system are scheduled to give a presentation at Defcon tomorrow about how they went about it. The T, while not interested in its hearing about security problems when the students first brought them to the authority, has now filed a lawsuit designed to stop the MIT students from presenting their findings at Defcon. The students insist they will not reveal information specifically......

As we all trudge through our Monday after a long holiday weekend, new contributor In the Viewfinder offers this calming, watery shot of MIT's Stata Center. In case you missed it over the weekend, make sure to check out our photo gallery of all the July 4th activities - our awesome PotD photogs did a great job catching the weekend events.......

Needham 4th of July parade, photo by Pappatom Fireworks lit up the skies of Greater Boston last night. From our perch on the Mass. Ave. bridge, we saw four fireworks displays, including the grandest of them all, the Boston Pops extravaganza. (The other three appeared to be in Newton, Somerville(?), and South Boston.) Contributors to the Bostonist photo pool have captured the festivities for those of you who were homebound or out-of-town. Shooting from......

The Globe reports that a former MIT chemist caused an all-out evacuation of her Temple Street brownstone by conducting some freelance science experiments. The woman, who has not been identified by name, had mixed a cocktail of chemicals on the floor of her apartment, directly behind the State House. "Any time you have someone who knows what they're doing with chemicals, it can be a bad situation," Deputy Fire Chief Robert Calobrisi said. No word......

--House speaker Sal DiMasi has put the Ethics Committee to the task of investigating the alleged threat against Rep. Jennifer Callahan. The words "State House" and "Ethics Committee" sound funny when put together, don't they? [Boston Globe] --If the counter at the gas pump starts moving before gas comes out, you should complain. [WBZ] --A pug who had been doggie-napped in East Boston has been reunited with its owner. If you kidnap a dog......

ROFLCon invaded Cambridge over the weekend, storming MIT's lecture halls and colonizing the bars of Central Square with novelty t-shirts. Bostonist knows that the Internet is always talking to itself, about itself, but it was surreal to be in the room while that was happening. Case in point: this guy sat in front of us during a web comics panel, watching the live webcast and browsing Flickr images of the very talk that he......

--Total commuter hell broke out today with a tractor rollover that blocked the Mass Pike, along with dodginess on the Blue Line that left, according to one individual, "hundreds of people" stranded at the Airport T stop. [WHDH, b0st0n LiveJournal] --Speaking of transportation, an engineering firm has recommended the installation of 900 support anchors in the Ted Williams Tunnel to make up for the fact that some parts of the ceiling can't be inspected.......

Deval Patrick isn't the first person to get into casino-related trouble, though few of us had to be publicly confronted with our regrettable outcomes the way Deval Patrick did. Eager to move past his failed plan to create much needed revenue for the Commonwealth through gaming, Patrick gave a major economic address yesterday at MIT. Patrick's speech (text here, video here) lists $344 million in budget cuts, a several billion dollar infrastructure improvement plan,......

21, the blackjack movie based on the real-life exploits of card-counting MIT students, was No. 1 at the box office this week. We're happy for it in that the movie makes geekiness sexy and thrilling, even if it did jumble up a few Boston landmarks. Another doofy spoof of a movie genre, Superhero Movie, opened at No. 3, which proves no one can resist a fart joke. But we wonder if the studios could just......

--Breaking: A judge decided not to dismiss the case of Star Simpson, the MIT student who wore a lite-brite T-shirt into Logan Airport, causing a ruckus. Her trial will be in May. [AP/Boston Globe] --The number of high-school dropouts in Massachusetts went up this year, from 9,900 students to 11,500 students. And the tune of "Beauty School Dropout" rings in our heads. [WCVB] --Oh, that $2 bag fee for curbside American Airlines check-in service......

--Governor Deval Patrick is so lucky. He's in Miami right now. Meanwhile, the AP is wondering why he's leaving the state so much. [AP/Boston Herald] --Mayor Menino wants a greenway over Storrow Drive. Can't we just work on fixing what's broken? [Boston Globe] --An MBTA driver was trying to cut around traffic in Salem. However, the traffic was stopped because people were waiting for a couple with a baby carriage to cross. No one......

--Fraternity brothers at MIT's Delta Upsilon are saying that Robert Wells, who died over the weekend, fell from his window in an accident. [Boston Globe] --Over at the State Senate, Therese Murray has introduced a health-care reform bill. One point of the bill is to demand that health insurance firms explain themselves when they raise their rates. [Boston Herald] --Massachusetts legislators will discuss a bill officially allowing breast-feeding in public because there are still......

An MIT student died early this morning in what the AP says was an apparent fall from the fifth floor of the Delta Upsilon fraternity house. Robert Wells was a senior from Ballston Spa, New York. He studied in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and played on the football team. In WBZ's online video, a neighbor described the scene: "The body was laying right next to that car with white towels on it,......

Books Susan Choi draws on real-life, high-profile crimes for her literary works. Her last book was American Woman, based on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, and now she's inspired by her father's real-life experience as a former colleague of the Unabomber in her latest, A Person of Interest. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Movies Child of the Big City and Daydreams are two silent films from the vanguard of pre-revolution Russian cinema. The former......

Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational Harvard Book Store Monday, February 25, 7:00pm Free Ariely's Official Site Dan Ariely is a MIT economist with big ideas. He has spent his 20 year academic career questioning the assumptions that make classical economics work. Classical economists believe that given the choice, most people behave rationally. That is, most people make decisions that give them pleasure and make their lives easier. But of course we don't actually behave that way.......

Movies The MFA calls Les Saignantes "the first science fiction film to come out of Africa," which should be reason enough to see it. But did we mention that it has won comparisons to Russ Meyer? And that it's about a group of women determined to rid their distopian future world of all men? Cameroon director Jean-Pierre Bekolo wins Bostonist's seal of approval. Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 6:00pm (also screening Sunday). $8/$9......

Dark Side of the Moon, Sorta... --The last lunar eclipse for the next 2 years is happening tonight. With binoculars or even the naked eye, the moon will start to look pretty darn red around 9:00 pm EST, as if the green cheese has turned into a port wine spread. The prime time will be between 10pm and 10:30pm. Why not get a better look at an obsevatory? Harvard Observatory, 60 Garden St, Cambridge,......

As it becomes more likely that the use of handheld gadgets while driving will be banned, the Globe tossed out a thought worth debating--if drivers are still allowed to use headsets, will they drive better? Or is the mere act of talking the problem? Noah Bierman talked to an MIT engineer who said, "Conversations are the problem, not the phone." A Virginia Tech researcher added that the act of trying to dial was also distracting.......

In a city packed with top colleges and brilliant thinkers, the word "nerd" is bound to strike a nerve. "Nerd" and "Geek" are commonly considered insults, but many Bostonians have shrugged off the label and are either enjoying success or are on their way to success in scholarly pursuits. So-called nerds live here in a fairly safe haven. But sometimes, nerd contempt bubbles up. Witness the anger against MIT student Star Simpson, who walked into......

--A 19-year-old is accused of killing his social worker, 53-year-old Diruhi S. Mattian, in North Andover last night. The accused is now in the hospital recovering from stab wounds he gave himself. [ http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/02/social_worker_i.html">Boston Globe] --A woman was found murdered in her Medfield home last night. The victim, 47-year-old Margaret Ninos, was a nurse at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She died of head injuries. Police are investigating, and she leaves behind a 7-year-old daughter.......

Star Simpson, the MIT student whose light-up T-shirt caused a panic when she wore it to Logan Airport, appeared in court today. She asked for the charges to be dropped because the shirt was a form of free speech and that she had worn it days before without it causing a problem. Here's the update from the AP/WBZ: Thomas Dwyer Jr., a lawyer for Simpson, said his client didn't think her shirt would scare anyone.......

Let's say you're going to the Celtics-Timberwolves game tonight. If you're like most of the people at Celtics games these days, chances are you weren't there last year. Which is perfectly legal on your part. But there's something you should know. Most of the Timberwolves played here last year, during that long, miserable 06-07 campaign, and several of them - promising, hardworking youngsters for the most part - were sent away to make room for......

Music Kimya Dawson has long been one of those buried indie-rock treasures, at least until the release of Juno. The former member of the Moldy Peaches and avid livejournal diarist contributes a large part of the soundtrack, and stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera cover one of her songs, "Anyone Else But You." In fact, Page suggested that Dawson be on the soundtrack since she felt Juno would be a Moldy Peaches fan. Bostonist......

--16-year-old Carlos Sierra was shot to death in Dorchester last night. At this time, the BPD is still searching for a motive. Police say a gray Honda was spotted leaving the scene. His family told the Globe that he was shot 13 times, and they feel he was targeted. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe] --Eight of 10 women in Massachusetts who are trying to get away from domestic violence can't find a space in shelters because......

--A parking rage incident turned so ugly in Chelsea early this morning that a man was shot in the stomach. The Chelsea police chief said the whole mess started solely because one parked car was "touching" another parked car. And this is what happens when people with anger-management issues have guns. [Boston Globe] --In a drug-related shooting, an innocent 68-year-old man was shot in the back in Roxbury after trying to defend his apartment building......

What moved you to speak out this year? A Lite Brite giving you the finger? The Red Sox? The death of Mr. Butch? As you can see, there aren't many surprises--the Red Sox, MIT student Star Simpson, and L'Affaire Aqua Teen Hunger Force dominated this list. 10. Mr. Lonelyhearts: Tom Brady 9. Live-Blogging Game 4 of the World Series 8. Socket to Me: Star Simpson Follow-Up 7. Breaking: Fake Bomb-Toting MIT Student So Not......