Free Republic

The researchers isolated two genes involved with leg development. Under a microscope, they were able to see the two genes were activated in the legs while the spider was still an embryo. Next, using RNA interference, they were able to block the activation of the two genes in several samples. The spiders grew up with short legs, and the short legs became pedipalps, limbs typically used for handling food. The researchers also identified and disabled another gene linked to leg development, which led to spiders with short legs that did not become pedipalps but who did lose their tarsomeres—joints that...

The Off-Broadway musical Daddy Long Legs has announced that it will be the first-ever Off-Broadway performance to be broadcast online to the world for free on Dec. 10 at 8 PM ET. Following the live broadcast, the performance will be replayed in the respective times in Los Angeles (8 PM PT), London (8 PM GMT) and Tokyo (JST). To register for the live stream, visit the website here. The two-actor production officially opened at the Davenport Theatre Sept. 28. The new musical, about a romance that spans several years and is developed through letters, features music and lyrics by Tony...

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered fossils of the world's oldest genitals -- belonging to 400 million-year-old insects -- in ancient rocks in Scotland. The penis of the ancient harvestmen insects, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, was two-thirds the length of the body and remarkably similar to the modern-day species, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday. "The discovery of the world's oldest genitals proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years -- at least for daddy-long-legs," the magazine said. Jason Dunlop and a team of researchers from Humbolt University in Berlin, Germany, who will present their findings at...