sciencehabit writes “Marlene Thielecke came to Madagascar to study the sand flea, an insect that spends part of its life cycle burrowed into the human foot — but she wound up getting more intimate with the critter than she cared for. Months into her project, Thieleckewas bitten by a flea herself. She decided to make the best of it, by taking regular photographs and videos and keeping track of her observations. ‘I thought it might be interesting’ to watch what happened, she says. As it turns out, her experience may help resolve an question entomologists have debated foor decades: Where, exactly, does the sand flea have sex?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Researcher Allows Sand Flea To Grow Inside Her Foot To Study It
Organovo’s 3D-printed mini-liver just shattered its own record, carrying out the same cellular functions as a natural human liver for 40 days in the lab. That may not seem like a lot — human liver cells are replaced about every 300 to 500 days — but the company’s previous millimeter-sized liver slivers only managed five days. The trick: Organovo uses the same mix of hepatocytes (the cells that carry out liver functions) and endothelial cells (which form the liver’s architectural support) found in nature, leading cells to develop more naturally than other experiments that used only the functional cells. It’s a small but significant step for the more than 120, 000 people on organ transplant waiting lists worldwide. Read more… 
Star Wars: Episode VII will be released December 18, 2015. “We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture,” announced Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn over at StarWars.com . JJ Abrams is of course directing and also writing the script with Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.) Importantly, John Williams will score the new film! 