Regenerate like lizards? Hopefully it doesn't turn out like this...Although this sounds like something taken out of the latest Spiderman movie, a team of scientists has identified the type of cells that help salamanders to regenerate entire limbs, and this could lead us to medical breakthroughs down the road.

That might seem like a bit of a leap, but these cells, called macrophages, are not only found in salamanders, but in our own bodies as well. Doctors and scientists have known about macrophages for awhile now (nearly 130 years). Their name means 'big eaters', because they basically go around inside us, eating up any dead cells and germs they can find. They're also known to help our muscles to grow, repair and regenerate.

[ Related: Details still scarce as deadly new MERS virus claims latest victim ]

Humans certainly can't regenerate whole organs and limbs, but it was the macrophages' role in muscle regeneration that got Dr. James Godwin, a researcher at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, interested in seeing if they were what gave

The merger of two ancient galaxies, shown by the Herschel observatory on the left and a composite view on the right

Before it was decommissioned last month, the Hershel Space Observatory racked up an impressive number of finds. One of those finds, showing the merger of two elliptical galaxies, is helping astronomers answer questions about whether large galaxies formed gradually, by slowly eating up smaller galaxies, or all at once, in massive mergers.

[ Related: Herschel Space Observatory says 'good bye' after four great years ]

For a long time, astronomers assumed that it was the former — that the size of a galaxy slowly built up over time, as its gravity pulled in smaller galaxies and touched off short bursts of star formation. This would mean that distant, older galaxies would be smaller, and we'd see larger galaxies closer, which would end up as collections of old, red stars by now ('red and dead', they call it).

However, while scanning the skies, extremely large

This is the kind of question that anyone planning on going to Mars (or any other long space-flight) is apparently going to have to wrestle with, since NASA is currently looking into 3D printer technology to feed people on future human spaceflights.

[ Related: NASA funds 3D pizza printer ]

People have been using 3D printing to create food for a few years now, and NASA is turning to an Austin-based company called Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) to create a version of this for their human spaceflight program. The idea is simple enough: Use the same methods for 3D printing, by using a device similar to an inkjet printer to lay down layers of material to build up an object. But instead of using plastic, put edible materials in the printer. Whatever they use will

Two lines of thunderstorms passed through southern Ontario yesterday afternoon, bringing very heavy rain, frequent lightning and strong winds, and there were even reports of 2-3 centimetre hail in some areas. Around 3,000 residents are without power due to the storms, and there have been reports of a small tornado in the area of Cambray, about 30 kms east of Lake Simcoe, that uprooted trees, downed power-lines, left one house without a roof and a scattered a sizeable chunk of a local barn throughout the neighbourhood.

"There are beams from that barn two fields over," said Deb Craven, a local resident, according to an article on myKawartha.com. According to the article, she said that she was watching the sky turn

An electron microscope view of the new deadly new coronavirus MERSWhile there's been plenty of information coming out of China over the past two months about the new H7N9 bird flu, with updates on infections, deaths and how it is transmitted, there's been surprisingly little said so far about another new virus that was discovered back in September, even though this new virus is apparently more easily transmitted between people and also, apparently, more deadly.

The discovery of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), aka 'novel coronavirus 2012 (nCoV-2012)', was first announced last September, after two men — one from Saudi Arabia and one from Qatar — died from a SARS-like illness. Since then, a total of 43 confirmed cases have been reported, in eight countries, and 21 of those infected have died. This is compared to a total of 131 infected by H7N9 in just two countries (130 in China and 1 in Taiwan) with 36 dead. More alarming is the news that MERS can be transmitted directly, person-to-person, through close contact, whereas the infections of

NASA's Earth Observatory released an animation of images taken by the NOAA GOES-East satellite yesterday, as storms raged through Oklahoma far below.

They have a terrible beauty to them, knowing what was going on beneath the clouds, but for people looking for more information about the hows and whys of tornadoes, watching them from above can show the ingredients that went into making the deadly storms.

[ Related: Monster tornado tears through southern Oklahoma City area ]

Let's break that down.

This first time step, around 11 a.m. local time, shows the flow of moist air coming north off of the Gulf of Mexico — you can see that in the streaks of clouds over Louisiana. You can also see how over north central Texas and south central Oklahoma, they're getting some morning sunshine. Warming the surface like this is an important part of developing the unstable conditions that will generate storms later on.

In this second still, you can see the beginnings of a line of clouds over central Oklahoma

While much of the country was enjoying pleasant weather over the Victoria Day long weekend, for residents of central Newfoundland, the holiday could easily have been mistaken for Christmas, as a freak storm dumped record amounts of snow on them over the weekend.

The Town of Gander, in the northeast part of the island, saw a total of 58 centimetres of snow on the ground by Sunday night, taking just a day and a half to beat a 41-year-old record monthly snowfall total of 39 cm from back in May 1972. That's just what ended up sticking as well, as the city's weather station recorded a total of 69.2 cm of snow falling, but around 11 cm of it melted as it hit the ground.

[ Related: Canadians can count on a more ‘normal’ summer this year ]

Environment Canada meteorologist Rodney Barney, who works at the Newfoundland & Labrador Weather Office, tweeted up a storm... during the storm.

Backyard view in #Gander this morning, as the snow just gets started. #nlwx twitter.com/rcbstormpost/s…

— Rodney

The intense outbreak of severe thunderstorms in the United States over the past week has spawned at least 38 confirmed tornadoes, with further, unconfirmed reports of nearly twice that number. And the threat isn't over, as more are expected today and tomorrow as well.

The term Tornado Alley is probably quite familiar to everyone. It's an unofficial name given to a swath of land that includes northern Texas, western Oklahoma and most of Kansas, and is where the majority of tornadoes form in the United States. There's a Tornado Alley in Canada as well — actually two, depending on how you look at it. One stretches from Edmonton to Winnipeg, and there's another that runs from Windsor to Ottawa. There's also a tornado season, considered to be from March through August.

However, tornadoes don't obey geographic borders or time schedules. They form at any time of the year and in any location on the planet, as long as there's the right combination of weather conditions.

[ Related: Monster tornado