parkes

Countless childhood dreams dissolved today upon the news that the calculated half-life of DNA figures out to around 521 years, all but invalidating the chances of a real-life "Jurassic Park."

The DNA fact-finding project involved a team of palaeogeneticists testing 158 leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant moa birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old.

After running a series of comparisons between the age of the various bones and DNA degradation within each specimen, the researchers estimated that DNA's half-life works out to about 521 years after being kept in a swamp with an average temperature of 13.1 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). Even a more ideal preservation temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) would only result in readable DNA from specimens up to 1.5 million years old, meaning there is no possible way we can see a 65-million-year-old T-Rex waving its tiny arms about in this time frame. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Watching "Looper" in a theater? Bring headphones.

- Science just killed any hope you ever had of "Jurassic Park" being real.

- Cameras in phones are now better than compact cameras from five years ago.

- OKCupid starts matching roommates.… Read more

A Tesla Model S is a very hard car for reviewers to get significant time with. The company has exactly two press cars for the globe, prioritizing all other production to deliver to patient buyers. So it was with no small pleasure when Tesla's Shanna Hendriks let me know she had an S ready for me to play with for a full day (which turned out to be more like a day and a half). I hope you'll find my take a little refreshing as this car has been talked about and bloviated over like nothing this side … Read more

The home of the Giants baseball team looms large at the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Yet for data-hungry baseball fans, this is no ordinary ballpark. The country's second-largest wireless carrier has the naming rights, which means that detailed attention to great wireless data connections comes with the turf.

Each day, thousands of fans connect to the ballpark's free Wi-Fi network, and to 3G and 4G carrier networks. Hidden in the architecture are Wi-Fi access points and 3G/4G transceivers that work with the thick bundles of wiring organized in the stadium's balmy interior.

A lot goes on behind the scenes, and I was lucky enough to join the ballpark's chief information officer and some of AT&T's crew on a tour of the network-coverage underbelly of my neighborhood ballpark. The slideshow below tells the tale.

… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A preview from Jeff's interview with Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan. Their new movie is on iTunes, on-demand, and in theaters today.

- A real Jurassic Park might be hitting the Middle East.

- World of Warcraft is losing subscribers and Activison's stock is paying the price.

- The truth about winning Olympic medals and the subsequent taxes.

- Watch CNET Update every week day and follow the show and Bridget on Twitter!… Read more

JAMESTOWN, Calif.--Stephanie Tadlock is a steam nerd.

For years, Tadlock has been a volunteer at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park here in California's Gold Country, the country's longest continuously-operating steam locomotive repair and maintenance facility.

Now, as a hostler at Railtown -- someone responsible for keeping the locomotives ready, as well as bringing them up to steam and moving them around a rail yard -- she has an engine to get started.

I've come to Railtown as part of CNET Road Trip 2012, eager to see how these classic machines have been operated since well before … Read more

Without a doubt the highlight of our trip to Comic-Con was The Walking Dead Escape takeover of Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres.

Spanning across multiple levels of the stadium, the 45-minute obstacle course led us through a zombie-filled apocalyptic simulation where "survivors" must outrun the living dead or become infected themselves.

This event was no joke. We were told to stretch out before, wear gym clothes, and be sure to not leave anyone behind. Armed with our head- and chest-mounted GoPros, we documented the entire experience. Of course, not everyone could survive. So who made … Read more

The programming dispute between DirecTV and Viacom is starting to affect the general population, with Viacom escalating the issue by pulling some of its popular shows from the Internet.

"The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and "Jersey Shore" are among the popular shows no longer available online as of yesterday. Other shows, such as "South Park," remain online, and back episodes of some pulled shows can still be found on Hulu.

DirecTV and Viacom have been arguing over how much a distributor should pay an entertainment company for content. Amid that fight, … Read more

Get ready to get your game on. E3 has begun:

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, called E3 for short, has kicked off. It's the big video game conference of the year, and even though the show has just begun, it looks like this is the year of the second screen. Both the Wii U and the Xbox 360 are showing off ways to tie tablet screen interaction with what's on the television, creating a richer game and entertainment experience. You can catch all our continuing coverage of the show at cnet.com/e3.

Nintendo's press conference isn't … Read more