Lite Brite, Schmite Brite: At first, I thought sciencists were jonesing on a scatological gene-splicing tip – “And for our next trick, we will breed pigs with break away tails! And then cows with incisors! Sharks with opposable thumbs! Ha ha!” But instead, our Jr. Dr. Moreaus mixed butterfly DNA with jellyfish DNA – the process is called germ-line transformation – to aid in their research of butterfly wing patterns. In case you’d like to conduct your own pattern research, here’s a Java applet for your tessellating pleasure. (BBC News link courtesy of humanitarian Warren Ellis.)