Marvel fans, get ready to lock and load, because Frank Castle is officially blasting his way into the Spider-Man universe. That’s right, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher will appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the upcoming entry in Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man saga. And no, this isn’t a gritty fan edit, it’s the real deal!
Set to start filming this summer in England under the direction of Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton, Brand New Day continues the story after the multiverse-shattering events of No Way Home, where Peter Parker became the most forgotten man in the world. Tom Holland is back as Peter, joined once again by Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s ever-loyal Ned. Newcomer Sadie Sink has also joined the cast in an undisclosed role, but all eyes are now on Bernthal’s return as Marvel’s most trigger-happy antihero.
Bernthal’s Punisher debuted in Daredevil on Netflix and more recently reemerged in Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again. He’s even co-writing his own Punisher special for Disney+, proving Frank Castle is anything but done with the Marvel sandbox. His inclusion in Brand New Day marks a major expansion of the street-level MCU into the cinematic Spider-Verse.
Interestingly, Bernthal and Holland share more than just MCU fame: they literally helped each other land their roles. The two were filming Pilgrimage in 2017 when they taped each other’s Marvel auditions. According to Bernthal, he even gave Holland the now-famous advice to scale a wall and flip before delivering his Spider-Man lines. “Not that I take responsibility,” Bernthal joked, “but, you know… maybe just a little something.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters July 31, 2026. With a cast like this, it’s shaping up to be anything but your friendly neighborhood sequel.
Ever wonder what it’s like to have the worst job in the Star Wars galaxy? No, not getting Force-choked by your boss, though that’s definitely up there. We’re talking tower duty on Yavin 4 (great view, questionable bathroom situation), “visually confirming” the Death Star laser from a platform with zero guardrails, and… yes… giving deep-tissue massages to giant slug crime lords.
Watch now and thank the stars you weren’t assigned front-row seats to planetary annihilation. Safety not included.
The first blockbuster movie sent waves of panic and awe through audiences. “Jaws” – the tale of a killer great white shark that terrorizes a coastal tourist town – captured people’s imaginations and simultaneously created a widespread fear of the water.
To call Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece a creature feature is trite. Because the shark isn’t shown for most of the movie – mechanical difficulties meant production didn’t have one ready to use until later in the filming process – suspense and fear build. The movie unlocked in viewers an innate fear of the unknown, encouraging the idea that monsters lurk beneath the ocean’s surface, even in the shallows.
And because in 1975 marine scientists knew far less than we do now about sharks and their world, it was easy for the myth of the rogue shark as a murderous eating machine to take hold, along with the assumption that all sharks must be bloodthirsty, mindless killers.
But in addition to scaring many moviegoers that “it’s not safe to go in the water,” “Jaws” has over the years inspired generations of researchers, including me. The scientific curiosity sparked by this horror fish flick has helped reveal so much more about what lies beneath the waves than was known 50 years ago. My own research focuses on the secret lives of sharks, their evolution and development, and how people can benefit from the study of these enigmatic animals.
The business end of sharks: Their jaws and teeth
My own work has focused on perhaps the most terrifying aspect of these apex predators, the jaws and teeth. I study the development of shark teeth in embryos.
Small-spotted catshark embryo (Scyliorhinus canicula), still attached to the yolk sac. This is the stage when the teeth begin developing.Ella Nicklin, Fraser Lab, University of Florida
Sharks continue to make an unlimited supply of tooth replacements throughout life – it’s how they keep their bite constantly sharp.
Hard-shelled prey, such as mollusks and crustaceans, from sandy substrates can be more abrasive for teeth, requiring quicker replacement. Depending on the water temperature, the conveyor belt-like renewal of an entire row of teeth can take between nine and 70 days, for example, in nurse sharks, or much longer in larger sharks. In the great white, a full-row replacement can take an estimated 250 days. That’s still an advantage over humans – we never regrow damaged or worn-out adult teeth.
Magnified microscope image of a zebra shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) jaw. They have 20 to 30 rows of teeth in each jaw, each a new generation ready to move into position like on a conveyor belt. Humans have only two sets!Gareth Fraser, University of Florida
Interestingly, shark teeth are much like our own, developing from equivalent cells, patterned by the same genes, creating the same hard tissues, enamel and dentin. Sharks could potentially teach researchers how to master the process of tooth renewal. It would be huge for dentistry if scientists could use sharks to figure out how to engineer a new generation of teeth for human patients.
Extraordinary fish with extraordinary biology
As a group, sharks and their cartilaginous fish relatives – including skates, rays and chimaeras – are evolutionary relics that have inhabited the Earth’s oceans for over 400 million years. They’ve been around since long before human beings and most of the other animals on our planet today hit the scene, even before dinosaurs emerged.
Sharks have a vast array of super powers that scientists have only recently discovered.
Their electroreceptive pores, located around the head and jaws, have amazing sensory capabilities, allowing sharks to detect weak electrical fields emitted from hidden prey.
CT scan of the head of a small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) as it hatches. Skin denticles cover the surface, and colored rows of teeth are present on the jaws.Ella Nicklin, Fraser Lab, University of Florida
Their skin is protected with an armor of tiny teeth, called dermal denticles, composed of sensitive dentin, that also allows for better drag-reducing hydrodynamics. Biologists and engineers are also using this “shark skin technology” to design hydrodynamic and aerodynamic solutions for future fuel-efficient vehicles.
Fluorescent skin of the chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer).Gareth Fraser, University of Florida
Some sharks are biofluorescent, meaning they emit light in different wavelengths after absorbing natural blue light. This emitted fluorescent color pattern suggests visual communication and recognition among members of the same species is possible in the dark depths.
Tagging programs and their “follow the shark” apps allow researchers to learn more about these animals’ lives and where they roam – highlighting the benefit of international collaboration and public engagement for conserving threatened shark populations.
Sharks under attack
Sharks are an incredible evolutionary success story. But they’re also vulnerable in the modern age of human-ocean interactions.
Sharks are an afterthought for the commercial fishing industry, but overfishing of other species can cause dramatic crashes in shark populations. Their late age of sexual maturity – as old as 15 to 20 years or more in larger species or potentially 150 years in Greenland sharks – along with slow growth, long gestation periods and complex social structures make shark populations fragile and less capable of quick recoveries.
Take the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), for example – Jaws’ own species. Trophy hunting, trade in their body parts and commercial fishery impacts caused their numbers to dwindle. As a result, they received essential protections at the international level. In turn, their numbers have rebounded, especially around the United States, leading to a shift from critically endangered to vulnerable status worldwide. However, they remain critically endangered in Europe and the Mediterranean.
“Jaws” was filmed on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. After careful management and the designation of white sharks as a prohibited species in federal waters in 1997 and in Massachusetts in 2005, their populations have recovered well over recent years in response to more seals in the area and recovering fish stocks.
You might assume more sharks would mean more attacks, but that is not what we observe. Shark attacks have always been few and far between in Massachusetts and elsewhere, and they remain rare. It’s only a “Jaws”-perpetuated myth that sharks have a taste for humans. Sure, they might mistake a person for prey; for instance, surfers and swimmers can mimic the appearance of seals at the surface. Sharks in murky water might opportunistically take a test bite of what seem to be prey.
But these attacks are rare enough that people can shed their “Jaws”-driven irrational fears of sharks. Almost all sharks are timid, and the likelihood of an interaction – let alone a negative one – is incredibly rare. Importantly, there more than 500 species of sharks in the world’s oceans, each one a unique member of a particular ecosystem with a vital role. Sharks come in all shapes and sizes, and inhabit every ocean, both the shallow and deep-end ecosystems.
Most recorded human-shark interactions are awe-inspiring and not terrifying. Sharks don’t really care about people – at most they may be curious, but not hungry for human flesh. Whether or not “Jaws” fans have grown beyond the fear of movie monster sharks, we’re gonna need a bigger conservation effort to continue to protect these important ocean guardians.
You can chug water, sit in the shade, and pray for a breeze… but once temperatures hit a certain point, none of that will save you. That’s the terrifying reality behind a little-known killer: wet-bulb temperature.
Unlike dry heat, which feels like standing in an oven, humid heat clings to you like a sweaty blanket and makes it almost impossible for your body to cool down. At a certain threshold, called the wet-bulb limit, sweating stops working. Once this point is crossed, your body can no longer regulate its temperature, and heat stroke becomes deadly fast. No amount of hydration or shade will help. The only way to survive? Artificial cooling, like air conditioning.
But here’s the problem: parts of the world are already hitting these dangerous levels. With just 2°C of global warming, up to a third of the Earth’s land, including much of India, China, and the eastern U.S., could regularly experience deadly heat. Go to 4°C, and over 60% of land areas are affected.
But relying solely on air conditioning isn’t a perfect fix. It’s expensive, not universally accessible, and contributes to climate change by increasing energy demand. In many vulnerable areas, AC isn’t even an option. And when power grids fail, whether from overloads or other extreme weather, millions could be left helpless.
So what do we do? The PBS video below suggests solutions: transitioning to clean energy, redesigning cities to reflect and absorb less heat, planting more trees, upgrading power infrastructure, and prioritizing support for at-risk communities.
Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s becoming a public health crisis. And the science is clear: unless we act now, “too hot to handle” might become “too hot to survive.”
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So you thought playing the bad guy would be fun, huh? Dark powers, intimidating armor, moral freedom, finally telling every NPC exactly what you think of them… and then suddenly you’re ugly crying over a decision that you just can’t make.
Watch now and remember: just because the game gives you the option, doesn’t mean your heart can handle it.
Remember when being a kid meant risking your tongue for bragging rights? One moment you’re chilling at recess, the next you’re halfway through a dare to eat five Warheads at once while your friends chant like you’re entering the Sour Hunger Games.
But were these tongue-destroying, face-contorting candies actually dangerous or just the stuff of sour urban legend? In the following episode of Weird History Food, the Youtube channel takes a dive into the saga of Warheads, and yes, there’s science, fire, and possibly tongue road rash involved.