Recommended from Around the Web (Week ending January 23, 2016)

Instead of Computer Code, ‘Plant Hackers’ Tinker with Genetics
Genetically modifying plants—as a hobby or an art project.
—Brian Bergstein, executive editor

Being Frozen ‘to Death’ Saved This Man’s Life. It Could Save Others’, Too.
The science of bringing “frozen” people back from the brink may also help save gunshot victims and premature infants.
—Michael Reilly, senior editor, news and commentary

Nevada’s Bizarre Decision to Throttle Its Own Solar Industry, Explained
Vox’s David Roberts has a good explainer of the brewing controversy over recent changes to the policies governing the solar power industry in Nevada.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor

Why Google Quit China—and Why It’s Heading Back
Google left China in 2010 after a series of attacks on its networks and users’ data that originated inside the company. Now it’s getting ready to return—and to coöperate with Chinese government censors.
—Tom Simonite, San Francisco bureau chief

A Flag for No Nations
British artist and writer James Bridle sketches the history of the space blanket (which is essentially an energy conservation technology). This “single technology—the vacuum-deposition of metal vapor onto a thin film substrate—makes its consecutive and multiple appearances at times of stress and trial”: at the dawn of the space age, at the finish line of major marathons, in the ongoing wars in the mountains of Afghanistan, and  on the beaches of southern Europe, where space blankets are handed out to Middle Eastern refugees straggling out of the sea. “We are still pulling bodies from the water wrapped in material which was meant to send us into space,” Bridle concludes.
—Richard Martin, senior editor, energy

Largest Known Prime Number Discovered in Missouri
Dr. Cooper, at the University of Central Missouri, can be thanked for this ultimate find.
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer