Americans were once again a witness to tragedy this week, this time in the sturdy midwestern city of Indianapolis. Police are still in the thick of their investigation, but some of the facts have been made public already. Police scoured a Fedex facility in Indianapolis and interviewed scores of witnesses Friday in search of a motive for the latest mass shooting to rock the U.S., as family members of the eight victims spent agonizing hours waiting for word on their loved ones. Authorities identified the shooter as a young man in his 20s. They said they could not yet say why he opened fire with a rifle late Thursday night at a FedEx processing center near the Indianapolis airport. The shooter would turn the gun on himself as police closed in, and some are now suggesting that there may be a sinister motive. Police Chief Randal Taylor also noted that a “significant” number of employees at the facility are members of the Sikh community. Taylor spoke from a hotel where family members are awaiting word on their loved ones. He says he will stay with the families until they get more information. Eyewitness accounts seem to paint a picture of random, chaotic violence, however. Deputy Chief Craig McCartt of the Indianapolis police said the gunman started randomly shooting at people in the parking lot and then went into the building and continued firing. He said the gunman apparently died by suicide shortly before police entered the building. “There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” he said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.” As of this writing, police have not publicly identified the shooter.

It may seem like the plot from some sci-fi thriller, but we assure you, it is very, very real. Science, like most other fields of study, has long required its practitioners to push the envelope.  That is the nature of the beast when it comes to innovation, but we must also temper that need for progress with some logic and rationale. Much like Jeff Goldblum’s character laments in the film Jurassic Park, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should. That is why the latest news out of California is so jarring. For the first time, scientists have created embryos that are a mix of human and monkey cells. The embryos, described Thursday in the journal Cell, were created in part to try to find new ways to produce organs for people who need transplants, said the international team of scientists who collaborated in the work. But the research raises a variety of concerns. “My first question is: Why?” said Kirstin Matthews, a fellow for science and technology at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “I think the public is going to be concerned, and I am as well, that we’re just kind of pushing forward with science without having a proper conversation about what we should or should not do.” Scientists are defending the controversial decision, however, and doing so sternly. “This is one of the major problems in medicine — organ transplantation,” said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, Calif., and a co-author of the Cell study. “The demand for that is much higher than the supply.” “I don’t see this type of research being ethically problematic,” said Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University and Harvard University. “It’s aimed at lofty humanitarian…