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“Ecological Statistics: Contemporary theory and application” By Gordon A. Fox, Simoneta Negrete-Yankelevich, Vinicio J. Sosa Oxford University Press, 400pp | Buy on Amazon Modern ecology is less about field observations and data, and more about what you do with the data – that’s where statistics shines. However, many ecologists or biologists aren’t especially savvy in statistics, […]
In the modern world, we tend to eat more salt than we should, and that can have several negative impacts on our body, including higher blood pressure – or so we thought. But a new study on teenage girls found that salt has no negative effect on blood pressure; bananas do. “It may be that […]
A disease called black band coral disease is affecting nearly half of the reef sites researchers have surveyed in waters off Kauai and threatens to destroy Hawaii's reefs, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Sandblasting is a type of abrasive blasting which involves propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface, or remove surface contaminants. But while it is most often used to clean pipes and smooth rough surfaces, it can also have other […]
It’s that time of the year again! The 27th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest opened on April 7, and we already have some awesome entries; before we dive into them and admire their magnificence, you should know that you too can enter the contest using this link. Official categories include:Travel Portraits; Outdoor Scenes; Sense of Place; […]
Childhood bullying seems to be almost ubiquitous to some extent, and yet researchers have time and time again underlined the negative effects it can have. Now, a new study has concluded that kids who were bullied by their peers suffer worse in the long term than those who were maltreated by adults. The research was […]
Drug-resistant bacteria are one of the biggest challenges mankind has to face in the near, as well as distant, future. In a recent survey conducted by the World Health Organization it was revealed that only 34 out of 133 questioned countries have even a basic plan to combat the misuse of antibiotics fuelling drug resistance and encouraging the development of superbugs.
A coast guard patrol reported that Lake Michigan’s shallow waters are so clear that you can actually see the shipwrecks on the bottom of the lake, until sediments stir up the water and algae blooms develop. Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one that’s completely on […]
If you happened to wander in the right areas in L.A. recently, you may have noticed a rather peculiar and unique style of art: apparent geodes appearing in the cracks and crevices around the city. Here’s what I’m talking about: Naturally, these aren’t actually geodes – geodes are geological structures in which numerous crystals from in […]
While many people today aren’t even considering reading paper books, Japanese craftsman Okano Nobuo has been repairing old, tattered books and making them look brand new. Using simple tools like a wooden press, chisel, water and glue, Okano can make even incredibly, centuries old books look like they just came out of the press. He and […]
You hear about potential cancer treatments all the time, and despite significant and remarkable improvements, we're still miles away from an actual cure for cancer; so what makes this therapy so great? Well... it just seems to work - on humans, suffering from cancer, not in a lab. For one woman, it seems to have completely dissolved a big tumor in just three weeks, and overall, 53% of patients experienced at least 80% tumor shrinkage.
All those hours of leveling up your character have finally paid off - a new study conducted by Australian and Chinese researchers suggests that playing computer games not only increases the amount of grey matter in your brain, but also promotes better connectivity between different areas of the brain.
Researchers from Cambridge have, for the first time, captured a 3D video of a living algal embryo turning itself inside out: from a sphere into a mushroom and into a sphere again. The results could help us better understand the process of gastrulation in animal embryos -- which biologist Lewis Wolpert called "the most important event in your life."
A seven year old has discovered the fossil of a turkey-sized dinosaur that roamed South America over 140 million years ago. The tiny dinosaur was related to T-Rex, but had few similarities to it; aside for its size, the dinosaur was a vegetarian, munching on plants instead of terrorizing other creatures.
We all see garbage in our daily routine, be it on the way to work, school, or just on the streets. But most people just choose to ignore it; after all, what difference could one man possibly do? Well, Tommy Kleyn didn’t think like that when he was walking pass a polluted river to work. He […]
We've all had days when we've felt invisible metaphorically, but Swedish researchers have taken it to the next level - they've made a man actually feel like he's invisible.
Folds are some of the most common geological phenomena you see in the world – a geological fold occurs when planar (usually sedimentary) layers are curved and/or bent, permanently deformed due to outside pressure. Folds’ sizes can vary from microscopic to mountain-sized, as you can see above. Despite being a fairly simple process (in principle), […]
In most cultures, men are typically regarded as handy and it’s usually up to them to do the handy work – it’s quite a stereotype actually, but I think it’s among the few that really stick; but a new study reveals that women may actually be much more well suited for that job. Female chips […]
A "massive methane hotspot" sounds pretty bad... and bad it is - much worse than previously thought. In 2014, NASA reported that the methane hotspot is responsible for producing the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane seen over the United States – more than triple the standard ground-based estimate. But the methane, a potent greenhouse gas, might have even more drastic consequences on the climate of our planet.
Researchers have long known that Mars has water in the form of ice, but now, after years and years of research, we might finally have the decisive clue that our planetary neighbor has liquid water on its surface. The key find was perchlorate - a substance that significantly lowers the freezing point, so that water doesn't freeze into ice, but remains liquid and briny.
Astronomers have known for quite a while that Mars has distinct polar ice caps, but the Red Planet might also have belts of glaciers at its central latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres. These huge glaciers are covered by a thick layer of dust which masks them and makes them seem like they are actually part of the surface of the ground.
When tyrannosaurs ruled the world, no one was safe from them - not even other tyrannosaurs. The skull of an unfortunate adolescent tyrannosaur shows signs of brutal fight; the individual was defeated and then eaten by members of its own species, new research shows.
Magnets – they come in all sizes, they fascinate everyone, and they’re extremely useful in modern society. I won’t go into a Wiki-type of article here, explaining how they work – there’s plenty of good articles online, like this one and this one – here, we’ll just show magnets in their pure awesomeness. […]
Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England claim to have unraveled one of the great mysteries of electromagnetism, and believe their work in ultra-small antennas could not only revolutionize global communications, but also explain some of the tricky areas where electromagnetism and quantum physics overlap.
The Seven Sisters are a series of chalk cliffs by the English Channel, in Sussex (doh!). In case you didn’t know, chalk is actually a porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite forming in somewhat deep underwater conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called […]
Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is one of the most common phobias humans have. But out of all the spiders that live today, really very few are dangerous - so why is it that we fear them so much then? Researchers from Columbia University believe they might have found the answer to that - and it's strictly related to human evolution.
It’s the favorite hash tag we’ve had since #OverlyHonestMethods: scientists are flooding Twitter with their own revelations and reasons why they feel they’re scientists. It’s awesome because it highlights how special and unique being a scientist really is. #IAmAScientistBecause I want to explain to people how much we all NEED nature. http://t.co/LaX9G8jAkx pic.twitter.com/5AVVPBwD6f — Mark Spalding […]
I know, I know — reading is fun, it’s hip, and it’s good for you. There’s plenty of reasons why you should read, but here, I’ll focus only on the ones backed by science. 1. Reading makes you a better person. Seriously, it’s not a figure of speech. Not one, but two (parallel) studies found that […]
It’s one of the most amazing creatures you’ve never heard about: the pyrosome. It often looks like a giant inflatable underwater balloon, or a tube-like worm, but it’s actually made of hundreds or thousands of individuals known as zooids. “One long pyrosome is actually a collection of thousands of clones, with each individual capable of […]
"Lose weight NOW", "You'll never believe how [this person] got slim", "An easy way to lose extra pounds" - big claims, with little to back them up. Diets and weight loss programs are popping everywhere nowadays, and they've done so for years and years, but does the science actually back them up? Kimberly Gudzune, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins found that many diet plans have zero or very little rigorous scientific evidence backing them up.
The human brain is one of the biggest and most intriguing mysteries scientists are tackling. It's an incredibly active, bustling place that keeps us going and effectively makes us the people we are. There are about 100 billion neurons processing and transmitting information through electrical and chemical signals and to make things even more complicated, each of these neurons has about 10,000 different connections to neighboring brain cells.
A 1,000 year old Anglo-Saxon ‘eye salve’ made from onion, garlic, wine and part of a cow’s stomach wipes out 90 percent of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) - much better than modern antibiotics. It also does a great job at treating styes, small abscesses on the eyelid.
Some areas of South America are so special and magical... that you might even find a dragon - or actually, three of them! Tiny dragons, that is, but still, it's something. Postdoc Omar Torres-Carvajal discovered three new species of dwarf dragons in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador.
In unanimous vote, the city of Vancouver, Canada, passed its Greenest City Action Plan – to become the world’s greenest city by 2020; one of their goals is to use only renewable energy in only 5 years. In light of that and other recent developments, it’s starting to feel like much of the world might actually go […]
Tomorrow's bridges, tunnels and other engineering structures might be built with a different type of "smart" concrete: Belgian researchers at the University of Ghent have created a self-repairing type of concrete.
Homo is the genus of hominids that includes modern humans, as well as other species closely related to them… I mean us. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old and it features several species (though it’s still not clear how many). Here are the modern (<0.6 million years) Homo species […]
The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and citizen scientists… do citizen science! In case you’re not familiar with the concept, citizen science are activities supported (or sponsored) by universities, organizations, institutes or governments through which everyone can provide meaningful scientific contributions. Activities can vary greatly (from counting birds to analyzing galaxy clusters), and […]
With the advancements in 3D printing, it only seems like a matter of time until it starts to actively affect our lives. Especially prosthetics may be revolutionized by 3D printing, as we've already seen time and time again. Now, a group of dentists believe they can 3D print teeth using a simple and cheap technique, only taking a few minutes for it.
I know, the title sounds like one of those scams that promise you'll lose weight - but this is all science all the way. Researchers in Sri Lanka have found a simple way of cooking the rice that not only reduces calories by half, but also provides other health benefits. The key addition is coconut oil.
A group of biochemical engineers in the US have managed to give a volunteer complete night vision, allowing him to see for 50 meters in almost complete darkness for several hours. To make things even better, they did this without any injections or lenses - only eye drops.
Repeat photography (or rephotography) is a technique in which photographs are taken repeatedly at a site to see how it evolves. It’s especially useful for glaciers, particularly because other remote ways of estimating glacial mass, depth, and rate of retreat are imperfect. These photos depict how this technique was used at a number of locations […]
China is the largest polluter in the world at the moment, and they’re also reaping what they sew. But you can’t accuse the Chinese for not trying to right their ways – at least some of them; in an effort to mitigate the ridiculous amounts of smog that clouds some of China’s cities, scientists have […]
There's good news, and bad news. The good news is that an extremely rare bunny has been observed for the first time in 20 years, but the bad news is that their numbers seem to have dwindled more than ever, and we may never see them again.
Finland, one of the educational hotspots of the world, is committed to a revolution in education: by 2020, they will move on to a topic type of education. In other words, you won't be learning about math, physics and chemistry, but you'll be learning specific topics - eliminating the "what's the point of learning this?" type of questions.
A chance discovery has provided experimental evidence that stars may generate sound. While he was examining the interaction of an ultra-intense laser with a plasma target, John Parsley from the University of York found that interfering plasma generates a series of pressure pulses - in other words, sounds.
A group of leading scientists and non-profit organizations are urging museums of science and natural history to break their ties with the Koch brothers, climate-change deniers and industrialists. The two brothers of Koch Industries, the second largest privately-held company in the US, are funding misinformation campaigns regarding global warming and humanity’s impact on the planetary […]
A shocking image went viral a few days ago, with an 11th-century French abbey completely surrounded by water following a super tide. Naturally, many similar photos followed, and many "explanations" emerged, most vaguely referencing the solar eclipse, something about gravitational cycles, and some even stated it was caused by the "tide of the century", although the "tide of the century" comes by every 18 years. So let's take a look at what actually happened.
Australian researchers have uncovered what might be the biggest impact asteroid impact zone in the world – at over 400 kilometers (250 miles)! Naturally, the crater isn’t visible today, but geophysicists have found the impact’s scars deep below the surface. Lead researcher Dr Andrew Glikson from the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology explains: “The two asteroids […]
It might look cool, but this genetic condition can cause some very serious health problems.
In December 1994, three explorers made a surprising discovery in southern France - a rumble of stones blocking the entrance to a spectacular cave, over 400 meters long and covered with archaeological and palaeontological remains, including the skulls and bones of cave bears, which hibernated there, along with the skulls of an ibex and two wolves. But it was the human traces that were most interesting...
