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Gaia is an unmanned space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) which aims to catalog approximately 1 billion astronomical objects (mostly stars), about 1% of the Milky Way population. Gaia will provide a trove of valuable and spectacular data, including a precise three-dimensional map of astronomical objects throughout the Milky Way and map their […]
Austrlian researchers have successfully developed transparent, ultra-thin, foldable solar cells.
The Cariboo Regional District has released troubling video of what can already be called a full-scale environmental disaster following the release of five million cubic meters of effluent from a tailing pond at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine near Likely, B.C., on Monday. Mount Polley is an open pit copper/gold mine with a […]
Beijing and the surrounding area will ban coal by the end of 2020, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. It’s not much, but it’s a start – about 1% of the Chinese population lives in that area, and over one quarter of the energy they use comes from coal, so banning it is […]
Mind blowing timelapse video of a Rose of Jericho blooming back to life after being exposed to moisture for just a few hours - also with scientific explanation.
Researchers have found a cheap and quick way of producing peptides in a laboratory. Producing one of the body's natural defenses against cancer and then implanting it into patients can prove pivotal in the fight against cancer.
Scientists have "reprogrammed" skin cells to act as neurons and then successfully implanted them into the brain of mice. After 6 months, the new nerve tissue was fully functional and there was no sign of rejection or other side effects.
While looking for some Nautiloid representations, I came across a graphical rendering contest from earlier this year, organized by the CG Society. The task was simple – starting from a base model, colorize them and make them your own. The results are stunning (these are the winning illustrations, created by Dirk Wachsmuth): “I would like […]
Geologists working in New Zealand have shown, through isotopic analysis, that rainwater can infiltrate down to 6-8 km, in the lower ductile crust.
Scientists have figured out why a small percentage of people require less than six hours of sleep, whereas the vast majority of humans need at least 8 hours a night to thrive.
Colorado is averaging 2 oil spills per day, but oil companies aren't obliged to inform residents - even if the surface or ground water is polluted.
Big oil companies invest big chunks of their profits (which are bigger than many countries’) into climate change denial. As I wrote a while ago, 9 out of 10 top climate change deniers are linked with Exxon Mobil, the biggest private oil company. Still, there are some brilliant scientists working for oil companies, and they […]
The UN released the Human Development Index for 2014, and it's bad news for the United States - which come in at the 28th place, with huge social and wealth inequality.
Ice melting means waves have more room to develop and grow, and scientists aren't really sure what the consequences will be.
For the first time, geophysicist in New Zealand will place seismic sensors deep into a geological fault to record the build-up and occurrence of massive earthquakes, potentially giving crucial information about one of the biggest faults in the world. It’s hard to say anything after such an insightful and well explained video. The Alpine Fault […]
Reporting in PLOS Medicine, researchers found that for every 1000 children who received the vaccine, 800 malaria cases can be prevented. While this is not yet sufficient to eradicate the disease, it is the closest scientists have gotten to a malaria vaccine. Malaria affects millions of people every year throughout the world, claiming just under […]
Babies can learn what to fear from the first days of life simply by smelling their distressed mothers, a new study has shown. This doesn’t only work after the pregnancy, but also during it and even before – if a mother experiences something specific which makes her fearful. It’s the first direct observation of this […]
The geysers on the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus have been counted and mapped, strengthening theories that Enceladus is one of the best extraterrestrial places in our solar system to look for life. Earth is not the only place in our solar system which holds water. For example, Enceladus also has liquid oceans – albeit […]
British researchers from the University of Bradford have developed what can potentially become a universal blood test for cancer. The test will enable doctors to confirm or rule out cancer in patients who are presenting symptoms, and even those with no symptoms at all. The test proved successful, as the team tested it on 200 […]
A couple of weeks ago we were telling you about a study which showed that not only do fish feel pain, but they also multi task and even have cultural traditions. We liked it so much, that we included Culum Brown, the study leader, in our list of featured researchers. He was kind enough to […]
Look at this image – what’s the first word you see? According to some (unscientific) sources, 9 out of 10 people see the same word. This has been spammed all over the internet and even snuck its way into some medical and psychological cabinets, but I had a feeling it’s hogwash – and you (yes, […]
For 50 years, Raju the elephant was abused. He was shackled, held in spiked chains, his spirit and his body purposely broken. But that all change when finally, he was rescued by wildlife conservationists. When he realized that he was being saved, the elephant was so emotional that he started crying. “They [the rescue team] […]
We’re always in contact with microbes, but we’re not always happy about it. However, I have a feeling that these hand-cut microbes are an exception. Artist Rogan Brown just completed work on his latest paper artwork titled Outbreak, a piece he describes as an exploration “of the microbiological sublime.” It took him over four months […]
Scientists have identified the fossilized remains of what they believe to be the the largest flying bird. The species, now long extinct, had an estimated wingspan of 7-8 meters (20-24 feet) – twice as big as the royal albatross, today’s largest flying bird. Interestingly enough, the bird was initially unearthed in 1983 near Charleston, South […]
This year, Oklahoma already had over 230 earthquakes with a magnitude of over 3. In 2008, the average number was 1! It seems quite unlikely for such a dramatic change to happen naturally, especially without other geological indicators. Many geologists and seismologists suspected that this was connected with the recent oil explorations in the area, […]
The piglet squid measures only a few centimeters across, and it’s one of the cutest animals out there! It can be found in virtually all oceans in the deep water, over 100 meters deep. Due to its tiny size and deep water habitat, the piglet squid is actually not that well studied and understood. […]
Humans tend to “see” patterns in winning and losing streaks in situations which are actually random. A new study has shown that this “hot hand bias”also occurs in non-human monkeys. “Human decision-makers often exhibit the hot-hand phenomenon, a tendency to perceive positive serial autocorrelations in independent sequential events. The term is named after the observation […]
Penguins are amazing creatures, living in some of the harshest conditions in the world. They have an extremely sociable behavior for birds, they have big egos, busy sex lives, and they also commit suicide. We don’t know why this happens. Sometimes, some penguins just head on to the middle of the icy desert, far away […]
If you look at this drawing, it seems like a normal (maybe a bit old school) depiction of a shipwreck. But when you put a cylindrical mirror in its center, you end up with a picture of Jules Verne. Holy mother of all techniques! I have no idea how you would do a thing like […]
The blanket octopus is truly a remarkable creature. It exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism – while the males are only a few centimeters long, the females grow up to a whopping 2 meters. Unfortunately, they’re rarely seen and studied, so there’s still some mystery about the evolution of this dimorphism, but it’s known that males have […]
Snake Island – or as it’s known by its official name, Ilha da Queimada Grande is a 430,000-square-metre island some 30 km off the coast of São Paulo, Brazil. It’s famous for (you’ve guessed it) snakes! But this is not your average snake population, this is off the charts – it’s estimated that there’s over one snake per […]
Defects in fracked oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania much more likely to leak methane in shale wells throughout the state, a new study concluded. The study analyzed more than 75,000 publicly available state environmental compliance records for about 41,000 oil and gas wells dug in 2012, where the oil industry has been extracting oil from the Marcellous […]
The Mima mounds are low, flattened, domelike, natural mounds covered with vegetation, covering the landscape in an apparent pattern; they are most noticeable in the prairies in Washington, but appear in several places in the world. Aside from the fact that they look really interesting, there’s something about them which makes them really special: we don’t […]
It’s a trend that has taken a chimp group by storm: a blade of grass dangling from an ear. All the cool chimps are doing it and, well, you’re not cool if you don’t do it! It’s the first time when chimps have created a tradition with no practical and discernible purpose – in other words, […]
We talk a lot about science and research, but we don’t spend enough time talking about the people who actually do the research. In case you haven’t followed our previous feature, here is where we share some of the most interesting studies from the week, and share a bit of information about the scientists who […]
What we’re seeing here is an ammonite fossil. Ammonites are an extinct group of marine invertebrate animals which were basically ubiquitous throughout the Mesozoic, but went extinct after it. Finding an ammonite fossil is therefore not particularly rare, and they can be found in many places of the world. What makes it special is the fact […]
Corals have been around for hundreds of millions of years, but even before them, 550 million years ago, animals were building reefs. A new study has found that Cloudina, the first animals to have hard shells built reefs too. Cloudina lived towards the end of the Ediacaran period – the last geological period of the Proterozoic Eon, immediately […]
The Moon and sleep For centuries, people have thought that the Moon affects sleep patterns. But does it really? Many people report increased sleepiness when there is a full moon, and there have even been some studies linking the Moon with sleep patterns. However, a new study conducted by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of […]
Chimps prefer silence to all types of Western music(even classical music), but that doesn’t mean they don’t like music at all. A new study published in the American Psychological Association found that chimpanzees like traditional African and Indian music. “Our objective was not to find a preference for different cultures’ music. We used cultural music from […]
Researchers have detected the smallest force ever recorded – 42 yoctonewtons – using a system of super-cooled atoms. Yocto-what? The Newton, named after sir Isaac Newton, is the international unit of measure for force. 1 Newton is equal to 1 kilogram times 1 meter over 1 second square (1N = 1 kg * 1 m […]
A new study has shown that neurotoxic pesticides blamed for the huge drop in bee numbers are also equally affecting butterflies, worms, fish and birds. Killing the Bees Analyzing two decades of research on the topic, they found out that two classes of pesticides – neonicotinoids and fipronil – show “clear evidence of harm”. “We are witnessing […]
A while ago, we were telling you about the discovery of a huge exoplanet – a gas giant, found just 155 light years away from Earth. The head researcher behind that study was Marie-Eve Naud. Her main research field is the detection and characterization of exoplanets, with a focus on astrobiology. She was kind enough to talk […]
When theoretical chemists are potrayed in the media, it’s usually not for their musical experiences – but that’s exactly what happened to Dr David Glowacki, a Research Fellow at the Royal Society, affiliated with Stanford. Glowacki was kicked out of a classical music concert for attempting to crowd surf during a performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” Everything started […]
Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria in a village named Tragöß. During the winter, Grüner lake is just like any other lake, nice and calm, surrounded by a county park. However, it is surrounded by mountains, and during the spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the basin of land below […]
Using fMRI machines to peer into the brains of artists is not really a new idea, we’ve even done it to animals as well, so I was quite surprised to see that no one used them to analyze writers as they go through their creative process. But this is exactly what German researchers did now – […]
Last month, the Niels Bugge Cartoon Award asked illustrators and cartoonists from around the world to submit drawings based on a basic theme: climate. Oceans are in our hands,” they proclaimed, and participants from all around the world put forth their best interpretations (often satyrical) of the current climate situation. You can check their website to […]
In the past years, several types of invisibility cloaks have been developed, hiding objects not only from light, but also from sound and even heat. But this is the first time an invisibility cloak for touch has been developed. Recently, we’ve written quite a lot about invisibility cloaks – how they work, how they can be […]
Taking food away from C. elegans in larval stages suspends their development; while they still wiggle around and look for food, they are in a state of arrested development. However, when food becomes plentiful again, they start to develop normally – but live twice as long. This remarkably simple way of achieving longevity is not entirely surprising. It […]
Astronomers have discovered a previously unspotted geological feature on Saturn’s moon, Titan. Pictures taken by the Cassini probe revealed a transient geological feature – a “magic island”. Now you see it, now you don’t The bright, mysterious object was seen in Ligeia Mare, the second-largest sea on Saturn’s moon Titan. But Cassini took pictures of […]
A month ago, on May 25, a large mudslide rushed down a Colorado mountain near the town of Collbran covering an area three miles long and one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide. It claimed the lives of three ranchers, caused a small earthquake and covered an area three miles long and one-half to three-quarters of a mile […]
