Andrei Mihai ZME Science

$42,000 Prosthetic Hand OutPerformed By $50 Printed Cyborg Beast

Over the last few months, we’ve written a lot about some fantastic 3D designs which can be very useful in medicine – a cranium replacement, 3D printed skin, and especially bone and limb prosthetics. Now, 3D universe, a website dedicated to 3D printing, published an article comparing a $42.000 conventional prosthetic, with a $50 3D […]

Facebook activism rarely goes deeper than a single click

While there’s nothing wrong in getting involved in Facebook campaigns… there’s nothing inherently good either. According to a new study, viral causes/pledges/petitions that spread via social media rarely go deeper than a single click on the “Like” button. Apparently, social media’s ability to mobilize the masses into action has been overrated – at least when it […]

Grand Canyon Geology Lesson - brought to you by NASA

The Grand Canyon is a favorite for tourists all over the world – but if you think it’s cool to see it from the ground level, you haven’t seen it from above – the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona is also a favorite for astronauts shooting photos from the International Space Station. The Grand Canyon is […]

Scientists get paralysed patients to move again by zapping the patients' spine with electricity

For people who become paralyzed after a spinal cord injury, the result is usually a life sentence of paralysis. However, science is here – once again – to save the day, as researchers report that they helped paralyzed patients regain movement after zapping their spine with electricity during physical training. Previously, they reported that one individual who […]

Scientists discover the animal kingdom’s first ‘female penis’

A female insect has developed a spiky penis which it uses to get in charge . It’s a role reversal, basically: not only do the females have a penis, but the males have a vagina. The males still have sperm, but the female extracts it from the male vagina using its penis. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? […]

NASA reports the first Earth-sized Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

Remember a few days ago, when I was telling you about the big conference NASA had planned for today? Well, they sure didn’t disappoint! The team of astrophysicists from the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center have just reported a major milestone: for the first time, they have found an Earth-sized planet at the right distance […]

NASA spots 5 volcanoes erupting at the same time in Russia

Remote, cold, rugged, and fiedy – that’s the Kamceatka Peninsula for you! Out of all the 1,550 volcanoes that have erupted in the recent geologic past, 113 are found on Kamchatka. Of those, 40 Kamceatkan volcanoes are active, either erupting now or capable of erupting anytime, without any notice. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured […]

The man who gave up money and lives in a cave in Utah

A while ago, we were telling you about the Iranian man who lives alone in the desert and hasn’t washed in 60 years; today’s story is similar, but very different. New footage has revealed insight into the life of Daniel Suelo – the man who has chosen to live without money for the past 12 years […]

GeoPicture of the Week (2): Volcanic eruption seen from the space shuttle

In this incredible capture taken on 30 September 1994, we see a major eruption of Klyuchevskaya Sopka as seen by the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It is yet another testament of the immense power that volcanoes have, as the ash rose 60.000 feet into the air (almost 19.000 meters) and spread as far as 640 miles […]

Toyota confirms confirms fuel cell launch for 2015; zero local emissions and 500-mile range

Toyota has officially announced that it will launch a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car in 2015, but said sales volumes would be limited. The company announced they will use a high-density fuel stack which will have the potential to cover 500 miles on a single fuel tank. The technology will take a while to be implemented and accepted […]

Nanoparticles make turkey eggs microbe-resistant

Australian brush turkeys incubate their eggs in places most animals would stay clear of: moist piles of rotting vegetation. There are some advantages to this approach, most notably that the heat released by the microbes keeps the eggs warm but those same microbes can also get through eggshells and kill the embryos. However, even though the risks […]

Ancient throwing: archaeologists find a contract to "fix" a wrestling match in Ancient Greece

Prostitution may or may not be the oldest job in the world, but rigging goes a long way too. Researchers have recently deciphered a Greek document that shows an ancient wrestling match was fixed. The document, which was dated from the year 267, is a contract between two teenagers who had reached the final of a very […]

Two children have a gene mutation which protects them from many viruses, including influenza, hepatitis C and HIV

A new study on which a swarm of scientists worked on showed that two children (an 11 year old boy and a 6 year old girl) have a mutation which greatly reduces viral replication in HIV, dengue fever, herpes simplex virus type 2 infection, and hepatitis C – effectively protecting them from the viruses. The two […]

Over 70% of sea otters have H1N1 swine flu, and researchers don't know how they got it

Sea otters have entered a select, but unfortunate club: they joined the ranks of ducks, chickens, pigs, whales, horses elephant seals and humans – all of which can contact the influenza. According to a new study conducted by the US Geological Survey and the CDC, sea otters living in a remote area in Washington state were found to […]

Sperm RNA carries marks of trauma

Scientists have shown that trauma can leave epigenetic marks – chemical changes that affect how DNA is expressed without altering its sequence. Basically, your traumatic experiences genetically affect your offspring. Scientists have recently focused on the long term after effects of trauma, finding them to be numerous and diverse. The offspring of traumatized people are at […]

Harmless bacteria turned deadly just 30 years ago - now, it kills 500.000 every year

It’s a truly terrifying story, and a truly terrifying disease. The flesh-eating culprit in question is called GAS, or Group A β-hemolytic streptococcus, a highly infective bacteria. Apart from causing the flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis, GAS is also responsible for a range of less harmful infections. But like most bacteria, it was harmless at one point in its […]

NASA to host conference to announce a (big?) discovery made by Kepler

NASA will host a news teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, April 17, to announce a new discovery made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope. NASA hosts conferences all the time, what makes this one so special? Well, two reasons: first of all, there’s a big paper published in the […]

Study concludes: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

Oligarchy vs Democracy Democracy is a pretty familiar term, at least it should be! Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally (either directly or indirectly) in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. Technically, all citizens are equal – they all have one vote, they all have the same rights. Democracy […]

French students develop the world's first 3D printing tattoo machine

Three French students transformed a 3-D printer — a MarkerBot Replicator 3D printer, to be exact, into a tattoo machine! So we can now add “makes tattoos” to the impressive list of things 3D printers can do! It all started with an idea that came to Pierre Emm, a young student in France, while he […]

True Blood redux - artificial blood to be manufactured in factories

A few months ago we were telling you about the researchers from Transylvania, Romania, who developed artificial blood. Now, the production of blood on an industrial scale could become a reality as other researchers found a way to develop artificial blood from patients’ stem cells. Marc Turner, the principal researcher in the £5 million programme funded […]

Graphene speakers easily outperform traditional designs

I feel like a broken record – graphene is awesome at this, graphene is awesome at that… graphene is just awesome! A few months ago, we were telling you about the first graphene ear buds, which were really promising, but researchers still had a lot of work to make them commercially viable. Well, they’ve turned it up […]

NASA to conduct unprecedented twin experiment: one twin will spend a year circling the Earth, while the other stays grounded

It’s something that puzzled me for years now: consider a pair of identical twins; say, one gets a job as an astronaut and rockets into space. The other is also an astronaut, but he decides to skip this one and stay home. After a while, they reunite, but are they still identical? That’s exactly what NASA […]

Glow-in-the-dark roads make debut in Netherlands

They not only look awesome, but they may actually save a lot of power. Light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark road markings have replaced streetlights on a 500m (0.3 mile) stretch of a highway in the Netherlands; this is just a test, and if everything goes alright, then authorities will implement them over longer and longer sections. The design was […]

Bing images: the January edition

I don’t really use Bing all that often, but I think that they do some things significantly better than the competition. However, I don’t want to get into a discussion about search engines and all that, that’s not what this is about. When I was using Bing, I noticed that they add an awesome image […]

Everything you wanted to know about homeopathy but never asked

Last week we described a study which concluded that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect — it was just one of the many scientific studies which found the same thing. But many people swear by homeopathy and, judging from what’s happening in the comment section and our inbox, they feel very strongly about it. So […]

A life in a pond - amazing timelapse video

If you’ve ever looked at a pond and thought “Well, not much really going on here”, you couldn’t have been further from the truth. As this fantastic video created by Daniel Stupin shows, a lot is happening even in apparently still ponds. The hidden life in pond water from Daniel Stoupin on Vimeo. If you’re […]

Parasite turns plants into fruitless zombies

Many parasites affect their hosts’ behavior, up to the point where the host can sacrifice itself for the wellbeing of the parasite; it’s an extremely cruel fate for the host, but a really good evolutionary adaptation for the parasite. Good examples are horsehair worms that reach water by forcing their cricket hosts to drown themselves, […]

First video ever of the "snub nosed monkey" - a monkey species discovered only in 2010

Rhinopithecus strykeri, also known as the Myanmar Snub-Nosed Monkey or Sneezing Monkey was discovered just a few years ago, in 2010. Their small numbers and elusive behaviors made them very hard to find, and since them, even harder to study. All the species of snub-nosed monkeys have short stubby noses, but R. strykeri’s is just […]

Homeopathy = placebo, extensive study concludes

Homeopathy is bust, it doesn’t really do anything, it’s just a make-believe treatment. Why do I have to write another article debunking it? Well, because people still buy it. People are still tricked by non-medics non-scientists into using “treatments” which are just a placebo. Homeopathy lacks biological plausibility and the axioms of homeopathy have been refuted for […]

Leopard seal gets up close and personal with a National Geographic photographer, tries to feed him for 4 days

While documenting leopard seals in Antarctica for a 2006 National Geographic magazine story, photographer Paul Nicklen had a truly fantastic experience, which he documents in the video below. Seriously, watch the video – it will blow your mind! Make no mistake – leopard seals are remarkable predators! They’re pretty much on top of the food […]

DNA nanobots deliver drugs in living cockroaches - it's a computer, inside a cockroach

The future is here. Nano-sized entities made of DNA that are able to perform the same kind of logic operations as a silicon-based computer have been introduced into a living animal. It’s every Science Fiction fan’s dream come true. The tiny DNA computers are called origami robots, because they work by folding and unfolding strands of DNA; […]

Video gamers' aggression linked to frustration, not violent games

Video games have been getting more and more attention, partly due the fact that more and more children (and adults) are playing them, and partly due to the fact that some advantages of playing them are starting to surface. Now, a new study has shown that gamers’ hostile behavior is linked to the experience of […]

The Science Behind Spending

It seems like ever since the first caveman opened up the first popup barter-based kiosk people have been trying to explain why we spend the way we do (and when we do) and retailers have been trying to exploit that information for all it’s worth. There have been numerous tests down through the years and […]

Gaming linked with brain thickening - yes, that's a good thing

Although things are starting to change, video games still get a ton of bad rep – and for good reason, one might argue. I mean, when kids are spending 4-6-8-12 hours every day playing, odds are something’s wrong. It’s not necessarily a problem in itself – some kids do grow up to be professional gamers, […]

Rare portraits of Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen – a famous Norwegian explorer, the first man to ever reach the South Pole. He used the skills he learned Netsilik people about Arctic survival skills, using sled dogs for transportation of goods and wearing animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas, which could not deter cold when wet (see below). In 1903, Amundsen led […]

The Pharmacy that prescribes Monster Spray to kids that are scared of the dark

In the small town of Watford City, North Dakota (population 1,744), the local pharmacy has a cure for kids that are afraid of the dark. The bottle looks like any other drug (more or less), and comes with this simple indication: Spray around the room at night before bed, repeat if necessary. The bottle is […]

For the first time, scientists show coffee works against Alzheimer's disease

As part of a German-French research project, a team led by Dr. Christa E. Müller from the University of Bonn and Dr. David Blum from the University of Lille was able to demonstrate that coffee consumption works against Alzheimer’s disease. With coffee, it’s a “one step further two steps back” dance. Its benefits, when consumed […]

Simple invention could save many lives - sponge filled syringe receives FDA approval

The average grown man has about 5 liters of blood – and you need most of it to survive. That’s why injured people fall victim not to the wound per se, but to the bleeding caused by it. If we could somehow find a way to stop the bleeding in a timely fashion, then many […]

El Nino likely to develop this year - Australian scientists estimate 70% chances

The scientists from the Australian Meteorology Bureau estimate that there’s a good chance that El Nino will form in the southern hemisphere’s winter (northern hemisphere’s summer). El Nino is a band of anomalously warm ocean water temperatures that periodically develop off the Pacific coast of South America. The results of this pattern are extreme weather […]

Procrastination influenced by your genes - connection found between impulsiveness and procrastination

A team of researchers from the Colorado University has found that the tendency to procrastinate is also influenced by genetic factors – the same genetic factors which are linked to impulsiveness. Before you start blaming your family for your lack of productivity, you should know that procrastination is still mostly your fault – genes are […]

This sealed bottle garden hasn't been opened since 1972 - still doing just fine

It’s 1960, a nice Sunday, Easter day. David Latimer decides to do something special to mark this day, and he starts a bottle garden in his ten gallon carboy. He poured in some compost, a quarter pint of water and then, carefully added some spiderwort seedling (Tradescantia) using a piece of water. He then placed the […]

Most convincing evidence for Dark Matter found - still not conclusive

Scientists have been analyzing high-energy gamma rays originating from the center of our galaxy and they’ve reported that there’s a good chance that at least some of them come from dark matter. This is the best indication of dark matter to ever be found. What is dark matter? Think about our universe for a moment […]

Country maps made from traditional foods

Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves, use regional foods to create physical maps of countries and continents around the world. This doesn’t mean that the food originally came from that country, just that it is heavily incorporated in the country’s diet. Exploring new places through the food you eat is often a portal to the cultural […]

Ending decades of controversy, researchers find histological evidence for the existence of the G-spot

It’s one of the more… delicate issues of science and anatomy, and amidst lots of contradicting personal testimonies and surprisingly little scientific evidence, the G-Spot remains a topic of hot debate. In other words, some claimed it exists, some claimed it’s all a fairytale, but there was no “hard evidence” – one way or another. […]

Scientist finds the worst places to get stung by a bee - by experimenting on himself. In order, it's the nostril, lip, and penis

Talk about dedication to science! Michael Smith, a graduate student at Cornell University mapped which parts of the body are most painful when it comes to bee stings – by testing it on himself! Smith’s work focuses around the behaviour and evolution of honeybees. It all started when a honeybee flew up his shorts and […]

Tobacco plant might play a role in fighting cancer

La Trobe University research has revealed a tobacco plant’s natural defense mechanisms could be harnessed to kill cancer cells in the human body. The research is still in its initial stages, and has a long way to go before it can even be regarded as a viable anti-cancer possibility, but there are some promising results. […]

Ocean discovered on Enceladus may be best place to look for alien life

Earth is not the only place in the solar system to hold watery oceans: Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons also holds a liquid ocean, albeit one that is covered by ice. However, Enceladus is still an extremely exciting place to find extraterrestrial life – not only because of the water it holds, but because water […]

Skydiver nearly struck by meteor, catches it all on film

Anders Helstrup and several other members of Oslo Parachute Club were expecting a good time, and no major events when they went skydiving in Hedmark, Norway. They most certainly weren’t expecting a meteor swooping by past them. This is the first time in history that a meteorite has been filmed in the air after its […]

Cricket virus acts like an aphrodisiac, but effectively castrates its hosts

The characteristic “chirp” a cricket makes is created when the insects rub their legs, in an attempt to draw the attention of any nearby female. If he is successful and finds an interested counterpart, the couple quickly gets down to business. Interestingly enough, it’s the female that mounts the male, but that’s less important here; […]

Lions' origin revealed by genetic analysis

The origin and evolutionary history of modern lions has been revealed through genetic analysis. This recent study suggests that the lions’ most recent common ancestor lived around 124,000 years ago. A fallen king Modern lions evolved in two different groups – one of them currently lives in Eastern and Southern Africa, the other includes lions […]

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