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Paul Barton, a 50 year old pianist fulfilled his dream, as he sat behind his piano just a few metres away from the gentle giants. He transported his piano up a mountain in Thailand – so he could play Beethoven for old, injured, and blind elephants. A lifelong dream “It was a 50th birthday present to myself, my […]
We were telling you a while ago about NASA growing vegetables in space, on the International Space Station. So far, the project has been successful, and everything has worked out fine – so it’s harvest time! In this picture we see American astronaut, Steve Swanson, harvesting lettuce grown on board the ISS. “Expedition 40 commander, harvests […]
The energy industry simply isn’t keeping up with what Elon Musk wants to do. Musk, chairman of the solar installer SolarCity and founder of electric car company Tesla Motors announced that SolarCity will acquire a solar panel manufacturer and start building factories “an order of magnitude bigger” than those existing today. This comes just a […]
Recent swarms of tiny earthquakes inside Hawaii’s Mauna Loa signal that the volcano may be coming back to life. But don’t cancel your vacation plans just yet. Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. It is the largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, and […]
How do you act when you’re at a job interview? Do you just go and be yourself, showing your true qualities and defects, or is it all a role in which you say what the interviewer wants to hear? According to a new research, sadly, the latter may be the way to go more often […]
There’s been a lot of discussion regarding the warm or cold blooded nature of dinosaurs. The traditional belief was that they were cold blooded, like today’s lizards, but an increasing amount of evidence indicated that they could regulate their body temperature, like today’s mammals. Now, a new metabolic study showed that the answer is somewhere […]
Today, Elon Must, the founder and owner of Tesla Motors announced that they were releasing all the patents they own, for free, for everyone to use. The release of over 200 patents was announced in style, through a blog entry called “All our patents are belong to you“. ” Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla […]
A class of drugs currently used to treat leukemia has been found to have some severe side effects – positive ones, that is. The drug was found to drastically boosting immune responses against many different cancers, reports a new study. The drug class is referred to as p110´ inhibitors. Recently, it has been used with […]
Whenever you’re eating a fish or some other marine creature, think just for a moment that it may actually be worth more as a CO2 storing machine than a food. First of all, let’s just make this clear: we’re unsustainably eating fish. If we continue current trends, we’ll soon be facing a massive fish crisis, […]
When you think about ‘gamers’, pretty unpleasant stereotypes usually pop to mind. You’ll likely think about young kids without many friends, spending countless hours of the day and night in front of their computer, or perhaps 30 year old men still living in their parents basement or something. However, a new study has shown that […]
What’s the most common mineral on Earth? Is it quartz, limestone? Maybe olivine? Well, if you take into consideration the entire planet, the most common mineral would be something known as silicate-perovskite – but now, that mineral finally has a name. On June 2, bridgmanite was approved as the formal name for silicate-perovskite – possibly of the Earth’s […]
The 65 year-old iconic Turing Test was passed for the very first time by a supercomputer program named Eugene Goostman. Eugene managed to convince 33% of the human judges that it too was human. The Turing Test The Turing test is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, […]
Intense light from a huge explosion (a gamma ray burst) that took place shortly after the birth of the Universe (12 billion years ago) has reached Earth, and was observed by researchers. Gamma Ray bursts are the strongest explosions since the Big Bang – in just 10 seconds, they release more energy than our sun in […]
A spacecraft from Earth is about to do something no other spacecraft has done before: take off, orbit a comet, and send a lander to it. The European Space Agency (ESA), NASA’s European counterpart has developed the Rosetta probe to hurl towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission is simple in principle, but the work behind it is […]
We’ve probably all experimented it: you don’t have anything useful or even fun to do, but you don’t want to go to bed just yet – so you just browse your computer or tablet for a few minutes… or hours. Now, researchers from the University of Utrech have come up with a scientific explanation for […]
When we think of CO2 emissions, we generally tend to think of air pollution and global warming; we tend to ignore the fact that a huge part of all the CO2 emissions is absorbed by the oceans, and the oceans are becoming more and more acidic. The process is just getting started, and it’s gonna […]
Astronomers operating the Hubble telescope have captured the most comprehensive (and most colorful) picture ever assembled of the evolving Universe. This was part of a study called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF) project. Prior to this study, there was a significant lack of data for astronomers. They knew a lot about the […]
An international team of astronomers reported the discovery of two new planets orbiting a very old and nearby star to the Sun named Kapteyn’s star; one of the planets, Kapteyn b, is potentially habitable – it has the right size, and is at the right distance from its start to host liquid water. What makes it even […]
Would you believe me if I told you that under this rusty, abandoned metal cap there lies the deepest hole ever dug by mankind? That beneath this metal seal, which measures only 9 inches in diameter, there are 12,262 meters (40,230 ft) of nothingness? You might have your doubts — but hear me out. A journey […]
With the football (soccer) World Cup in sight, many are worried about the negative environmental impact the competition will have, in a country already torn apart by poverty. But some are trying to look at this as an opportunity to help preserve biodiversity, especially the armadillo, the endemic species which inspired this year’s World Cup […]
Dr. Rainer Krähenmann is a Project Leader at the Neuropsycho-pharmacology and Brain Imaging Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital for Psychiatry in Zürich, Switzerland. He is interested in researching the neural correlates of both altered and pathological states of consciousness. Currently, he is involved in an fMRI study investigating the functional networks of hallucinogen-induced […]
The British summer has always been a subject of fascination and annoyance, for its fickle, rainy nature. But a new study using supercomputers has shown that climate change will cause even more intense storms and rainfall, with flash flooding becoming a common occurrence. The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change shows the first evidence that […]
Optimists make the most of life? A new study has shown that cynics are much more likely to develop dementia in later stages of life. Cynicism is an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio have conducted a […]
Researchers have erased and then reactivated memories in rats, profoundly impacting the animals’ reaction to past events. This is the first study ever to demonstrate the ability to selectively erase and then reactivate a memory by stimulating nerves in the brain at frequencies that strengthen synapses, the connection between neurons. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless […]
When I read this, I initially thought it was a joke – but sadly, that’s not the case. While the IPCC and virtually the entire scientific community is worried about climate change, warning about droughts and heat waves which will cause famine and water shortages, the GOP held a meeting where they decided that the IPCC is, […]
A new study reports that almost 30 percent of the world’s population (2.1 billion people) is now obese or overweight. The highest proportion of overweight and obese people – 13% of the global total – live in the United States, a country which accounts for only 5% of the world’s population. Obesity rates have increased virtually […]
OK, we’ve heard of tornadoes plenty in the last years. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve even seen water tornadoes and fire tornadoes, but mosquito tornadoes? It’s like the tornado version of Captain Planet… with mosquitoes. OK, spoiler alert: this is not actually a tornado – it’s a huge, vertical swarm of insects, so maybe even […]
OK, wasps are nothing to joke around with. They are the scumbags of the animal kingdom – they’re always up to no good. The thing is, they’re really good at being up to no good! After all, they used to grow in dinosaur feces, and they’ve been around for over 100 million years – more […]
Extinction and emergence of species are natural phenomena – but the rate at which extinction is happening now is anything but natural. A new study has shown that humans are causing species to become extinct 1000 times faster than they naturally would. Killing the world, one species at a time The new estimate of the […]
Blue lava? Not quite It’s a volcano, but not the kind of volcano we’re used to seeing. This is called a Cerulean eruption, and the blue tint that surrounds the lava comes from flames produced when escaping sulphuric gases burn. The volcano contains large amounts of pure sulfur, which emits an icy violet color as it burns, […]
I like it when people talk about climate change. I even like it when they speak against climate change – as long as they bring arguments and act rationally. People shouldn’t be forbidden from talking about these kind of things, one way or another – everybody should be encouraged to look at the scientific facts, […]
It’s time for another featore on ZME Science! We always present you the latest and most interesting research, but we don’t spend nearly enough time talking about the people who do the research. Here, we’ll be showing you not only a review of the most fascinating studies of the week, but who the people behind […]
We’ve already written about the damage done to the Antarctic ice sheet, and how sadly, its collapse seems irreversible. A new study has analyzed some of the consequences of that collapse – it could devastate global food supply, drowning vast areas of crop lands across the Middle East and Asia. The report urges the Obama administration […]
A small island, unique wildlife 1100 km off the coast of Mexico, there lies a small chunk of rock called the Clarion Island. Formerly called Santa Rosa, the island has an area of under 20 square km; no one lives there, and aside for a few Mexical sailors which come and go every couple of […]
Researchers have discovered the earliest evidence of a bird pollinator visiting flowers, presumably to feed on the nectar – if true, this means that bird pollinator/plants interactions were already taking place 47 million years ago. When you think about pollinators, you mostly think about bees or butterflies – but birds are significant pollinators too. Birds, particularly […]
The world has been toying with the idea of driverless cars for years now, but California is really taking it to the next level – they will probably make self-driving cars legel by 2015. If you’ve seen the movies with Google’s ‘chandelier’ topped autonomous cars driving down the street, you may have assumed the technology is […]
Butterflies and dragonflies with lighter colors are bettering their darker counterparts in the face of global warming. Science shows once again just how big of a fingerprint global warming has on all life on Earth – as temperatures get higher and higher, communities of butterflies and dragonflies consist of more lighter coloured species. Darker colored insects […]
The impact of the first World War is felt everywhere – on a social level, an economic level, and even on the landscape (and don’t even get me started on WWII). The Smithsonian recently published a collection of some pictures depicting this damage, which we will be sharing here. You can see the full exhibition in […]
Five hundred million tweets are tweeted each day – with so many details about the location, interests and behaviors of users, the tweets are a trove of useful information for scientists who might be, for example, looking to find patterns in human behaviors, checking out risk factors for health conditions and track the spread of infectious […]
The falling cost of renewable energy shouldn’t surprise anyone by now – all we’re waiting for is the tipping point where some type of renewable energy becomes more cost effective than conventional energy – but what if we’ve already reached that point? Portugal is one of Europe’s (and the world’s) leading countries in terms of […]
Carbon dioxide levels throughout the northern hemisphere hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history in April – the ominous threshold has been reached, and it continues to go up. Time is running out I’m sad that I was right when I wrote: The Inevitable 2014 Headline: ‘Global CO2 Level Reaches […]
The genocide had major consequences for the entire planet.
Plants can communicate with each other, signaling a potential incoming attack through an underground network of fungi, researchers found. Instances of plants communicating with each other have already been picked up through the air – with chemicals emitted by one plant being picked up by another plant. But below ground? They rely on fungi called mycorrhizae. A […]
For the first time, researchers have modified HIV virus particles so that they can simultaneously, as it were, ‘cut and paste’ in our genome via biological processes. Developed by biologists from the Aarhus University, the technology makes it possible to repair genomes in a new way. It also offers new perspectives for treating several viral infections: “Now […]
The Kawasaki disease, a strange and highly dangerous disease first identified in Japan has been traced to the croplands in China. Also called lymph node syndrome, the Kawasaki disease is an autoimmune disease largely seen in children under five years of age in which the medium-sized blood vessels throughout the body become inflamed. To oversimplify it, […]
Growing vegetables in outer space – something which science fiction readers are very familiar with, but in the real world, this is a first – NASA’s veggie growing chambers have activated. We were telling you a while ago about NASA’s plans to start growing vegetables onboard the ISS – and now, the system is online. […]
Things are not always as they seem.
I’ve seen a lot of strange Chinese ideas, but this one is definitely something else – the Chinese government is bent on building an 8,000+ mile railroad (sounds plausible) connecting China, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. that includes a 125 mile undersea tunnel spanning the Bering Strait. A report in China’s state-run Beijing Times claims the nation […]
While being taller has been correlated with success in life, being short also has its perks: a team of researchers has shown that shorter men tend to live longer. “We split people into two groups — those that were 5-foot-2 and shorter, and 5-4 and taller,” said Dr. Bradley Willcox, one of the investigators for […]
Having a small obstruction barring an emergency exit can actually increase its efficiency and limit stampede damage caused by chaos and panic. In the midst of chaos and panic, most animals clump together and act irrationally, actually reducing their chances of survival in a pointless stampede. As sad as it may be, humans act pretty […]
