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A nurse’s tender loving really does ease the pain during a medical procedure, and grandma’s cookies really do taste better when they’re made with love. This new study conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland might have numerous real-world applications, from medicine to parenting and business. “The way we read another persons intentions changes […]
Using a technique called ‘gravitational lensing’, astronomers were able to spot a dwarf galaxy, some 10 billion light years away, which they believe is made out mostly of dark matter. It is only the second ‘black dwarf’ ever found – why there are so few of them is one of the biggest questions in astronomy. […]
A team of archaeologists from Egypt and Switzerland unearthed the 3100 year-old tomb of a female singer in the valley of the kings – a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found there. This was published on numerous sites with faulty information, reporting that the tomb was 1100 years old (like […]
The increasing amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in oceans is literally driving fish crazy, according to an Australian researcher. Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University explains that the CO2 interferes with their ability to hear, smell, and swim – the most important things for […]
An international team of scientists showed that simple, inexpensive measures to cut emissions of two common pollutants will significantly slow global warming, boost crop production throughout the world and save many lives in the process. The climate change debate is traditionally centered around carbon dioxide emissions – one of the major problems and causes of […]
The Phobos Grunt probe, which was supposed to head for Phobos, a satellite of Mars but instead got stuck on Earth’s orbit, found its inglorious ending, crashing into the Pacific, marking an ill-fated bid of restoring the glory to the Russian space program. Russian officials declared they will find and punish the officials responsible for […]
Measuring only a fraction of a coin, these tiny frogs were discovered hopping around in the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea. But small as they are, they have really big names: Paedophryne amauensis and Paedophryne swiftorum are the smallest vertebrates found so far, according to the report published in PLoS one. Until now, that […]
This is truly one of the days when you could feel ashamed to be human. According to reports, loggers in Brazil captured an 8 year old girl from one of the Amazon’s last tribes and burned her alive, in an attempt to force tribes out of the territory. Indigenous people from the Amazonian basin have […]
It seems more and more evidence points towards marijuana not being such a bad thing; now, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco disproved one of the major concerns regarding smoking some ‘belvedere’, concluding that it doesn’t harm the lungs in any way. The study, which was published in the Journal […]
A team of researchers predicted the next big thing in the world of particle physics: super symmetry, or Susy. The Higgs boson is the standing stone of modern particle physics, but it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding our Universe, and according to Howard Baer, Homer L. Dodge Professor of […]
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists agreed that the world is less safe than it was two years ago – just 5 minutes to midnight. Let me tell you what this is about. When the atomic bomb was created, by people in all levels of academia and research, people were stunned by the amount of […]
Galaxy clusters are the biggest stable structures in our Universe that we know of, typically containing 50 to 1000 galaxies. El Gordo Seven billion light years away and two million billion times heavier than our Sun lies El Gordo – which is Spanish for ‘the fat one’. Astronomers reporting at the 219th American Astronomical Society […]
Astronomers have created the most accurate and comprehensive map yet of the universe’s dark matter, finding it spread in a spider web around areas which would otherwise seem not interesting. It has long been theoretized that the Universe is made out of 85% dark matter, because judging only by the amount of visible matter… the […]
Found in the tropical landscapes of Brazil (where else?), Philcoxia minensis has developed quite an interesting mechanism to feed: it uses sticky underground leaves to trap tiny roundworms. This rare plant has a few leaves above the ground as well, but most are below; until now, biologists were unaware that plants could actually feed like […]
Germany keeps setting a right example of how renewable energy should be treated by the authorities, as opposed to the US, for example. In Germany, one of the world’s leading countries in this field, 51% of all renewable energy is owned by citizens and farmers, who use it for themselves or even sell it back […]
Scientists publish papers to tell the world about what they’ve done. Sharing your results with the world is especially important in the pharmaceutical industry, so people will know if/how the drug in case worked and how good it is. But a team of scientists found that statistically, for studies funded by the US government, more […]
Moore’s law states that the processing power of computers doubles approximately every two years; as prices fall and manufacturing technology increases, researchers have now shown that wires just a few nanometres wide conduct electricity in the same way as their larger counterparts, rather than being affected by quantum mechanics – a result which surprised many […]
Life on the ISS has its ups and downs, its perks and downsides; but in February, something which seemed a fantasy two decades ago is about to happen: the first private spaceship will ‘visit’ the International Space Station, marking the start of a new era in spaceflight. The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch […]
It’s been a fantastic year, and another one that ended too quickly, if you ask me. For science, it was absolutely fantastic, and some mind blowing discoveries were made, including earth-like planets, the hunt for the Higgs boson, fight against cancer, earthquakes, and many, many more. Here’s just a quick sum up of the things […]
So some of you are already in 2012, some are almost there, some are hours away – but regardless of where you are, ZME Science would like to thank you for being with us this past year – it’s been an amazing ride, and one that won’t be stopping any time soon – on the […]
Concluding a debate which lasted for over 7 months, the US Institute of Medicine has released a report that marks a turning point for chimpanzees, our closest relative, in terms of medical research. The panel laid out some stringent rules against all current and future chimp research, installing some dramatic penalties to those who disobey. […]
There are people out there who predict that the entire life on Earth will be wiped out in 2012 – or at least significantly crippled. But if you stop just a second and think about it rationally, you understand that this is nothing else but jibber jabbar, and people like this will keep ‘announcing’ the […]
Researchers working at the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have probably discovered what can be described as the heart beat of the smallest known black hole. This comes in less then a month after astrophysicists discovered the biggest known black hole in the Universe. An international team worked on this research, which relied on detecting X-rays […]
To be honest with you, I had no idea that this shark existed until a few hours ago; who would have guessed that a shark can live so up North? Furthermore, who would have thought he could be so peculiar? According to some, they can live up to 200 years old, although that number is […]
Imagine shirts, pants or socks that clean and remove unpleasant smells themselves when hung on your balcony – how would that be? If you ask me, few things could be better! After we recently told you about the jaw-dropping superhydrophobic spray, we have another fantastic material which is reported to be able to clean itself […]
In 1926, when merchant marine captain Charles Martell checked into Massachusetts General Hospital, he had already gone down from 6’1″ to 5’6″, accusing major pain in his legs, neck and back and reporting a fine, white gravel in his urine. He was place on Ward 4, a recently opened facility focused primarily on hormone research. […]
NASA has developed a harpoon that would make even the most pretentious pirate jealous: it can latch on to comets with surgical precision, without having to land on them. The harpoon, which measures six feet tall (almost two meters) was made out of pair of springs normally used to provide the suspension for trucks; the […]
An unprecedented observation of a supernova right after its explosion has offered scientists extremely valuable insight on these cosmic explosions of biblical proportions. PTF 11kly, a type Ia supernova, was spotted in August in the Pinwheel galaxy and is one of the closest to Earth ever found – but don’t worry just yet – at […]
I recently stumbled across this study which I found absolutely mind blowing. Here’s how researchers did it. They trained 5 dogs by using a food reward system to recognize, by scent alone, the exhaled breath samples of 55 lung and 31 breast cancer patients from those of 83 healthy controls; once the dogs were trained […]
The big news about the discovery of the Higgs boson seem farther than some might have expected, even though researchers reported ‘tantalizing hints’ of the elusive particle; physicists will have to hold their breath a little longer. About a week ago, rumors started stirring up the physics world, as the people at CERN zoomed in […]
A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia blanked out temporarily in protest to SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a misleading titled act which, if passed, will change the face of the internet as we know it, maiming numerous sites – Wikipedia included. So Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder made a public poll to see how people feel […]
The Kyoto protocol is the only international pact aimed at fighting global warming; adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, it is signed and ratified by 191 states, the only major country not to sign it being (drum rolls)… the United States! Other states yet to ratify the Kyoto protocol include Afghanistan, Andorra and […]
You’ve heard about Bayer, right? They’re one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, most famous for inventing aspirin. But what most people don’t know about them is that they have a long and shady history. For starters, during World War II they bought patients from Auschwitz with the purpose of using them as […]
German physicists (who else) reported creating a Stirling engine no larger than 3 micrometers across, which functions just as good as its normal size version – with a little sputter once in a while. I read about this on several other websites, and this device was called a steam engine – which is not really […]
The physicists over at CERN set out to determine if the Higgs Boson is real or not, and they seem poised to figure that out, as rumor spreads about the possible announcement of the elusive particle. Recently, rumors about the boson exploded, and instead of cooling down, they amplified even more; this Tuesday (tomorrow, 13th […]
There’s been a lot of buzz around the planets discovered by the Kepler telescope, particularly about Kepler-22b – the planet which, outside Earth, has the biggest chances to host life (that we know of). Now, SETI will tune in and start listening to see if there are any aliens with something to say on those […]
NASA’s famous rover, Opportunity, seems to have stumbled upon clear evidence that water used to flow on Mars, a long long time ago. Opportunity was prowling around the Meridiani Planum on Mars, looking at hematite (an iron oxide) when it stumbled upon something which delighted researchers: gypsum. Why is this vein of gypsum so important […]
In a recent post I was telling you about Russian and Japanese researchers working together with the purpose of cloning a mammoth from bone marrow DNA recently found in Siberia. However, many researchers are extremely skeptical about this, including some of the world’s leading experts. “C’mon, it’ll never happen. Not in my lifetime,” said Webb […]
We recently wrote about Kepler-22b, which so far is the planet most likely to host life that we know of, other than Earth. This discovery made by the Kepler telescope sparkled the imagination of many, and people already started thinking about ‘contact’. However, even though it’s great to dream, and the planet has a decent […]
This rainbow map of the Vesta asteroid was obtained using NASA’s Dawn spacecraft and it shows that it has much more planet-like features than its mates from the asteroid belt. Vesta is a pretty special place, with lots of surprises; it has a weird history, a mountain 3 times bigger than the Everest, and now, […]
British Petroleum (BP) accused Halliburton, one of the biggest oil service companies in the world, of destroying evidence which showed they did faulty cement work in the huge oil spill which took place last year in the Gulf of Mexico. The accusation was launched during a BP court filing and it brought even more mystery […]
Don’t get too close – you might not be able to get away. Researchers have found and measured the biggest black holes discovered so far – abyssal surfaces 10 times bigger than our Solar system – and several billion times heavier. Yes, you read that right; these unimaginable giants likely devoured billions of Sun in […]
The race for finding habitable planets outside our solar system is definitely heating up. After we told you about Gliese, a planet which seems habitable enough, researchers have reported finding yet another planet, which is not too hot and not too cold either – Kepler-22b is just the right temperature for life as we know […]
Scientists from Russia and Japan searching in the permafrost soil in Siberia have found mammoth remains so well-preserved that they believe they will actually be able to clone it, using its bone marrow. Teams from Sakha Republic’s mammoth museum and Japan’s Kinki University have embarked on this quest, vowing to find how this can be […]
Mark is a former park ranger who found the world’s biggest insect so far: this giant weta is so big that it can actually eat carrots. This little critter was found on an island off New Zealand, and it’s one of the few survivors from its species, which were almost wiped out by rats accidentally […]
Chemistry’s periodic table of elements can welcome two new entries: Livermorium and Flerovium, which were announced Thursday, on the first of December by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. According to procedure, they will undergo a five month public comment period after which the official paperwork will be done and they will be […]
A Dutch researcher has created a virus so deadly that it has the potential to wipe out half of the world’s population. Now, researchers and experts seem to consider that this research is so dangerous it shouldn’t even be published; there are voices which state this shouldn’t even have happened. The virus in case is […]
Somewhere off Papua New Guinea, scientists uncovered the world’s only known orchid to produce flowers at night, only to wither down in daytime. Out of over 25.000 thousand species of orchids, only a handful of them flower in the evening, but this one, Bulbophyllum nocturnum, is the first and only one that does it at […]
A seemingly ordinary starfish robot created by scientists at Harvard has pushed the frontiers of robotics one step further by showing that it can wiggle. The soft bodied mechanism was inspired by squids, worms and starfish, and is built out of elastomers and powered by pneumatics – a cheap and effective mechanism; it has every […]
Russian president, Dmitry Medevedev, announced that following the disaster with the Phobos-Grunt mission, which was headed for one of Mars’ moons but got stranded on Earth’s orbit, officials should be punished for recent failures in the country’s space program, which are affecting indirectly the entire country. Speaking to Russian journalists on Saturday, he stated that […]
