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As you may or may not know, these are the last days of a huge UN environmental summit taking place in Durban, South Africa. So far, discussions have yet to reveal a single interesting solution, even though researchers stress that delaying action will lead to higher costs and more damage done to the environment – […]
At first, science fiction artists wrote about it and nobody gave it much attention, but nowadays, a lot of researchers are putting effort into this: inhabiting another planet; or in this case, a satellite. A group of astrobiologists have already began calculating, though more for the sake of it than for practical interest, which planet […]
Scientists from the United States and Australia have teamed up in a desperate attempt to find new solutions to the Great Barrier Reef problem, which threatens to go beyond the point of no return. They are currently trying to save disappearing species by freezing coral eggs and sperm, so that instead of becoming extinct, species […]
Researchers lately pointed out that delaying measures against climate change will make them more expensive and less effective; however, countries most vulnerable to global warming are startled by recent proposal received from rich or major emerging economies to delay a global deal to curb greenhouse gases until at least 2020. With the Herculean task of […]
Following an absolutely perfect launch with no apparent problems whatsoever, NASA’s Curiosity rover has started its long way towards the Red Planet. Curiosity and Mars The car-sized rover blasted off Saturday at 10:02 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and separated from the rocket right on schedule, 45 minutes later. The pinnacle of […]
Some astronomers have long believed that an ocean might lurk beneath Pluto’s ice, heated by isotopes undergoing a radioactive decay – but we’ll have to wait until 2015 to know for sure. The New Horizons spacecraft is set to visit Pluto less than four years from now, and it will map the surface of the […]
Remember this name: graphene. This wonder material is certainly on a lot of scientists’ lips these days, but in a few years from now, it will be on the lips of more and more people, as its fantastic properties will begin to be put to practical use. Graphene is a planar sheet of Carbon, just […]
I recently came across this interview with Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bethke, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Physics in Munich, posted at Physorg, and just had to share it, because it is incredibly interesting: Professor Bethke, particles have been colliding with each other at the LHC for two years now, the detectors have so […]
If the current pledges under the UN flag to cut carbon emissions are not improved, then it is estimated that the cost of meeting the world’s targets regarding global warming will rise by half, according to OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Basically, these things have to be done, sooner or later, until it […]
The great part of Earth’s liquid outer core comprises of molten iron, which is just swell for us and every inhabitant of our planet, because this layer generates a magnetic field which protects us from radiation which would be lethal. But common accepted theory suggests that there should also be some lighter ingredients down there, […]
Despite budget cuts, NASA is currently working on a telescope so big and so powerful that it has every change of redefining our place in the Universe. We all know and love Hubble, and not just because of all the fantastic pictures; the Hubble telescope has helped us understand so much about the Universe we […]
Searching for extraterrestrial life is no longer a dream, but a reality, and researchers are beginning to significantly narrow down the places where we should search. From our solar system, on top of the list are Mars and Mercury, surprising as that might be, followed by one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. Outside our solar system, […]
Less than a month ago, on the 28th of October, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite launched into low-Earth with the main purpose of observing our planet’s environment and climate, some 800 km above our planet. Here you can see one of its first pictures, and what a picture it […]
Amidst of all the talks and protest against stem cell treatment and companies shutting down, nature has found its own way of treating diseases with stem cells. When a pregnant mouse mother, for example, has a heart attack, her fetus donates some of its own stem cells to help and cure. Researchers started working on […]
In a move that is disappointing for many, the Internet giant has announced that they have abandoned their ambitious plans to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, thus focusing on fewer and more immediate goals. They also announced they are shutting down other seven projects, including a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia nicknamed Knol. So far, this […]
We’ve all experienced it: walking from one room to another and forgetting what you wanted to do – or get, or find. But according to a new research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky, passing through doorways might be exactly the trigger for these memory lapses. “Entering or exiting through a doorway […]
First of all, let it be said that this is not a post for kids – and for the most sensitive; advance at your own risk. But now that you’ve been warned… The world of animal sex would be considered weird by most, and it’s definitely not what you’d expect. When I was a kid, […]
Astronomers from the Arizona State University have used NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) this mind blowing map of the Moon; it is the highest resolution near-global topographical map of our neighbor so far. As you’ve probably already figured out, the map reveals the Moon’s surface, using colors to depict elevation – from white and red […]
An international team of researchers working in Italy recently conducted a study which concluded that the revolutionary results claimed by their colleagues at CERN may be faulty. They studied the same neutrino particles reported to travel faster than light and claim their test clearly shows this is wrong. The announcement was made in September, and […]
After a two year delay, almost a decade of planning, and several budget overruns, NASA’s proudest rover, Curiosity, is finally good to go. The car sized vehicle is twice as big and holds twice as much instruments as its predecessors, including a drill that will allow it to bore deep into the red planet’s rocks. […]
As the outside world looks in, it may seem absurd that thousands of Penn State students have vehemently (even violently) protested head football coach Joe Paterno’s recent dismissal. In the wake of a horrifying, decades-long child sex abuse scandal, Paterno’s silence on the matter—effectively enabling abuse to continue for years at the hands of his defensive […]
Many children dream of becoming astronauts, but for most, the dream just gets lost somewhere along the way; but that no longer has to be the case, especially considering the exciting times we are living in. NASA may have retired its space orbiters, but there are still many manned missions planned for the International Space […]
Ulan Bator is a weird town; while some people live in skyscrapers, or big fancy villas, some still live in tents in the city outskirts. But they have plants to get even weirder: they want to keep the city cool by creating an enormous urban glacier. What they want to do is capture some of […]
Earlier this morning, the Soyuz spacecraft successfully containing three excited new members for the ISS docked, thus bringing the space station to full effectiveness. Dan Burbank from the US and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are the new people lucky enough to be on the International Space Station for the next for months. […]
Fossilized moth wings, that are blue after death were yellow-green during lifetime, suggesting a colorful and creative method of camouflage. Camouflage and warning The moths lived in a difficult period, some 47 million years ago, in a period where life was still trying to fill the gaps left behind by the major dinosaur extinction; they […]
Space solar stations are not a new idea at all – they have been researched since the 1970; but as years pass, scientists understand more and more the numerous benefits this type of technology could bring – a true revolution in renewable energy. This idea might seem taken out from a scientific novel, but back […]
Stem cell research is still extremely controversial and problematic due to the numerous financial, social, and political pressures often applied on this kind of study. However, as some of the biggest companies working in the field throw the towel, others claim they will not stop their pioneering work, that bring eyesight to the blind and […]
In a week filled with bad news for space exploration, astronomers finally have something to be happy about: the Mars Curiosity rover is ready to head towards the Red Planet, as NASA makes the final preparations for a launch scheduled for November 25. The rover is currently waiting patiently ontop an Atlas V rocket, just […]
Mark Post is a vascular scientists at the University of Maastricht in Holland. His plan is to create a lab-grown hamburger, just to prove that it could be done. It won’t come cheap though – not by any standards. Post estimates that it will cost some €250,000 to assemble the thin layers of muscle strips […]
Ross Technology Corp, a company that focuses on steel products has created a new product based on the spray known as NeverWet – which aside from being useful, is also pretty cool. Now, this might not seem particularly interesting, but it has a myriad of applications; it is built from nanoparticles and it is hydrophobic […]
In a statement wrote by NASA scientists (and I can only imagine how they felt while writing it) it is revealed that if the world is going to end in 2012, the Sun won’t be to blame. A deadly fireball Contrary to what doomsayers and conspiracy adepts will have you believe, the Sun simply doesn’t […]
It’s only so often that you get to see geology in the making, and this is a remarkable event indeed. Volcanologists studying an undersea volcano erupting near the island of El Hierro announced that the volcano, which is located at just 70 meters below sea level, will probably create a new island. The Canarian hot […]
The probe, which had the purpose of reaching one of the two Martian moons, was declared dead, and it will probably crash on Earth in January, without presenting any kind of risk to populated areas. The Phobos-Grunt probe was supposed to reach Mars, orbit it a few months, deploy a Chinese satellite, then land […]
Yes, you’re seeing just fine – this reservoir is filled with millions of black balls; and it’s not all part of some joke or anything – things are as serious as it gets. This all took place in 2008, at the Ivanhoe Reservoir, when local crews put 3.000.000 black bird balls in the water. They […]
Brazil was facing a difficult decision, but the Brazilian court ruled in favor of building one of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams, which will provide clean energy, even though it will destroy habitats and the living area of several indigenous tribes. Federal prosecutors had filed a motion calling for suspension of construction of the Belo […]
The Moon still holds numerous unanswered questions, and among these, perhaps the most interesting is the one regarding its lost magnetism. Why is it that the Moon had magnetism? Now, two teams working separately seem to have found two complementary explanations. Rock magnetism It all started when the Apollo missions brought back samples of moon […]
The drama continues for the Russian Grunt mission, which had the purpose of going to Phobos and extracting samples. The mission was supposed to launch, go to Mars, orbit it for a few months, then land on Phobos, extract samples of soil and rocks, then lift back up and return to Earth. However, the mission, […]
Just a couple of days ago I was telling you about an ambitious and successful initiative to relocate black rhinos, but the situation is more dire than it appears at a first glance: the Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies are extremely close to meeting the same […]
The Vatican have entered an unusual partnership with a relatively small U.S. biotech company (NeoStem) to promote using adult stem cells for treating diseases, instead of focusing on embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican are perhaps the loudest advocates of not using embryonic stem cells; the Christian teaching holds that the life begins at conception, […]
Just yesterday I was telling you about an extremely ambitious and admirable mission planned by the Russian, which has the purpose of extracting samples from Phobos, a moon of Mars. However, the mission seems to face some serious problems right after launch. According to Russian officials, the probe is currently stuck in orbit and engineers […]
The privately built SpaceX shuttle is only a few weeks away from its first space flight towards the International Space Station, but NASA already has big dreams for the Dragon; in a presentation held last week, SpaceX and space agency officials discussed sending Dragon to Mars in a revolutionary mission astronomers have called the ‘Red […]
Seriously, just stare at this picture for some 10-20 seconds – blinking is ok; you’ll see it vanish, bit by bit. This is called the Troxler effect, after the man who discovered it: Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler, in 1804. What happens here is that your visual system constantly adapts to all the external stimuli. This is […]
In these past few decades, the US space program seemed to have significantly overcome the Russian one, with all sort of missions and studies, but more recently, the balance seems to have turned once again, as NASA is undergoing numerous problems, while the Russians are planning an ambitious mission which is aimed at the Mars […]
The black and white spotted horses found on cave paintings existed during the last ice age, some 25.000 years ago, according to a new research published by scientists from the University of York. The ancient Dalmatian style painted horses have puzzled archaeologists and paleontologists for years now, as they were unable to figure out just […]
In a bold and unconventional move, a critically endangered black rhino has been carried via helicopter over dangerous and rugged terrain, as part of the WWF‘s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project in South Africa. The helicopter flight took around 10 minutes, and the animal didn’t suffer any physical damage during this whole operation, according […]
The RRS James Cook, an UK research vessel, will spend six weeks studying the deep sea mountains of the Indian Ocean, as well as the animals located several thousands of meters below sea level. The purpose of this mission quite challenging. This year, a report published in the journal of Marine Policyfound that trawling is […]
Amid all the talk about Asia’s economic growth and their stable financial future, two major problem arise to cloud their bright dawn: climate change and pollution. With way more than half of the world’s population, Asia has more to lose than any other continent; and considering the ways adopted by some of the most developed […]
According to NASA, a large asteroid called 2005 YU55 is expected to pass at some 201,700 miles of Earth on Tuesday – closer than the Moon, and definitely closer than the Elenin comet. Now, before people start going all 2012 armageddon on me, let it be said that asteroids often pass at this distance from […]
There is still a good chance we might find life on Mars, but if we really want to do this, we’re going to have to dig a little deeper – literally. A new study conducted by NASA claims that if there ever was any life on the red planet, then it probably thrived below the […]
A fresh look at some already known fossilized remains revealed quite a surprise: they turned out to be the earliest people in Europe. From analyzing stone tools and other such artifacts, researchers have long believed the earliest Homo Sapiens to settle on the continent some 42-44.000 years ago; the only problem is, there were no […]
