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5 Mythical Heroes we all want to be like

The salt and pepper of any religion, mythology or folklore is represented by legendary figures, known to us, mortals, as heroes; and with all the fascinating legends and myths, it’s really hard to choose just five of them, which is why there will probably be an epic sequel to this. Heracles Heracles or Hercules (meaning […]

Test could give excuse for laziness

Ever wake up in the morning and just couldn’t get out of bed? Did you ever have something to do and just didn’t have what it takes to do it? Well, all you lazy people, rejoice! In may not be your fault after all. A simple test could show whether difficulty in defeating your laziness […]

The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least

When I read what Ray Kurzweil said about the future, I was just awed! I mean, coming from somebody else, it would seem ludacris (even from him, I find it really hard to believe), but c’mon, the man is one of the best futurists we have, so he HAS to know what he’s talking about. […]

245 Million Years Old Fossilized Burrows suggest Lizard-like Creatures In Antarctica

For the first time, scientists have found fossilized burrows of tetrapods (four legged vertebrates) in Antarctica dating from the Early Triassic epoch, about 245 million years ago. They’ve been conducted research there since early 2006, and it’s the first time they’ve actually found something of this calibre. The fossils are created in a relatively simple […]

It's official - The Monk Seal is extinct

The Caribbean Monk seal (or West Indian seal) has been announced extinct on Friday. This comes as a shock (at least for me – and many others), as this is the first seal species announced extinct due to human activities; now, it will only be seen in drawings.After five years of futile efforts in which […]

ZME science contest [finished]

It’s not a science contest or a fair, or anything like that; it’s way simpler than that. Here’s how it works: What can you win: Two great books: “Into Thick Air” and “Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet” – I really recommend them, as they’re a very good read. How to win them: All you […]

Everything you wanted to know about Easter Island but were too afraid to ask

Geography Easter Island (Rapa Nui in the native Easter Island language) is situated in the southeastern Pacific Ocean – it’s an overseas territory of Chile. It’s the most isolated inhabited area, and it’s famous for the monumental statues, called moai (pronounced MOE-eye) which have fascinated and baffled people for many, many years; and still, no […]

Girls love ecogeeks! No, really

If you think girls like sport cars, bling, and fancy clubs… you’re so last year! Well that’s not really what I think, but it’s what a study conducted by GM as part of this year’s Challenge X competition showed. I’m not really sure how relevant this is, but the results baffled me to be honest […]

Ice on Mars - seems like a reality

The Phoenix Lander was definitely a marking moment for scientists and researchers, who now have the opportunity of actually seeing what they could have just speculated about before. For example, just take a look at this picture the probe sent back on Friday.     Phoenix scientist Ray Arvidson said there may be ice directly […]

The Seven Wonders (of the Ancient World) - with pics

Seven was considered a magic number by the ancient Greeks. So when it came to naming the most impressive constructions mankind had achieved at the time, it was a must that they settle on just seven. The historian Herodotus and the architect Callimachus of Cyrene made these lists, but their writing remained only as references. […]

Obtaining 2 dimensional time - fact or fiction?

For almost a century, scientists have been trying to figure out what’s good and what’s bad about Einstein’s vision of the universe. Blending the traditional view of physics with the bizarre almost impossible to understand world of quantum physics is no easy task – for anybody. It’s due to our current understanding of these phenomena […]

Scientists heat matter to hotter than surface of the Sun

  Think about the hottest thing that comes to your mind; probably, 90% of people would answer the Sun. But what if you found out that some scientists in Oxfordshire have heated matter to 10 million Celsius, hotter than the surface of the Sun, marking a major landmark in research, you’d probably change your mind. […]

How are rainbows made? The colorful physics behind

What are Rainbows? Rainbows are some of the most spectacular phenomena in nature; they’ve fascinated and stimulated our imagination since the dawn of mankind, and continue to do so to this day. There are all sorts of legends surrounding them, from the treasure at the end of the rainbow to the house of gods for which […]

Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation

Photo by net_efekt In what is a laudable action, Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. This comes after honeybees have had numerous things to suffer from – from climate change to pesticides and diseases which caused millions or even billions of deaths. The German […]

Phoenix Spacecraft lands on Mars

The ball aproaches the field and… touchdown! NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander survived the fiery dive into Mars’ atmosphere Sunday to make a three-point landing in the planet’s arctic regions. This is absolutely a fantastic achievement which included an impressive amount of work and so many people that struggled for this common magnificent objective. “It looks […]

Cats to prevent allergies and asthma development

    A study conducted by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health showed that cat ownership probably has a very good effect on young children of ages up to 5 years. The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. […]

Despite efforts, Creationism Creeps into U.S. Classrooms

    If we were to state the obvious, there are 2 sides: creationists and evolutionists. Creationists are mostly religious people, and they believe humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity. Of course, evolutionists accept the scientific theory of biological evolution by natural selection or genetic […]

Sleep deprivation makes it hard to make sense of what we see

    It’s still unclear how sleep deprivation affects us, as there are still so many things scientists have failed to understand about sleep itself. But now, neuroscientists at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have shown for the first time what happens to the visual perceptions of healthy but sleep-deprived people who struggle […]

The dawn of the mamimal? MPs back creation of human-animal embryos

    British scientists have received the green light to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons rejected a ban yesterday. Already a wave of contradictions and the scientific world is divided into two camps. An amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was rejected […]

Technique Images Brain Activity When We Think Of Others

Just like when you lie certain things happen in your brain, the same thing happens when you think something about somebody. But what happens in our brain when we judge people or at least when we make an idea about someone? Those (and many other) questions have been tackled by MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe. Her […]

HIV Infection Stems From Few Viruses - New Light Shed

Photo by out of rhythm A recent study has shown one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) unprecedented detail. They analyzed just the sexually transmitted version. Scientists found that among billions of HIV variants only a few lead to sexual transmission. George M. Shaw, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the UAB […]

What are Einstein's true beliefs about religion and science?

  I really hope everybody knows who Einstein is, and many people know why he is famous and how he left is mark in the scientific world. Still, aside from his brilliant results in physics (mostly), he is also very well known for his aphorisms, metaphors and overall interesting way of expressing himself. I’ve always […]

Black holes not black at all?

Let’s start with the beginning, shall we ? A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. That means that electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the […]

Science ABC: why are emotional memories of traumatic events so strong?

  Photo by ±‡ U a € ï ¥ a H ‡± Life has ups and downs, reminding more or less of an emotional rollercoaster; but some memories stay in your memory way longer than the others. Emotional memories of traumatic life events (physical or mental), especially cases of accidents or serious illnesses are stored […]

The 4 most spectacular waterfalls in the world

Photo by Wolfgang Staudt In the previous post of this waterfall series, I wrote a list of the 5 tallest waterfalls in the world. I bet some of you were surprised not to hear more famous waterfalls or to see that the ‘big boys’ are not that spectacular – not the massive amount of water […]

Human intelligence - a luxury?

  I’ve always been fascinated by intelligence as a human trait. Smarter and more intelligent people seem to have this sort of aura that surrounds them, but how much of this ability is native and how much can be developed? Ever since the experiments conducted on fruit flies showed that the flies that were taught […]

6 record holding animals you'll never be as good as

Photo by bocavermelha Sometimes, animals are better than humans. Quite a lot of times actually, but that’s not the point here. We’re going to take a look at some record holding animals that are (or do things that are) just unbelievable! The biggest – the blue whale. Photo by Dan Shapiro. Credit: NOAA via pingnews […]

The 5 tallest waterfalls in the world

There's something special about the raw power and beauty a waterfall. There's no sight quite like it. These marvelsserve as a testament to the power and beauty of our planet's diverse landscapes. But while some waterfalls, like Niagara or Iguazu, stand out in terms of water flow, others tend to be taller and slimmer.Now, imagine […]

Breastfeeding Associated With Increased Intelligence

  Or at least this is what a study conducted by scientists from Mcgill suggests. They made the largest study of breastfeeding and the results they found were that it increases both IQ and academic performance. In the article in which the study was published, Dr. Michael Kramer reports the results from following the same […]

Special K for depression

    Well this sure sounds like a good plan to me… Scientists found out that Ketamine (also called Special K if you hang out with the right people), which is used as a horse tranquilizer but also as a club drug could ease depression. Who would have guessed ? Ketamine, which can also cause […]

5 of the world's most polluted cities

Some places in the world are just like heaven, some are just like hell; almost literally. Human activity can sometimes have devastating effects not on just the environment, but on the population too. Here’s a list of five of the most polluted cities in the world, in no specific order. Linfen, China Potentially Affected People: […]

6 ways to go green at work + bonus

Photo by konaboy Contrary to popular belief, “going green” is not something you can do just when you finish work or when you’re in the mood. It’s something that must became a part of your life at all time (when possible). Many people aren’t even close to realizing how much green potential your job has. […]

Meet the "oldest" Praying Mantis

    Well this is a bit of a stretch; the thing is an 87-million-year-old praying mantis was found encased in amber in Japan. Scientists believe it may prove to be very useful in establishing a connection between mantises from the Cretaceous period and modern-day insects.Researchers have been searching for this “missing link” for many […]

Cities as seen from space, at night

Recently, the NASA observatory published some great images of some cities. For a man looking at those cities at night, man’s work seems both impressive and insignificant. But the view would be fantastic: regular patterns of irrigated cropland, straight lines of roads and railways running across continents, reservoirs on river systems, and the cement rectangles […]

Two pictures show the progress of technology - first and finest picture of Earth

    Our life may be better or worse, our health may be better or worse, but one thing has definitely improved over the past decades: technology; and that’s a really big thing. So what better way to prove the progress of technology than 2 pictures of Earth? The first was taken from the weather […]

Mountain files: the deadliest mountains - Nanga Parbat and Annapurna

I’m going to continue with this month’s mountain theme, as it seemed to be really loved (even more will follow after this). In the previous post I wrote, with the 5 highest mountains in the world I felt bad because I didn’t have the chance to mention two mountains which fascinated alpinists from all around […]

Get a glimpse of a black hole's fury

  Recently, a team of researchers (with the help of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and a host of international telescope partners) have managed to get the clearest observation yet of the “core” of a black hole. A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field […]

Life Expectancy Worsening Or Stagnating For Large Segment Of U.S. Population

How can this be? Medicine has progressed… we have drugs for everything, surgery, etc. So how come people live less and less in a country that claims to be the most civilized in the world ? In fact, it decreased with more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000. Now, a new, long-term […]

The 5 tallest mountains on Earth

A rundown of the five tallest mountains in the world.

China - pollution crisis ??

Photo by Stefan Everybody (or almost everybody) believes that no matter what, USA remains “polluter no. 1”. Don’t take my word for it, just ask BBC’s environment analyst Roger Harrabin – he says the same thing. The industry is by far the most developed, so that would seem logical, despite the fact the China and […]

Energy efficient light bulbs save water

Photo by jago In a study conducted by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that claimed a different perspective, it was published that it takes between 3,000 gallons and 6,000 gallons of water to power a 60-watt incandescent bulb for about 12 hours per day in a year. As it turns out, size […]

Electric Solar Wind Sail to Power Future Space Travel In Solar System

Two years ago, the Finnish Meteorological Institute made public the fact that they had created an electric solar wind sail. Now, scientists believe that this kind of propulsion could benefit space travel significantly, throughout the Solar System. Doctor Pekka Janhunen who invented the sail, believes it could revolutionise travelling in space, as using solar winds […]

Bloodless Worm Sheds Light on Human Blood

University of Maryland researchers have managed to shed some light in an important matter which puzzled medical scientists and not only for ages: how iron carried in human blood is absorbed and transported into the body. Among the benefits of this discovery I’ll just name a better understanding of iron deficiency, the world’s number one […]

6 deadliest volcano eruptions

Volcanic eruptions are impressive natural phenomena; it begins when pressure on a magma chamber forces magma up through the conduit and out the volcano’s vents. Seen on the TV or in the newspaper, they’re just fantastic and gorgeous. But if you’re unlucky enough to be there… it’s really deadly. But volcanic ash can also bring […]

Bikini corals are recovering from atomic blast

Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 2.3-square-mile (6.0 km²) atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Its historical importance lies in the fact that along with more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, the world’s first test of a practical dry fuel hydrogen bomb […]

Report shows California has 99% chances of big earthquake in 30 years

    I’m not fond of alarmist theories or “bad things are happening, fast” attitude, but… bad things are just going to happen soon in California. The likelihood of a major quake of magnitude 7.5 or greater in the next 30 years is 46%-and such a quake is most likely to occur in the southern […]

Decision-making could be unconscious

What makes us different is not who we are, not what we think, but the decisions we make. That defines us, it’s what makes us different from others. But aside what you’d want to think, it turns out decision-making may be a process handled to a large extent by unconscious mental activity. A team of […]

7 animals that lived along with your grandparents but are now extinct

It's a chilling list.

Sugar-powered Cars run on Hydrogen

Green fuels are a really hot topic, with every single day bringing a new (claimed) discovery or breakthrough, but many of them are just minor improvements. Still, every once in a while you hear about something that sounds really promising (like green gasoline). Now it seems that chemists are describing development of a “revolutionary” process […]

How aztecs did the math

The Aztecs were the dominant civilization in Mexico for several hundred years, when their “reign” was stopped by the Spanish in the early 1500s. An astonishing thing about them (among others) is the fact that they left behind really extensive mathematical writings, intriguing scholars ’til this day. Two manuscripts in particular have been object to […]
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