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The Sombrero Galaxy is actually made up of two galaxies in one, infrared survey finds

Astronomers classify galaxies into three basic types: elliptical (flat, elongated shape), spiral (most easily recognizable and common – described by their disk shape and outward spiraling arms) and irregular (usually described by a irregular shape, typical to very young galaxies). One of the most fascinating galaxies known to man is the Sombrero galaxy, shaped like a hat […]

Rare and elusive Amur leopard captured on photo for first time in China

The Amur leopard is a beautiful leopard subspecies native to the region of the Russian far east, which since 1996 has been classified as critically endangered. Only a handful of specimens remain today, however a photo which surprised an Amur leopard in China suggests that the species’ numbers are steadily increasing, and conservation efforts are […]

Humans think more rationally in a foreign language, study finds

“Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue?” asks Boaz Keysar, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, who recently published a study that discusses this highly interesting question. The scientists involved in the study found that, indeed, counter to popular belief thinking in a foreign […]

Bowerbirds grow garden just for the sake of beauty

A team of international scientists claim that they’ve found evidence of the first non-human species that cultivates planets for non-food purposes. The extremely fine feathered bowerbirds, native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, display an unique courtship behaviour, where males build a home-like structure, called bower, and decorate it with sticks, little stones, and brightly coloured […]

Atomic-precision heat flow manipulation achieved by scientists

Scientists have described and proven how many of the world’s phenomenae function, from the very fundamental laws of Newtonian mechanics, to the discrete behaviors of quantum physics, eventually peering through some of the Universe’s most well kept secrets. It’s remarkable then, how little we know about how heat is conducted through and between materials. A better […]

The chicken came before the egg - hen lays 'eggless' chick in Sri Lanka farm

The age-old question of who came first – the chicken or the egg – has been pondered countless times, and put great thinkers throughout history in a predicament. An oddity of nature which recently occurred on a Sri Lankan farm may offer clues towards answering the riddle. There a hen gave birth to a chick without […]

New polymer coating technique leads to first-ever completely plastic solar cell and makes way for even thinner electronics

One of the cutting edge technologies currently used today in manufacturing allows for printing materials directly onto a surface to create electrically functioning devices which are very thin and flexible. The best example of such an application are organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), widely used as displays for most new generation smartphones commercially available now. The […]

The Lyrid Meteor Shower - not to be missed this weekend

A moonless night might offer the best setting for the best view of the upcoming Lyrid meteor shower in years this very weekend. The best time to catch it on display will be on Saturday night, although the skyline fireball display is set to rage on well into the following morning. The Lyrids are somewhat […]

Scientists manage to derive semiconductor from graphene - huge implications for electronics industry

Graphene has been countless times hailed as the material at the forefront of the coming technological leaps ahead in the future, thanks to its extraordinary properties and countless applications. Electronics is where graphene shines the most, though, and now scientists at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have managed to synthesize a semiconductor variant of graphene which might lead […]

Stars capture and swap with one another nomad planets

Some time ago we told you about one of the most fascinating facts this blog has ever published, namely how there are “nomad” or “rogue” planets outside our solar system, which travel aimlessly through interstellar space without having to circle a certain star. It’s estimated that there are actually more such nomad planets haunting through […]

ISS time-lapse: the best view in the solar system

It seems we’ve been privileged with yet another time-lapse video showing our marvelous blue marble planet in all its splendor as seen daily by astronauts stationed at the International Space Station. This time, the whole video was shut from the ISS cupola, a dome-shaped structure fitted with seven specially developed windows, which astronauts use for observations, amplifying the sense of […]

Physicist avoids traffic ticket by publishing a paper, proving his innocence

Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist at University of California in San Diego, was recently fined by a police officer for allegedly driving through a stop sign. Confident that he did nothing of the sorts, Krioukov sought justice like most of us would, in court that is, however during the hearing he presented a somewhat atypical piece of […]

Real-life, working Tricorder developed by Trekkie-scientist and made open source available

Sometime at the beginning of the year I mentioned in post that once stepping into the age of Terahertz electromagnetic waves (T-rays), which can penetrate any molecule and and then interpret it for identification, we will come to know a slew of new, grand applications, from surveillance , to medical, but possibly the most interesting […]

A novel technique cools electronic devices faster and cheaper

Researchers at  North Carolina State University have developed a new technique of cooling electronic devices which they claim and prove through their findings that it can lead to an increase of performance by improving the rate of heat exchange, while also lowering the cost of manufacturing. The scientists’ findings might lead to a new generation […]

Study aims to lay ground for the first 'green highway'

IBM has teamed up with Zapadoslovenska energetika (ZSE), the biggest electric company in Slovakia, for a feasibility study which aims to prepare Bratislava, the nation’s capitol, for plug-in electric vehicles. With this in mind, the companies will look at the best way to develop a  “green highway” between Bratislava and the neighboring Austrian city of Vienna, which is about […]

T. Rex relative had an extensive plumage - biggest feathered dinosaur ever found

A remarkable paleontological discovery surfaced from China recently, after scientists reported they’ve found fossils belonging to the Yutyrannus huali,a very close relative of the Tyrannosaurs Rex, which prove that its entire enormous bus-sized body was covered in feathers. This officially makes it the biggest animal covered in feathers ever found, and also forces paleontologists to rethink […]

Survey reveals how dark energy expanded and shaped the Universe

Encompassing years worth of work, the  Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) has now precisely measured the distance between over a quarter of a million galaxies. As part of the project, called the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, scientists built a massive map of all the studied galaxies so far, some more than six billion years ago […]

The most sensitive scale in the world can measure to the yoctogram (proton's mass)

While on the macro-scale conventional scales make us of gravity to measure mass, on the microscale there are a myriad of factors that interfere with measurements. Scientists at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have successfully created a scale made out of a single carbon nanotube which can accurately measure the smallest unit of mass, a yoctogram (one […]

'Smart sand' could morph into any object automatically

The Sandman would have certainly approve of the latest experimental tech to come off MIT. Researchers from the university have demonstrated how tiny computer pellets, just a few millimeters in size, were automatically bound together to form a simple 2-D shape. The same algorithm might be used in a future refined version which could allow this kind […]

IBM to develop world's most powerful computing system tasked with finding origins of Universe

Backed by an international consortium, ten years from now the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world will be built – the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). The project will consist in thousands of antennas displaced across thousands of miles, with a collecting area equivalent to one square kilometer (hence the name), that […]

Boston Dynamics' Sand Flea robot can jump over 10-meters-high obstacles

Boston Dynamics is at the forefront of robotic research and development at the moment, fact very easily attested just by checking out a few of their amazing robots developed during the past year alone, like the cheetah-bot which broke the robot land speed record, the gecko-like bot which can climb walls effortlessly or the terrifyingly […]

How many Earth-like planets are there in the Milky Way? Billions, according to astronomers

One of the most outstanding dreams astronomers and other scientists hope to accomplish is to someday encounter proof that extraterestrial life exists. Intelligent life might be extremely far off, however microbiological life should without a doubt be present elsewhere other than our planet or solar system. For life to blossom, however, the right conditions have […]

Surgeons perform most extensive full face transplant, including jaws, teeth, tongue and facial muscles

Plastic surgeons at University of Maryland performed the most complex facial reconstruction surgery to date, which included the replacements of both jaws, teeth, facial soft tissue from the scalp to the neck and sensory muscles indispensable to facial expression. The procedure was part of a 72 hour transplant marathon, aftern an anonymous donor generously donated […]

Scientists devise qubits in a semiconductor for the first time

Hailed as yet another big step towards devising working quantum computers, scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have successfully managed to generate quantum qubits inside a semiconductor for the first time, instead of vacuum. A qubit is the quantum analog of a bit. While a bit must be read either as a 0 or 1, the qubit can […]

Extreme weather from past decade linked to global warming

In the year 2011 alone, the US faced 14 extreme weather events, while Japan registered record rainfalls and the Yangtze river basin in China suffered a record drought. The year 2010 saw Russia in the midst of its hottest summer in centuries, while Pakistan and Australia received record-breaking amounts of rain, highly atypical for the region. […]

ISS crew took to their escape pods this weekend after space debris collision alert

This Friday, ground mission control ordered the current stationed astronaut crew at the International Space Station to head for the escape capsules as a safety precaution in light of a threatening space junk flyby. This is the third time in 12 years an ISS crew had to take this extreme measure. The space debris in […]

Tap into the cockroach's neural activity with the SpikerBox

Neurons are the absolute core components of the nervous system that transmit information through electrical and chemical signals. I once wondered how neural activity might sound like, and I imagined something like a huge gridline sprinkled with electricity bolts though out. I didn’t know about the SpikerBox, back then, though. It’s a gadget, developed by educational […]

Memories are stored in specific brain cells, MIT Inception-like research finds

When the brain deems an experience meaningful enough, it will transfer that information from short-term storage, where typically information like where you put your car keys or the phone number of a person you just met gets stored temporarily, to your long-term memory, offering the possibility to be accessed at a later time. Neurologists claim […]

SpaceX founder promises $500,000 there and back trips to Mars

You might have thought I made a typo and that I was probably meaning to say $500 million, but truth be told I’m only citing SpaceX founder Elon Musk word for word, and while most of you might view the man insane, what great visionary wasn’t cast under the same shadow in the beginning, only […]

Robot jellyfish that runs on hydrogen can swim forever in the ocean

After a three year effort, researchers at Virginia Tech have successfully managed to create a silicone robot that functions underwater by mimicking the  motion of a jellyfish. The robot can propel itself thanks to the heat-producing reactions catalyzed by its surface, and since it uses hydrogen and oxygen found in the water as fuel, the Robojelly can theoretically […]

Supersonic biplane design cancels sonic boom effect

The now retired Concorde turbojets were the fastest civilian airliners in the world, capable of carrying passengers from Paris to New York in just 3.5 hours, traveling at supersonic speeds. However, lack of market appeal, combined with high maintenance costs, lead to its regrettable retirement from service with no civilian airliner to replace it, not even to […]

Complete geological map of Io reveals incredible volcanic surface

Since it was first discovered more than four hundred years ago by Galileo Galilei, Jupiter’s innermost moon Io has played an important part in the development of astronomy. Still with secrets to be revealed, a team of US scientists have recently formulated the first complete global geologic map of Jupiter’s satellite. The moon of Io is […]

Human ancestors started walking on two legs to carry more scarce resources, study suggests

One of the biggest anthropological mysteries scientists have been trying to unravel is the long put question of  how did humans develop bipedal movement. There have been many theories formulated hypothesizing why our ancestors eventually switched from four limbs walking to two – some appealing, some a bit too far the edge. A recent study […]

Most detailed photo of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site released [visible astronaut footprints]

July 20th, 1969 marked the day man first set foot on the moon, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin gracefully stepped out of their lunar lander and made history. A recent photo snapped by NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the most detailed view of the monumental landing site – it even shows remnants of Neil […]

China's eco-city of the future hints towards its green turnaround

China is the most pollutant country in the world, and as it continues to develop industrially, one can only expect greenhouse gas emissions to grow as well. The country is taking steps towards its ecological rehabilitation, however. The first step was to acknowledge that it faces a dire problem, one whose consequences reverse on the entire world. One […]

Honeybee dying population linked to pesticide

We’ve reported in the past about the frightening, ever growing cases of honeybee population dye-offs of the past few years, and while no immediate or long term plan has been effective thus far, it seems at least that scientists are identifying the causes. It’s been known for some time that some classes of pesticides are […]

Earth's prehistoric atmosphere was covered in a haze similar to Saturn's moon, Titan

If you think today’s urban air, thickened with noxious smog, is terrible, just imagine how the Earth was filled in a shroud of hydrocarbons some 2.5 billion years ago. Back then, a haze dominated by methane engulfed the atmosphere such that light could barely reach the ground, similarly to what can be seen today on […]

The LINK Solar Tower Skyscraper: a green symbol in the middle of Italy's most polluted area, near Venice

Just came by this architectural solution proposed by  LED Architecture Studio for revitalizing Italy’s most polluted area, the industrial town of Marghera, part of the commune of Venice, just a short distance away from one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Quite the grim contrast, however the Link Solar Power Skyscraper offers a means to […]

Not that fast: neutrinos shown to travel at sub-light speed, refuting controversial claims

Last September the whole scientific community was set ablaze by a the controversial claim set forth by CERN scientists, part of the OPERA experiment, in which they announced that they had measured neutrinos traveling at a velocity faster than the speed of light – 60 nanoseconds faster to be more exact. The implications of this […]

No more worries - computer simulation shows nuclear bomb can save Earth from an asteroid

The plot of the Hollywood blockbuster flick Armageddon is fairly simple – a giant asteroid is hurling towards Earth, threatening to obliterate all life on the planet as we know it. A team of brave oil-drillers is sent on the space rock to diffuse the threat by detonating a nuclear warhead placed inside the asteroid itself. Apparently, a group […]

Mysterious hominid fossils found in China hint towards a new human species

An incredible find was publicized just earlier  – fossils remains from stone age people were unearthed from two caves in China. Upon further inspection it was found that the bone features, particularly skulls, were unlike any other human or early ancestor remains ever found, suggesting that the researchers may have actually found a new species […]

Earliest animal with a skeleton discovered, pre-Cambrian

The Cambrian era marked a profound change on life on Earth, sparking the rapid development of complex organisms and a diversification of the ecosystem, thus the term “Cambrian explosion“. Prior to this period, animals were simple and small, as well as soft bodied, with no hard parts to display. A team of paleontologists at University […]

Two new, small horned dinosaurs discovered

Paleontologists have recently named two new horned dinosaur species, closely related to the famous Triceratops, which were dug up from a site in Alberta, Canada some time ago. Dubbed Unescopceratops koppelhusae and Gryphoceratops morrisoni,  the dinosaurs are extremely tiny, as far as plant eating dinosaurs dating back from the late Cretaceous go, and belong to the Leptoceratopsidae family of […]

Exercising triggers chemical changes in DNA

A remarkable research whose findings recently published in the journal Cell, concludes that intense physical exercise leads to chemical alteration of the DNA, turning certain genes on and off. In fact, individuals which lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle changed the DNA in their muscle fibers almost immediately, after a strenuous 35 minute work-out. It’s important […]

Nanoscale objects created by 3D printer in record speed

A team of researchers at Vienna University of Technology constructed various nanoscale models of incredible precision (St. Stephen’s Cathedral, London’s Tower Bridge or a F1 race car), using a technique called two-photon lithography. The device which the researchers used for their high precision 3D printing is an order of magnitude faster than others such similar, and opens a […]

Women make for excellent snake spotters before their periods

In what might seem an oddball experiment in the first instance, later revealing some very interesting scientific facts, a Kyoto University researcher asked 60 women participating in a study to look at a 9-photo grid (eight were of flowers, and another captioned a snake) and identify as quickly as possible the snake photo. Women who were […]

Nuclear clocks set to become most accurate timekeepers on Earth. Only a fraction of a second lost for 14 billion years

Atomic clocks are the current most accurate time and frequency standards, capable of operating with an uncertity of only a second in millions of years. A new research currently in the work by scientist from the University of New South Wales seeks to track time with an unprecedented accuracy of a mere 20th a second in […]

MIT engineers create LED that has 230% efficiency. Thermodynamics laws still in place

A group of researchers at MIT have successfully managed to create a light emitting diode (LED) that has an electrical efficiency greater than 100%. This might sound preposterous, and against everything you learned in physics, however the system is still governed by fundamental laws of thermodynamics. This extraordinary power conversion efficiency was obtained by a […]

Navy preps introduction of robot fireman

Once flames brake loose, the close confinements of ships or subs suddenly transform into a hellish scene, claiming the lives of countless sailor. The U.S. Navy seeks to counter this deadly hazard by employing a mechanical firefighter among its ranks. Sophisticated, robust, and dexterous, this is a highly exciting project. Developed by the Naval Research Laboratory,  the […]

Gorillas are more related to humans than previously thought, complete genome sequence shows

Researchers have completed the great apes family’s genetic library after they sequenced the genes of a western lowland gorilla, joining the already-sequenced genomes of humans, chimpanzees and orangutans. Scientists found that gorillas, which share 98% of their genes with humans, are a lot more related to humans than previously thought, as well as surprising genetic differences which […]