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Here’s a global warming reduction plan that might appeal to most of you – work less! According to a Washington thinktank called the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an annual 0.5 percent reduction in work hours would cut between eight and 22 percent of every degree of warming from now until 2100. In the past few […]
Stereo sensing is a highly important skill that most animals possess that creates a directional perspective. Not all senses are stereo, however, in some animals. For instance, humans have stereo vision and hearing, however no stereo smell – the latter being a trait that not too many animals possess. The common mole has been found […]
A while ago, I was telling you about the big garbage island in the middle of the Pacific ocean, and why you should use and reuse canvas bags instead of going for the plastic bags. But here are some quick facts about reusing bags. An average reusable bag requires the same amount of energy as […]
Her name is Wisdom, and she’s absolutely awesome! She’s the world’s oldest known living wild bird, at 62, and she produced a healthy living chick, surprising the entire world. It’s remarkable enough that she reached this age, with the lifespan for the typical albatross being somewhere between 30 and 40 years, but giving birth, and […]
British researchers from the University of Newcastle have discovered by mistake (how else?) that a species of sea urchin has the ability to use nickel and CO2 and turn it into shell. The natural ability of the sea urchins to absorb CO2 could be a model for an effective carbon capture and storage system. Lately, […]
The Eurasian Jays are among the most intelligent birds studied thus far by biologists, belong to the corvids, a group of birds that also includes crows. The latter are especially gifted, as they’ve been observed making use of tools, associate faces with behavior and even recognize when a fellow crow has died. Quite crafty fellows. […]
Researchers at The Rockefeller University and Paris University 13 have been studying a peculiar, yet highly fascinating ant species called Cerapachys biroi. The scientists were startled to find that many ants who had stepped out of line and laid eggs at an improper timing were executed by other ants belonging to the same colony, in order to […]
Open-fire stoves represent the biggest domestic environmental threat today, killing 3.5 million people a year—more deaths than caused by malaria and HIV/AIDS combined. But now, cookstoves that produce biochar could provide a viable alternative, saving millions of lives and giving a boost to local agriculture. Cookstoves are common in many parts of the world, from […]
Your work is appreciated, and we are thankful for it! If you have any stories or anything at all from your work, be sure to share it with the rest of us – we’ll definitely post it. As a small symbol of our appreciation, here’s a picture of a badger and a fox cub who […]
Owls are fascinating animals, but by far their greatest trick is turning their heads at 270 out of the 360 degrees. If we (or any mammal) would attempt this, we would cut the blood supply to our brains and pass out. But as it turns out, the bird’s bone and vascular structures are smart enough […]
Water and energy are two of the things we pretty much take for granted – but we shouldn’t. Water is not infinite, and if you consume it at a high enough rate, it will run out; meanwhile, there’s a tight connection between living standard and energy consumption – and as the population continues to increase […]
Birds may not be the smartest bunch out there, but man do they know how to navigate! Pigeons can get around towns and even continents with stunning accuracy – except for a particular spot in New York. Whenever homing pigeons were launched from that particular spot, they would always get lost. They could easily go […]
In case you didn’t know, China has a massive problem with smog; the dark shroud has covered a large part of the country, with Beijing suffering for several days now. But instead of getting better, the situation seems to be worsening day by day; now, Shanghai seems to be feeling the effects of the smog […]
Usually, whenever celebrities advocate some cooky thing that supposedly does a whole lot of good, it’s just a trend or a cooky idea — but Cameron Diaz is really on to something here: she wants you to stop flushing every time after you pee. Every flush takes somewhere between 4 and 10 liters of water […]
Remember how a few days ago, the entire media and popullation of China was outraged by the smog covering a significant part of China, including Beijing ? The extent of the smog was so big you could easily see it from outer space. Well, predictions claimed the smog will dissipate in a few days, but […]
We love cats so much, with their fluffy fur and cuddly personality, that we sometimes forget just how deadly of a predator they really are. According to a new study, they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually. The study, which was published in Nature […]
It is generally believed that a cloned animal is identical to its host from where cells were initially harvested, however this may be wrong. Researchers at the National Veterinary Institute at the Technical University of Denmark have provided evidence that suggests cloned pigs are just as genetically varied as normally bred pigs, supporting the idea that […]
Oil spills, especially the big ones, can cause irremediable damage to the local ecosystem. Unfortunately once in a while, there’s a catastrophic disaster either from an oil rig or oil tanker leak, but these are the big ones – the ones you hear about on TV, since frankly anyone today with an internet connection can […]
Is someone chopping onions? Common dolphins have been seen to aid a dying companion, trying as hard as they could to support him and help him breathe. This is the first time that a group of dolphins has been observed trying to aid a dying companion; five individual dolphins formed a raft with their bodies […]
Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials in the world; it’s about five times stronger than a piano wire – and a piano wire has to put up with a lot of pressure. Researchers have long tried to develop materials which mimic the remarkable properties of spider silk, but only now […]
Presumably, of course, since this news piece has only been delivered by an Iranian state-owned and controlled news outlet, and has yet to be confirmed by an independent source. Apparently, the Iranian space program successfully launched a live monkey into space, after the capsule in which the animal was housed reached an altitude of 75 miles, […]
A newly published massive study, where some 133 scientists collaborated, revealed that during our planet’s last warm period between ice ages the Greenland ice sheet was still fine and sturdy, despite it was a lot shorter than it is today and caused an increase of a few feet in world sea levels. The authors involved in […]
Dung beetles just climbed another ladder on the animal coolness scale – they are the only known species to navigate via the Milky Way. The tiny insects can orient themselves to the bright stripe of light generated by our galaxy, and move in a line relative to it, according to experiments conducted in South Africa. […]
A genetic change allowed wolves to make the transition from wild beasts to domesticated animals, with a starch-rich diet and less meat. Researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States compared the DNA code of wolves to that of domesticated dogs. “Our findings show that the digestive system of dogs have adapted to be able […]
Clear and solid steps have been taken in the past few years to cancel research, experiments and drug testing on chimps, a practice which is still legal in only two countries in the world: the US and Ghana. Recently, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was advised to retire its decade-old, 360 chimpanzee-strong colony to a […]
The Very Large Array radio telescope network in New Mexico recently captured this amazing view of a 20,000 year old nebula that intriguing enough is shaped like a manatee – the famous and adorable sea cow native to the greater Gulf of Mexico – in its favorite position: floating on its back with its fins across […]
I recently came across a great article discussing solar photovoltaic (PV) efficiency. You can read it in its entirety on this website – here’s the gist. When people hear that the typical efficiency for solar power is somewhere around 15%, or even as low as 12% for organic photvoltaics, they scoff and start to mumble that […]
They say April showers bring blooming flowers - but the same could be said for global warming. A recent study conducted by scientists from Boston University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin found that flowers are blooming faster and faster each year, with this year being the peak.
The only thing that stands between Australia and a future led entirely by renewable energy is the political will to make the change, a new report claims. Australia could be powered entirely by renewable energy in no more than 10 years, using solar and wind energy – two resources which Australia has a lot of. […]
A new study from researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, found that indeed shellfish, like crabs or lobsters that are typically cooked alive in horrid conditions, feel pain as well. The findings raise significant ethical discussions, warning the food and fish industry of its ill ways of killing live seafood. “On a philosophical point, it […]
Researchers at University of Toronto and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) have recently published a paper that claims exotic plant species do indeed eliminate native plants from the wildlife ecosystem, contrary to previous reports that found the threat unreal. The ecologists argue that reports heralding invasive plants as non threatening are based […]
In what looks to be one of the most one sided and saddening events in the Amazon rainforest history, an indigenous community of about 400 villagers is preparing to resist the Ecuadorean army and one of the biggest oil companies in South America – to protect their homes and the rainforest they live in. Pristine […]
Scientists have stumbled upon a new species of flying frog – on the ground. While hiking in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, “we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log,” said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Upon further inspection, […]
Portions of the longest river in America, the Mississippi, are at risk of becoming unnavigable, spelling serious economic trouble in areas from the Upper-Midwest to New Orleans since it would also block a major shipping route. Typically the Army Corps of Engineers has been manipulating the river for decades in order to prevent it from […]
A few days ago I was telling you about the drastic state of pollution taking place in China these days – pollution levels are so high that all newspapers, even communist ones started pressing the government into environmental protection. To see how much the Beijing pollution evolved – take a look at the picture of […]
Chimpanzees have the same sense of fair-play as humans do, explain researchers who played the Ultimatum game with them – it’s the first time such a trait was observed in a non-human species. Playing a fair game The Ultimatum game is a simple game often used in economy game theory in which the two players […]
Unusually straightforward discussions emerged from the Chinese state media in light of the dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in acrid smog. The media joined forces with internet users and called for a re-evaluation in China’s modernization process – rapid urbanization and industrialization at the cost of the environment. A thick smog shrouded […]
Researchers who had performed the first high detail 3-D reconstruction of early tetrapod (four-legged animals) backbones claim the first land based animals moved by dragging themselves around the ground much in the same way modern day seals behave. The scientists used the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to bombard 360-million year old fossils with high […]
Sharks are the ultimate predators, comfortably sitting at the very top of the food chain; but even they have their enemies (the biggest one being us, of course), especially when they’re small – nobody fears a small shark. But even in their defenseless period, sharks have managed to find a way to adapt. Australian researchers […]
We knew that 2012 was the hottest year even before December – the average of the first 11 months was just so big that December could have been much colder than average, and the year would still be really hot. But, as it turns out, December wasn’t colder than usual, and the result was even […]
Oil, oil, shale gas, oil, fracking, oil – this is pretty much all you hear all day, especially if you come from a geology background. But in the US, things really seem to be spiraling out of control. Jack Gerard, one of the most aggressive players in the game and chief executive of the American […]
We’ve featured countless research here on ZME Science where important scientific and technological advancements were made after scientists sought inspiration from nature, be them high-tech surfaces (butterfly) or robots (leaping lizard). Recently, researchers at Canada’s University of Sherbrooke managed to improve LED efficiency by 55% after they applied a coating etched with a profile similar to that […]
Why would the El Niño be important for the rest of us that don’t live in the western part of South America? Well because it also influences the climate in North America, Asia, Australia, Africa, even Europe perhaps.. so that basically means the whole world. The El Niño-the southern oscillation or ENSO is a sort of a […]
Canada’s oil production has been blooming lately, mostly due to the oil sands in Alberta, who hold some of the world’s largest oil reserves. However, a new study shows that exctractions from these oil sands are associated with an increase of local water toxicity. The black gold curse Researchers from the Queen’s University in Kingston, […]
Scientists and broadcasters announced for the first time that they have captured footage of the extremely elusive giant squid in its own habitat. Japan’s National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature at a depth of more than half a kilometer, but so far, the footage hasn’t been made public. In order to accomplish […]
Just like we build crossings to enable us to pass natural obstacles, wildlife crossings allow animals to pass human-made barriers. They’re useful not just because they protect wildlife from being hit by cars, but also because they connect habitats fragmented by human activity. Wildlife crossings are not new practice in habitat conservation, but so far there […]
Spiders are truly remarkable creatures, but some of them are absolutely unique! This time, biologists working in the Amazon have found a spider that builds elaborate replicas of himself from leaves, debris and insects to confuse predators. The art of deceit From afar, it could mislead even the most experienced eye, hanging in the center […]
Labelled as an outcast by the rest of Santa’s sleigh pulling reindeer, Rudolph the red-nose reindeer, though mocked off, is indispensable and without him Christmas might not make it to every house from all corners of the globe. With his very shiny nose, Rudolph guides Santa’s sleigh even through the harshest of weather, but exactly why […]
Lake Ontario faces multiple varied threats, from zebra mussels to toxins to light pollution from brightly lit shoreline cities; lake Erie is just as threatened, while the depths of lake Superior remain relatively unharmed – a study on the world’s largest surface freshwater supply explains. A thousand cuts The threats are actually so numerous and […]
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) expressed his regrets for the leaking of the latest report, which explains that humans are practically certainly responsible for the climate change the planet is going through. The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was prematurely published by […]
