Features on ZME Science

The tragic story of Tanzanian Albinos - hunted for body parts for witchcraft

Most of the time, the so-called civilized world would just rather turn a blind eye towards what is happening in Africa; right now, I'd like to shed some light on what it's like to be an albino in Africa, and more specific, Tanzania.

Places on Earth that actually look like Hell

The orange molten rocks beneath Kamchatka’s volcanic landscape looks surreally out of this world. It looks like a gateway to hell, or even yet, like Mordor. The Kamchatka peninsula, located in eastern Russia, is riddled with 160 volcanoes, including 29 active ones. The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m or 15,584 ft), the largest active volcano in the […]

Company wants to ressurect gladiators - with a modern twist

Imagine for a moment how it would be like to recreate a gladiator fight. I’m not talking about martial arts or wrestling or something like this – I’m talking about full on, man versus man gladiator fights. An Australian company wants to revive the tradition, while using futuristic carbon fiber costumes to avoid any real bloodshed. Neo-gladiators […]

Why Viagra makes you see everything blue-tinted

A lesser known side effect of a famous blue pill.

Why Stradivarius violins sound so good. Hint: It's the f-shape

New research offers new insight into the golden sound of Stradivarius violins.

What's Inside a Flu Shot - And Why There's Nothing to Fear

The science of flu vaccines.

Are Birds Really Dinosaurs -- according to scientists, they are

It's remarkable what evolution can do in millions of years.

The Heaviest Living Organism in the World

What is the heaviest living creature in the world? It’s not an elephant or a blue whale, the heaviest organism is actually an Aspen. Pando, as it is called, is a clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen; basically, it looks like more trees, but it’s actually just one living creature with one massive underground […]

The largest organism in the world

If you want to know what the biggest organism in the world is, then you’re in for a big surprise – it’s not an elephant or a tree, it’s not even a blue whale! It’s 2 miles across, and you don’t even see most of it – because it’s a mushroom. That’s right, the largest living […]

Doggerland -- the land that connected Europe and the UK 8000 years ago

We all know that Earth used to look very different in the geological past, but few would imagine that Europe was such a different place just 8,000 years ago. Back then, continental Europe was connected to the UK with a land mass called Doggerland. The area had a thriving history both for wildlife or for […]

The oldest living animal

So, we’ve already discussed about the largest and heaviest organisms in the world, now it’s time to see what the world’s oldest animal is – spoiler alert, this one is also a surprise. If you’re thinking it’s a turtle or an elephant… you’re way off. If you think it’s a whale, you’re a bit closer, […]

Icelandic turf houses are cute and surprisingly cozy

They're cozy, beautiful, and surprisingly efficient!

The history of a picture that changed the world

National Geographic chose this as the best picture of 1987, and for good reason.

What gives coffee its distinctive color and flavor?

Coffee beans undergo several processes before they become the delicious brew we all know. The coffee beans we’re used to seeing, the brown ones with a delightful flavor, are roasted. Raw coffee beans have a different color and smell very differently. So what makes roasted coffee look, smell, and taste so different from raw coffee? The […]

The Art (or Science?) of Balancing Rocks

If life is a balancing act, then I hope it looks like Michael Grab‘s work. The artist and photographer first dabbled into rock balancing in 2008 while exploring the beautiful landscape of Boulder Creek, Colorado. Since then, he’s come a very long way. Grab finds the process spiritual and therapeutic – it has become a source […]

Thousands of Fish To Be Freed From Abandoned Mall in Thailand [with Photos]

The Bangkok’s New World Mall is one of the most dystopian places on Earth – initially 11 stories high, now the building can only boast 4, and it has no roof. A population of fish thrived in the post-apocalyptic setting, but now, with the building being set for demolition, the fish are finally going to be […]

Thomas Edison's legacy: inventions and discoveries

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. – Thomas Edison Edison is a very controversial character. Although during his life he patented over 1,000 inventions, he often receives credit for inventions he didn’t necessarily create from scratch but rather […]

How fire burns in zero gravity

In space, of course, you can't have any fires because there isn't any oxidizer (i.e. oxygen) to sustain the combustion process. Inside a spacecraft or in the International Space Station, however, things are a bit different. Inside you have the same air mixture as on Earth, but because gravity is millions of times smaller an open flame behaves significantly different.

How Thales of Miletus Changed the World

There’s no wonder that Thales of Miletus has been named the first of the Seven Sages of Greece. Throughout his life, he managed to impose a scientific way of thinking in many areas, from mathematics to philosophy. An undisputed scholar, he lived between from 624 to 546 B.C., and made a colossal contribution to mankind’s knowledge. In many ways, […]

Why you get zapped when you hit your elbow - the hilarious funny bone

We've all hit our elbow a rough couple of times before, so you must remember what follows: a gripping tingling suddenly engulfs your whole arm in tandem with excruciating pain. It all feels like a million volts of electricity just passed through you. Usually, this numbness only lasts a couple of minutes, but if it doesn't go away then this is the case for a doctor. If you ever wondered what causes this strange sensation, read on.

That Viral Video with Guitar Strings? That's Bogus. Here's what Guitar Strings are Really Doing

Recently, a video published on Vine by Logan Gendizzle went viral. The video claims to show what the guitar strings look like up close while the author is playing Weezer’s “Say it Ain’t So”. The result is pretty spectacular, it got tons of shares and likes... and it's fake. The good news is that reality is even cooler.

The Crust: The Thinnest Layer of the Earth

To scale, the Earth's crust is thinner than an apple's skin.

Portraits of the World's Tribes - Before they Fade Away

In 2009, photographer Jimmy Nelson set out on a journey to document the ‘world’s last indigenous cultures’. He took a series of photographs featuring 31 of the world’s most ancient tribes. The project, entitled Before They Pass Away, culminated with an elegant hardcover book (available in three versions) featuring stories of his encounters and nearly 500 […]

Why does it rain so much in London? Well, it's not that much really

Did you know it rains more in Miami, Orlando and NYC than in London?

The Woman who was struck by a meteorite

The Sylacauga meteorite fell on November 30, 1954, at 14:46 local time (18:46 UT) in Oak Grove, Alabama, near Sylacauga. However, the meteorite is often called the Hodges meteorite - because it struck Ann Hodges, who became the first person confirmed to be hit by a meteorite.

The Three Main Types of Volcanoes

Volcanoes are some of the hottest features on the face of the Earth - here we detail the types of volcanoes.

Making sense of the world in 14 Maps

These maps will help you put the present state of affairs in the world into perspective.

The types of rock: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary

The three main types of geological rocks are described. They are...

Past High Tech, Future Low Tech: Mechanical Calculator Gallery

You might be surprised to find mechanical calculators – completely analog computational devices with no electrical parts – competed shoulder to should with their digital counterparts well until the late 1960s, in some respects surpassing them. These devices, like the Monroe PC-1421 – a high speed multiplication and division device – were among the most complex of […]

Do people learn anything from Psychology?

Psychology is maybe most valuable when it exposes our inherent biases and what's commonly known as irrational thinking. But you'd expect people to learn and correct their behavior after learning the findings of surprising psychology experiments. For most people, this isn't the case.

Five Scientific Inventions That Changed the Course of History

These exciting discoveries changed the course of humanity.

Science Santa History: The origins of Christmas Customs

This is a series of articles about Christmas we here at ZME Science will be doing all December. Our goal is to present interesting, little-known facts about the origins and history of Christmas. Curious to read more? Here’s something about the dreaded Yule Cat or the Catalonian tradition of the pooping nativity man. Christmas – […]

Geamana - The Romanian Village Flooded by a Toxic Lake

Geamana is an abandoned village in Romania. It was a very nice and happy village up until 1978, when the Communist regime forced residents to leave their homes and make way for the toxic waste from a nearby mining pit. Everything started in 1977 when dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided to exploit a huge underground copper […]

Fantastic pictures of the Helix Nebula

The Helix Nebula used to be a star much like our Sun, but it is now in a different stage – ejecting most of its material. It’s estimated that our Sun will also become a nebula in about 5 billion years. It lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius. Also known by the catalog […]

Unusual idioms from around the world

Every language has its own, special idioms. There are thousands of idioms and they occur frequently in all languages. There are estimated to be at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language alone… but few are as interesting as these ones. Enjoy! Unfortunately, I don’t know who the original artist is – I […]

We're heading for a chocolate crisis - cocoa shortage incoming by 2020

The world is running out of chocolate, and if we don’t take some significant action soon, we’ll be dealing with a major chocolate shortage in less then a decade. The Swiss Barry Callebaut Group, the world’s largest chocolate producer, has joined a host of industry experts in expressing concerns about “a potential cocoa shortage by 2020”. […]

Meet the Pig-nosed Turtle: the most adorable thing you'll see Today

This amazing animal is the pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta), a native to the freshwater rivers, streams and lagoons of the Northern Territory in Australia and parts of southern New Guinea. With its delicate piggy snout, webbed flippers and beautiful colors, this turtle gives to show yet again why Australia is home to some of the world’s […]

The Problem with Using Psychology to Explain Collecting

Collectors are more than just horders.

How smart are orcas? So smart that they can learn "dolphin"

Orcas are smart, emotional, and very social. In many ways, they're like us.

Your Taste in Music Might Reveal How Dumb (or Smart) You Are

Virgil Griffith, a student at Caltech, embarked on a most interesting project to seek whether there’s any connection between the music you enjoy and, uhm, your intellectual abilities. Griffith used aggregated Facebook data about the favorite bands among students of various colleges and plotted them against the average SAT scores at those schools. This allowed him […]

To protect itself, this Moth looks just like a Hornet

Acting tougher than you really are is not uncommon in the natural world – but this moth has taken it to the next level. The Hornet Moth (Sesia apiformis) has evolved to mimic not only the look, but also the mannerisms of a real hornet. The Hornet Moth is a large moth with a wingspan […]

How antivenom is made and why it's so darn expensive

Some 100,000 people die each year from venomous snakes bites. Most die because there's not enough antivenom.

Fantastic Fungi: Mind Blowing Mushroom Diversity Photographed by Steve Axford

These truly wonderful photographs were taken by Steve Axford. Let’s leave Steve describe himself: I live in the Northern Rivers area of NSW and I am doing essentially what I like. What I like is photography and exploring the world. The world, for me, is dominated by living things and the planet we live on . […]

12 Amazing Detailed Close-Ups of Animal Eyes

Photographer Suren Manevlyan is back with a new set of magnificent images of animal eyes. I say ‘back’ because even though we haven’t featured his images on ZME Science, there’s a good chance you may have seen them before on his personal page or on websites such as Twisted Sifter. These amazing photos provide a fantastic […]

The Perfect Wake-up Call: This Clock Wakes You up with a Tea or Coffee Cup

Ernest Hemingway woke at dawn. Benjamin Franklin sat naked each morning. Beethoven counted sixty coffee beans. Everyone has their own morning rituals, but for some, waking up is more of an ordeal than a ritual. British creative designer Josh Renouf came up with an elegant solution to that problem. He has created a concept alarm […]

Felix Salazar's amazing pictures of aquarium corals

Felix Salazar is a very talented photographer currently working in Los Angeles — doubling as a guitarist and composer. Among his favorite themes are corals, like these ones he photographed in salt water aquariums. The shocking variety of color almost makes it look like they’re enhanced in Photoshop, but Salazar ensures that his pictures are 100% real, […]

Hilarious stories from the doctors of reddit

In a lifetime of seeing thousands of patients, a doctor will hear all sorts of crazy stories and bizarre cases. A recent thread on reddit asked doctors from the community to share some of their wackiest stories and boy were there some. Here are just a few of them: Aaaaand some bonus stories without captioned images: […]

The Weird Wold of Parasitic Twins & Twin Chimerism

So you perhaps thought that twins could be either identical or fraternal? But did you know that there are actually other types of twins besides these two mentioned? Of course, identical and fraternal twins are the ones we are more aware of because they are the ones we hear about most and are most likely […]

Featured Researchers: This Week in Science

We talk a lot about science and research, but we don’t spend enough time talking about the people who actually do the research. In case you haven’t followed our previous feature, here is where we share some of the most interesting studies from the week, and share a bit of information about the scientists who […]

Stunning paper art drawn with lasers

Eric Standley is an usual artist who makes some of the most dazzling Islamic and Gothic inspired art out there. However, hile the old masters used chisel and hammer, Standley uses lasers. Eric’s work consists of successive layers of intricately cut paper sheets, which when assembled together turn into a piece that is a marvel to behold. The […]

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