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For the last few months, we’ve been hard at work developing a new custom community feature for the ZME Science website – an online questions and answers platform where our readers may ask and answer questions from the world of science, be it physics, chemistry, biology, space, mathematics and so on. The whole platform has […]
” More than 22,000 entries were submitted from over 150 countries, with professional photographers and amateur photo enthusiasts across the globe participating. Photographs were submitted in three categories: people, places and nature. The competition was judged on creativity and photographic quality by a panel of experts comprised of natural history photographer Christian Ziegler and documentary photographers Gerd Ludwig and Debbie Fleming […]
After almost ten years, the team of astronomers at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have released a second video featuring the Vela pulsar – a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed – complete with its fast swirling jet of matter. The Vela pulsar is about 1,000 light-years from Earth, about 12 miles in diameter, […]
Gold coins found in Iraq Archaeologists working in the area unearthed 66 magnificent gold coins that are at least 1,400 years old, dating back to the Sassanid era that extended from 225 BC to 640 AD. The coins were sent to the lab for age analysis which will better pinpoint their origin in time. The […]
There are many bizarre things in Australia, but few go even close to the pink lake Hillier. Lake Hillier is a pink-coloured lake on Middle Island in Western Australia – the largest island from the Recherche Archipelago, a group of about 105 islands. A narrow strip of land composed of sand dunes covered by vegetation […]
There seems to be consisting evidence supplied both by past and recent rover missions – like the ever sturdy Opportunity, the eager newcomer Curiosity – and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – a spacecraft currently hovering over Mars – that our neighboring red planet was once most likely covered by oceans and lakes and was layered by a thick […]
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 […]
On December 21 the solar system’s planets will align and/or the sun will also align in turn with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which only happens once every 25,772 years, coincidentally with the end of the 13th Bak’tun in the Maya Long Count calendar (December 21st, 2012). The Maya having a superior astronomical knowledge […]
The holidays are nigh, and if you haven’t put out your Christmas tree just yet, maybe you’d like to consider something truly special. At the forefront of where art and science meet, Sachiko Kodama makes the most exquisite shapes by stimulating ferrofluids – basically oil with bits iron with a surfactant to prevent clumping (some kind of acid) – with […]
It’s almost impossible to believe it at a first glance, but these stunning life-sized wooden animals are actually made from small chips and slivers of wood. 55 year old Russian artist Sergey Bobkov creates these masterpieces from cedar sticks about 5-6 centimeters long; he cuts them into about 100-150 thin slices shaped based on what […]
Like every year, Nikon and Olympus each organizes a contest where microscopic photos from the world of biology are judged and selected. We’ve decided to show you the top ten winning entries from the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, which were selected from a whooping 2,000 photos from 62 countries. First prize goes to Ralph Grimm, […]
A group of scientists and technicians at CERN have made a doomsday movie filmed at their very own facility, called “Decay”, which tells the story of a pack of survivors left to fend for themselves in the onslaught following “Higgs boson radiation” exposure which caused their colleagues to turn zombie and hunger for brains. The low-budget movie […]
Looking for the inspiration to go that extra mile, or just stuck on a problem you can’t solve? A walk in the park is your solution – at least according to a new study conducted by US researchers. According to the research, which was a joint effort by University of Utah and University of Kansas […]
It seems like a scenario from a bad spy movie: someone hacking a medical device like an insulin pump or pacemaker and control it at his will. Unfortunately, this is all but possible. There are currently millions of people fitted with various electronic devices, some of which we’ve featured here on ZME Science. These range […]
Living quite close to Serbia and knowing how they feel about this, I have to say this is really amusing. People from all over the world are flooding to a pyramid-shaped peak in Serbia in the hope that its mystical properties will somehow protect them from the impending doomsday. Hundreds of reservations are pouring in […]
After going to a Boston club a few years ago, Mike Abramson, now a Worcester Polytechnic Institute grad, had a few sips from a drink and immediately felt intoxicated. According to him, his drink had been spiked with drugs. The event prompted him to do something about it, and later inspired him to design plastic […]
Scientists working at NASA and NOAA have released an unprecedented new look at our planet at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite shows the firefly-like glow of the human built establishments across the planet in greater detail than ever before. […]
Debunking conspiracy theories Oh boy, it’s this time of the year again: grab your supplies and head on to the bunker, cause the world is ending – again. The popular Mayan conspiracy theory that the world is ending on December 21 has made a surprisingly high number of adept, and NASA had to step in. […]
Paranoia, fear and the prospect of total global annihilation. These thoughts constantly plagued the leaders of the developed world during the cold war, as the two super power of the time, the US and USSR, pranced back and forth in a potentially deadly dance. It was during this time that some of the most devious, inconceivable […]
We could go on about what free will is until dusk and still not reach a conclusion. Indeed, philosophers have been theorizing free will for thousands of years, but haven’t we neglected an important aspect? There seems to be a general consensus that free will is entirely a human trait, but what of other animals? […]
In 1982, a local resident of Bletchingley, about 20 miles south of London, found the remains of a pigeon while cleaning his home’s chimney. Among the remains, the man found a red cylinder that contained a single sheet of paper marked with 27 codes, each comprised of 4 to 5 characters, delivered through the famous British Pigeon […]
Bill Foster, member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives wants more scientists in the office, to ensure a more analytic mindset. If you think about, you can use your fingers to count the scientists elected in recent years, and that can’t really be a good thing. Here, Scientific American published an extremely interesting interview with […]
Foxconn Taiwan is the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic components, most famous for being responsible for Apple’s iPad and iPhone assembly. Most of its plants and the gross of its 1.2 million workers are located in China. Recently, however, the company’s name has been long time criticized by international media outlets who in fine lines labeled […]
We’ve been getting a lot of questions and suggestions from all you wonderful fans out there, so to answer them beforehand, we’ll be publishing a monthly newsletter, just giving you the quick word about what we have in store for you guys. Facebook quiz: What mad scientist are you ? [play quiz here] There’s a […]
This week, there’s not going to be a picture, but rather a series of picture, because you just can’t sum up the beauty of columnar basalts in a single picture. Basalt is one of the more common extrusive igneous (volcanic) rocks. But how can these hexagonal columns take form? There’s no photoshop, no cutting, so […]
This article has nothing to do with science, it is just an offbeat post, and some ranting may occur. Proceed at your own risk. Mexican firm Fernando Romero EnterprisE (FREE) will design a chapel in Miami with plans modeled on the pleated fabric gown of religious figure the Lady of Guadalupe. The structure looks absolutely […]
I swear this isn’t some practical joke for Halloween. Massachusetts fisherman recently caught a highly peculiar lobster with a genetic anomaly which caused it to have one half colored in black, and the other in orange. According to the New England Aquarium, this kind of coloring isn’t entirely unheard of, but it happens once in every 50 […]
Felix Baumgartner, the supersonic man who jumped from about 40.000 meters above ground is definitely a man up for new thrills and new conquests, so you’d expect him to be all for space exploration. But in a recent interview, he takes the totally opposite stand, claiming that any Mars missions are a waste of money […]
Do you remember Carl Sagan’s Voyager Golden Records? When the now iconic first Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, a series of phonograph records containing 116 sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth were also attached onboard. These were inserted with the idea in mind that some alien race […]
Most people perceive China as a greatly polluted, overcrowded country, with little to no interest in renewable energy and a sustainable future. But that legacy is changing. Chicago-based architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill have unveiled plans for Chengdu Tianfu District Great City, a self sustainable satellite city which offers insightful solutions to the crowded […]
This Friday, a solar eruption of spectacular proportions took place. The ensuing plasma wave, measuring millions of degrees in temperature, lasted for several hours, which is atypical for such events, and was several times the size of the Earth. It’s not the eruption’s sheer enormity that’s impressive, but it’s beauty as well, and for this […]
US researchers were shocked to discover a beluga whale that spontaneously emits sounds very similar to those we humans produce. Scientists have known for quite a while that dolphins can be taught to mimic human voices, but no animal has ever tried to do that spontaneously – until now, that is. It all started when […]
The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opens on October 19 – with images ranging from pole to pole, but still have one thing in common: quality. You can click all the pics for full resolution, but be warned – a couple of them are quite disturbing.
Researchers flock to more developed, wealthier countries, with advanced research systems. The big picture of global migration shows this rather clearly, but it also shows culture can significantly skew this pattern. Moving to the top of the pack Yuh Nung Jan and Lily Jan are two married neuroscientists, running their laboratory at the University of […]
After some small problems and a delay of a couple of days, Felix Baumgartner did it! He jumped from the stratosphere, free falling 24 miles – 39,035 meters or 119,846ft – breaking numerous records in the process. He reached a speed of 1.24 Mach (which is the speed of sounds), thus becoming the first […]
We recently wrote a post announcing the amazing jump Felix Baumgartner was going to do: he’s going to jump from 36.000 meters! This is not only an extreme sports feat, but it also brings together experts from aerospace medicine, engineering, pressure suit development, capsule creation and balloon fabrication. His suit will be equipped with five […]
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake was absolutely brutal: at a magnitude of 8, and coming in a totally unexpected area, it struck hard. But humans weren’t the only ones affected by it – and they weren’t the only ones scared by it. The Wolong National Nature Reserve, home to around 280 giant pandas was struck hard […]
Felix Baumgartner of Austria has a tattoo on his arm: “Born to fly“, it says; and he will put it to the ultimate test on Monday, when he attempts a record setting, extremely dangerous jump from over 36.000 meters high. You’d think he’d be scared, or even anxious, but if he is, he doesn’t seem […]
A while ago I told you a bit about one of the most anticipated international scientific joint effort in recent history – the Square Kilometer Array. When ready, the SKA will cover one square kilometer of South African or Australian soil, hence the name, with thousands of radio dishes that combine and work as one, […]
Nebulae are among the most brightest objects in the sky, and besides their fantastic halo in the night sky, which served to inspire artists for countless past generations and more to come, they’re also an indispensable part of the Universe’s ‘ecosystem’. Essentially interstellar clouds of dust, gas, hydrogen, helium and other ionised gases, a nebula serves like a […]
Biologists have found a new species of fresh water fish east-central Mexican waters, and what they discovered was more than they bargained for. Apparently, to fight off the female’s selective reproduction blocking mechanism, the male has evolved an… interesting, let’s say, penetration mechanism of its self – a four hook genitalia. No, this is not a […]
A Buddhist statue brought to Germany by a Nazi expedition to Tibet has been proven to be of extraterrestrial origin. Sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, right? Well, it isn’t. Known as the ‘Iron man’ the 24 cm high sculpture was carved out from a Chinga meteorite (rich in iron) found near the Mongolian-Russian border […]
After Nevada, California has become the second state in the US, and well the world for that matter, to legalize self-driving cars. The main developer of self-driving technology for auto-vehicles, Google, believes this to be yet another milestone in motor revolution waiting to unfold. Governor Edmund “Jerry” Brown signed the bill, SB 1298, alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin and […]
Ahoy, ye landlubbers! Google is bringing Street View underwater, for the ones who want to go on an adventure in the Great Barrier Reef, swim with turtles and fish, without leaving your desk. You can start the application here, on Heron island a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great […]
These intricate patterns are not only stunningly beautiful, they also serve a well defined purpose. Yoji Ookata is an underwater photographer who has spent over 50 years exploring oceanic depths and as you can guess, he’s seen quite a lot in his life. But even so, the intricate patterns which resemble the notorious ‘UFO […]
Spy drones have been used by the US government on a various occasion in Pakistan to gather intelligence from the tribal area bordering Afghanistan, known for its close ties with terrorist organisations. Most recently, however, drones have been used to capture some mind blowing photos of sights otherwise completely inaccessible. The latest venture follows renowned […]
Every scientist dreams of getting his hands on a Nobel prize – it’s the highlight of one’s career, unless you’re Obama. But winning a Nobel Prize spoof… is that really something you want to get? Apparently… why not? The Ig Nobel prize, the whimsical award for research which is useful, but also really cooky is […]
In 1996, hundreds of US Air Force specialists, scientists and affiliates established an extensive study called Air Force 2025, in which the emerging technologies that will shape the battlefield in the next 25 years were outlined. The study went pretty well, since it was continued with Blue Horizons in 2007, in the same lines, which […]
Known for its sobriety and cumbersome bureaucracy, the European Commission rarely gives good news, especially lately; to bring even more surprise to the table, the announcement was centered around Romania, a country not so well known for its high tech facilities: a new state of the art nuclear physics research facility will be built near […]
This four pound geological marvel, captioned above, is what’s commonly reffered to as a lunar meteorite. And like all things of rarity, it’s been recently listed for auction – the biggest chunk of moon rock yet. Experts believe it should sell around the $380,000 mark. Lunar meteorites are a special class of moon rocks. During […]
