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Scientists have striven for years to comprehend the complicated neurological mechanisms that underline the human brain and consciousness. Besides the philosophical aspects of such a quest (how we do think? what is consciousness born?), a better understanding of the human brain will help solve a number of medical issues that currently plague the human brain. […]
Engineers at Bristol University have developed a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that turns organic matter, in our case urine, into electricity. The fuel cell is equipped on a mobile charger, and its creators envision the device being implemented in various other applications that can recycle urine. Restaurants, bars and various other buildings that employ public toilets might […]
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have successfully grown and inserted functional blood vessels into animal models after they used vascular precursor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These blood vessels lasted for as long as nine months, much longer than any previous attempt, making the Harvard researchers’ efforts seem extremely promising. Patients […]
Water droplets, coffee granules, fragments of polystyrene and even a toothpick – all of these, and more, have been levitating and moving around in a Swiss laboratory lately; all of them lifted by sound waves, that is. This is the first time a device is capable of handling several objects simultaneously. This achievement was detailed […]
NASA and a company called Aerojet Rocketdyne recently finished testing a rocket engine injector created purely through 3D printing. The future – today 3D printing is pretty much what it sounds like – it is a process of making a three-dimensional solid objects of virtually any shape from a digital model. Adopting the technique even […]
The wonder material could lead to a major breakthrough in telecommunications – dramatically accelerate internet speeds by up to a hundred times, according to new research by scientists in the University of Bath‘s Department of Physics. According to their research, which was published in Physical Review Letters, an incredibly short optical response rate can be […]
For years scientists have hypothesized that a rise in CO2 levels will cause the world’s forests to use water more efficiently, however only recently was this theory proven after Harvard University researchers performed the most complex study of the sort to date. The team of researchers led by research Trevor Keenan and Andrew Richardson actually found the the world’s […]
In the world of microelectronics, packing the most computing power you can squeeze in the smallest surface is the topmost priority. As powerful devices in term of computing become ever miniaturized, however, efficiently disposing of heat or keeping devices cool under a working temperature is one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing right […]
It’s the world of science fiction come alive – Swiss researchers have developed contact lenses which, when paired with special spectacles, bestow telescopic vision on their wearers. Cool, and very useful The contact-lens-and-spectacles have the ability of zooming in 2.8 times. The device was not created for Bond-like purposes, but rather to help people suffering […]
According to Wilhelm Hofmann and his team of researchers at the University of Chicago, self control is one of humanity’s most valuable assets – not only because it allows us to be better people, but because it makes us happier. Self control and happiness Self control is defined as “the ability to override or change […]
Power outages Every summer, when power grids are pushed to the limits by air conditioning, there’s millions or possibly billions of failures which can occur. A single failure in the system can cause massive power outages throughout entire neighborhoods – or even cities. To be honest, usually, a single failure doesn’t really cause this kind […]
This weekend, one of the most curious and utopian conferences took place in New York City, where some of the brightest minds in the field of neuroscience, biotechnology and robotics gathered to discuss the prospect of transferring the human brain and mind out of the biological body and into an artificial vessel. As oddball and […]
It’s rather clear that social-economic factors have a huge part to play in the development of an individual, but when discussing this we typically refer to education, something that can be more or less manipulated at any time, albeit with various degrees of difficulty. How do social-economic aspects affect the brain, though? Martha Farah, the founding director […]
Is there something that graphene can’t do? It’s the world’s strongest material, even when it has flaws, a graphene aerogel is also the lightest material known, it’s great for sensors, for headphones, it repairs itself, and boasts a swarm of other features and capabilities. Now, researchers from Manchester University have shown that they can create […]
You may have heard about the Tunguska event – a huge blast of energy which occurred in 1908 over Russia and flattened more than 2,000 square kilometres of forest. More than a century since, its remarkable that scientists have yet to confirm the source of what undoubtedly is the biggest Earth impact in recorded history. The leading […]
Most certainly, one of the top goals in physics today is proving the existence of dark matter – the elusive form of matter that makes up 85% of all matter in the Universe. Many theories have been proposed and tested, however to this day we only have glimpses and possible hints of dark matter. A […]
Non-stop sunshine, an incredibly beautiful ocean, one of the highest standards of living in the developed world and the Koala are just a few possible reasons why Australians are the happiest people in the world, at least according to the annual Better Life Index survey authored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This is the third […]
Psychologists closely studying chimpanzee, bonobo and human infants found striking similarities among the three species in terms of different types of gestures. Their findings seem to back-up the theory that claims language, as we know it, evolved from gesture-based communication first. Panpanzee, a female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), and Panbanisha, a female bonobo (Pan paniscus) were […]
Invisibility cloaks have become the object of study for many research institutes out of a number of considerations. There’s the simple scientific thrill of breaching the SciFi barrier, something every researcher dreams of. Then of course, there’s always the corporate and military tail that always likes to meddle with concepts that shine with the possibility […]
What do Australian researchers do when they don’t want to do their homework? They make a study in which they prove homeworks aren’t useful. But jokes aside, Australian academics Richard Walker and Mike Horsley’s new book – Reforming Homework – claims homework for young primary school children is of little or no value when it […]
In a quest to make concrete not only more durable but also more sustainable, a group of geologists and engineers have found inspiration in the ancient Romans – whose imposing buildings have passed the test of time, surviving two millennia. Geology and the Romans Using classic microscopy, as well as the Advanced Light Source at […]
Scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) demonstrated a type of peripheral interface called targeted muscle re-innervation (TMR), part of DARPA’s Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) research program which seeks to develop effective brain interfaces. The prosthetic is simply amazing, as one can see in the video below featuring former Army Staff Sgt. Glen Lehman, injured in Iraq. The […]
It seems like every week there’s a new study that hails a new wonder property or fantastic application for graphene. Is it truly the material of the future that will catapult technology to the next level? Seems like it. For instance, scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore used graphene as the basis for a novel […]
Reconstructive surgery has made huge strides forward in the past few decades alone, helping countless people live a life closer to normal, freer from the immense harshness and pain that comes with damaged and exposed tissue. In the future, regenerative surgery will only evolve, and gene therapy is set to play a major role. A […]
Every living being is important, however in a transnational-based society everything has a price label on it, even humans. A recent study, for instance, has assessed the economic value of sharks, both alive and dead. The researchers involved in the study found that shark ecotourism currently generates more than US$314 million annually worldwide and is expected […]
Turtles are maybe the most majestic creatures in the reptile world, and have always been a source of inspiration for man. Everybody knows the fable of the turtle and the hare, which teaches how slow, but sturdy and resilient strides can outwit inconsistent sprints. The turtle’s really serious about it, and as evidence it practices […]
Researchers in Japan made good use of a new, state-of-the-art micro sculpting technique to create objects so small that they are the size of a single bacteria. One of these objects is the smallest bunny in the world, only a few micrometers wide, but the researchers have also demonstrated other shapes as well. Their work has […]
Parents with autistic children typically have no way of knowing whether their children’s early, yet mild signs of autism will develop into severe impairments. They’re forced to wait, which is most often one of the worst things to do, especially for a parent. Recently, researchers at University of Washington have reported that a distinct ripple of […]
While time can be viewed in very abstract terms, man has always been aware of it. Early man just needed to look towards the sky, at the sun and the moon, to instantly know that the Universe is moving forward and things are changing. Clocks, along with measures of time like the second, minute, years […]
The fossil, which still retains impressions of feathers, is 160 million years old, predating the oldest Archaeopterix fossil found by 10 million years. Scientits have named it Aurornis, which means “dawn bird”. Aurornis and Archaeopteryx Aurornis enables us not only to better understand the emergence of birds, but also to understand how powerful flight originated. […]
In nothing short of an astonishing find, Russian scientists have discovered a wonderfully preserved female mammoth carcass – the first in the world – in the icy tundra of Siberia. The muscle tissue was found to be extremely well preserved, but what simply caught the researchers by surprise, followed by the whole scientific community in […]
There are all kinds of robots nowadays that are here to assist humans with their daily chores, both at work and home alike. I think a lot of us have dreamed and even spoken out loudly, of course jokingly, how cool would it be to have a robot walk along side you and reach out […]
A group of international researchers may have reached a breakthrough moment after they successfully eliminated schizophrenia symptoms in mice after they targeted a specific gene and manipulated its expression. Their findings offer hope that similar results might be possible for humans as well. Despite schizophrenia being well documented for many years now and it being […]
Sure, this transmutation might not be as spectacular as that of lead into gold, but it most certainly would have made even the alchemists at King Arthur’s court envious. Using an innovative technique, an international team of researchers has transformed cement, a sturdy insulator (especially electrical), into a semiconductor metal. Apart from being a remarkable […]
MIT engineers have taken one step forward to the realm of sci-fi gadgets, transforming bacterial cells into living calculators that can compute logarithms, divide, and take square roots, using three or fewer genetic parts. Using cells as analog circuits Inspired by how analog electronic circuits function, the researchers created synthetic computation circuits by combining existing […]
Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a marvelous collection of pre-Hispanic paintings in 11 sites different sites in the caves and mountain gaps of the municipality of Burgos in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States. In all, the researchers have numbered so far 4,926 paintings, however it’s been very difficult for them to […]
Think about mucus – what comes to mind? It’s slimy, it’s gross, no one really likes it, right? Well, as a team from San Diego State University showed, mucus is also home to a very powerful immune system that has the possibility to change the way doctors treat a number of diseases. Bacteriophages are basically […]
In a society where overqualified, but desperate for work individuals are forced to take low-paid jobs to make means, it’s rather humorous that the smartest computer in the world, IBM’s Watson, has now been tasked as a call-center agent. Just a few years ago, IBM made the front page all over the world after its supercomputer […]
Walking a four legs definitely has its perks. You can run faster, you have more stability because of the lower center of gravity, there’s lower wind resistance and so on. How did our early hominid ancestors ever come to discard their quadruped locomotion for an upright stance, though? Many theories have been formulated in this direction, […]
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have devised an advanced biological transducer capable of manipulating genetic information and using the output as new input for sequential computations. Their findings serve as a new step forward for current efforts that might one day serve to create new biotech possibilities like individual gene therapy and cloning. In […]
Last week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggested that consuming edible insects can not only fight world hunger and help secure the global food supply, but also reduce greenhouse gases, and help save the environment. As far fetched and sci-fi that idea may sound, it’s not really as crazy as it sounds. 2 […]
Penguins are remarkable animals that have always garnered attention. For one they’re extremely cute (always an advantage in a world where humans are at the absolute top of the food chain), then they’re extremely fascinating to study. If you’re to closely look at the wings of a penguin, intuition would immediately tell you that these […]
Summer’s just around the corner, for those of us living in the northern hemisphere at least, and while we’ve been yearning for it all winter long, the scorching noon heat wave is here to remind us that summer’s not all fun and games. If you’re a commuter, then most likely summer’s your biggest worst enemy […]
Scientists closely working with the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world, have identified evidence of the minuscule droplets produced in the aftermath of high energy proton and lead ions collisions. If their calculations are right, then these are the smallest droplets of liquid ever encountered thus far, just three to […]
Buried deep at some 2.4 kilometers beneath the surface, in the vicinity of an underground mine near Ontario, Canada, scientists have stumbled across what may actually be the oldest water on Earth. Isolated for more than a billion years, the water pocket holds invaluable clues that may hint how ancient life formed, while also shinning hope that […]
Serving as one of the strongest metaphors nature has to offer, at the later stages of its evolution the caterpillar - a soft bodied, not very pretty, ground based insect - morphs into a butterfly - a majestic flying insect of varying coloring and shape. What exactly goes inside the chrysalis the caterpillar wraps itself with for the many weeks required for metamorphosis remains a mystery, though.
A great evolutionary leap forward in our lineage occurred once our hominid ancestors first began to hunt game to acquire meat, which once part of their diet greatly helped them to develop larger brains – especially cooked meat. When exactly this first occurred is controversial to answer. A team of archaeologists, however, have come across […]
A rather debatable theory in psychology says the brain detects grammar errors even when we don’t consciously pay attention to them, sort of working on autopilot. Now, researchers at University of Oregon have come with tangible evidence pointing toward this idea after they performed a brain scan study. The team of psychologists, led by Laura Batterink, […]
A longstanding question in mathematics that has puzzled countless bright minds throughout the ages is the twin prime conjecture. The conjecture, that some believe was first stated by ancient Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, says that that there is an infinite number of prime “twin pairs” – pairs of prime numbers that differ in value by 2. These […]
Only 2% of the human genome is comprised of genes, while the vast majority of genetic material is known as noncoding DNA – that is to say DNA that doesn’t code proteins. A complex plant, the carnivorous bladderwort plant, known as Utricularia gibba, recently became the center of attention for evolutionary biologists after a recently published paper by […]
