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New amazing yet gruelsome details have emerged, regarding how a fungus can control an unfortunate ant. Basically, the fungus infects the ant’s brain, and then tells it what to do, in a somewhat similar fashion to what a Goa’uld would do. Zombies in Thailand Venturing deep in the Thai forest, researchers have found a species […]
Researchers from the University of Texas and Yale infected a computer with schizophrenia in order to find out more about how the human brain behaves and understands things. Human behaviour from a computer Computers can show some signs of virtual schizophrenia too, if they can’t ‘forget’ fast enough. So researchers used a virtual computer model, […]
In what can be considered somewhat paradoxal, according to a recent study from the University College London, scientists have found larger than average volumes of grey matter in certain brain regions of people easily distracted. Meaning, people who are easily distracted may have “too much brain”. This conclusion came after scientists compared the brain activity […]
Until recently it was considered that only humans have the ability of being aware of the fact that they exist as an individual, but studies show that chimps as well as dolphins share this ability. A recent research revolving around chimps strengthens the idea and shows that our close relatives are indeed self-aware and can […]
According to a recently published study reported by Swedish scientists, people who are obese and middle aged are up to four times more likely do develop dementia than people of normal weight. Published in the journal Neurology, the research was conducted 8,534 Swedish twins over the age of 65, of which data showed that 350 […]
The sad shut down of SETI due to lack of funding brings a major halt to the search for aliens, unplugging the voice and ears which have been doing the search until now. But perhaps we should start thinking outside the box, and start looking for aliens in even the most unexpected places, at least […]
In what can be considered a breakthrough in the battle against worldwide depression, scientists from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry have found a link between a particular gene and depression which might provide solid treatment in the future. The discovery was made after reserachers analyzed the results of a study conducted upon 15,000 people […]
In a recent important palentological find, it seems that one of our ancient ancestors, the so called “Nutcracker Man” who lived between 1.4 and 1.9 million years ago, actually used its large teeth to graiss grass not crack the shell of nuts. “It most likely was eating grass, and most definitely was not cracking nuts,” […]
Humanity’s right handedness began at least 500.000 years ago, according to a new study conducted by University of Kansas researchers. The right handed trait is believed to actually be a “side effects” of the development of language. “We are right-handed because the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and […]
First of all, don’t think of alien species as extraterrestrials; if you came here wanting to hear about that – sorry. Thankfully, the sci-fi scenario is not upon us. I’m talking about species which haven’t originated from Antarctica – seeds, fungi, microorganisms, they go wherever they are taken, and wherever people take them. If you […]
Some species of bacteria can survive virtually anywhere: in acids, in nuclear waste, at extremely low or high temperatures, at extreme pressures, and so on; extreme microbes that survive on gases thrown out by Siberian hot springs may have played an extremely important role in the formation of our planet’s atmosphere and its composition, a […]
Over 50 species of pupfish are known from the US to Venezuela, and they are all pretty much the same – except for the ones in two places: the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and a Caribbean island. Generally speaking, the species of pupfish do the same things. “They look the same and they act the […]
The box jellyfish (commonly known as the sea wasp) is not only the most venomous creature in the world, but it also holds a few other major surprises. They may seem like rather simple creatures at a first glance, but researchers are now convinced they are nothing like this; as a matter of fact, they […]
Researchers at the The Rockefeller University in New York City, have recently published a study which suggests painkillers such as the simple aspirin or ibuprofen could decrease the effectiveness of certain antidepressant medications. Their research was conducted on mice, who were administrated with an anti-inflammatory drug (also called an NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) and a […]
Researchers have concluded that urban dwelling birds forced to adapt and innovate in a concrete environment have a larger brain, relative to their body size. In the process, scientists have found family traits are key to identifying why certain birds thrive in certain European cities, and consequently generally in urban environments. Urban bird achievers include […]
In what can only be described as an incredible natural engineering feat, fire ants in times of floods have the remarkable ability link up with one another to form a life-saving, floating and impenetrable raft. While this is an attested ability for a long time now, scientists have only recently managed to understand how the […]
An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot or black carbon, in an effort to judge whether or not it is responsible for the alarming rapid warming in the area lately. The research team includes scientists from Norway, Russia, Germany, Italy, and China, whose members are working […]
A recently published study 8 years in the making reveals the uncanny ability humpback whales have of following seemingly perfect straight paths for weeks at a time. The navigational precision of humpback whales cannot be explained by known theories. Humpback whales feed during the summer near polar oceans and migrate to warm tropical oceans for […]
Paleontologists turned into dentists after an examination of the fossilized jaw of a reptile from the Paleozoic era revealed what’s considered to be the world’s oldest tootache. Dated back 275 million years ago, the Oklahoma found Labidosaurus hamatus must have had some serious issues with its sugar tooth, as researchers observed missing teeth and eroded […]
This is one of those studies which makes you realize that being a researcher definitely has some unexpdected perks; it was funded by ERSC, and let me tell you, to get a grant from them, you really have to have a solid project, because the approval rate is somewhere around 17%. What they concluded from […]
I was telling you a while ago about the revolutionary material called graphene. Graphene is a one atom thick layer of carbon packed in a honeycomb lattice. Now, a team led by Professor Andre Geim, recipient of the Nobel Prize for graphene, showed that electric current (which is basically a flow of electrons) can magnetise […]
Staphylococcus aureus is a nasty fellow; it can be responsible for a variety of diseases, and it’s pretty resistant to a variety of treatments. But sometimes, it can get an upgrade, and become way more resistant to drugs, which means the staph bacteria becomes much more dangerous and much less treatable. So it’s definitely not […]
In the last couple of years researchers have been confronted with a peculiar case in the Atlantic penguin colonies as an increased number of penguin chicks have been found to be suffering from what seems to be a feather loss causing disorder. Scientists have been studying the phenomena for a few years now, but have […]
The average brain can only hold about five to seven pieces of information at a time within 30 seconds – this is called working memory. What people usually do to get pass the 30 seconds interval is they re-expose themselves to the information, for instance if you want to remember a 7 digit phone number […]
Almost all Nobel prize laureates are active in an artistic field as well as in science. They are 25 times more likely (that’s 2500%) than an average adult to sing, dance or act, and 17 times more likely to be an artist. This proves wrong the general belief that there aren’t any useful connections between […]
In the theoretical and absurd case of a pigeon going on a police identification line, do you think it would use the same processes you’d use ? If your answer is “yes”, you may seem a bit strange… but you’re right. A study published by researchers from the University of Iowa found that pigeons recognize […]
Law is a highly demanding field, in which its practitioners are required to have an objective and stoic approach at all times, but a recently published very interesting study shows that court judges can be just as biased as any of us and their rulings, however rational we’d love them to be, are influenced by […]
It’s somewhat evidently observable that the elderly have more trouble focusing or multitasking than young people, but a recent study in which scientists used brain scans shows an unexpected explanation to the generation deficit. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco led by neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, recruited 20 relatively young adults, average age 25, […]
Similar to genomics, the science which maps our genetic background, “connectomics” is a new emerging science which is becoming very popular in the neuroscience area. Basically, connectomics aims to map the highly intense neuron connections and properties in the brain, more exactly the synapses, and recently researchers have made important progress in the field which […]
The topic of modification of data in scientific research is definitely a hot one; the frequency at which researchers fabricate or falsify data is extremely hard to quantify and make a statistic from it. Many different studies or surveys have tried to do this, but the results varied greatly and were difficult to compare and […]
The brains of adults can grow significantly in a staggeringly short amount of time if you just start learning like children do, according to research that had the purpose of treating braind disorders; they seem to have stumbled into something different, but extremely interesting. The researchers unexpectedly discovered that adult brains can grow in only […]
By means of a new mathematical model, scientists have been able to calculate the displacement of ice in glaciers along the years. This was achieved by using the spread of glacier debris and the lines where vegetation starts on the mountainsides to create a series of calculations determining the amount of ice that has melted […]
According to a research conducted by anthropologists from Arizona State University, there seems to be a big increase in the general negative attitude people living in diverse societies have towards obese individuals. The study was made on 680 correspondents across 9 countries who were asked to agree or disagree with various statements expressed by scientists […]
Contrary to what you might expect, a recent published study unveiled by scientists shows a map of our planet’s gravity, which resembles not a sphere, but more a … potato. This is because the Earth’s gravity isn’t uniform, being affected everyday by such factors like winds, currents and tides, so because gravity is higher in […]
Aphrodisiacs have been used to improvement sexual performance and desire for thousands of years now, but which of them are really effective or simple old waives’ tales? Researchers from University of Guelph claim they’ve conducted the most elaborate study to date as far as aphrodisiacs are concerned. “Aphrodisiacs have been used for thousands of years […]
Let’s face it, China overtaking US in science should no longer shock anyone, but if this were to happen just two years from now, in 2013, it would be a major surprise. The study, dubbed Knowledge, Networks and Nations, charts the challenge addresed by China to the traditional scientific leaders, US, Europe, and even Japan. […]
Quantum computing is the regarded by many as the future of computing technology, which among endless applications might help scientists answer a lot of questions otherwise impossible with today’s technology. In a nutshell, the difference between today’s computers and the future’s quantum computers is that the first handle binary code 1 and 0 one at […]
In a recently published study by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), it seems that teen angst is evident in the online world as well, as researchers believe there’s a clear evidence of a “facebook depression” effect. It’s considered that more than 70% of American teens and young-adult who have an active internet connection use […]
Ever since the 9.0 earthquake in Japan, there has been a growing mainstream interest for earthquakes, which will probably fade away as time passes, only to be revived when the next big temblor strikes. However, the good news is that, even for a brief period of time, seismologic studies are given the attention they […]
In a world where the king words are ‘buy low, sell high’, speed is of upmost importance. Stock trading has become more and more reliant on modern ways of transmitting and processing information, and in this process, fiber optic plays a crucial role. While fiber optic does work at 90 percent the speed of light, […]
Five years ago, an outbreak of a mysterious and deadly disease in central China first started alarming local authorities when an alarmingly high mortality rate was linked to it. At first, the outbreak was considered to be bacterial, namely human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), carried by infected ticks that passed the deadly disease on to farmers […]
Religion is nowadays an extremely touchy subject; if you ask religious people about non religious people there’s a good chance you will get a pretty nasty response, something involving a kind of hell and divine punishment, while if you ask the other group, probably some bad words will probably come up. If you ask me, […]
I don’t know about you, but when I think about reporters, newscasters, I always get the feeling there are more women than men. But that’s just not right, at least according to a recent study conducted by the International Women’s Media Foundation. The research in case found that 73 percent of the jobs in top […]
Engineers from Ohio’s State University have published a paper detailing the development of an innovative, tiny 3D lens that enables microscopic objects to be seen from nine different angles at once. The concept itself is not a novelty, but in its current usage other 3D microscopes use several lenses or cameras to move around a […]
The race to develop holographic videos will have its winners and its losers, but it’s obvious by now that this isn’t some distant sci-fi technology, but rather a work in progress, as rival research teams battle to be the first to control lasers in a way that would allow displaying 3D videos. The evergrowing power […]
Plate tectonics is one of the most important theories, from the point of view of its practical effects on society – just look at the earthquake in Japan, or the iminent one in California, for example. More than 40 years ago, a man named J. Tuzo Wilson published a paper in Nature, describing how ocean […]
Girls like pink, boys like blue. Girls have long hair, boys have short hair. And so on, so on – my mom says this is all common sense, I say this is social programming that propagates stereotypes, and the latest research relating to this is a study called Math–Gender Stereotypes in Elementary-School Children recently published […]
It’s been long theoretized by most women, and not only, that there is a connection between the penis and the brain – and research done by Gill Bejerano, a biologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues seems to support that theory, at least in a way. Let’s look at our close relatives, the […]
Besides their evident telecommunications value, satellites also pose enormous benefits when synchronization and navigation are concerned, available and more and more used to the common public through GNSS (global navigation satellite system) or the US based GPS (global positioning system). However, a report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK warns that […]
Usually, we tend to think of Neanderthals as being our bigger and stronger but not-so-intelligent cousins, but that may very well not be true; it has been shown on several occasions that Neanderthals were quite smart, and they could figure out a whole lot of things by their own, without immitating humans. In recent years, […]
