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Kannan Soundararajan and Robert Lemke Oliver of Stanford University published a paper recently that is leaving mathematicians scratching their heads. Their work exposed a mathematical bias of prime numbers in which a prime repels other would-be primes that end in the same digit. The researchers found some digits are 'preferred' in the detriment of others with various predilections. For instance, a prime ending in 9 is 65 percent likelier to be followed by a prime ending in 1 than one ending in 9.
Most of us know Alan Alda for his iconic portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce, the sharp-tongued but kind-hearted field doctor from the series M.A.S.H. But Alda is increasingly involved in science communication, being a visiting professor at the Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science, at Stony Brook University in New York. This is a recent interview with […]
It's been a tough run for Go champion Lee Se-dol who lost game after game in what could very well be the match of the century, against Google's AlphaGo algorithm.
Spiders' diets aren't limited to juicy insect bits. They spice up their menus with vegetarian courses too, zoologists from the US and UK have found.
Researchers have manipulated the genome of chicken embryos so that they develop dinosaur-like bones in their lower legs.
A new study measuring the forces that shape bacterial genomes determined that a difference in efficiency of hundredth of a percent is sufficient to determine the winners and losers in the evolutionary race.
A wind or Aeolian harp is exactly what the name implies: the only musical instrument played by the wind.
Japanese researchers found a novel way to grow corneas in a dish starting from skin cells. The corneas were implanted in the eyes of blind rabbits, which could then see.
Close to the dwarf planet's equator liies a roughly 4,000 square miles plateau called Piri Planitia, which particularly stands out. Unlike the rest of Pluto, the plateau is pretty smooth, unmarked by the characteristic craters and jagged. Aided by New Horizons' sensitive imaging instruments, scientists now think they know what's been eating Pluto so long: sublimation at the hand of methane-rich deposits.
A new approach to removing ice could make driving during winter less annoying, and flying a lot less dangerous. It relies on a rubbery coating that exploits the mechanics between rigid surfaces, instead of attempting to chemically repel the water in ice like other coatings.
It costs $20,000 to shoo a leopard, and foreign hunters flock to South Africa every year to kill leopards for trophy hunting. This year, because leopard numbers remain nuclear, South Africa has decided to ban hunting for the year. The South African National Biodiversity Institute, a government research organisation, recommended the temporary ban because they […]
New concerns are being voiced in Japan after it was discovered that a significant geological fault line passes right under a nuclear plant - and the fault is active.
If you've always wanted a tattoo but never quite got around to it, now you have the perfect excuse: a study conducted by researchers from the University of Alabama, getting multiple tattoos can actually strengthen your immune system.
Swiss physicists have developed a new model to chart the early development of the Universe in better detail than ever before.
At a homeless shelter in Atlanta residents can grow their own vegetables. The shelter has a large rooftop garden that can yield a great amount of healthy greens.
Inspired to 'make tomorrow now', an industrious team of Saudi researchers baffled everyone by demonstrating an artificial skin made with household items.
Religiousness in the Unites States is on the decline, mirroring patterns seen across the western world a new study from UCL and Duke University finds.
More than half of American's calories come from ultra-processed foods, a new study finds. The data also indicates close to 90% of total added sugar intake can be traced back to these foodstuffs.
Familiar terrorist footage includes masked murders proudly posing with two 'V' shaped fingers over the corpse of their victims. Many times, this is the only thing investigators have at their disposal to identify the terrorist.
Hands up anyone who, like me, has ever wondered what the deal is with those little bumps on your F and J keys.
Japanese researchers have identified a bacteria that eats PET, a kind of plastic widely employed for bottles. This is the first time such an organism has been found, and others like it -- maybe more versatile in their preference for plastic -- might be found.
In just 7 years, a disease called white-nose syndrome has killed more than 5 million North American bats, almost wiping out entire colonies across 25 states. In Asia however, bats that are exposed to the same disease-carrying fungus are infected in far lesser numbers.
The Dallas Zoo has taken an active role in the protection of Texas Horned Lizards, also known as horny toads. Now, they’ve released adorable pictures of the new hatchlings, which will help ensure the survival of this iconic species. Affectionately called “horny toads”, they are in fact lizards, not moist-skinned toads or frogs. The Texas Horned Lizard, […]
Google engineers may have their eyes set on Starcraft - a strategy computer game.
Google's algorithm AlphaGo stunned the world by defeating Go legend Lee Se-dol yesterday, and today, it just won the second game of the series.
A spectacular image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) gives us a glimpse into how the Sun will look at its death.
A new study found that whole populations of bacteria retain their tolerance to stressors for a much longer duration than individual cells.
An international team has discovered that by inhibiting Gq protein production in adipose tissue, cells can be re-purposed from storing fat to burning it.
How did South America slot next to Africa? Where was my country a billion years ago?
We can't call it a major discovery. Not yet.
Rightfully touted for its many health benefits as an antioxidant, green tea doesn't really play well with iron.
Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. Instead of petroleum, Stanford researchers have found a creative way to make plastic for bottles sourced from CO2 and inedible plants like waste agriculture or grasses.
Imagine spending half of your day chewing food like our cousins, the chimpanzees. You'd never get anything done. Strikingly, human teeth have evolved to become smaller over the past million years or so. This begs the question: how did we become such efficient eaters? There are two answers. For one, human ancestors started eating higher quality food (meat) and, secondly, they employed food processing. By applying tool use to anything outside slicing and cutting meat, these early ancestors may have opened the flood gates of innovation.
The arbitrary $5000 lower limit for defined equipment purchases in the U.S. results in millions of dollars of lost science funding per year.
It's common for species to be named after a person, most often the scientist who first discovered them. Recently, many biologists have resorted to naming new species to science after celebrities to spark interest among laymen, especially if the new species is endangered.
Mechanical engineers at Brigham Young University are combining the versatility of origami with mechanical know-how to produce the smallest surgical tools.
The Japanese great tit, a bird closely related to the more familiar North American chickadee, uses complex calls in different contexts to convey different meaning. These "words" are stringed together to form compound messages -- evidence of a sophisticated communication system based on syntax. This is the first time syntax has been shown to occur in non-human animals.
Looks matter a lot. One recent research suggests that short men and overweight women earn on average £1,500 ($2,100) less per year than taller men and slim women, respectively.
If we want to have a permanent or long-term mission to Mars, then growing crops locally would be very useful.
Hydras are tiny freshwater animals which trap their prey with a set of tentacles.
The latest, most complete tree is the result of a three-year effort by researchers from over a dozen institutions from around the world. They combined tens of thousands of diagrams into one single tree, most easily read as a circle.
A series of experiments surprisingly found that sudden insight may yield more correct solutions than gradual, methodical thinking.
New research shows that the first vertebrates had a surprisingly easy time adapting from fins to legs.
Researchers found a positive association between the amount of time spent playing video games and children's mental health as well as their mental and social aptitudes.
It seems that while most of us do not like to behave like extortionists, we choose to elect those that are extortionists for us. What's more, this study seems to prove that Machiavellian cooperation works: all parties involved win at the end, it's just that extortionists benefit more, while fair parties benefit less. Chances are no one will ever win, though, in a room packed with extortionists.
You might be able to grip, grab and direct hand movements with a prosthesis as if it were your own biological hand, but without the exquisite sense of touch life is not only stale, but also challenging. We're coming close to a singularity in prosthetic research, however -- having bionic arms that sense pressure, texture, temperature and humidity just like their biological counterparts.
Mindset and learning go hand in hand. It's important to be confident in one's own abilities to learn new skills and meet goals. Overconfidence, however, can also hinder learning according to Washington State University researcher Joyce Ehrlinger.
Anxious people may be more prone to associate neutral environmental cues with emotional experiences. Psychologists call this over-generalization, and research into the matter might explain why a seemingly minor event can sometimes unleash a full blown anxiety episode. We might also learn more about the wiring of the anxious brain which fires in different patterns than the 'normal' brain.
Ken Buesseler studies marine radioactivity. He uses radioactive elements such as thorium that are naturally occurring in the ocean as a technique to study the ocean’s carbon cycle, as well as fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing and recently, the sources of radionuclides from Fukushima Dai-ichi in 2011. Following the 2011 earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami, […]
A study conducted by Australian researchers found that scientific journals discourage the study of ‘ugly’ rodents and bats.
