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Florida Researchers have developed a new class of LEDs that may change the lighting and display industry of the future.
A paper published recently in Nature Communications details how a team lead by Dr. Ben Wilson and Professor Chris Petkov used a brain imaging technique to identify the neuronal evolutionary origins of language. Their findings help us understand how we learn to speak, and could allow new treatments for those who lose this ability from aphasia after a stroke or dementia.
Cardiff University public health experts have discovered a powerful link between a pupil's breakfast quality and their performance at school. The study – the largest to date looking at how nutrition influences school performance -- recorded the breakfast habits of 5000 pupils aged 9 through 11, and their results in the Key Stage 2 Teacher Assessments 6-18 months later.
The FDA, Department of Justice and other government agencies, today presented the results of a yearlong sweep of dietary supplements which are thought to contain unsafe compounds. Following a slew of illnesses and law suits as a results of dietary supplement intake, the combined government effort vowed to crack down on the industry - at least the part that mislabels its products and poses a significant hazard to the population. You'd think drugs - what a lot of supplements contain - would be regulated by the FDA, but dietary supplements are entirely unregulated. This has allowed a $40 billion industry of "snake oil" products to flourish. Not anymore, everyone hopes.
University of New South Wales devised a two-qubit system inside a silicon chip and ran a computer code adapted to the quantum world. Their code passed the notoriously intransigent 'Bell test', making it the strongest evidence yet that quantum computers can be instructed to handle operations.
Researchers may have found a much needed weapon against HIV in an unexpected place: alcoholism medication.
The bat is the only flying mammal and among the heaviest in the world. To top it over, it can land upside down a perplexing acrobatic feat which has left scientists scratching their heads for many years. After carefully and systematically studying bat upside landings in slow motion, a group of researchers thinks it has cracked the puzzle: bats employ a nifty trick where one wing stays flapping while the other is moved close to the body. This asymmetry corrects the moment of inertia and center of mass so the bats always land safely upside down.
For the first time, we are about to grow flowers above the atmosphere.
Today, US closed down the price for crude oil at $40.67/barrel, but a year and a half ago the price was over 2 times more, even going over $100 per barrel; for something that's traditionally went up in recent years, that's a huge, and surprising change.
Scientists have genetically engineered algae to kill up to 90% of cancer cells in the lab, while leaving the healthy ones unharmed.
Not many people know it, but just like you have a hand dominance, you also have an eye dominance. Here's how you can figure it out.
NASA released a stunningly colorful new image of the dwarf planet Pluto, the latest in a series of images that steadily trickle down from the New Horizons probe since it left the solar system this July. And it's not only eye candy either; the features this picture reveals has left the smart guys at the agency scratching their heads.
A recent study from Iowa State University shows how a gene, found in a single plant species so far, can increase protein content when grafted into the DNA of staple crops. Their findings could help improve a huge variety of crops and improve nutrition in developing parts of the world, where available sources of protein are sometimes limited.
Today is World Prematurity Day - a global effort to raise awareness about the deaths and disabilities due to premature births. Each year around the world, 15 million babies are delivered ahead of term and 1 million children die before their fifth birthday from related complications. Some who make it past this dangerous threshold might get to live with serious disabilities.
Cooling things with lasers? I'm down!
It's widely agreed that modern Europeans trace their roots from three ancient tribes, or three important migration events, if you will. But after researchers sequenced the genomes of two hunter gatherers who lived roughly 13,000 years ago, there's evidence that suggests a fourth tribe lent our genes.
Unfortunately, stories of animals becoming endangered are way more common than the reverse, but perhaps this makes it even more important to celebrate the success we do have.
A team of researchers has analyzed a swarm of data and created the first map that tries to estimate how much water is located beneath the Earth.
Self-preservation and reproduction are the most powerful instincts, and life forms on Earth have devised all sorts of gimmicks and tactics to become successful (pass on those genes). Just look at the male ruff sneak tactics to grab girls. There are three distinct approaches: the cocky aggressive, the sneaky 'satellite, and the cross-dresser. You might think this isn't necessarily peculiar in itself. After all, human males employ similar approaches to seek women's attention. The peacock, the friend-zone dude, the jock, the joker etc. What's odd about ruff males is that this behavior is coded inside their genes - from the way they act, to how their plumage looks like. And they're all, ultimately, males of the same species.
If everything goes according to plan, we'll be going to Mars in the mid 2030s - using these suits.
When you're listening to music, it's not just your ears that are reacting to it, your eyes feel it too.
The collapse of two dams at a Brazilian mine spells an absolute catastrophe, with effects that could haunt Brazil for years to come.
Geological maps can be awesome here on Earth, but when we have geological maps of extraterrestrial bodies... that's when we get really excited.
The free market once again showed its limitations, or rather its power of abuse, after a Canadian pharmaceutical company priced gauged a drug critical for a rare form of epilepsy that affects infants. Questcor Pharmaceuticals hiked the price from $35.66 to $801.19 per vial. "Luckily", Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) program negotiated the price down to $680 per vial, bringing the total cost of treatment to $14,280.
In recent years, we’re finding out more and more that our guts are actually an impressive ecosystem, influencing not only how we digest our food, but also how we think and behave. But now, researchers have taken it even one step further: we may need to define a whole new life form to describe these […]
Some 360 million years ago, the oceans were teeming with big fish, some as big as a school bus. Then something terrible happened, the causes of which still escape scientists today: the Hangenberg Event. This was the last peak in a streak of mass extinctions known as the Late Devonian extinction which exterminated 97% of all marine vertebrate species. In the aftermath, it paid to be small a new study suggests. The researchers at University of Pennsylvania found that small fish dominated the ecological niches for nearly 40 million years. This tremendous rebound time is relevant today when overfishing is threatening countless large fish species. Once these disappear, it might be a very long time before we get tuna-sized fish back on our plates.
In a leap of innovation, Samsung unveiled the largest storage unit ever: a 15.36TB flash drive which uses 256GB NAND flash as the basis for the storage. The hard drive is 60% bigger than its closest competitor and all that storage is packed inside a tiny 2.5-inch SSD case. And yes, I prefer to still call it a hard drive even though there aren't any motors, pivots or arms. Deal with it.
At the U.N. summit on climate change held in Paris soon, world leaders will join in an attempt to curb their emissions in order to avoid warming by more than 2 degrees Celsius past the industrial age. We're already 0.9 degrees warmer and by the looks of the pledges filed by member states ahead of the talks, a more realistic target seems like 3 degrees. In other words, the framework - which will not be legally binding - will only have moderate effects, when more ambitious action is required. One big part of the problem is fossil fuel subsidies, which last year amounted to $452 bn. in total for all G20 member states. Oppositely, renewable energy - a field which actually deserves to be subsidizes since its new tech and isn't mature yet - was subsidized by only $121 bn. or four times less.
Research at the Queen's University Belfast has produced a major (and mind-bending) breakthrough, in the form of the first synthesized porous liquid. The new material has the potential for a massive range of new technologies including carbon capture.
Ant colonies are incredibly complex systems -- the tightly knit, intensely cooperative colonies are closer to a single superorganism than to human societies. Researchers form the University of Bristol wanted to know how this single mind of the hive reacted to distress, and subjected colonies of migrating rock ants to differing forms of simulated predator attack to record their response.
In the wake of big festivals like Coachella or Glastonbury, you'll find trash and the ravages of partying littered across the whole site. Oddly enough, you'll also find loads of abandoned, but useful gear like phone chargers, couches and, most frequently, tents. A creative Dutch designer now has an idea on how to repurpuse the latter: turn them into suits that double as sleeping bags for the homeless.
Scientists at the Georgia State University, Georgia Regents University and Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center found that the brain uses sweet foods to form the memory of a meal. The paper shows how the neurons in the dorsal hippocampus -- a part of the brain that is critical for episodic memory -- are activated by consuming sweets.
Between reports of melting icecaps, starving polar bears and reports of food shortages, it's easy to become pessimistic about life. But it's not all bad, as a recently released report by the UN, published in The Lancet, shows how pregnancy-related deaths have fallen almost by half in the past 25 years.
YouTuber Ziggy Zee prides himself with building the most powerful mobile electromagnetic railgun ever made by a non-gov. Just look at that thing. I'm scared at it is, but wait until you hear what it can do.
3D printing has ignited our imagination and pushed us to think about things in new, different ways.
It's still not clear why this happened, but one of the most likely explanations is a rare phenomenon, a "contagious" panic spread.
Attraction to someone can tear you apart, metaphorically, but if you're the Martian moon Phobos, attraction can tear you apart - literally.
Charles Darwin’s monumental formulation of the theory of evolution has been overwhelmingly voted as the most influential and important academic book, ahead of works by Newton, Plato and Einstein. “Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, […]
Bees play a critical role in maintaining natural plant communities and ensuring production of seeds in most flowering plants. But humans too have a close relationship with bees, which spans over a history close to 9,000 years, a study found which analyzed ancient pottery. That's a lot earlier than previous recounted evidence. Right now, however, honeybees are dying at an astonishing rate. The fact that bees have been feeding and nurturing humans for so long should only make us more humble, but also more steadfast in finding a solution.
What is this sorcery? Why, magnets of course, and two Norwegian students have found a way to make magnetism more entertaining than ever.
It was a finding that sent ripples throughout the entire paleontology community. Met with heavy criticism, the authors are now vindicated.
Even inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, outside of Cairo, researchers have found something interesting.
While Americans are in favor of renewable energy and electric cars, when it comes to paying more for gasoline support dwindles. Are the voters hypocritical? Not necessarily. A new study suggests that voters would be in favor of a gas tax, if they'd know the cash would flow directly into measures that address energy efficiency, fix roads and bridges or gets refunded to taxpayers equally. In other words, if people know what they're paying for, they'll be more willing to pitch in. Who would've thought, right?
Microsoft released an app that can guess emotions based on an uploaded photo.
Not every groundbreaking idea is complicated to understand. Ryan Chester, a high school senior from Ohio, seems to think so too. Using simple props and graphics, Chester produced a fantastic short video explaining one of the most important theories in physics - the Theory of Special Relativity proposed by Albert Einstein one hundred years ago. If the name doesn't say too much, maybe E = mc2 will.
Women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) show elevated levels of testosterone and testosterone derivatives in their systems, as well as an increased risk of anxiety and depression. As the offspring of these women (both sons and daughters) show similar symptoms, it's been believed that PCOS can be transmitted through genetic code. However, a new idea comes to question this -- specifically, the fact that the fetuses of mothers with PCOS are gestating in high levels of testosterone is what causes these symptoms.
A new dwarf planet, designated V774104 has been identified and now takes the crown of most distant object in our solar system, being three times farther away than Pluto. The dwarf planet is estimated to be between 500 and 1000 kilometers across. Astronomers don't yet have enough data to estimate its orbit and estimate that about an year of observations is needed to gather enough data for a precise answer.
Last week, New York District Attorney Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena to Exxon Mobil ordering the company to provide financial information, as well as internal communications including emails, and other materials as far back as 1977. Schneiderman is investigating Exxon over suspicion of willfully failing to mention to its investors the risks climate change might pose to the company's business. If this is true, then Exxon effectively violated its fiduciary duties and can be held liable. Moreover, the investigation might surface certain information that might uncover racketeering and securities frauds, since it's well known, although harder to prove per se, that Exxon has been involved in manipulating public opinion on the matter, risking public health in the process - a situation akin to big tobacco which actively sought to convince the public that smoking isn't bad for health.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed implantable devices that can activate -- and in theory, block too -- pain signals traveling from the body through the spinal cord before they reach the brain.
There is only one clear set of official criteria by which we class or not a cosmic body as a planet. These criteria introduced in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union saw Pluto demoted to the status of dwarf planet. Oddly enough, though, these rules were made for classing planets only in our solar system, meaning the 5,000 exoplanets (what should be planets outside our solar system) identified so far are now in a "definitional limbo," according to planetary astronomer Jean-Luc Margot at UCLA. Luckily, Margot has come up with a solution which seems to work marvelously.
