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Lawmakers from the state of California have passed a law banning the sale of all ivory and rhinoceros horn products in the state. The move was made in an attempt to protect the critically endangered species which are being hunted massively. All ivory owners have until July 1 to get rid of all their products, after […]
A recent study performed by researchers working at the University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School and the University of Nevada suggests that the current school and university start times have a damaging effect on the learning and health of students.
The results of a new study offer insight into the workings of predator-prey mechanisms, more specifically how the number of herbivores and other animals that are preyed upon affect the number of carnivores.
The right music can evoke powerful emotions seemingly out of the blue, but under the influence of LSD the musical experience is enhanced even further. This according to the Beckley/Imperial Psychedelic Research Programme which tested this long held assumption under a modern placebo-controlled study for the very first time.
A wormhole - a tunnel that connects two distant region in space by creating a shortcut through the spacetime - is thought as the only viable way to visit far away worlds and galaxies. Otherwise, you're stuck with traveling at the speed of light which, considering the vastness of interstellar space, is arduously slow. While for all practical reasons gravitational wormholes remain a staple of science fiction, the same can't be said about magnetic wormholes which were demonstrated for the first time by a group of Spanish physicists.
One of the planet's most endangered antelope, the saiga, suffered from a die-off of unprecedented scope. The massive loss of life from just a few weeks ago has conservationist groups worried about what future may hold for the species. But clues as to exactly what wiped out half of Kazakhstan's saiga are starting to emerge, and scientists are looking at bacteria that normally co-exist with the antelope host, harmlessly living in their bodies as the main culprit.
Recently, we wrote an article about the biggest tree census ever conducted, and the results were pretty grim. Sure, there are some 3 trillion trees on Earth, but the bad news is that there used to be almost twice as many – before humans chipped in. Humanity has cut down 46% of the planet’s trees, […]
Americans' love affair with coffee has turned into an obsession. More than half report drinking coffee at least 3.1 cups each day, totaling a $40 billion market. For some, regular coffee isn't enough so they go for the extract: powdered caffeine. The drug is unregulated and can be sold over the counter in any pharmacy. You can even buy a one kilo bag (2.2 pounds) off Amazon and have it delivered to your doorstep. So, what's the problem? It's caffeine right? Well, to problem is that even a few teaspoons of the powdered caffeine mixed with a drink can potentially kill you. It's really, really easy to overdose and, case in point, two teenagers passed away last year in separate incidents. They had no idea what they were doing, and the confusing labeling might have had something do with it. Now, the FDA has officially sent warning letters to the biggest US producers of powdered caffeine that they should change their labeling in 15 days from the issued order.
There are so many scientific journals out there, it's almost impossible for a newcomer to draw attention; but this one does. Research Ideas and Outcomes, or RIO is not only a new journal, it's a new type of journal: it will not only publish articles, but also proposals, experimental designs, data and software. They're open access and cover "research from all stages of the research cycle", according to a press release they've released.
An intriguing signal reported at the LHC might signal some "cracks" in the Standard Model - the theory which describes how different forces interact with each other.
Today, Intel announced a 10 year collaboration with Delft University of Technology and TNO, the Dutch Organisation for Applied Research, to accelerate and enhance the advancements in quantum computing: the new type of computing which promises to revolutionize the world as we know it
Calm and calculated - a chimp at a Dutch zoo took down a drone, squashing it with a tree branch. That's pretty interesting (and a bit sad, if you're the drone owner), but according to a paper published in the journal Primates, it may have more significance than it seems. According to the publishers, the chimp carefully planned the attack, just like a human would.
When your plastic device breaks, there's basically nothing else to do but shrug, try to glue it then go on with your life. But wouldn't it be useful if the plastic itself could fix itself? Let me illustrate with the latest creation to come off the Pennsylvania State University lab: a bioplastic containing a novel mix of proteins derived from squid sucker ring teeth that can fuse back together when water is added. Once its 'healed', the bulk bioplastic return to its previous compression and tensile strength, so its not fragile.
Picture this: A city under siege. Many of the outlying buildings are old, dry, lifeless shells of their former beauty as nearly 50 percent of the population is wiped out, consumed by ravenous invaders. And the only hope of lifting the siege lies with a poison injecting, yellow robot.
It's ludicrous, but it might just be crazy enough to work. On Monday, during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE conference, Masahiro Ono unveiled one of NASA's most recent concepts: hitching a ride on a comet. In short, once a spacecraft is close enough it would launch a tether with a harpoon on the other side, attach to the comet or asteroid then basically reel in until touch down. Once there the probe stays put, recharging its batteries by harvesting energy all while performing some science experiments. When it's done, the probe can detach in search of a new piggyback ride.
An innovative concentrated solar power design called the "Solar Sunflower" was recently demonstrated by Swiss researchers at Airlight Energy and IBM Research in Zurich. The energy generator concentrates 5,000 suns onto a semiconductor chip to generate both electricity and heat at 80% efficiency. This meas roughly 60 times more power generated over the same surface area than a typical roof-mounted solar panel - granted, the parabolic dish array, which is quite big, isn't included. The electricity and hot water generated by one single Solar Sunflower can meet the needs of a couple homes.
A startling report by The Guardian reveals how the American Egg Board (AEB) - a government-backed board which gets a levy of 20 cents per case of eggs sold by its constituent members - lobbied against a food startup that's been gathering steam lately. Feeling threatened, AEB used its influence to put pressure on the FDA, USDA and Unilever to basically ruin Hampton Creek's business. Hampton Creek is a Silicon Valley startup which has so far gathered $120 million in funding. Its flagship products include eggs made out of plants and egg-less mayo, called Just Mayo which Joanne Ivy, president of the American Egg Board, refers to as “a crisis and major threat to the future of the egg product business.”
As if the area wasn't tense enough socially and politically, Iran and Iraq are also facing major environmental concerns in the form of huge dust swirls. Iran’s capital city of Tehran is suffering most from an increasing amount of dust storms as winds at speeds of up to 80 kilometers broke trees and shattered the windows of houses, smashing power lines and filling up cities with dust.
As soon as the phone starts ringing, these ants have a military-like reaction, forming a circle around the device. But why do they do this?
Apparently, the best car in the world is now electric. Tesla's new Model S P85D, a fully electric Sedan, is so good that the world's largest independent product-tester, Consumer Reports, had to change its score system because they gave the car 103/100.
Seahorses are a unique oddity seeing how males, not females, carry the pregnancy and deliver the young.
A new studied explore the possibility of unprecedented catastrophic storms – storms so bad that there’s no recorded precedent in the past 10,000 years. According to the study, the chance for such an extremely rare event to occur in this century are drastically increased by climate change. ‘Black swans’ is an umbrella term for every event that […]
Today, the Earth has approximately 3 trillion trees left standing - about 422 per person - but we've already cut 46% of them.
Right now the coal business is arguably living through its most dire days ever. Nearly 300 mines have closed in the past five years, 200 coal-powered plants have been scheduled for closure, and coal corporations are basically ruined. For instance Peabody Energy, the world's biggest coal company, sold stocks below $1 when it used to be $72 in 2011. And it could get worse. Alpha Natural Resources, the second biggest coal company in the US, filled for bankruptcy along with other smaller firms. Basically, investors wouldn't touch coal nowadays not even with a ten foot pole. Winter is coming, but apparently coal companies execs aren't all that stressed. While their employees have had their pays cut and thousands fired, managers and CEO have actually substantially increased their salaries. When the ship sinks, might as well grab what you can, I guess.
Recently, I’ve become quite a fan of vertical farms. The principle is simple: instead of growing things in fields, you cultivate plant life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces. There are several advantages to this: they’re more productive for the space they use (about 100 times more productive), take 40% less power, 80% less food waste and […]
In a new study published August 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers claim to have discovered a new type of prion – the first one after 50 years. Their work strengthens the idea that degenerative diseases are caused by prions. Prions are misfolded proteins that multiply themselves by causing other proteins to […]
Doctors found that a British man has been excreting live polio virus for nearly 28 years, despite being vaccinated. These sort of cases aren't unique, but this is by far the longest cases seen thus far. Moreover, the immune deficiency has allowed the virus to mutate and replicate inside the man's body. Doctors say, however, that there are no health hazards involved since the man lives in a immunized community.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), there's now a mature El Niño present in the Pacific Ocean. As is the case with such events, the biggest sign of an El Niño shaping up is rising surface water temperatures. Right now, the east-central tropical Pacific Ocean waters are likely to exceed 2° Celsius above average, which suggests this could be one of the strongest since 1950, placing it along similar events like 1972-73, 1982-83 or 1997-98.
Scientists from the Smithsonian have a surprising fossil dating about 6 million years old. The fossil seems to have been an ancestor of modern dolphins and might explain why dolphins left rivers and set out for the ocean. Today, there are almost 40 species of dolphins, and all of them are intriguing animals. For starters, […]
Thousands upon thousands of Pacific walrus were captured by photographer Gary Braasch as they came ashore on the northwest coast of Alaska last week, in an event believed to be triggered by global warming.
This bizarre creature looks like a cross between a scorpion and a boat, which is pretty accurate considering it was actually as big as a boat. Pentecopterus decorahensis, named after the ancient Greek warship, likely dominated the Ordovician ocean waters some 460 to 248 million years ago, paleontologists say. Sporting a thick head shield, a paddle for a tail, large grasping limbs and 1.7 meters in length (5.5 feet), this sea beast was a force to be reckoned with.
Littered with over 150 trees and boasting a stunning asymmetrical architecture, 25 Verde - an apartment complex in Turin, Italy - is not your typical residence. Though its roots may be made of steel and concrete, this apartment building rises like a forest or urban oasis.
One of the largest banks in the world says choosing not to invest in renewable energy and divest from fossil fuel might come at a significant financial cost. Up to $1.8 trillion through 2040 or $44 trillion by 2060, when compared to the business-as-usual model.
Don't you just hate it when you just bought a delicious ice cream cone only to see it dripping before your very eyes just 30 seconds after it came out of the freezer? Well, science to the rescue. A group at Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh mixed a naturally occurring protein with ice cream and found this took significantly longer to melt in the sun. Additionally, because it's a substitute for the various fat molecules used in the industry to stabilize the water and the oil found in cream cream, the added protein makes ice cream healthier.
Researchers studying the plastic problem our ocean is facing predict that by 2050 nearly every single maritime bird species will have plastic pieces inside their digestive systems. The grim prediction is based on a new study showing that about 90 percent of seabirds today have plastic in their bodies.
Is this our most obvious, useless headline yet? Might be, but don't hate the messenger. I'm just reiterating the findings of Canadian and Dutch researchers who performed two distinct studies to see what's the best relief against hangovers. Their conclusions are stark: there is no proven remedy against hangovers. If you want to avoid feeling like train wreck in the morning you should simply drink less.
A month ago the New Horizon spacecraft made a historic flyby over Pluto, marking the first time a man-made instrument has ventured this far in the planetary solar system. The journey took nine years, which might seem like a lot, but you need to remember we're talking about nine billion miles. That's quite fast, around 4 km/second actually. To get a sense of the kind of velocity involved, Clay Bavor - a Google product VC - made this GIF showing what flying at 11,278 metres would like from the cockpit of a Boeing 747, a SR-71 Blackbird and, finally, New Horizons. It quite speaks for itself.
The Dutch want clean energy, and they’ve made that abundantly clear when 886 citizens sued their government to reduce CO2 emissions; as a result of that, something completely unprecedented (and very exciting) happened: a court in Hague ordered the government to reduce its emissions by at least 25% over the next five years. But then, things […]
It’s been a while, but we’re back with one of our favorite features – This Week in Science! If you’ve not been here for the previous editions, we’ll discuss not only the most interesting studies of the past week, but also the people behind them – the men and women pushing forth the boundaries of […]
Generally speaking, men and women seem value money differently.
Aaah, the ocean. The true final frontier. Full of wonderful and exciting things, such as strange fish, stranger crustaceans, beautiful hydrothermal vents, and lovely, ever-growing garbage patches.
Big Sur, California will see the newest installment of the Big Brother franchise, but with a twist. A team of wildlife conservationists have installed live-streaming web cameras on condor nests in the area, allowing scientists and enthusiastic bird watchers the world over to take a peek into the lives of Gymnogyps californianus.
A city like no other will be built deep in the New Mexico desert. The brand new city will feature urban, suburban, exurban and rural zones dotted with houses, malls, power plants, police and fire stations, with only one big difference from a real city: it won't have any inhabitants. The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE) will be the first of its kind, fully integrated test, evaluation and certification facility dedicated to enabling and facilitating the commercialization of new and emerging technologies. Basically, it will be a real life Sim City.
An international astronomy team has detected two supermassive black holes that appear to be orbiting each other in a nearby galaxy. The discovery of a likely binary black hole system suggests that supermassive black holes assemble their masses through violent unions.
For the first time, aggressive breast, lung and bladder cancer have been neutralized and turned back to normal cells, prevented from excessive multiplication. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, US, likened it to applying brakes to a speeding car.
Robotics has developed tremendously in recent years, and will almost surely continue to do so in the future. We have surgical robots, hotels run by robots, robots that learn, even samurai robots! After all, it makes sense we finally got some bartender robots, right? After MIT showed off its "Beerbots" that bring you beer while you're on the couch, we have HoLLiE, a robot bartender that did a fantastic job at a party in Berlin, making and serving over 280 cocktails!
Facebook has reached an impressive milestone: this Monday, on the 24th of August, 1 billion people signed into the social network - one billion! That's basically 1 out of every 7 people using Facebook on a given day.
In just a couple of weeks the price of oil, and commodity in general, have plunged. This Friday, oil was trading on the international market for $47 a barrel, while the American benchmark is currently sitting at $41.5. The low pricing - the lowest in six years - is driving a lot of companies bankrupt, while large companies like Exxon and Shell have been forced to cut down on their losses firing employees and shutting down exploration and exploitation projects.
Picking a mate is one of the most important decisions anyone (human or animal) makes in a lifetime, so it's important to weigh all the pros and cons and make a rational decision. But that doesn't go for frogs. Female túngara frogs often exhibit irrational behavior when choosing a mate. This challenges many previously held beliefs as well as several biological behavior models.
Hubble has recently captured a dazzling image of a "cosmic butterfly" - the planetary nebula (PN) M2-9. The star has not only ejected its outer layers, but exposed its inner core, which is now illuminating the layers in a spectacular and violent display.
