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The living standard of everybody in the world can be increased while also reducing CO2 emissions and limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius – that’s the conclusion of The Global Calculator, a new free, interactive tool developed by UK scientists in collaboration with organisations from India, US, China,and Europe. Calculating the future The Global Calculator can be […]
An underwater volcano that’s been spewing ash and lava for the past month just created a new island off the Tonga archipelago. The volcano, called Hunga Tonga, has since stopped erupting and the island might not be long lived. Mostly made of ash and formed around the crater of the volcano, the half-mile long island […]
The ever resourceful Kepler missions just reported its most interesting find to date: not one, but five planets smaller than Earth orbiting a star 117 light-years away that’s estimated to be 11 billion years old. This makes it far older than our own sun, meaning its planets could be 2.5 times as old as Earth. […]
A PhD student from Netherlands has demonstrated a technique which could massively cut down the production costs of graphene. With this technique, producing the “wonder material” could be 1,000 times cheaper. For his thesis, Shou-En Zhu from the Delft University of Technology described a way to create an “endless sheet” of graphene. The way he does it […]
According to a new study, water once flowed on the surface of Vesta, the second-largest asteroid in the solar system. This took astronomers by surprise, as no one was really expecting to find this.
A team of Mexican researchers found a way to save 20 trees and 56,000 liters of water for every ton of paper produced – just make them from old plastic bottles. Plastic is one of the main pollutants in the world – the ocean is basically a cemetery for used plastic, with at least 5 […]
The land of the rising sun can be extremely confusing to foreigners, but one thing’s for sure: you gotta hand it to the Japanese for being creative. In the face of its worse demographic crisis to date – 1 in 4 people are over 65 years old – the government is experiment with all sorts […]
For most people, brains are pretty similar – our connections follow the same pattern, and while there are certainly exceptions, you could say that our brains are connected in pretty much the same way. But for autistic people, things are very different. A new study has found that each autistic brain has unique, highly idiosyncratic […]
For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planetary ring system outside the solar system - and it's one of enormous proportions - 200 times bigger than Saturn's rings.
Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you less sadness - a new study has found that higher income doesn't really correlate to happiness, but it correlates negatively with sadness.
Some fires are big enough to see from outer space, others burn for a very long time, but from what I could find, this is the oldest continuous fire in the world. Beneath an Australian mountain, a fire has been burning continuously since 4000 BC.
Aboriginals around what is today Melbourne have been telling a story for thousands of generations – a tale of waters rising after the ice age. Without using written languages, they passed it down orally, generation to generation, with surprising accuracy. Now, a new study concluded that the story is actually really accurate, despite being passed […]
It’s painfully true by this point that we have a global obesity problem. Over the past 20 years, obesity rates have more than doubled, now including over a billion adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) has now released its global report card on obesity. See what countries are “in red” below: The first thing you […]
Global warming is all fun and games until somebody breaks a penis! For a long time, scientists have been aware that chemical pollution makes polar bears' testes and penis bone smaller. Concerns over polar bears' mating potential have now grown after Danish researchers found pollution also reduces penile bone density, increasing the risk of fracture during mating.
The harbor in Hong Kong sparkled with an eerie blue glow, creating a surprising and beautiful picture. But few people know that the cause of this lovely landscape is actually pollution - pig manure, fertiliser and sewage. This nutrient-rich pollution encouraged a bloom of Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as "Sea Sparkle."
In the video above, you can see PhD student Mason Bretan from the Robot Musicianship Group at Georgia Tech in the US jam with some of the robots he helped create. The robots got rhythm, and they got the skills. Just look at that amazing marimba solo at the middle of the video – that was completely […]
Researchers in the UK have found that male children from poor homes growing up in better-off areas are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior. But disadvantaged boys living in areas where three-quarters of the population was poor had the lowest rates of such behaviour. The findings are grim, since they suggest mixed income communities could bear some unforeseen negative consequences, which might outweigh the benefits.
Researchers at the Université de Strasbourg made a polymer gel that is able to contract similar to how a muscle concentrates motor proteins to elicit motion. The contraction occurs under the influence of light, but besides contraction, the gel also stores some of the absorbed light.
After analyzing key hand bone fragments from fossil records, a team of anthropologists conclude that pre-homo human ancestral species, such as Australopithecus africanus, used a hand posture very similar to that of modern humans. Considering fossil tools used for scrubbing off meat as old as 3.3 million years have been found, it may just be that our early ancestors weren't all that different from good ol' superior homo sapiens sapiens. Well, as far as hands go at least.
American and Australian researchers have figured out how to unboil an egg, devising a method that unfolds tangled proteins. The process could prove to be extremely valuable in the biotech industry; costs could be dramatically cut for cancer treatments, food production and other research. So, is unboil a word now?
A few people in the world are able to "wake up" in their dreams, retaining their lucidity and even exploring the dream world. According to a new study, all these people may have one thing in common - a neurological ability.
Harbor seals and most likely all pinnipeds rely on their whiskers to track prey even in the murkiest waters. Now, a new research has revealed the secret to the seal's formidable sensitive whiskers: it's their wavy shape.
Piotr Naskrecki, a Harvard biologist, did what few people would have the courage to do – he let maggots grow inside his skin, then documented the entire process. The result is, while very gross, spectacularly interesting. Proceed at your own risk. I’ve got you under my skin The Human Bot Fly from Piotr Naskrecki on […]
Divers off the coast of Norfolk have discovered a submerged prehistoric forest, hidden underwater for 10,000 years. The forest was part of Doggerland – a land area which connected Germany and Great Britain up to 8000 years ago. This is a forgotten part of Europe, hidden under 200 meters of water. Divers discovered it after […]
The states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are running out of water. According to a Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira, the three states are experiencing the worst drought in recorded history, and the facts are painting a bleak picture for the future. Authorities have already implemented water saving measures, and rations may be implemented in the near future.
The big news in climate is that 2014 is the hottest year on record - but the bigger picture is even more disheartening: global warming trends have remained constant since 1998, and ocean warming is going off the charts.
A team of researchers has managed to make metallic glasses from pure, monoatomic metals. These metals are amorphous like glass, but they retain some of the properties of metals - like ultrafast cooling and solid state reaction.
California's large trees or those larger than two feet in diameter have declined in numbers to half that recorded in a 1930 census, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The leading cause of the demise is thought to be rising surface temperatures which but high stress on large trees, along with water shortages.
Nothing can travel faster than light in vacuum, per Einstein, but in the real world light travels at variable speed as it passes through a medium, be it air, water or glass. Physicists at University of Glasgow now demonstrate that its not only the medium that can slow down light, but also shape after they performed an experiment where light traveled through a ''mask".
Using satellite imagery, scientists have discovered two new subglacial lakes under Greenland's ice sheet bringing the total number to four. The discovery is not well met, however. These lakes are already drained, signaling that climate change is making its way beneath the Greenland ice sheet. The discovery suggests subglacial lakes could increase the sensitivity of ice to climatic change, further accelerating ice melt which can lead to catastrophic floods.
After analyzing almost every marijuana related tweet sent during a one-month period in early 2014, researchers have discovered there are 15 times as many pro-pot tweets sent as anti-pot tweets. This makes Twitter a highly pot-friendly social network.
For the first time, scientists have developed a treatment for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that actually reverses the disability. Dr. Richard K. Burt performed the first hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) for a multiple sclerosis (MS) patient in the United States at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the treatment shows great promise.
Researchers in Germany report the discovery a previously unknown bacterial communication pathway, one that might be a potential target for new medicine.
The Permian was a geologic period that ended some 250 million years ago, with the largest extinction our planet has known. Geologists have now found evidence that global acidic rain accentuated or even caused the massive extinction.
A new study has found that chewing gum is actually effective at cleaning your mouth of bacteria - but only if the gum is sugar free. If the gum has sugar, it actually feeds the bacteria even more.
It’s never too late to do something you really want to – and this is a great example. A 90 year old woman from Kenya decided to go to primary school. She is believed to be the oldest pupil in the world. Sitting at the front of the class (because seeing can be a bit […]
Two teams of researchers from the US recoded the genome of the E. coli bacteria such that it dies when it runs out of synthetic chemical, unavailable in nature. This way, it's impossible for the bacteria to spread into the wild uncontrolled. Effectively, this self-destruct measure puts GMOs on a tight leash!
Using a specialized hot-water drill to cleanly bore through half a mile of ice, scientists found fish populations thriving in the dark, cold Antarctic. The WISSARD research project is focused both on the geology and biology of the area and will yield valuable information about the mechanics of ice sheets and their potential effects on sea-level rise.
It's a remarkable day for NASA and space observations: the Solar Dynamics Observatory has taken its 100,000,000th photo! The mission, which has been in continuous operation since 2010 has greatly contributed to our understanding of the Sun and the Sun-Earth relationship.
There's a popular belief that poorer parents are largely worse at parenting that those better-off, since they lack the necessary resources to engage as often in what are considered good parenting practices. University of Bristol researchers topple this thinking after they found that there was no evidence to indicate there was such a difference. Basically, poorer parents were as likely to have helped with homework, attended parents' evenings, and played sports or games with their children in the previous week, according to the study which surveyed 1,665 UK households.
A lot of Americans seem to be confused about what are antibiotics and what they're good for. According to a YouGov survey (full results), a third of American correspondents replied that antibiotics can cure the flu, while a third also thought that vaccines can give you the flu. It goes without saying that this is false. The findings suggest an over prevalence of thought that antibiotics are "good for everything", an abuse that might cost public health dearly.
Based on latest evidence and calculations, our entire galaxy, the Milky Way, might be a a huge wormhole, stable and navigable. Astrophysicists combined the equations from general relativity with a distribution of dark matter to reach this conclusion
It's hilarious and sad at the same time: the US Senate had to vote whether or not climate change is real, and not a hoax. Thankfully, the vast majority of the Senators agreed with science, and by 98 to 1, they voted that climate change is indeed real.
If you find it hard to focus, you're feeling a lack of enthusiasm or simply are stressed, a walk during lunch hours might do wonders for you. A new study has found that just with a walk, you could fight all those issues.
The magnetic field of asteroids lasted for a surprisingly long time, a new research has found. According to it, it may have lasted for millions and millions of years – long enough to potentially protect life forms hitching through the solar system. Asteroids and Life Asteroids are considered to be minor planets, with the larger […]
Changing bad habits into good ones can be quite a challenge, but having a partner that does the same goes a long way. A new study has found that if your partner works out and quits smoking, then you are much more likely to do the same thing.
Every food product is mandated in most of the world to list its nutritional values - how much proteins, lipids, sugars and so on - yet most people, even nutrition conscious shoppers, have a hard time interpreting the labels to make a healthy decision.
There are millions of dollars in gold and other metals in the sewage sludge in major cities. A new study has found that in a city with 1 million inhabitats, there’s as much as $13 million worth of valuable metals, including gold and silver.
We often say that you only see 10% of the iceberg, the rest being underwater. US photographer Alex Cornell actually got the chance to see that - during a trip to Antarctica, he managed to take pictures of an extremely rare phenomenon: a flipped iceberg.
More than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years have been spared by vaccination preventive action, but despite this more and more parents choose to shun vaccines, not only for them, but for their children as well. The consequences are evident, but it's not the lives of themselves and their children that parents who refuse vaccines risk. It's that of those around them, in their communities as well.
