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Having a smart strategy doesn't require a brain, a new study has shown. Researchers found an insect-eating plant from Borneo which can outsmart ants and temporarily turn off its trap to attract more prey.
The people in charge of funding for NASA and environmental research, Republican senators Ted Cruz and James Inhofe, have a record of not understanding science and making pseudoscientific affirmations. While I won't discuss the politics here (we never do), the fact that such important matters fall onto the shoulders of people known to be pretty much adversaries of science cannot be left unchecked.
For the first time, scientists have created a human muscle in a lab which can contract responds to external stimuli just like a real muscle. The engineered muscle responds to electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals. The development will allow researchers to test the effect of drugs on human muscles without needing human subjects and in time, may lead to the creation of artificial muscles.
America's young scientists are constantly losing the battle to receive more funding. They're losing research dollars, leaving research altogether and creating a brain drain which puts a big question mark regarding the future of science.
While this study may seem hilariously obvious at first, it was actually necessary. When Mormon religion meets homosexuality, the results are often so mind blowing and saddening that you just need studies like this to explain how things really are. In a society which believes that homosexuality is something treatable just like alcoholism, you need a study to tell people that if a gay man marries a woman, divorce is very likely.
Children nutrition in schools in the US has a big problem - not only are the kids not eating enough fruits and vegetables (which leads to health issues later on in life), but a study has shown that kids waste millions of dollars every day by throwing away the fruits and veggies. Now, a new study has found that a no-cost trick could greatly improve that: just have recess before lunch - not after.
People spend more of their time asleep as babies than at any other point in their lives, but even if this has been common knowledge for some time we're only beginning to understand what role sleep plays during this key stage. University of Sheffield researchers claim that sleeping is key to leaning and forming new memories for infants as old as 12 months. Babies who didn't nap were far less able to repeat what they had been taught only 24 hours earlier.
Swiss scientists demonstrated a flexible ribbon-like implant that attaches itself to a paralyzed rat's spinal cord, allowing the animal to walk again. The prosthetic, described by foremost experts in the field as 'remarkable', works by delivering timed electrical impulses and drugs along the spinal cord. In this particular case, rats aren't that different from humans, and true enough clinical trials are now one step closer. In the future, paralysis might just be another word for "walking funny."
A novel type of nanowire crystals was demonstrated by researchers at the University of Copenhagen that can fuse together both semiconductor and metallic materials with atomic precision at their interface. This way, nanowires and their electrical contacts have been fused in one hybrid material which might lay the foundation for the next generation of semiconductor electronics. […]
Based on fossil evidence and genome analysis, scientists know that the two groups diverged from a common ancestor around 420 million years ago, but we've yet to find actual fossil of it. Things are shaping up though after paleontologists have identified an Early Devonian fish from Siberia, approximately 415 million years old, which bears features of both classes.
Apart from sand castles and elaborate water pranks, many beach goers enjoy drawing in the sand, be it simple doodles, love statements or football pitch size intricate works of arts (you have to check out Tony Plant's work). To put human beach drawing to shame, Disney just unveiled a mechanical rake wielding robot, designed to look like a cute turtle, that can automatically draw any planar shapes with ease.
Researchers have found that just by analyzing your Facebook Likes, a computer can judge your personality better than even your close friends. They went even further than that, and calculated how many Likes the algorithm has to analyze to figure your personality traits.
When the flu hits, an unmistakable feeling of drowsiness sinks in. Washington State University Spokane scientists have now found a specific protein that is uniquely involved in sleep responses triggered by the influenza virus in mice. They found that the protein boosts the healing power of sleep and helps recovery. The researchers speculate that it might be possible to develop treatments based on it that might speed up recovery even more.
Buttereflies are pretty awesome insects - the pupal transformation into a butterfly through metamorphosis is one of the most spectacular processes in the biological world. For one month, until February 16, Drexler University will exhibit a spectacular sample: a butterfly suffering from bilateral gynandromorphism - in other words, a butterfly that is half male, half female.
A new study may have finally found where Earth’s water came from. There are currently two competing theories, with one claiming that our planet generated its own water geologically, while the other suggests that water was brought by icy comets or asteroids from outside. A new study concluded that most of the water we see […]
Keeping insects at bay is more than eliminating a simple nuisance - in many some parts of the world, it's vital. Malaria, an infectious mosquito-borne disease kilss over 500,000 people every year, and the disease could be kept under control if the mosquito population was kept under control; this is where this study steps in.
Carbon buckyball molecules rarely exist naturally on Earth. Nonetheless, that did not stop astronomers from finding an unexpected abundance of buckyballs in space. Three years ago, Dr. Olivier Berné and Professor Xander Tielens – then, both at Leiden University – suggested a way to form these carbon buckyballs by sifting the hydrogen from larger carbon-hydrogen molecules. […]
If the leaf really works as the hype would have us believe, then it's really a fantastic display of ingenuity.
An inspired entrepreneur, Shigeharu Shimamura, took an old semiconductor factory that was abandoned following the 2011 Japan disaster and turned it into the largest indoor farm in the world. Using state of the art growing technology, his company manages to make some 10,000 heads of lettuce per day out of the 25,000 square feet facility. This makes it 100 times more productive per square foot than traditional agriculture, all with 40% less power, 80% less food waste and 99% less water usage than outdoor fields.
The administration of New York City mayor Bill De Blasio announced today that styrofoam will be banned in the city starting in July this year, in an attempt to "green up" the city.
A female orangutan born in the wild has learned to use her tongue to whistle and produce vowel sounds just like a human - suggesting that all giant apes are able to do so. Although orangutans are known to create diverse vocalisations, what Tilda can do is unique.
Shinichi Mochizuki of Kyoto University, Japan claims he has proven the ABC conjecture, one of the longest standing mysteries of mathematics. However, even though his 500-page paper was published in 2012, no one has managed to understand it. Mochizuki says his fellow mathematicians are failing to get to grips with his work.
In 1833, biologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger showed that animals with warm blood that live closer to the equator tend to be darker. The finding took surprised biologists at the time and now, a new study has shown that this applies for flowers too.
Hydraulic fracking is responsible for a swarm of earthquakes, one of which was felt by Ohio residents in March 2014, a study has found. While the earthquake hag a magnitude of only 3.0 degrees, it is believed that it may have activated a geological fault and may ultimately lead to more significant temblors.
A new study has shown that people with optimistic views of life tend to have much healthier hearts and have much lower risks of cardiovascular disease.
A giant reptile which looked somewhat like a dolphin but had the behavior of a dinosaur was discovered around what is now the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. The predator, an Ichtyosaur lived 170 million years ago and its diet probably consisted of fish and invertebrates, but it may have also eaten sharks and even dinosaurs.
After four decades without any published scientific information on LSD, a new study has reopened the door for the psychedelic drug. Psychiatrists in Santa Cruz, California published results from the first controlled medical trial of LSD in over 40 years, highlighting potential medical benefits.
We’ve come to understand that human players will never stand a chance against a computer with enough fire power at finite and open games like checkers or chess. Poker is sensibly different because the computer doesn’t know his human opponent’s hands. No matter, a group of computer scientists from the University of Alberta in Canada […]
Right now the US is struggling with bone numbing chill, so it might be hard to digest this latest news: 2014 was the 18th straight year to have surpassed average 20th-century US temperatures, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Meanwhile, a preliminary report issued by the Japanese meteorological agency claims 2014 was the warmest year yet worldwide. Final and definite figures concerning this are soon expected to be released by NASA as well.
Researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently demonstrated a new technique for building complex and very fine 3D micro and nano structures out of 2-D shapes. The whole process is very similar to how a children’s pop-up book works, starting as a flat 2D surface only to expand into a 3D shape when prompted. The authors note that the pop-up method has various advantages over 3D printing, including use of multiple materials during the fabrication process and integration with electronics.
Only humans and great apes can recognize themselves when looking in a mirror, but new findings suggest that it's possible for rhesus monkeys to realize they're looking at themselves if trained properly. The findings bear important implications for humans as well, since they suggest patients with impairment of self-recognition can have their condition remedied with training.
By combing biomechatronics and aesthetics, William Root developed a prototype that's a custom fit for each wearer, uses a minimal amount of top class materials and assures high mobility, all while looking as fit it came off a SciFi movie.
Birds are experts at avoiding predators, quickly dodging out of harms way when felt threatened. Likewise, they're fantastic at navigating through crammed environments very quickly woods or packed urban dwellings. Even so, when faced with high-speed objects like cars, not to mention airplanes, the birds seem to make little effort to fly off a path that means most certain doom.
The long sought resting place of Genghis Khan might be finally discovered, using space based technology. The grave of the great conqueror may be found by crowdsourcing satellite data.
Using innovative microfluidics devices, US researchers were able to study thousands of bacteria individually, something extremely difficult if not impossible to do in the past, and found that generation by generation bacteria actually change their size and shape, but collectively retain the same volume. The bacteria stick to this behavior as if governed by a rule or law; something that might help explain why animal organs are always of particular size and shape, why are individual cells of a particular shape for that matter or, ultimately, what is it that regulates all this.
It's a game changer - scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotics which can kill an array of germs by blocking their capacity to build their cell walls, making it extremely difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance. It's the first such discovery in the past three decades, and comes as a much needed breath of air in the fight against superbugs.
Since it was first launched in 2009, the $600 Kepler mission has discovered more than 1,000 alien worlds. Arguably it's one of the most successful space mission in history so far, further cementing its status as a legend. The milestone was breached after eight newly confirmed exoplanets were added to the tally, two of which are very similar to Earth and thus could support alien life.
Following the success of his 2014 Cosmos, the famous astrophysicist and science communicator just nabbed a weekly late-night series for National Geographic Channel called Star Talk. The format and name have existed for some time online as a podcast, where Tyson regularly talks and debates science and major topics concerning it, often featuring celebrities, comedians and scientists as guests.
Major automaker Toyota announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it would release all of its nearly 6,000 patents pertaining to hydrogen car technology royalty-free for the next five years. Officials most likely hope that this sort of move will encourage other auto manufacturers and capital to invest in the hydrogen economy. […]
For the very first time, engineers have used the DNA origami assembly method to build complex DNA-based mechanism that performs a repeatable and reversible function. Mechanical engineers at The Ohio State University built their devices such that they may function like any regular macro-object, like opening and closing hinges. Their approach, however, is different than other […]
More than 2.5 billion people around the world lack access to clean water, making them vulnerable to diseases. To help address this delicate world problem, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded Janicki Bioenergy to build the Omniprocessor – a self-contained system that processes nasty sludge and turns it into electricity, pathogen free ash and pure water. […]
Since the mid-XIXth century average global temperatures have risen by ~0.8 degrees Centigrade, yet this figure would have been much higher were it not for the world’s oceans ability to soak up most of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases. The IPCC estimates that some 90% of the heat trapped by CO2 and methane since […]
An open letter authored by more than 65 biologists calls for conservation groups and efforts to take a step back and rethink their agenda concerning nuclear power, heavily criticized in the past few years following the Fukushima incident. With all its risks and shortcomings, the authors argue, nuclear power is still the most cost-effective “green” solution […]
Finnish researchers analyzed meteorological data gathered over the past 166 years and found the country’s average monthly temperatures have increased by more than 2 degrees Celsius. Over the same period, the rest of the planet has warmed by only 0.8 degrees C on average. Overall, Finland and other sub-Arctic countries are warming at double the […]
The bright, rainbow-colored thermal pools of Yellowstone park may owe their spectacular color to tourist pollution, a new study suggests. Using mathematical models, the study showed the initial colors of the ponds – the ones they had before tourists started polluting them. Morning Glory Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of […]
On 9 December 2014 an oil spill occurred at the Sela river of Sundarbans, Bangladesh, a UNESCO World Heritage site. An oil tanker named Southern Star VII, carrying 350,000 litres of oil was sunk in the river after it had been hit by a cargo vessel. Neither the state owned oil company (Padma Oil Company) nor the […]
For a while, the general consensus was that long term memories are stored in synapses. A new UCLA research topples this paradigm after experiments made on snails suggests that synapses aren’t that crucial storing memories as previously believed, but only facilitate the transfer of information someplace else, most likely in the nucleus of the neurons themselves […]
The effects of climate change on food stock quality is well documented, yet a new study suggests that climate change might not only affect survival rates of marine life, but also how it tastes too. The findings came after an international team of researchers sought to see how high water acidity affects the sensory quality of shrimp.
A few days ago we were telling you about a study which quantified the amount of plastic in the Earth’s waters – 5.25 trillion pieces which weigh an estimated 269,000 tonnes. But another study found that tens of thousands of plastic (or even more) are actually lying on the bottom of the ocean floor, trapped in […]
It’s not Jedi technology, but it’s pretty close – scientists and students from China have devised an umbrella that eliminates the need for awkward and hard to wield umbrellas; the technology creates a force-field of air around you to shield you from the rain. We first wrote about this technology in June 2013, when the technology was […]
