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According to a study published Monday, the Western Corn Rootworm (actually a beetle larvae) has already developed a resistance to not one but two strains of generically modified corn; this happened mostly thanks to the over-reliance and improper implementation of the crops by farmers. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), for all the bad rep they get, […]
Palau’s President Tommy Remengesau Jr. has declared the Pacific nation will become a marine sanctuary – where absolutely no commercial fishing will take place. Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean with a population of only 21.000 people which is spread across 250 islands. However, they have a 200 nautical mile […]
If you’ve been living in a cave or just don’t care about science at all, then you don’t know what the International Space Station is, and I’ll explain here. The ISS is a a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It’s been launched in 1998, and since then, it has been continuously operating. Astronauts […]
Some thirty years after Chernobyl’s nuclear plant meltdown that caused an international incident, scientists have yet to assess the full blown damage the radioactive disaster has caused. While the rest of the world has moved on, ever since the disaster the area surrounding the former nuclear plant has remained largely unchanged, even the plants and […]
Scientists have made great efforts to discover a material that can be used to both absorb and emit light. A fluke may have suffice, since researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore discovered by accident a material that can be used to work as a solar panel, harnessing energy from the sun during the […]
A potentially game changing drug developed by scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University infiltrates the cells from glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain tumor, and causes them to literally explode. Trials so far have been made only on mice whose tumor growth was reversed and survival was prolonged considerably. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is […]
The backbone of today’s modern telecommunication industry is held by fiber optic cables. These information highways have accelerated data transfer and help people all over the globe stay connected, but that’s not all they’re good for. A group of international researchers are exploring the idea of using fiber optics as a lab-on-chip device. The tubes […]
A while ago, Andrei published a post in which he uploaded and spoke about seven key charts that show plain and simple that global warming is real and man-made, unless you know of another perturbing climate factor other than humans capable of producing the same effects. Like I said, plain and simple – for those […]
There’s a common number thrown around for how many scents a human can smell – 10,000. Even scientific literature has cited this figure, though it is highly debatable. This makes a lot of people believe that they have an extremely poor sense of smell compared to most animals, like familiar canines. In reality, it seems […]
High voltage power lines aren’t quite the safest places to be around, especially if you’re a large animal or bird and touch two different conductors, thus creating a voltage difference which kills on the spot. Apparently, though, not too many animals wonder near power lines. Roads are known animal traffic disruptors, but even power lines […]
Isaac Asimov, the father of the three laws of robotics, made some startling predictions many years ago about how thet future might look like. He’s been dead on in some respects, however the writer miscalculated how advanced robots would be in 2014 and how integrated these would become in human society. You see, before robots […]
A team of Harvard engineers has developed a way of producing color that could produce paint that never fades, and displays that never go dark. How color works If you’ve never wondered how color works, it’s a pretty nifty thing. The color we usually see, like on paints and trees works by absorbing certain wavelengths […]
What would you prefer: your favorite home-cooked meal, or a bag of deep fried chips? If you’re sure you’d pick the former, well, then, think again! A team of researchers has shown that if they can get people to pay more attention to a particular type of junk food, they will begin to prefer it – […]
If you’re like me and you really love reading Sci-Fi novels and stories, then you definitely know who Isaac Asimov is – but if that’s not really the case, then let me give you a bit of background: he is one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than […]
It’s tax season again, and hopefully, the Obama Administration will succeed in their plan of eliminating $4 billion in annual federal tax incentives for the oil and natural gas industry. Furthermore, they want to put a big chunk of that money in alternative fuel research and development. But does this initiative stand a chance of […]
Every time a new manufacturing or development technology concerning solar cells was introduced, the futurists and tech pundits were quick to hail the coming of a new generation. The first were the monocrystal silicon cells doped with Phosphorus and Boron in a pn-junction; these are expensive to produce, yet comprise 80% of the total solar panel […]
When males get more stressed, they tend to become more self centered, losing some of the ability to distinguish their own emotions and intentions from those of other people. For women the exact opposite is true. However, for you people who only read the first line and skim the rest: Women without stress were on […]
Inhaling cannabis (medical marijuana) provides symptomatic relief in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to observational trial data published in the March/April edition of the journal Clinical Neuropharmacology. This new study shows tremor, rigidity, sleep and pain improvements in patients using medical marijuana. Researchers at the Tel-Aviv University, Department of Neurology gathered 22 volunteers for […]
Researchers have shown that after being frozen over 1,500 years in Antarctic ice, moss can come back to life and continue to grow. For the first time, this vital part of the polar ecosystem has demonstrated its ability to survive after being frozen for over such an incredibly long time. Well, to be perfectly fair, […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement that California just came off its warmest winter on record. On average there were 48 Fahrenheit (9 Celsius) for December, January and February, making it 4 degrees hotter than the 20th-century average in California. The state is currently facing its most dire drought streak […]
Human stem cells can remember what surface researchers have grown them on. This mechanical memory in fact influences the fate of these stem cells, such as whether they start differentiating into bone or fat cells. Basically, they remember if they were on a hard or soft surface, and this influences their future. This remarkable fact […]
The Natural Gas production is booming throughout the world – especially in the U.S. This boom, while it remains profitable in the short run and environmentally costly in the long run, is still a heated matter of debate, but this article isn’t about that. This is about the major opportunity that chemists now have to […]
Researchers from ETH Zurich and Empa have for the first time succeeded in creating uniform antimony nanocrystals. These nanocrystals are able to store a large number of both lithium and sodium ions, operating at a very high rate – in normal English, this means that they can potentially be used as alternative anode materials in […]
The BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole reported the first ever piece of evidence that support the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe cam to be. Their data suggests that scientists have come across signals left over by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came […]
As a kid, looking at the Predator movies gave me goosebumps; it wasn’t the physical superiority of the Predator, but the technological advantages. I mean, he has all that shooting stuff, and teleportation and camouflage, and the vision… it was all too much! But the way science is crazily developing, we’re already starting to experiment […]
This fantastic animation was created by NATS (a provider of air traffic control services in the UK), showcasing all air traffic in Europe on a typical summer day. The visualization was created from real flight data (UK radar data from 21 June 2013 and European flight plan information from 28 July 2013). European airspace is […]
Many people are worried that touching the poles or the stability handles or straps on buses and trains can expose you to a myriad of germs. Surprisingly enough, there hasn’t really been a lot of research on this issue, but I have to concede that there is at least some room for concern here. But […]
One of the 16 teams involved in a collaborative project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation recently unveiled their innovative design: a solar-powered toilet that treats solid waste by effectively carbonizing it. The concentrated solar […]
Providing free water in schools could be key to helping people in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty according to research from the University of East Anglia. Children who go to schools which provide free water have reported better overall health, and teachers reported fewer children off sick; it seems fairly clear that there’s […]
Is there a connection between intelligence and how likely you are to trust people? According to Oxford researchers, the answer to that question is a definite “yes!”. They based their research on an analysis of the General Social Survey, a nationally representative public opinion survey carried out in the United States; they say that one […]
In an obesity challenged society, physicians first recommend the elderly to maintain an optimal body mass index (a weight to height ratio) in order to prolong their lives. A better indicator and predictor for all-cause mortality, however, may be based on the muscle mass index, according to a recent research published in the American Journal […]
Physicists at Max Planck Institute and Aarhus in Denmark have slowed down the rotational temperature of molecular ions to its lowest yet. This precise control now allows for further research that previously was difficult, if not impossible to recreate in labs on Earth like astrochemical reactions that go out in space. In addition, the process […]
Technology and feelings Technology has gotten pretty good at understanding how we feel, being basically able to read at least the seven universal emotions a person is feeling: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, or suspicion. This has become useful in medicine and psychology, marketing, police investigations, and more recently… driving safety. EPFL researchers, in […]
An international team of geologists captured a prehistoric portrait of parental care deep in the fossil record. The team led by Leicester geologist Professor David Siveter revealed a ‘sea nursery’ which features a species new to science. This new species was found with specimens preserved incubating their eggs together with probable hatched individuals. As a […]
A study conducted by Oxford researchers has shown how sound affects the taste of our foods – high frequency sounds enhance the sweetness in the food, while low frequencies bring out the bitterness. In order to figure out how sounds influence our food, Crossmodal Laboratory at Oxford University fed a group of volunteers some cinder […]
Scientists believe they will be able to extract high quality DNA from remains which have undergone a unique autopsy in Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Repblic, also called Yakutia, in Siberia – they also believe they will be able to clone a wooly mammoth based on those remains. There was a wave of excitement spreading […]
The first ever terrestrial discovery of ringwoodite seems to confirm the existence of massive amounts of water hundreds of kilometers below the Earth’s surface. Let me explain how. Under pressure Ringwoodite is a high-pressure polymorph of olivine; it’s basically olivine, but with a different crystal structure. The mineral is thought to exist in large quantities […]
When you buy your spices, you might be getting more seasoning than you might expect. Why not get some free tiny fragments of insects, dirt or animal feces to go with your chilly? According to the Food and Drug Administration spices entering the U.S. are nearly twice as likely as the average FDA-regulated foodstuff to contain Salmonella pathogens […]
Listening to a high pitched tune will enhance the sweetness of food, while a low hum will make your taste buds signal bitter. Obviously, listening to all low frequencies won’t turn your chocolate bar into a pickled vegetable, but research in this respect suggests there’s genuine synesthetic behaviour. Some restaurant owners are already exploiting this […]
Future lunar missions may be fueled by gas stations in space, according to a new plan developed by MIT engineers. A spacecraft might dock at a propellant depot, somewhere between the Earth and the Moon, and pick up some more fuel before heading on to the moon. The carry load is still a major problem for […]
Using relatively simple perforated sheets of plastic and an extensive amount computation, Duke University researchers have created the world’s first sound invisibility cloak. The cloak diverts sound waves in a way that it conceals both itself, and anything hidden beneath it. The device is, of course, 3D, and it works in the same way, no […]
A researchers from the University of Southampton has developed a a wireless network of sensors that is set to revolutionize soil-based salinity measuring. Testing the salinity levels in soils is a big deal – any salty water infiltrations can have massive effects on agriculture and sometimes, even on soil stability. At the moment, you can […]
San Francisco continues to be one of the most environmentally interested cities in the US, with the Board of Supervisors on March 4 voting unanimously to bar the city from buying plastic water bottles and to ban distribution of plastic water bottles smaller than 21 ounces (600 grams) on city property starting October 1. The […]
Children who use their hands to gesture during a math lesson gain a much deeper understanding of the concepts and methods discussed, according to new research from University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology. It’s already a pretty much accepted fact that gesturing accentuates children learning – it was already established by several studies that gestures […]
The human body is littered with free ions and salts, which goes to explain why so much of our physiology is controlled by electrical signals, from neural pathways to muscle articulation. Very related, researchers at UC Berkeley have shown for the first time that direct current can be used to deliberately guide migration of a sheet […]
When you think about dangerous viruses, gonorrhea doesn’t usually come to mind – but that may well be about to change. Gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), has become resistant to most of the antibiotics that we have used to combat it over the last three decades. We’ve written before about antibiotic resistant gonorrhea entering […]
Imagine going to a meeting, flipping your phone on the table and then instantly project your slide presentation or traveling to a remote location, where there aren’t any displays or projectors, and use nothing but your phone to project a multimedia application [a movie, a video game, etc.]. Such ideas are being currently manipulated by […]
The wild is often home to a game of hide or seek, and animals need to be well adapted to their part of the game. For those who are constantly juggling the role of prey, however, the game seems to always favor them less. We, as humans, have little direct contact with these underlying mechanics […]
A year long investigation by Greenpeace reveals grim palm oil harvesting practices in Indonesia, where suppliers are currently engaging in massive deforestation, which severely threaten the already endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans, shady PR tactics and intentionally lighting up forest fires. Among the findings is a horrific graveyard where the buried remains of several orangutans […]
Some 20.000 years ago, mammoths and other giant fauna roamed the Earth. So too did this giant virus – the only difference is that this virus, Pithovirus sibericum, is still around and doing fine. Large enough to be seen under a light microscope, Pithovirus sibericum is not the first megavirus to be found, but at […]
