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Using the evergreen Hubble telescope, astronomers from NASA have been able to uncover a previously unseen population of ancient galaxies, observed as they appeared only 350 million to 600 million years after the big bang, when the Universe was still in its infancy. The galaxies are located in a patch of the sky called the […]
Flexible electronics are still in their infancy, however scientists have raved about them for years now. Electronics that can bend and stretch a lot without breaking open up a slew of new possibilities, from smart clothing equipped with all kinds of sensors to flexible micro-devices. Recently, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) […]
Scientists trying to pinpoint the origin of life have been looking at it the wrong way, a new study claims. A new perspective Instead of recreating the chemical building blocks that led to the emergence of life 3.7 billion years ago, they argue scientists should use key differences in the way that living creatures store […]
Yesterday morning, the U.S. Air Force launched its X-37B robotic space plane into orbit via an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This is the spacecraft’s third launch since 2010, however very little is known about X-37B itself and more importantly about its mission. Officials claim that its goal is scientific, however it’s […]
Boredom seems to be a dominant “affliction” of the 21st century. That’s not to say it’s a sole modern life problem. People have been bored since the dawn of mankind, and actually some of the world’s greatest advancements surfaced from the need to battle boredom. Understanding, on an empirical level, what is boredom and what […]
If you ever been unlucky enough to feel the wrath of a porcupine, then you’ve probably noticed two things: it hurts like hell, and the quills are really hard to pull out. But don’t be mad – something really good could come out of your pain. Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital now […]
The mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago also terminated most of the lizards living on our planet at the time – including a newly identified creature that’s been named Obamadon gracilis in honor of President Barack Obama. This is when you know you’ve made it big – when you’ve already […]
You might not know this, but 76-year old actor Alan Alda, known for his role as Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce in the longstanding television series MASH, is a dedicated science enthusiast. A visiting professor at Stony Brook University, where he also founded the Center for Communicating Science, Alda has sought for many years to increase scientific awareness as an indispensable […]
It’s amazing how this cross-section view on the right showcasing a new type of transistor from Purdue and Harvard universities resembles a Christmass tree, just in the nick of the time for the holiday season. Its design, however, has little to do with a Christmas trees. Make no mistake, the transistor’s shape and design follows a pattern […]
Coincident with the much anticipated release of the new Lord of the Rings flick, a forensic anthropologist went through the painstaking process of reconstructing the face of the now famous Flores “hobbit”. The facial reconstruction shows a figure that looks a lot more modern than scientists would have thought. Homo floresiensis caused a wave of controversy […]
As a geologist, I tend to see the Earth as a dynamic setting, with all sorts of processes taking place; however, for me, 100.000 years is a really short period. For other, normal people, over the course of decades and centuries, the Earth is really static, with mountains and valleys seemingly anchored firmly in place. […]
Generating useful energy out of otherwise mundane activities has been a goal for scientists for many years. Bicycle dynamos that generate electrical current to power a headlight from the kinetic energy generated by the cyclist have been used since the turn of the last century. Modern approaches have gone to greater lengths, turning ones footsteps on […]
Europe’s largest minority group, the Romani people have migrated from northwestern India, a new genetic study shows. The Romani, also known as the Roma, or Romi (depending on the language) have been originally called “gypsies” in the 16th century, because of their widely spread origin and because they were thought to come from Egypt. However, […]
A strong earthquake with an epicenter off the northeastern coast of Japan shook buildings all the way to Tokyo, leading to a tsunami warning for coastal areas of the northeast. The first estimate of the magnitude was 7.4, but was then lowered to 7.3. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) explained there is no risk […]
Researchers at Parabon NanoLabs have developed an unique tool that allows scientists to use an intuitive drag-and-drop computer interface, much like in any other 3-D CAD software like Catia or AutoCAD, together with DNA self-assembly techniques, to develop and test new drugs much faster. Called the Parabon Essemblix Drug Development Platform, the tool can be used to design molecular pieces […]
Over the past few years, a series of papers looked on how the United States could benefit by switching from crude oil to alternative synthetic fuels. Their findings show that, given the current economic environment where oil prices have simply skyrocketed, synthetic fuels are more advantageous compared to crude oil from a number of perspectives, including […]
After it was first cast out to sea less than a year ago from San Francisco’s bay, the PacX Wave Glider, also known as Papa Mau, finally reached the end of its epic journey after it reached Queensland, Australia setting a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle. PacX swam over […]
The Ebb and Flow satellites, known together as the Grail mission are mapping the slight differences in gravity across the Moon. The results show that the Moon received a much bigger battering than previous expected. A troubled past Beneath its surface, the Moon’s interior bears clues from the very early solar system – unlike the […]
Solar Impulse, the now famous 100 percent solar-powered aircraft, made the headlines after it proved it could fly for 26 hours straight, be it day or night. Now the projects’ initiators want to take the plane and solar power to new dazzling heights – they want to circumnavigate the globe in 20 days and 20 […]
Scientists at MIT have created tiny, millimeter-scale robots inspired by proteins that join together and can fold into various shapes. Though the research is still in its incipient form, these tiny robots could pave the way for the first real-life Transformers. Appropriately called milli-moteins, the robots can’t shape into complex shapes like a car or spaceship. Actually, […]
Nyasasaurus parringtoni may have not been revered by other dinosaurs, but according to a new study published in Biology Letters, he is the oldest dinosaur to walk the face of the Earth, surpassing the previous record holder by 10-15 million years. It walked on two legs, measured 2-3 m in length, had a large tail […]
The much discussed soil analysis samples taken by Curiosity have finally been made public by NASA at the recent American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. The findings are indeed exciting, as scientists have read the presence of organic compounds – critical prerequisites for the both the present and past existence of life. However, scientists have yet to be […]
The Voyager probes have provided scientists with invaluable data for the past four decades as they circled our solar system’s outmost planets, and most importantly as they prepare to leave our solar system. Though expected to exit the solar system by the end of this year, Voyager-1 has yet to achieve this. The reason for […]
Did you know that the Navy trained dolphins to find mines which often blow up? Apparently, it was a cost effective method; now, the Navy are preparing to replace the dolphins with robots, not because they were doing a bad job or because they want to do a more humane job, but because, guess what? […]
Data shows that CO2 emissions in 2012 hit 35.6 billion tonnes, showing a 2.6% increase since 2011, and 58% above 1990 levels. Putting this new data into context, it becomes increasingly clear that global warming will not be kept below an increase of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, researchers claim. The research by the […]
Society today is trying to make-up for lost time during the western world’s patriarchal culture and bridge the gap between genders. For a safe transition between the sexes in society, however, maybe it’s important to understand where men and women are fundamentally different. A recent study, for instance, shows that men and women view the […]
In a breakthrough for nanotechnology, researchers at the Harvard’s Wyss Institute have found the right mix of chemistry and molecular programming to trick DNA strands to fit together perfectly, just like Lego bricks, and thus form various objects and shapes, all based on the scientists’ software design. Thus, a myriad of objects made out of […]
Needless to say, the human brain is the most complex neural structure encountered so far. While a computer can outwork a human in many cognitive tasks, our brain can perform a variety of tasks that no computing machine can even scratch the surface. Just think a bit about imagination – how could a computer ever […]
Controversy surrounds biologist E.O. Wilson’s latest publication ‘The Social Conquest of Earth’. Most of it centres on his repudiation of kin selection and the question of whether or not its replacement, group selection, actually works. What most of the debate overlooks is Wilson’s contention that humans have evolved violent instincts from a past of warfare […]
Nanocrystals have always interested researchers since their electrical and thermodynamic properties show strong size dependence, which could potentially lead to some highly efficient new technologies. Scientists at University of Pennsylvania recently showed that nanocrystals of semiconductor cadmium selenide can be easily printed or layered on-top of flexible plastics to form electronic devices. This could potentially open up a […]
Eye contact plays a very important role in human interactions, however a recent research study made by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara found that looking below the eyes is the best place to get the feel of what a person is up to. Besides, apparently most of us are already hard-wired to fix our initial gaze to […]
We could go on about what free will is until dusk and still not reach a conclusion. Indeed, philosophers have been theorizing free will for thousands of years, but haven’t we neglected an important aspect? There seems to be a general consensus that free will is entirely a human trait, but what of other animals? […]
Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have successfully tested out the prototype for a nuclear-reactor engine, meant to serve in the future as an “a simple, reliable space power system.” Although the experiment, dubbed Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF), rendered only 24 watts of power, barely enough to power a common household light bulb, the system […]
You’ve heard about white color and white noise, but know there’s a new neutral signal that balances the senses, the sens of smell to be more exact – white smell! Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have shown that white odor indeed exists, although it can’t be found in nature, after they created a mixture of various […]
Fairy circles, or fairy rings as they have sometimes been called, are known to many cultures around the world and pose various mystical significance. Some consider them a spawning pool for elves, fairies or pixies, hence their name. In Europe and North America they are most of the times formed by mushrooms, as most people […]
After the Large Hadron Collider‘s monumental find of the Higgs boson, the scientists in Geneva might have made new breakthrough finding. Scientists working with the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the two major-magnet particle detectors in the LHC, have discovered a new form of matter known as color-glass condensate after studying proton-lead high speed collisions. The Large […]
A real life Peter-Weyland, SpaceX founder and self-made billionaire, Elon Musk, has stirred up controversy with his space exploration claims on a number of occasions, mostly because they’re considered rather “too ambitious”. A few months ago Musk suggested that in a mere few decades, his company will be offering $500,000 there and back trips to Mars. […]
As urban city environments continue to spread, more and more research is being done to measure the effects human pollution of all sorts is affecting the local wildlife. Researchers from the University of Bielefeld in Germany have recently released the results of a study focused on the mating tunes of grasshoppers. They found that the city-boy […]
which your pet seems to actually understand what you’re telling him – no matter how silly the actual act of speaking to a dog might seem to you. Whether its catching a ball or climbing up ramps or chairs to get to your bed, dogs learn to understand commands.. The fact that dogs can identify and […]
Who doesn’t dream of a deserted tropical island..sandy beaches made of coral sand, with crystal clear water, blue like the sky – you know what I mean. And let’s say it would be somewhere off the coast of Australia, maybe near New Calledonia. That sounds perfect.. it’s a great place, a great place to imagine. Well, […]
Researchers from the US have developed a hybrid printer that is able to print cartilage which might one day be implanted into injured patients to help them re-grow lost cartilage in vulnerable areas, such as joints. The innovative 3D printer is a mix of a mix of a traditional ink jet printer and an electrospinning […]
Most physicists believe that space is not smooth, but it is rather composed of incredibly small subunits, much like a painting made of dots. This micro-landscape is believed to host numerous black holes – black holes, that is, smaller than a trillionth of a trillionth of the diameter of a hydrogen atom, popping in and […]
A few days ago, the Curiosity rover staff made an announcement that sent echoes throughout the entire scientific community – and not only. They announced that they have made a discovery ‘for the history books’, one that is so spectacular they want to quadruple check before they publish it, just to make sure it’s not […]
There’s an age long question that even some of history’s greatest free thinkers, philosophers and theologists haven’t been able to answer – are humans good in nature? Many have tried to seek answers to this riddling puzzle, and for many the conclusion was a gloomy one – that man is simply doomed to stray the […]
Paleodictyon is a mysterious fossil pattern found mainly in marine sediments thought to be specific of a certain paleo-depth range; it is a relatively widespread trace fossil – called this way because it is mainly accepted that it is created by a burrowing creature. Although it has been discovered since the dawn of geology and fossil […]
Around the globe, local climates are changing. Maybe you haven’t noticed it yet, because in most regions this is a slow and subtle change, but the people that are used to observing the nature around their cities, or the people in agriculture that are deeply connected to the patterns of rain and drought will tell you […]
Today’s birds’ ancestors descended from non-avian dinosaurs according to a recent paper that thoroughly studied Anchiornis (155 million years ago) and Archaeopteryx (between 152 million and 168 million years ago) – the oldest known feathered dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx is so far the oldest bird-like dinosaur found thus far, and since it was first discovered almost 150 years ago, it was thought that […]
There’s a rather common image that might pop inside someone’s head when thinking of penguins – an entire flock of such animals, standing very close together, keeping themselves warm as they confront extreme sub-zero antarctic temperatures. Don’t be fooled, though. According to the results of a mathematical simulation that modeled penguin huddling, the penguins stick […]
In an age where the developing world is shadowed by paranoia in face of waves of terrorist attacks, no measure of precaution is spared. Preventing terrorist attacks has been a top priority for governments for a long time, especially since 9/11, and detecting explosives at critical check-ins like airport and customs makes for the first […]
While current solar energy conversion technology is preoccupied with generating electricity with as much efficiency as possible, researchers at Rice University have invented a new technological set-up consisting of nanoparticles smaller than the the wavelength of light that can transform solar energy into steam almost instantly. Their findings show a registered efficiency of 24%, while current […]
