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In yet another breakthrough archaeological find, the tomb of what’s considered by many the founder of the Mayan civilization has been found at the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Tak’alik Ab’aj in western Guatemala’s Retalhuleu region, about 45km from the border of Mexican state of Chiapas. The tomb was built between 700 and 400 BC, according to carbon-dating […]
What’s halfway between 1 and 9? If you’re like most people, you’d answer 5 or 4.5 – which is fine. But if you take a 6 year old kid on the other hand and ask him the same question, the odds are he’ll answer 3. According to a recent study, the great majority of children […]
Scientists in Canada have made a remarkable discovery: they have unearthed the first fossils of a feathered dinosaur ever found in the Americas. Their research, which was published in Science, includes 75 million year old specimens, including a juvenile and two adult ostrich-like creatures which go by the name of ornithomimids. Until now, the only […]
Detecting the extent of soft-tissue diseases, such as breast cancer, typically requires invasive medical procedures, like a biopsy. A team of researchers at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering has developed a new self-assembled nanoparticle which acts as a safe fluorescent probe, used to generate 3-D pictures of cancer cell structures in living tissue. Two-photon microscopy (TPM) uses […]
No, this isn’t some kind of reinvented alchemy or optical illusion. Scientists at University of Southampton have changed the colour of gold, silver and other metals without coating, by using a nanotechnology patterning technique. Applications may include harder to forge currency or encryption of valuable documents, among other. The team of researchers embossed the surface of […]
In an extremely exciting find, scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark found a type of bacteria that creates electrical currents on the sea floor. Despite the lack of air or sun light, these tiny bacteria flourish and form vast swaths of electrically pulsating multi-cellular organisms. The researchers found that the bacteria breaks down substances in deeper sediments […]
I’m not necessarily a big fan of Ikea, but you have to admire this kind of initiative. The Swedish corporation announced they will go for a sustainable business model, one which features €1.5 billion investments in solar and wind power. The furniture company has remained true to its initial model, which involved doing things as […]
Attempts to decipher the 5000 year-old proto-Elamite writing system have so far rendered little results, much of it still consisting a troublesome puzzle for the scientists studying it. After using a high-tech imaging technique that has rendered the symbols in incredible details, scientists are now finally confident they’re nearing a breakthrough. The Elamite civilization spanned […]
In 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann made a sensational claim that would have forever changed the world we live in – if it had been true. They claimed to achieve nuclear cold fusion at room temperature using a relatively simple device, thus creating a safe, clean source of energy. The cold fusion dream, revisited […]
How many times did you find yourself anticipating a certain event shortly before it happened?
Strangely enough, it was computer simulation that provided the mathematical support for the grandmother hypothesis – a famous yet controversial theory which suggests adult humans have longer lifespans as a result of grandmother babysitting. Longevity genes The simulation indicates that without any estimate of the brain size, an animal with a chimp-like lifespan can evolve […]
The pyramids, art, all of the world’s great inventions, literary works, just about any valuable intellectual work can be traced back to food – cooked food. If you care to go as far back as our very roots, that is. Previous research showed that cooked food made it easier and more efficient for our guts to […]
Nope, this is not the Mars chocolate I’m talking about – NASA’s Curiosity rover is digging in at Rocknest – a patch of Martian sand the robot has been exploring for the past week. If you look at the picture above, taken by one of Curiosity’s camera, you can actually see three bite-like marks, left […]
The dung beetle is an extreme survivor. Not only does it feed on poop, but it also fashions a hefty ball out of it, up to 50 times its own mass, that it rolls through the scorching desert. We’re talking 60 degrees Celsius here. A new study that has closely followed this truly remarkable creature […]
Fusing ancient, medieval, renascent and modern influences, the city of Rome is truly relic of time. It’s actually so old, that many construction projects in Rome have to go through a tiresome process before they can even start work, since there’s always the chance some forgotten tomb or catacomb of some sort might lie underneath. If you’re wondering what are the […]
In 2011, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Spanish city of Lorca, resulting in the loss of 9 lives and the injury of over 100 people. Now, researchers studying the case believe groundwater extraction played a crucial role in triggering this earthquake. A fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which […]
Saudi Arabia is by far the most oil-blessed country in the world – only Russia coming even close to it, but they want to transition to a more eco friendly, renewable energy-based system. Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabia royal family, spoke to journalists at the Global Economic Symposium […]
A first analysis of the ice that froze onto the drillbit used to drill in the pristine Vostok lake shows no native microbes came with the ice. A while ago, researchers understood that precious insight on alien life could be found right here on Earth – in Russia, to be more precise. But Antarctica’s is […]
A breath of fresh air for the brain’s “glue” cells: astrocytes play a big role in breathing. Star-shaped cells called astrocytes, are found in the brain and in the spinal cord; they are characteristic star-shaped glial cells, being by far, the most numerous cells in the human brain. According to a new research published in […]
When you think about clarity – probably the last thing that comes to mind is mud, but that’s exactly what it can do to carbon dating: provide the much needed clarity the field needs. If you want to date something, radiometric dating is the way to go; basically, you analyze materials, such as rocks or […]
The search for extraterrestrial life has always been a fascinating thought, one that has entertained the human mind for generations, sparked by the life-long question “are we alone in the Universe?” Existentialism aside, in the past decades intense efforts have been made in order to find life beyond our blue marble, the most recent of […]
Remember when, back in May, we told you about a case with a dinosaur skeleton transferred from Mongolia to the US, then auctioned, despite a judge declaring the act illegal? Well… good news! A man from the state of Florida gave an entirely new meaning to ‘grave robbing’ after being lured to the dark side […]
Researchers flock to more developed, wealthier countries, with advanced research systems. The big picture of global migration shows this rather clearly, but it also shows culture can significantly skew this pattern. Moving to the top of the pack Yuh Nung Jan and Lily Jan are two married neuroscientists, running their laboratory at the University of […]
After staying awake for many hours or days at time, humans and other mammals alike are forced to sleep, not because the body asks it, but because the brain inevitably calls for a shut down of the conscious psyche, in order to replenish and function properly when awake. Dolphins, however, have been found to have […]
We may associate hitchhiking with older times, but 16 million years ago? That sounds like a far way back. Researchers from the University of Manchester have found evidence of springtail hiking on the wings of mayflies; using an incredible composition of scans that resulted in a 3D image, scientists have actually caught them in the […]
This past weekend, the last American space shuttle, the Endeavour, made its final trip through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center. The trip lasted from midnight Friday morning until midday Sunday as the shuttle traveled at the high speeds of two miles per hour. There were many delays and the shuttle […]
Dark matter is a type of matter which astrophysicists believe covers the greater part of the Universe’s mass. However, dark matter can’t be seen, nor does it interract with any type of electromagnetic radiation – it is only observed through the gravitational object it has on other bodies. Dark matter is estimated to constitute 84% […]
Testosterone is usually associated with dominance, sexual aggression, and…hairiness, but a recent study suggests a surprising trait: honesty. Researchers at the University of Bonn asked 91 men to be treated with a testosterone gel. Forty-six of them would had actual testosterone gel applied to their skin, while the other 45 would receive a completely benign […]
A group of researchers from the United States found out that the Moon is covered with a soil containing typical water structure. Weirdly enough, the water substructure packed soil is created by a constant stream of charged particles coming from the sun, according to the team. The key is hydroxyl. As you probably know, […]
Xenon is a noble gas, the second heaviest of the chemically inert noble gases. The only problem with is that… it’s gone missing! Xenon is almost entirely missing from our atmosphere, somethign which researchers were unable to answer – until now, that is. German researchers believe they managed to find out where the gas is […]
While researchers have known for quite a while that dolphins and some birds are able to learn and change tunes, you wouldn’t really expect mice to be the next vocal sensation in the animal world. Biologists believed any vocal abilities in mice were innate, but now they found that mice also possess a (rudimentary) motor […]
Researchers at MIT have developed a novel technique of creating cheap and reliable sensors for toxic gases by simply etching carbon nanotubes with a mechanical pen on a special paper, fitted with electrodes. The method allows for easy to make, cheap and reliable sensors that detect noxious gases in the environment, without the hassle that […]
When last year scientists at CERN reported how neutrinos traveled a few tens of nanoseconds faster than the speed of light, the whole scientific community was left in shock, since it defied even the most elemental restriction of modern-day physics, a cornerstone without which physicists would have to rebuild the Standard Model. Still, some researchers, […]
Scientists aren’t entirely sure which parts of the brain are involved in hypnosis, but a recent experiment by the Stanford University School of Medicine is giving us our first clues. The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, explored the differences between brains that could be hypnotized, and those that couldn’t. Using MRI technology, […]
Oil spills are one of the most devastating man-made ecological disasters out there. During such an outbreak, millions of gallons of oil can end up in the ocean, killing countless marine life, as well as harming the ecosystem. Handling such disasters, beyond pointing fingers which comes to no avail to the marine life, has become […]
Trapped in the web, the wasp knows it’s done for, as it counts the seconds to its impending doom. The spider snatches its prey, and is prepared to act its revenge upon the ancient wasp, which is a parasite of spider eggs. But just as the final killing blow is imminent, resin oozes from a tree […]
A curious specimen which bares a resemblance to the iconic Jedi master Yoda, due to its large lips on either side of the creature’s head reminiscent of the Jedi’s ears, has been recently collected from far, far away in the ocean depths. Upon closer inspection it along with two other creatures have been recognized as distinct […]
Be tall, be thin, be beautiful. The media has made sure we’re constantly bombarded by such imperatives, and aside from frustrations, some people have gone to such extremes to fit popular media expectations that they end up hurting themselves. This is, sadly, most evident in the case of women, where eating disorders or anorexia are frequently […]
Kyoto University researchers have produced normal, healthy mouse pups after inseminating a foster mother with eggs and sperm derived from stem cells, exclusively grown in a petri dish. This remarkable accomplishment came after last year scientists produced mouse pups from stem cell grown sperm. Their research might lead to the development of novel techniques through […]
No, this is not the prologue for a Steven Spielberg movie. Yevgeny Salinde, a 11 year old boy, found what’s been later identified as a 30,000 year-old perfectly preserved mammoth carcass while strolling near his home in Russia’s far north, some 3,000 kilometers away from Moscow. The boy told his parents, who work at the […]
Cooperation is central to human social behavior. Back in the early, dawning days of humanity, we were inferior from nearly every point of view, and cooperation was mainly what brought us to the dominating species status we have today. But choosing to cooperate with others, while always benefic for the group, often requires individuals to […]
Graphene is the strongest material ever discovered by man, and naturally its applications has been extended to a variety of fields – most recently genetics. University of Texas at Dallas scientists have used advanced manipulation techniques to shrink a sheet of graphene to the point that it’s small enough to read DNA. This successful attempt now opens […]
Remember when, in 2010, we told you about a team of researchers which claimed they found a bacteria that feasts on arsenic, instead of phosphorous? The study has spurred quite the discussion, receiving a lot of both criticism and praise, but seeming to be, ultimately, incorrect (as this other study also claims). Dan Tawfik, who […]
Interestingly enough, a group of cognitive psychologists at Japan’s Hiroshima University found that browsing through cute photos, such as those of baby animals like kittens, serves as a productivity booster. Although the lolcats peak is long gone, there’s still a significant wave of viral enthusiasm for sharing and collecting photos of cute animals – a […]
A group of paleontologists recently authored a monograph dedicated to a group of puny herbivore dinosaurs, discovered in the 1960s but only identified as a distinct new species in the past few years. Basically a two-legged porcupine, the Pegomastax africanus puzzled scientists with its distinctly long and sharp fangs, and extremely curious fact for a […]
It’s not only tigers, corals and other known and liked animals that are close to extinction: beetles have it rough too. In what is now a desperate effort to save the declining number of one beetle species, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a proposal on Tuesday suggesting that the Coral Pink […]
A group of researchers at Universities of Sheffield and Sussex have embarked in a highly ambitious project, in a quest to accurately develop computer models of a honey bee brain. Findings during actual development and testing itself might help answer some of the most puzzling questions in neuroscience, in a bid to understand how animal cognition […]
A small sundew, carnivorous plant native to Australia has amazed scientists with its unique ability of fling prey into its trap, where it is digested by the plant. The biologists studying the plant conclude that it has one of the fastest and most spectacular trapping mechanisms known among carnivorous plants. Found in southern Australia, the Drosera glanduligera […]
Dissolvable electronic materials could be extremely useful in medical procedures and environmentally friendly gadgets – and they’re almost here. Dissolving electronics A team of researchers has created flexible electronic circuits which dissolve in water or inside your own body; the project is led by John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois at […]
Although Curiosity landed recently on Mars, the rover is already proving its usefulness, beaming back all sort of interesting information; this time, Curiosity has snapped photos of rocky outcroppings which seem to be stream beds where water once flew on the Red Planet. The rock is quite eroded and it consists of rounded gravel consolidated […]
