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While time can be viewed in very abstract terms, man has always been aware of it. Early man just needed to look towards the sky, at the sun and the moon, to instantly know that the Universe is moving forward and things are changing. Clocks, along with measures of time like the second, minute, years […]
The fossil, which still retains impressions of feathers, is 160 million years old, predating the oldest Archaeopterix fossil found by 10 million years. Scientits have named it Aurornis, which means “dawn bird”. Aurornis and Archaeopteryx Aurornis enables us not only to better understand the emergence of birds, but also to understand how powerful flight originated. […]
While browsing reddit, I came across something well worth sharing: shrunken coins. Now, bear with me and you’ll soon learn why these are really interesting, if you the photos themselves haven’t caught your fancy. You see all these coins have been shrunk by powerful magnetic fields created by high power coils inside a machine appropriately […]
In nothing short of an astonishing find, Russian scientists have discovered a wonderfully preserved female mammoth carcass – the first in the world – in the icy tundra of Siberia. The muscle tissue was found to be extremely well preserved, but what simply caught the researchers by surprise, followed by the whole scientific community in […]
There are all kinds of robots nowadays that are here to assist humans with their daily chores, both at work and home alike. I think a lot of us have dreamed and even spoken out loudly, of course jokingly, how cool would it be to have a robot walk along side you and reach out […]
A group of international researchers may have reached a breakthrough moment after they successfully eliminated schizophrenia symptoms in mice after they targeted a specific gene and manipulated its expression. Their findings offer hope that similar results might be possible for humans as well. Despite schizophrenia being well documented for many years now and it being […]
When you think about photosynthesis, the color green probably comes to mind – almost all plants are green, and they rely on photosynthesis, right? But purple bacteria have been around for a long time, and they are among the most efficient organisms at turning sunlight into usable chemical energy. Now, a key to their light-harvesting […]
Sure, this transmutation might not be as spectacular as that of lead into gold, but it most certainly would have made even the alchemists at King Arthur’s court envious. Using an innovative technique, an international team of researchers has transformed cement, a sturdy insulator (especially electrical), into a semiconductor metal. Apart from being a remarkable […]
MIT engineers have taken one step forward to the realm of sci-fi gadgets, transforming bacterial cells into living calculators that can compute logarithms, divide, and take square roots, using three or fewer genetic parts. Using cells as analog circuits Inspired by how analog electronic circuits function, the researchers created synthetic computation circuits by combining existing […]
Cockroaches, the blight of every urban apartment; they’re adaptable, they’re sturdy, and they reproduce really fast. The nasty, disease carrying bugs can eat pretty much anything they find around the house, from mold and rotten food to the thing they love the most – sugar. When given the opportunity, cockroaches always go for the sugary […]
It’s the Middle Ages, the 1600s, and the Little Ice Age is striking the planet. The Little Ice Age, as the name describes it pretty much was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period (Medieval Climate Optimum). It is usually described as lasting from the 16th to the 19th centuries, but […]
Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a marvelous collection of pre-Hispanic paintings in 11 sites different sites in the caves and mountain gaps of the municipality of Burgos in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States. In all, the researchers have numbered so far 4,926 paintings, however it’s been very difficult for them to […]
In a society where overqualified, but desperate for work individuals are forced to take low-paid jobs to make means, it’s rather humorous that the smartest computer in the world, IBM’s Watson, has now been tasked as a call-center agent. Just a few years ago, IBM made the front page all over the world after its supercomputer […]
Walking a four legs definitely has its perks. You can run faster, you have more stability because of the lower center of gravity, there’s lower wind resistance and so on. How did our early hominid ancestors ever come to discard their quadruped locomotion for an upright stance, though? Many theories have been formulated in this direction, […]
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have devised an advanced biological transducer capable of manipulating genetic information and using the output as new input for sequential computations. Their findings serve as a new step forward for current efforts that might one day serve to create new biotech possibilities like individual gene therapy and cloning. In […]
Well the title may be a little flashy, but here’s what it’s about: some highly unusual minerals have been found at the centers of impact craters on the moon. Geologists working on the case believe that they may be the shattered remains of the space rocks that made the craters, but didn’t exhume any material […]
It’s the early 1950s, and some strange experiments are going on at Tulane University in Louisiana. Well, maybe not weird, but definitely pushing the limits of neurophysiological knowledge one step further. Dr. Robert G. Heath is at the forefront of these experiments, and he found that he can manipulate both the pleasure and pain centers […]
A team of Canadian researchers has discovered a bacterium that thrives in the Arctic regions, much below freezing point, at -15 degrees C in one the coldest temperature ever reported for bacterial growth. The discovery of the bacterium Planococcus halocryophilus OR1 was made in Ellesmere Island, Canada, a part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, […]
3D printing is the stuff of the future, today. Basically you can create absolutely anything, just by using a digital computer model of it. In the latest of its remarkable feats, 3D printing has saved the life of a 20 year old baby by creating a bioresorbable splint that stopped a life-threatening condition called tracheobronchomalacia. […]
Summer’s just around the corner, for those of us living in the northern hemisphere at least, and while we’ve been yearning for it all winter long, the scorching noon heat wave is here to remind us that summer’s not all fun and games. If you’re a commuter, then most likely summer’s your biggest worst enemy […]
Scientists closely working with the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world, have identified evidence of the minuscule droplets produced in the aftermath of high energy proton and lead ions collisions. If their calculations are right, then these are the smallest droplets of liquid ever encountered thus far, just three to […]
Paleontologists working at Ohio University have unearthed evidence of two new species of ancient primates, named Rukwapithecus fleaglei and Nsungwepithecus gunnellifa, which offer solid evidence of a split between Old World monkeys and apes. Geological and paleontological analysis have shown that the fossils are approximately 25 million years old, which puts them in the late […]
Usually, species are named after defining trait, or sometimes, more rarely, after somebody famous in the field, but every once in a while, they get some rather cooky names – like is the case with Kooteninchela deppi. Cambrian and scrissors Pronounced Koo-ten-ee-che-la depp-eye, the 505-million-year-old fossil is a distant relative of lobsters and scorpions, and […]
Serving as one of the strongest metaphors nature has to offer, at the later stages of its evolution the caterpillar - a soft bodied, not very pretty, ground based insect - morphs into a butterfly - a majestic flying insect of varying coloring and shape. What exactly goes inside the chrysalis the caterpillar wraps itself with for the many weeks required for metamorphosis remains a mystery, though.
The life expectancy gap between men and women is a rather attested fact, and while in the past a laborious, physically tense lifestyle for men was used to serve as an explanation, in our day and age of gender equality this doesn’t quite cut it anymore. Researchers in Japan might have stumbled across a clue […]
Meet Susan Barry. She’s an accomplished neurobiologist and a professor of biological studies at Mount Holyoke College. For 48 years of her life, however, Susan was visually stuck in 2-D world. You see, she was born with her eye crossed and could only see in two dimensions. Our eyes each produce an image, and since they’re […]
Yesterday, residents in many parts of the US were treated to a wonderful sight as the sun became wrapped in a rainbow halo. Like a brilliant all seeing eye, the sun cast its rays from a most privileged position prompting some unsuspecting people to believe an alien invasion is nigh. ZME Science folks, however, know […]
A great evolutionary leap forward in our lineage occurred once our hominid ancestors first began to hunt game to acquire meat, which once part of their diet greatly helped them to develop larger brains – especially cooked meat. When exactly this first occurred is controversial to answer. A team of archaeologists, however, have come across […]
A longstanding question in mathematics that has puzzled countless bright minds throughout the ages is the twin prime conjecture. The conjecture, that some believe was first stated by ancient Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, says that that there is an infinite number of prime “twin pairs” – pairs of prime numbers that differ in value by 2. These […]
Only 2% of the human genome is comprised of genes, while the vast majority of genetic material is known as noncoding DNA – that is to say DNA that doesn’t code proteins. A complex plant, the carnivorous bladderwort plant, known as Utricularia gibba, recently became the center of attention for evolutionary biologists after a recently published paper by […]
The nucleus of an atom is closely shaped like a sphere or rugby ball, signifying that mass is evenly distributed inside it. What happens when you encounter an atom whose nucleus stays away from this conventional shape? Well, this would be a good hint to start finding alternative theories, and wouldn’t you know it scientists […]
A matter of great debate and ardent discussion in the field of evolutionary biology today is the transition of complex life from a watery environment to land. So far, there have been numerous speculations put forward in attempt to explain how tetrapods (four-legged land animals) first evolved and washed ashore to start life fresh as […]
Bone is a really awesome material, being hard and flexible at the same time. For something so ubiquitous and studied for so long, it might come as a surprise to some of you to hear that the molecular bone structure of bone has alluded scientists for such a long while. This is because, even though the constituent elements […]
How do you check a multi-billion dollar particle accelerator for defects or malfunctions? Sure, you could use various, equally expensive and sophisticated tools, but in some instances low tech comes in the aid of high tech, say a ping-pong ball. Wait, what ?! Yup, today researchers sent a carefully sterilized, slightly-smaller-than-regulation ping-pong ball through a 2-mile […]
Despite it makes up more than 85% of all matter in the Universe, dark matter, staying true to its name, has eluded scientists for decades ever since they’ve been trying to identify it with high power particle accelerators and detectors. Recent efforts seem to be paying off as various underground labs, as well as those […]
Scientists at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have synthesized a form of niobium oxide that exhibits extraordinary energy storage capabilities, basically combining the tremendous advantages of lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors all into one material, while at the same time stripping the individual disadvantages out of the picture. The material is […]
Paleontologists have discovered an ancient nesting site in China where the oldest fossilized dinosaur embryos to date have been found. The find is extremely exciting from multiple perspectives. For one, many embryos in various development stages have been found which will certainly help scientists better their understanding of how dinosaurs grew (how fast, what bones […]
Billions of dollars and decades worth of research have been invested in fusion propelling technology, so that one day we might breach current spaceflight limitations that offer little hope of straying too far from our planet. Researchers at Washington University have recently made great strides forward in this respect and have successfully tested each stage […]
While dinosaur walking and locomotion is a subject of great interest and study for paleontologists, whether some could swim too is a controversial matter. Recent evidence found by an US graduate student sheds new light on the subject and suggests some dinosaurs could paddle for long distances through water with coordinated leg movement. Scott Persons, […]
One of the most mysterious, and weirdest at the same time, phenomenae in quantum physics is quantum entanglement, in which two connected particles can share information instantly despite being separated, no matter the distance. Two particles, or so the theory holds, could be parted by light years in distance and still reflect each others’ stances instantly, […]
Scientists have always tried to answer how speech developed in humans or what are its evolutionary mechanisms, a mystery made even more difficult to unravel since none of our close primate relatives has been granted with even the most primitive forms of speech, or so it was thought. Researchers studying the gelada – a primate […]
Researchers at University of California, Davis have shown for the first time how whole cells and fragments orient and move in response to electrical stimuli like an electric field. Surprisingly enough, their results show that whole and fragments move in opposite directions, despite being governed by the same electric field. The findings help better our understanding […]
This might strike some of you as a surprise, but turbulence, a phenomenon we all encounter on a daily basis – be it while mixing coffee, starting your car (fuel and air mixture) or of course while flying – and which has been first scientifically described some 600 years ago, remains today one of the […]
For decades, the accepted theory was that the mountain chains running from Alaska to Mexico were created from fragments of land scraped off a huge tectonic plate moving eastwards, called the Farallon, that converged with North America and sunk below it over the past 200 million years or so. But alas, geologists and geophysicists aren’t […]
What’s the difference between a solid and liquid? You might find this question trivial – naturally, liquids flow and solids… well, they don’t. From a physical point of view, however, things aren’t that simple. Intrigued by some ever so often encountered exceptions in the current accepted theory that describes the differences between the states of […]
Since it was first described sometime in the 1960s, the ionic thruster has remained confined to hobbyists basements, shadowed by the century old jet engine. Recent research at MIT, however, shows that in some respects the ionic thruster overwhelms the jet engine in terms of efficiency, suggesting that it definitely worth of more attention. “Ionic wind” […]
A paleoclimate study has shown that a huge mass of warm water stretched out from Indonesia over to Africa and South America four million years ago had a huge impact on tropical changes, suggesting that current climate models are a too conservative. The Pliocene era started 5.332 million years ago and lasted until 2.588 million […]
It’s been discussed since the 70s – can hydrogen fuel be the much anticipated solution that ends our full dependence on fossil fuels? A team of researchers from Virginia Tech believes the answer is ‘yes’. They found a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, bringing low-cost, environmentally friendly hydrogen-based fuel one […]
Driven by technological demand to breach the gigahertz (10^9 hertz) switching speed limit of today’s magnetic memory and logic devices, a team of researchers have devised a novel technique of switching magnetism that is at least 1000 times faster than that currently employed opening up the terahertz age (10^12 hertz). Hard drives, magnetic random access memory (RAM) and other computing […]
Our close primate relatives, chimpanzees, have been constantly amazing us with their incredible cognitive abilities and personality traits that are so similar to our own. If you believe much of what you undertake today is limited to human cognition only, think again. Chimps do it too – thinking about thinking that is, as the findings […]
