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The craziest futuristic ideas from movies seem to become reality one after another even though the cineastes from 1966 would have never believed it…and neither would most of us. Thanks to researchers at Tel Aviv University in just three years we may benefit from the creation of a mini-submarine able to destroy faulty cells, including […]
As we learn (or at least should) at quite an early age, Galileo Galilei had quite the impact on science, making numerous improvements in telescopes and conducting early observations of the Moon, making the first map of our planet’s satellite. Right? Wrong. Despite the fact that he will always remain “father of modern observational astronomy” […]
You may or may not have heard about blue stragglers; they are blue stars that are hotter and bluer than other stars with the same luminosity. Until now, it seemed that these stars defied most if not all of the standard stellar theories, but scientists now believe they have finally solved this stellar mistery. The […]
The enigma of the South American peoples who created the Nazca Lines and collected heads as trophies slowly starts to find its answers. A new study shows that these heads weren’t taken from enemies, but in fact belong to people who had lived in the same place as the collectors, about 2.000 to 1.500 years […]
Recently, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered no more, no less than 12 pulsars, and it also detected gamma ray pulse from 18 others. These findings are forcing scientists to rethink what we know about dying stars, as they totally underestimated the power of these stellar cilinders. “We know of 1,800 pulsars, but until Fermi […]
According to a report launched by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), more than a thousand species were discovered just in the last decade in that particular area. A rat thought extinct for 11 million years and a hot pink, dragon millipede that produces cyanide are just two of the amazing species found there. If you’re […]
We’ve heard the phrase “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” (or what is the other way around??) a hundred times. But quickly, associate a colour with the two planets; over 90% of those asked to do this will associate red with Mars, and Green with Venus. So there could be truth behind that […]
If you’re thinking McLeod, you couldn’t be further from the truth. What you have to do is think small; not microscopic, just big enough to see with your naked eye. Turritopsis nutricula is a hydrozoan, and it’s considered by scientists to be the only animal that cheated death. Solitary organisms are (according to current belief) […]
Feeling the need for scientific research to back up the ‘dirty old men’ myth, Gothenburg University and Oxford University scientists performed a study on 400 lonely hearts ads to see how men and women choose their partners. What they wanted was to test some theories about how men and women pick their partners in general. […]
After more than 400 years, science-enthusiasts and not only can finally pay a tribute to the man who revolutionized people’s perception of the Universe. After having analyzed DNA taken from two strands of hair and a tooth, scientists finally concluded that the remains found in Frombrok Cathedral in Poland are, in fact, the ones of […]
Meet the world’s tiniest portraits of an elected president ever; meet the nanobamas. Each ‘Obama’ is made up of about 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes, which is about how many Americans voted in this year’s presidential election. An assistant professor professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, John Hart, along […]
Evolution isn’t just for living organisms, as scientists the Carnegie Institution found. They found that more than 3000 of the 4000+ minerals that exist can be linked more or less directly to biological life. This finding could have a crucial importance for scientists that are searching for life on other planets. Robert Hazen and Dominic […]
People are faced with making decisions everyday and more than that they find themselves in the situation of trusting a group in jury trials, elections or even when it comes to TV shows such as American Idol. Fish have to face the same situation when gathered in schools as the decision they have to make […]
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Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA for short) is a thermoplastic and transparent plastic that’s called acrylic glass for short. In the not so distant future it could be made from natural products such as sugars, alcohols or fatty acids. This process is much more environmentally friendly than the process used now. PMMA is manufactured by polymerising methyl […]
This year’s election is among the most significant in America’s history. The people need a visionary leader that could get the nation out of the way towards the dark ages, and that can make this country play its crucial role in the world. Under the Bush administration, scientific issues have been politicized in such a […]
A while ago we were a bit worried about the future of Hubble, but it seems the people at NASA managed to once again do an amazing job, so the most well known telescope is back in business, and up to big things actually. Just a few days after it was brought back online, Hubble […]
If you ever wanted to stroll “spidy” your way around the big city, your dream is one step closer to becoming reality, as physicists have found the formula for what they call a “spider suit“. To do this, they applied what they learned from the dazzling gecko and it’s ability to climb walls as well […]
As a proud student in geophysics, I can tell you that opal is hydrated silicon dioxide mineral with many astounding properties, but it’s also water hydrated. Since water hydrated minerals have been found on Mars we are led to the logic conclusion that when these minerals was formed, there was water on Mars. Opals have […]
The efficiency of the solar cells is the first thing needed to be improved in order to improve the quality of the solar panels, and it is the aim of more and more scientists as time passes. Still, very few manage to obtain a breakthrough, and that’s exactly what researchers at University of New South […]
It’s the equivalent of taking the Hubble telescope (before it was damaged) and directing it towards atoms and molecules instead of stars and galaxies, according to Gianluigi Botton, director of the new Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy at McMaster, where the world’s most advanced and powerful microscope works. It’s called Titan 80-300 Cubed and it […]
Despite the fact that they have worked round the clock for fixing Hubble, it seems NASA engineers have once again hit a snag and they’re currently trying to figure out what is the next step. The telescope stopped sending pictures three weeks ago, and at first it was believed that it wouldn’t take that long […]
Every once in a while you hear about such a good idea that you just know it deserves a prize. Such is the idea of a few students from Rice University, who are taking drinking beer to a whole new level; the genetically engineering level. They are entering it in the International Genetically Engineered Machine […]
Jeffrey Bada is a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He and his colleagues reanalyzed the classic experiment concerning the origins of life conducted by Stanley Miller who along with Harold Urey realized what we know today as the Miller-Urey experiment. This experiment showed that organic compounds can be created with no relative difficulty from […]
Nearly five miles below sea level, at 7700 metres to be more exact, in the Pacific oceans, scientists found fish living in the world’s deepest ocean trenches and filmed them. This is the first time a camera has been sent to such a depth. ‘We got some absolutely amazing footage from 7700 metres. More fish […]
Using the RHESSI spacecraft, scientists managed to calculate the Sun’s roundness with a level of precision that surpasses anything of this type that has been attempted before. They found that the star which the Eart rotates around is not quite a sphere, but it has a thin “cantaloupe skin”. This skin causes the equatorial radius […]
Chinese researchers confirmed the theory that they are building an “impossible” space drive, and at this stage they are building a demonstration version; if things go according to their plans, this could revolutionize space exploration and the economy of satellites, giving China a significant military and economical advantage over other countries. This year, “Emdrive” (short […]
Most fish can’t even recognize the color red – let alone use it for some precise purpose. However, the exception here are some deep sea fish, yet Enneapterygius pusillus found a really interesting way of communicating. It literally glows in a deep red color, signaling different forms of intent. According to a study conducted in […]
A few days ago, something remarkable has been captured by NASA’s telescopes, as an unusual set of Gamma rays were picked up by the Swifst satellite. What’s so remarkable about the find is that the respective burst of Gamma rays is the farthest such discovered, and, according to NASA’s specialists, originated from an explosion near […]
This month, two independent teams have announced that they have succesfully converted sugar-potentially derived waste from agriculture and non-food plants into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other chemical substances of high importance. Randy Cortright, a chemical engineer at Virent Energy Systems of Madison, Wisc. announced that carbohydrates and sugars can be processed into a number […]
An African animal so rare that people used to believe it is the mythic ‘unicorn’ has been caught on camera in the wild, for the first time. The okapi is a mammal similar to a deer in the front and to a zebra in the back and with the blue tongue of a giraffe. It […]
It’s hard to believe that about half of the food produced on our planet is wasted, especially when about a quarter of Earth’s inhabitants are suffering from hunger; this, my friends is the wonderful world we live in. Not a world without resources, but a world in which we do not know how to use […]
It’s not as if this was a novelty, but now there’s the scientific background to prove it. Actually, this refers more to when children deny something has happened rather than just making things up. Adults to a little better at this one. This research has been made mostly to help in forensic searches, when dealing […]
The quality of the place of your residence is defined by many characteristics, which include natural and man-made factors, and more or less obvious consequences of those. The thing is if you care about the food you’re eating, the air you’re breathing and the water you’re drinking, Denmark is the place to be at the […]
Biofuels seems to be the word on everybody’s lips today, and for good reason. It’s necessary that people understand the benefits and importance of this development, as it could be a huge step in protecting our resources and planet. Fortunately, some breakthroughs have been made which give us confidence that things are moving (slowly, but […]
If you ever visited a neighboring country and found that the people there had little or no connection to your own country’s culture, language or even physical appearance, it’s only natural that you wonder how this can be; after all, if the countries share a border, they have to resemble many traits?? Not really. It […]
Photo by Firentzesca Recently, attempts to make “cloaking technology” possible have reached a great level, with major break throws. Among mentionable achievements, more notable are the work of Oleg Gadomsky, a Russian professor that managed to redirect light around objects and that of the people from the University of Maryland, who reported the successful cloaking […]
The Yale School of Medicine researchers conducted a study in 13 countries which lead to the conclusion that there may be a connection between school bullying and children who resort to suicide. The lead author, Young-Shin Kim, part of the Yale research team, and her colleague, Bennett Leventhal, claim that the exact causality between the […]
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but according to a study led by Andrei Sommer, Dan Zhu, and Hans-Joerg Fecht, diamonds are life’s best friend too. According to them, billions of years ago the surface of these precious gems made it possible for life to rise, by providing just the right chemical conditions. It is […]
Renewable energy has found a considerable support in wind farms, as more and more people seem to be adopting this green and cheap solution as a better alternative towards traditional energy. For example, Samsø, an island near Denmark, gets all its energy from renewable sources; the huge number of wind farms in which are being […]
Everybody pondered at least once in their lives the possibility of being immortal, and this idea sparkled in the immagination of many people throughout history. Now, Stuart Kim, a PhD at Stanford and professor of developmental biology and genetics conducted a study that led to results that shocked pretty much everybody involved, contradicting the […]
It’s hard to say that during last year’s G8 summit the “world leaders” made promises and predictions that were just words for the voters without feeling ridiculous; I’m not one to fall for fine words that sounds identical to what you want to hear, but I was expecting at least few of those I heard […]
A few days ago, I wrote about the damage that a well intended, but wrongly conducted mangrove restoration could cause; the article itself was focusing on the Philippines. It is time to underline (again) the importance that they have on ecosystems which rely on them way more than you would probably guess.Just a few days […]
The environmental challenges we have to overcome (fast) cover virtually every field in human activity. Focuses such as finding green fuels, renewable and sustainable sources of energy and other related findings attract more people, more ideas, and visible steps are made towards the right direction. Probably the only concern is how fast and how effective […]
Lester Brown is “one of the world’s most influential thinkers”, according to the Washington Post, and the Calcutta refers to him as “the guru of the environmental movement”. He has been trying to analyze problems and also trying to find solutions to these problems. Books such as Seeds of Change (1970) and Who will Feed […]
Think about China today; the country with the most people in the world, who’s surface is in the top 5 of the world, and who’s industry is really developing, relying almost entirely on pollutant non-green fuels, which caused an increased and even dangerous degree of pollution. Still, despite the fact that it’s area is […]
Who isn’t paying attention when Al Gore is talking? The impact he has on people from America and all around the world is just huge, hard to comprehend. He’s probably no saint, but he doesn’t have to be. Due to what he promotes, he managed to promote and help “green” ways of living, giving a […]
Actually, it’s not about the brightest star of all, but the brightest star in our galaxy. It seems there’s a new contender for the title of Milky Way brightest star; it’s near its dusty center, and infrared observations performed by NASA have revealed how bright it is by piercing the dust that surrounds it. The […]
Archaeopteryx has been the subject of many controversies, but it is now widely considered as the world’s oldest bird; however, reptiles were flying for 50 million years when it appeared, even before the world was roamed by dinosaurs. Now, paleontologists have unveiled an extraordinary prehistoric ‘flying’ reptile which lived 235 million years ago.It’s called kuehneosaurs […]
If you have a bug you want to identify and know everything about, there’s one place which will solve all your problems; the experts at the Natural History Museum in London are proud to say that they can identify species from around the globe, from birds and mammals to insects and snakes. Still, if you […]
