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A female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (quite possibly the last female of her species) has been given another chance to breed. She has been artificially inseminated at the Suzhou Zoo in China, in a last ditch effort to attempt to preserve her species.
When citizens stop complying with the laws, it's generally a bad thing - laws are there for a reason, and not respecting the laws carries negative consequences - for the people involved, and for social order. But what if, consciously or not, citizens are actually disobeying the laws in order to enact positive changes? A new MIT study found that sometimes, that's exactly the case.
Social media was ecstatic - just look at this video of an orangutan bottle-feeding a tiger cub. Tens of millions of people tuned in to watch this "cuteness overload"... but the truth behind this is not cute at all. It's actually quite saddening. We'll discuss why, after the video.
With bee numbers dropping dramatically in the last years, it's time to take some drastic measures, and a White House task force including participation from more than a dozen federal agencies has concluded that limiting pesticide use may be the last resort we have to maintain bee numbers.
It generates as much oxygen as 400,000 square feet of natural woodland, it looks nice, and it can produce lots of biomass – the Urban Algae Canopy is a concept we should probably pay more attention to. It combines biology, modern architecture and electronics, creating a structure that not only generates energy, but also adapts and […]
At least 21 cockatoos have been discovered and saved from illegal trafficking; they were recovered at an Indonesian port during an anti-smuggling operation, crammed in 1500 ml bottles. Unfortunately, seven of them didn't survive.
Chocolate is the favorite food of many people throughout the world, bringing joy and happiness into our mouths, one square at a time. But when a whitish coating appears on its surface, most people would think twice before eating. That coating, called chocolate bloom, is actually harmless, but it drastically reduces the visual appeal of […]
Neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have created an out-of-body illusion in participants placed inside a brain scanner to see what happens in the brain during this time.
I just love it when stuff that’s thrown away becomes a part of something new and valuable – upcycling, as many people call it. For UK-based artist Julie Alice Chappell (Facebook), it’s about turning technology into art. She takes thrown away computer and video game parts and assembles them into pieces of art, which she then sells […]
An innovative study suggests that something as small as labeling healthy foods with a small smiley face can make kids more interested in buying and consuming healthy food.
Hallucinogenic tea brewed from South American plants might treat depression, according to a new study - but don't start your homebrewing just yet; it's a small study, and there are still unclear aspects about it.
Scientists are working to gather more and more details about Icelandic DNA, in an attempt to design better drugs and understand how drugs react to genetic variation. So far, the DNA of over 1% of all Icelanders has been sequenced and more will likely follow. This operation is conducted by Amgen's DeCode Genetics. The team now claims that they can identify every woman at high-risk of breast cancer "at the touch of a button" and it would be "criminal" not to use the information.
For the first time, researchers have discovered a vertebrate able to change the texture of its skin from smooth to spiny. The new frog species was found in Ecuador in the plentiful moss surrounding the native forest.
A park ranger in south China was surprised to find a giant salamander while he was out picking winkles. The giant amphibian measures 83 cm in length (2.5 feet) and weighs 5.5 kg (12 pounds). This amazing creature has remained relatively unchanged since the Jurassic and is widely regarded as a living fossil, but at the […]
Even as a geologist, I can’t help myself from looking at lava with an almost childish fascination — it’s something from the depths of the Earth (literally), with the potential to destroy anything in its path, and also to create new landscapes, drastically changing the surface of the Earth. In the short film above, Lance Page managed […]
Learn about the life and tales of Ada Lovelace, the women who wrote the very first computer program in the IXXth century.
Pedreira do Galinha (literally “The chicken’s quarry”, but more on that later) is one of the most important paleontological sites in Portugal and one of the most amazing places that I had the opportunity to visit. So, what is this magical (from a paleontological point of view) place? Well, here lie the fossilized footprints of […]
