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A misnomer is a word or term used to suggest a meaning that is not really true – misnomer doesn’t mean “misunderstanding” or “popular misconception”, as it is often implied on the internet. Most of the times, misnomers just cause some confusion and a wrong perception and sometimes those ideas get burned into the popular opinion, […]
Before the Cambrian, more than 541 million years ago, intriguing creatures named rangeomorphs that grew up to 2 meters dwelt in marine environments. They were unable to move, had no apparent reproductive organs and there is no evidence of them having a gut or a mouth. But a new study has found that their reproductive techniques […]
Japanese researchers have just fired the most powerful laser ever fired on Earth, producing a 2 petawatt pulse – 2 quadrillion watts. Located at the Osaka University, the Laser for Fast Ignition Experiment (LFEX) has a concentrated energy equivalent of 1,000 times the world’s electricity consumption. However, it could only be sustained for a trillionth of a second. The […]
Value Farm is not necessarily a new concept, but manages to bring a stunning innovation; its scale and effectiveness and a crowded and polluted urban environment is a breath of fresh air in Shenzen, one of China’s largest cities. Value Farm is a collective effort farming effort developed by Thomas Chung, together with Tris Kee and […]
A $13.8 bn railway project funded by China linking Nairobi to Mombasa will pass right through the Nairobi National Park. Although the park hosts a huge amount of tourism and boasts a very sensitive wildlife, authorities are adamant in seeing the railway built.
CSIRO, Australia's peak science body has reportedly discovered one of the more sought after cures in human history: the cure for a hangover. The secret? A simple fruit, the pear.
In its most recent flyby, NASA’s Cassini space probe discovered some strange red streaks on Tethys – one of Saturn’s 62 known moons. “Like graffiti sprayed by an unknown artist, unexplained arc-shaped, reddish streaks are visible on the surface of Saturn’s icy moon Tethys. As the Saturn system moved into its northern hemisphere summer over the […]
When it comes to vaccines, the young bees don't really have a choice - they're naturally immunized against specific diseases commonly found in their environment. For the first time, researchers have figured out just how they do it.
The dark paintings of Martin Wittfooth depict a beautiful yet frightening world – only animals, no humans, but with a desolate landscape likely caused by our species. We see a world of animals suffering, desperately trying to adapt to the scorched world that we’ve created – much like we’re seeing now, in the real world. […]
It’s common knowledge that dogs don’t see the world the same way we do, but there are a lot of misconceptions about how dogs see the world — now, a new app simply called Dog Vision shows us just how dogs see. Dog vision differs significantly from human vision, primarily in color perception and visual […]
Few people can claim to have built their own dream, but New Zealander Lance Abernethy can – he has taken his passion for small things to the next level and built the smallest functional drill. With the help of technology (in the form of 3D printing), his passion and patience created this new device based on […]
You may have observed how ants can carry things many times their size, both individually and in groups. Researchers have now figured out how ants manage to carry large objects in groups - it takes individual ideas, a lot of teamwork, and the ant equivalent of an air traffic controller.
The mind blowing map shows just how disproportionate human population is in regard to the area it occupies. It may seem hard to believe, but the blue area and the red area actually have just as much population: 5%, to be more exact. The map was created by self-proclaimed data-cruncher Max Galka, and from the data […]
If you’re thinking about the future days when robots will replace humans, well… those days are already here. The Henn-na Hotel (“Strange Hotel”) is staffed entirely by robots, including a dinosaur receptionist. They also have no room keys and a remarkable energy efficiency. ‘What we have strove to achieve with Henn-na Hotel is “The Ultimate […]
Firebreathing is a beautiful and dangerous form of art – it’s dazzled people since the middle ages, and continues to do so to this day. Here, Romanian photographer Alin Ivanov captured it in all its magic, on the sandy shore of the Black Sea. “I watched him [the firebreather] perform for three nights, and it […]
Scientists have created a mixture of oil and fluorescent dyes that can be safely added to human cells – the dye then gets activated by short pulses of light and starts behaving like a laser, communicating the tissue’s position to doctors. The technology could add new ways for light to be used in diagnosis and treatment […]
A new study published in Nature describes the creation of a new sensor which will allow us to know when our liquid food has gone bad - and it may not be long until we can all 3D print bottle caps with these sensors at home.
Artificial light is something we take for granted and simply don’t think about – but for some communities, light can be a luxury. In the 7,000 scattered islands of the Philippines, light can be very scarce, and saltwater is abundant. With that in mind, SALt engineers have designed a lamp that runs on salt water. […]
A team of archaeologists working in Denmark have made a puzzling discovery: they found nearly 2,000 spectacular gold spirals dating from the Bronze age. The reason why they were made, especially in such a large number, is a mystery and the trove baffled scientists. The spirals are made from pure gold, hammered down to just 0.1 millimeters […]
Do you enjoy the quiet, elaborate jazz rhythms, or are you more a metal fan? Is classical music your thing, or are you more into hip hop? That may say more about your personality than you think, according to a new research.
You may have seen it in forests, and may have dismissed it as an eerie curiosity – a type of ice that looks like white silky hairs, a bit like candy floss. It only grows on rotten branches of trees under very specific conditions, during humid winter nights when the temperature drops just below 0 […]
Also called hydrolaccoliths, pingos are spectacular domes of earth and vegetation covered ice usually found in the Arctic and subarctic. They can reach up to 90 metres (300 feet) high and more than 800 metres (0.5 mile) across and are usually circular or oval-shaped. They may be green on the outside, but the core is solid, clear ice. […]
It took more than was expected, but the three astronauts set for the International Space Station docked with the International Space Station at 10:46 p.m. E.T. You can watch them here: The rocket had a successful launch at 5:02 p.m. EDT (2102 GMT) to experienced Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and rookie astronauts Kjell Lindgren with NASA and Japan’s Kimiya […]
A stray dog followed a Swedish racing team through 430 miles (688 km) of jungles and rivers just because one of the team members gave him a meatball during one of the early halts. A small good deed can have huge effects – this was proven by an extreme racing team and a stray dog. […]
When talking about global warming, we often tend to think about droughts, water shortage and desertification. But we must not forget that 72%, almost three quarters of our planet is covered in oceans – and believe it or not, that’s where global warming will strike the hardest. A thorough study Oceanic global warming is causing […]
Researchers have discovered a new dinosaur species covered with feathers. Its wings were very short and it likely wouldn't have been able to fly or glide, but the creature was on the cusp of evolving into a bird. It was also one of the ancestors of the velociraptors.
Are you a Hemingway, a Nutty Professor, or a Poppins?? No, that’s not the latest Facebook game (although it’d be really fun to see one implemented), but it’s a classification introduced by researchers at the University of Missouri. Basically, depending on how your personality changes when you start drinking, they’ve defined 4 types: the Hemingways, […]
“Global Environments through the Quaternary” By David Anderson, Andrew Goodie, Adrian Parker Oxford University Press, 406pp | Buy on Amazon The Quaternary, the last 2.6 million years, has been a time of major changes in our world, and we can still see most of those changes today. Numerous geology books discuss the changes and the environments […]
I’ve been recently flooded with emails, questions and Facebook posts with the algae street lamps that not only light up without any electricity, but also suck up a lot of carbon dioxide (200 times more than a tree). This is just such a big thing that I had to see if this actually works. So […]
Tesla’s newest up-and-coming building could be larger than previously thought – much larger. At a presentation about the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Dean Haymore, from Story County Commission, mentioned that Tesla bought an extra 1,200 acres next to the ongoing construction, and will buy 350 more. While this hasn’t yet been confirmed by Elon Musk, this […]
Robbie Shone is one of the most talented and hard working cave photographers in the world. Over the past ten years, Robbie’s passion has taken him to China, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Uzbekistan, Sudan, the Picos, the Alps and Crete. He has also worked closely with scouting groups in California, and documented scientists in Portugal, Switzerland […]
Norwegian Archaeologists have unearthed a unique Viking grave dated 1040 AD. Within the grave they found coins, a battle ax with a shaft coated in brass and a magnificent sword with intriguing silver and golden decorations. The sword almost certainly belonged to a wealthy man in the late Viking Era, quite possibly one that fought in […]
Scientists have stumbled on some incredibly old sperm in the wall of a fossilized cocoon in Antarctica. The remains of the long, thin cells represent the oldest animal sperm known to man - 50 million years old.
We sometimes get the feeling that the Netherlands is like a Think Tank for countries – they just come up with some of the most creative ideas ever. Now, they’ve tackled a very important part of the infrastructure: road paving. They want to use recycled plastic, and they want to do it soon – in […]
A chance discovery revealed an impressive cluster of extinct volcanoes 150 miles off the coast of Sydney, three miles below the water surface. The four volcanoes, which are now calderas, may reveal why Australia and New Zealand separated between 40 and 80 million years ago. Don’t you just hate it when you go searching for lobsters […]
“Narrative Networks” By Brian Alleyne SAGE Publications Ltd, 224pp | Buy on Amazon What’s a narrative? That’s a question we don’t ask ourselves, even though narratives are all around us – from the books and movies that we enjoy, to Facebook, and to this website. This book challenges and inspires readers to think about narratives in […]
“Measuring Happiness” By Joachim Weimann, Andreas Knabe, Ronnie Schob MIT Press, 224pp | Buy on Amazon What is happiness, and how does money relate to it? Is more really better? Then why aren’t richer people happier? But why are poor people generally less happy? The economics of happiness is an extremely controversial field, without any definitive answers; […]
Some 150 meters above ground level (400 feet) in the Sacred Valley of the Incas three eerie, transparent capsules hang on the cliffs. These weather resistant polycarbonate call the most unfazed adventurers to sleep inside them, offering an almost 360 view of the valley. Skylodge Adventure Suites was created by the company Natura Vive, a group of young […]
In our day to day lives, we don’t give much thought to tears – we usually focus more on the emotions that cause them than the salty droplets themselves. Well, tears are much more complex than we give them credit for, as Dutch artist Maurice Mikkers showed. Tears Caused By Emotional Response: There are actually three […]
Tony Abbott, the Australian PM has been warned he is putting international investment at risk after ordering the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to finance new wind power. Abbott, who is a firm support of the waning coal industry has escalated his war on renewable energy, attempting to block massive investments. Wind power is […]
Most days are windy in Denmark, but Thursday was unusually so – it was so windy that the country got its entire energy needs and more solely from wind turbines. During the afternoon it was already reported the Nordic nation’s wind turbines were producing 116 per cent of Denmark’s electricity needs, and the figure rose to […]
“A History of Future Cities” By Carmine Nardone, Salvatore Rampone World Scientific Publishing, 156pp | Buy on Amazon This book contains the proceedings of the international workshop on global sustainability held in Benevento, Italy, on February 2014. It features 10 published papers regarding dealing with broad range of aspects of sustainability in a global scenario including food […]
“Fluvial Depositional System” By Andrew Miall Springer, 316pp | Buy on Amazon This book definitely goes out to the earth scientists out there – it’s not a book for the general audience. In fact, I’d describe it as a book-length scientific article, though one that properly explains all the concepts it uses throughout. Those working in […]
“Decarbonising the World’s Economy” Editors: Terry Barker, Douglas Crawford Brown Imperial College Press, 376pp | Buy on Amazon We have to make the transition from a fossil-fuel based economy, to a greener, sustainable economy – but won’t that cause economic downfall? That’s a misconception too often repeated by both the media and policy makers. We […]
Yesterday, we presented an article in which we detailed the claims of two astronomers, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleague Dr Max Wallis from the University of Cardiff; they proposed that Rosetta’s lander Philae may have actually landed on an inhabited comet – as the black slime on the […]
Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite and Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature. There's a really powerful vibe in here.
Coral populations are crucial to the health of oceanic environments, but corals are also extremely vulnerable to changing conditions. Researchers warn that warming waters and ocean acidification lead to coral bleaching which can cause massive damage across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The days of wasting condiments, toothpaste and other products that stubbornly stick to the sides of the bottle or package are coming to an end thanks to a new coating developed by MIT researchers. The LiquiGlide spinoff has signed a deal with Orkla (a Norwegian company) that will allow them to use the new coating […]
Adidas new shoes are trash – literally. The German company has announced the creation of a new type of shoes made from recycled garbage pulled out of the ocean; the sustainable prototype has the upper part made entirely of yarns and filaments reclaimed from illegal deep-sea gillnets and other ocean waste, while the bottom part is […]
Germany is taking some serious strides in its attempt to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent until 2020: the European country announced that it will shut down several coal-fired plants and move towards more sustainable energy sources. “Coal-fired plants with a capacity of 2.7 gigawatts will be shut down,” said the government sources, who declined to […]
