Andrei Mihai ZME Science

Crystallizing books - the spectacular art of Alexis Arnold

We see this too often – loads and loads of discarded books in storage rooms, on the sidewalk, even in our homes. Abandoned books are a much too common sight, and at least to me, a depressing sight. This inspired San Francisco-based artist Alexis Arnold to embark on a fascinating quest to make something beautiful – crystallized […]

GeoPicture of the Week: The Chocolate Hills

These brownish hills are actually limestone mounds in Bohol province in the Philippines. They are normally covered by grass, but turn a deep-brown colour during the dry season, looking more and more chocolatey. There are about 1,500 mounds in the Philippines; similar karst mounts exist in Croatia and Slovenia, northern Puerto Rico, and Pinar del Río Province, Cuba […]

Devastating photos of the world's deforestation

Recently, we wrote an article about the biggest tree census ever conducted, and the results were pretty grim. Sure, there are some 3 trillion trees on Earth, but the bad news is that there used to be almost twice as many – before humans chipped in. Humanity has cut down 46% of the planet’s trees, […]

Introducing: The Journal of Proposals, Ideas, Data, and More

There are so many scientific journals out there, it's almost impossible for a newcomer to draw attention; but this one does. Research Ideas and Outcomes, or RIO is not only a new journal, it's a new type of journal: it will not only publish articles, but also proposals, experimental designs, data and software. They're open access and cover "research from all stages of the research cycle", according to a press release they've released.

LHC signals hint at flaws in the Standard Model of Physics

An intriguing signal reported at the LHC might signal some "cracks" in the Standard Model - the theory which describes how different forces interact with each other.

Chimp took down drone with careful planning

Calm and calculated - a chimp at a Dutch zoo took down a drone, squashing it with a tree branch. That's pretty interesting (and a bit sad, if you're the drone owner), but according to a paper published in the journal Primates, it may have more significance than it seems. According to the publishers, the chimp carefully planned the attack, just like a human would.

Watch: How Ants React to a Ringing iPhone

As soon as the phone starts ringing, these ants have a military-like reaction, forming a circle around the device. But why do they do this?

Climate change might increase the chance of 'Grey Swan' storms

A new studied explore the possibility of unprecedented catastrophic storms – storms so bad that there’s no recorded precedent in the past 10,000 years. According to the study, the chance for such an extremely rare event to occur in this century are drastically increased by climate change. ‘Black swans’ is an umbrella term for every event that […]

The Number of Trees has Halved Since Human Civilization Emerged

Today, the Earth has approximately 3 trillion trees left standing - about 422 per person - but we've already cut 46% of them.

Japanese company starts building world's largest vertical farm

Recently, I’ve become quite a fan of vertical farms. The principle is simple: instead of growing things in fields, you cultivate plant life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces. There are several advantages to this: they’re more productive for the space they use (about 100 times more productive), take 40% less power, 80% less food waste and […]

Rare dolphin fossil might show why dolphins left rivers

Scientists from the Smithsonian have a surprising fossil dating about 6 million years old. The fossil seems to have been an ancestor of modern dolphins and might explain why dolphins left rivers and set out for the ocean. Today, there are almost 40 species of dolphins, and all of them are intriguing animals. For starters, […]

Is organic food actually better? Here's what the science says

It happens to all of us. You’re in the supermarket, you’re buying vegetables and produce, and you’re faced with the inevitable choice: regular or organic? It’s a surprisingly complex question, that carries a different significance for different people. For some, organic means healthier, or more nutritious. For others, it means eco-friendly, or tastier. It can […]

All the Railways in Netherlands will be 100% Wind-Powered by 2018

The Dutch want clean energy, and they’ve made that abundantly clear when 886 citizens sued their government to reduce CO2 emissions; as a result of that, something completely unprecedented (and very exciting) happened: a court in Hague ordered the government to reduce its emissions by at least 25% over the next five years. But then, things […]

Featured Researchers: This Week in Science

It’s been a while, but we’re back with one of our favorite features – This Week in Science! If you’ve not been here for the previous editions, we’ll discuss not only the most interesting studies of the past week, but also the people behind them – the men and women pushing forth the boundaries of […]

Real Life Sim-City: Empty "Simulator" City to be Built From Scratch in New Mexico

A city like no other will be built deep in the New Mexico desert. The brand new city will feature urban, suburban, exurban and rural zones dotted with houses, malls, power plants, police and fire stations, with only one big difference from a real city: it won't have any inhabitants. The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE) will be the first of its kind, fully integrated test, evaluation and certification facility dedicated to enabling and facilitating the commercialization of new and emerging technologies. Basically, it will be a real life Sim City.

Scientists reprogram cancer cells back to normal

For the first time, aggressive breast, lung and bladder cancer have been neutralized and turned back to normal cells, prevented from excessive multiplication. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, US, likened it to applying brakes to a speeding car.

Robot Bartender Serves Hundreds of Drinks at Berlin Party

Robotics has developed tremendously in recent years, and will almost surely continue to do so in the future. We have surgical robots, hotels run by robots, robots that learn, even samurai robots! After all, it makes sense we finally got some bartender robots, right? After MIT showed off its "Beerbots" that bring you beer while you're on the couch, we have HoLLiE, a robot bartender that did a fantastic job at a party in Berlin, making and serving over 280 cocktails!

Females are not rational when it comes to choosing their mates - at least in frogs

Picking a mate is one of the most important decisions anyone (human or animal) makes in a lifetime, so it's important to weigh all the pros and cons and make a rational decision. But that doesn't go for frogs. Female túngara frogs often exhibit irrational behavior when choosing a mate. This challenges many previously held beliefs as well as several biological behavior models.

Alien life might spread through the Universe "like the plague"

Although we've yet to discover life forms on any other planet, astronomers are confident that not only we'll be able to discover alien life, but we'll be able to chart its spread through the Universe.

Most psychology studies can't be replicated - and this is a huge problem

Numerous academic journals often post intriguing and challenging psychological studies – but according to a new, massive review, we should take those studies with a big grain of salt. A four-year project by 270 researchers attempted to replicate 100 experiments published in three of the most prestigious journals; only 36 produced similar results. Social sciences have taken […]

Snow Leopards: What You Need To Know About These Magnificent Cats

For millennia, they've been the uncontested kings of the mountains, hunting prey up to three times bigger than them.

Greenland Glacier Loses Huge Chunk of Ice

Scientists have reported the break of a huge part of Jakobshavn Glacier, one of the largest ones in Greenland. A chunk of it roughly the size of Manhattan broke some time between August 13 and August 19.

Fighting invasive mussels: Lake Havasu offers mussel decontamination for boats

The officials of Lake Havasu have taken a laudable measure: they’re offering free mussel decontamination for boats, in an attempt to stop the spread of a very dangerous species, the quagga mussel. The quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis) is a species of freshwater mussel named after the quagga, an extinct subspecies of African zebra. A rather interesting […]

Tea Histories: Yerba Mate

Mate Tea is one of the more uncommon and special teas you can have. Not exactly a tea, it’s been a favorite of millions for hundreds of years. Typically prepared from dried leaves of Yerba Mate, the tea is served through a metallic straw called a bombilla. But let’s take it slower, and start with the […]

FossilFriday: A Magnificently Fossilized Stegosaurus

This is a fossilized in-ground Stegosaurus currently exposed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Stegosaurus is one of the most easily recognizable species of dinosaurs, living until about 150 million years, and this remarkable fossil does a fantastic job at highlighting it. Ironically, although many people associate it with the T-Rex, the Stegosaurus is […]

Scientists create vomiting machine to study viral infections

Inventions are at the very core of human development, and quite often, the scope of the invention is not easy to grasp. Such is the case with a new "vomiting machine" which will be used to study noroviruses - fast spreading viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis.

Blue Whale Interrupts TV Host Talking About How Hard it Is to Find Blue Whales

Spotting wildlife, especially species as elusive as the blue whale, can be extremely time consuming and at times frustrating. But every once in a while, you get a streak of luck, as Zoologist Mark Carwardine just did. He was explaining why spotting blue whales is so difficult, when suddenly… a blue whale appeared! Blue whales are marine […]

Oldest Message-in-a-Bottle: 108 year old Science Experiment washes ashore in Germany

In 1906, British scientist George Parker Bidder released more than 1,000 bottles in an attempt to study oceanic currents. The bottles were specifically design to float and last, and all bottles contained detailed instructions in English, German and Dutch to return the note to the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England, in exchange for a shilling. The experiment […]

Nestle Pays $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of Drinking Water Worth $80,000,000

To say that Nestle is an unethical company would be an understatement – the company’s history is riddled with practices such as child labor, unethical promotion, manipulating uneducated mothers, pollution, price fixing, mislabeling and recently, abusing water resources. Operating under a permit that expired back in 1988, the company drew 27 million gallons (100 million liters) of […]

Curiosity Rover Takes Low Angle Selfie

I’m not a big fan of selfies, but when you’re on Mars, you can take all the selfies you want! NASA’s Curiosity Rover has taken some pretty cool of itself – and the Martian surroundings. This latest picture was taken by the rover at “Buckskin” – the 7th rock the rover will sample for analysis. […]

'Fire Rainbows' - What they are, how they form, and of course, great pictures

With the recent sighting of a fire rainbow in South Carolina, there seems to be a sudden surge of interest for this phenomenon, so I thought I’d come back with some more information. First of all, they’re not ‘fire rainbows’; in fact, they’re not rainbows at all. The correct name is circumhorizontal arc, and it’s […]

China didn't emit as much CO2 as we think it did, Harvard study concludes

China - the world's most populous country and the world's top polluter has a lot of responsibility on its shoulders. China gets a lot of well deserved flak for its often unsustainable ways, but according to a new study, at least some of the flak is undeserved. China's emissions have been overestimated, according to a study published in Nature.

Looking into someone's eyes for 10 minutes alters your state of mind and can cause hallucinations

Staring straight into someone's eyes can be pretty intense, and is usually avoided by most people. But a team of researchers has shown that it's even weirder than you'd think: it actually alters your consciousness, and often causes hallucinations.

Psychosis and violence are not really linked together, study finds

Television has perpetuated the already classic image of a violent, psychotic criminal, up to the point where we basically associate the two. We often tend to think of violent people as psychotic, and psychotic people as violent. But as a new study has found, that's not really the case: there's no strong correlation between violence and psychosis.

Be sarcastic! It's good for you, scientists find

Using and understanding the intricacies of sarcasm is a fine art; one does not simply “become” sarcastic – you must dive into it, let it embrace you. You must become sarcasm. But jokes aside, sarcasm is a strange thing – we don’t know exactly how it appeared and why. The best theory seems to be […]

Scientists find 1.85 million year old human-like bone

Anthropologists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a bone resembling that of humans; the 1.85 million year old bone is the oldest evidence of a ‘modern’ hand and suggests that ancient humans may have been much larger than previously thought. A key feature that distinguishes humans from other species is the ability to create and use […]

Modern minimalist chapel in Austria is a new take on an old concept

Whether you’re religious or not, there’s a good chance this chapel will catch your eye – completed last year, the 7-square-meter Maria Magdalena family chapel is a unique architectural delight in the heart of the Austrian countryside. The minimalist design gives it a sense of tranquility and serenity. Religious references are found throughout the chapel, but […]

New nanotechnology will be able to target and destroy blood clots

A research group has come up with an innovative way of dealing with blood clots through nanotechnology. This technology has the potential to save many lives every year, as blood clots are often associated with life-threatening events.

World's oldest flower found: it's 125 million years old, and it raises some hard questions

We tend to think of flowering plants and ubiquitous, but in truth, they’ve “only” been around for about 125 million years – which geologically speaking… is still a lot, it’s just not forever. Geologists may have just found the oldest flower. Looking through some previously discovered fossils, scientists were thrilled to find a spectacular specimen: […]

Scientists find Salamander in Amber in the Caribbean

Finding insects, plants or even dinosaur feathers trapped in amber s rare and exciting. But finding a fossil salamander in amber… that’s something else – it’s actually unique. But the salamander’s unfortunate fate sparked immediate interest from researchers: not only is it a unique finding, but it’s from a never-before seen species of salamander, and […]

Spectacular tomb of Sarmatian Warrior woman found in Russia

Russian archaeologists have unearthed a trove of warrior jewelry of historical significance: the tomb of a Sarmatian woman warrior who worshiped fire.

Spherical, eco-friendly pod is the perfect backyard workplace

If you’re looking for a home away from home, if you’re setting up the perfect workplace, or if you’re simply not a fan of rectangular spaces, Podzook has you covered. These prefabricated pods are made from eco-friendly materials and in my opinion, they’re a fantastic addition to any backyard. “I could import parts and materials from Shanghai, set […]

China's smog kills 4,000 people each day

We all know that pollution and smog in China is pretty bad, but China has only recently published their air quality data - so we get to know just how bad it is. According to a new study published by Berkeley Earth, smog alone kills 4,000 people in China every day; that's 17% of all premature fatalities.

Study on 79 countries shows Religiosity is linked with anti-gay attitude

Religion affects our lives, directly and indirectly, in many ways. A new study published in the Journal of Homosexuality has investigated how a person’s and a country’s religious orientation impacts their attitude towards gay people. The findings showed that the more religious a person or country is, the more hostile it generally is towards homosexuals. The smallest […]

Journalist Uses GPS Trackers and Fake Elephant Tusks to Reveal Smuggling Route

Every year, over 30,000 elephants are murdered, slaughtered for their tusks. Ivory is an extremely valuable commodity, and many people will stop at nothing to get it and sell it. With this in mind, investigative journalist Bryan Christy set out to see what the smuggling route is, so he commissioned a taxidermist to create two fake ivory […]

Coca Cola give millions of dollars to scientists who say soft drinks don't cause obesity

Taking a page from the oil industry “sponsorship” philosophy, Coca Cola spent millions funding scientists to say that soft drinks don’t make people fat. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a company funding scientists to study its products, when the result is already known before the study actually starts, that’s not exactly science – that’s […]

Octopus genome finally unraveled, and this is a big deal

The mystery of the octopus genome has finally been solved, and this will allow researchers to answer some intriguing questions: how does it regenerate so well? How does it control its 8 flexible arms and over 1000 suckers? How do they camouflage and mimic the environment, and most importantly - how did a relative of the snail become so incredibly smart?

3D printing living things might revolutionize pastry

We’ve written a lot about how 3D printing can (and has already started to) change our world – but food wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Now, food designer Chloé Rutzerveld has developed a concept for “healthy and sustainable” 3D printed snack – she prints snacks that sprout plants and mushrooms for flavour. “Edible growth is […]

When dams go down, the beaches and the fish win

Hydro-energy is clean, cheap and reliable – in many ways, it’s every man’s dream: you get the reliability of fossil fuels with the eco-friendliness of wind and solar. But hydro also comes at a price, one that we are only recently discovering: it threatens biodiversity and encourages erosion. The removal of a dam on the Elwha […]

World's largest public sauna opens in the Arctic

The Arctic isn’t only for frozen ice and polar bears, it can be also relaxing. With that in mind, a giant “Agora” sauna was created for SALT, the world’s first Arctic arts festival on the remote Norwegian island of Sandhornøya. The creative design features a glass front on a timber structure and can accommodate 150 people; everything […]

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