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It always baffles me how some groups manage to make stunning discoveries with incredibly low budgets. Now, a team working with a budget of $4,000 were able to extend the human vision towards the near infrared. 2 weeks into the A2 administration and we have ERG readings with excitation in the eye at 950nm :) […]
Eating less meat could protect the driest areas of the world, saving much needed water. Reducing the use of animal products is very significant in all parts of the world, as meat production requires more water than other agricultural products, they say. In case you don’t know, every food we eat (and every product we use) has […]
I just love it when technology can help solve social problems – especially in cases where you wouldn’t expect it to, like for example in Chicago, where a Twitter bot is helping authorities find dirty restaurants. If you’ve eaten out, and after that you feel a bit sick, like say you have an indigestion or […]
We’re used to reporting year after year how China’s coal consumption is increasing and how they are polluting more and more. But this is the first year in over 2 decades when the number hasn’t increased. Could China’s coal boom be over? While positive signs have been emerging from China for well over a year, […]
Canada’s most famous (and from what I can find, only) beer-cooler turned hitchhiking robot has finally completed its 6,000-kilometre journey across Canada, blazing rides from Halifax reaching Victoria late Saturday; and he did it with style: I’m on a boat. Well, a ferry to be exact. Victoria, I’m on my way. #hitchBOT @BCFerries pic.twitter.com/SPewf9rIq1 — hitchBOT (@hitchBOT) […]
Russian researchers who were conducting experiments on the surface of the ISS were absolutely shocked when they found sea plankton, just outside of the space station. Other reports mention that they found them while they were polishing some parts of the ISS, but that’s not really important here: they found real, living, sea creatures in space. Samples […]
A while ago, we were telling you about the lab in Netherlands which artificially created a hamburger, making it the first lab-grown hamburger in the world. Now, a team from California has followed in their footsteps, creating the first cheese that does not originate from milk. A group of biohackers from Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, and BioCurious in Sunnyvale, […]
The world has reached what is called ‘World Overshoot Day‘ – the point in the year when humans have exhausted supplies such as land, trees and fish and outstripped the planet’s annual capacity to absorb waste products including carbon dioxide. But that’s not half of it – things are actually getting worse, with the planet […]
This bacterium has a lot in common with power companies. Power companies use copper wires to channel electricity (and therefore, electrons), and this bacterium developed a mechanism to do something similar: in the absence of oxygen, it grows nanowires from its own body through which it pushes electrons to nearby rocks. This is how it […]
People from Beijing can now use one of the city’s 34 newly installed facilities which allows them to pay for public transportation or charge their phone credit with empty plastic bottles. China is the world’s biggest polluter, and will likely stay so for years and years to come. The growth of their economy has been […]
Most societies in Africa are leading an uphill battle in their attempt to ensure safety, good health and food security. But for African animals, it’s even worse. Poachers alone killed an estimated 100,000 elephants across Africa between 2010 and 2012, raising new concerns about the species’ survival. Poaching in Africa is huge – the term […]
The difference between a poison and a cure is the dosage – and this could be very well said about this approach. Bio-engineers report that peptides in some venoms bind to cancer cells and block tumor growth and spread and could be effectively used to fight cancer – the only problem is they might also […]
It looks like a painting from Salvador Dali – but Hallucigenia was very much real. Truly one of the most surreal creatures to ever walk the face of the planet, it was finally deciphered and understood (at least partially) by paleontologists, after 4 decades of study. The process discovered not only its position in the […]
I was reading this morning how excited some journalists were in reporting “the biggest oil discovery in decades”, and I got a little curios: how big is it? According to US oil company Apache, the field could have potentially up to 300 million barrels of oil in place – Australia gets a lot of oil, […]
“Materials for Biofuels” By Arthur J Ragauskas World Scientific Publishing Company, 380pp | Buy on Amazon Biofuels are a hot topic nowadays; once viewed as the perfect bridge towards sustainable energy and fuel, they are now regarded by some as non-sustainable, and not a desirable investment. Are biofuels the future? Is this the right, efficient […]
New research has shown that a big asteroid is well on its way to hitting Earth in 2880 - and by that I mean it has a 1 in 300 chance of actually hitting our planet, but it's still the likeliest celestial body to hit the Earth in the foreseeable future.
A comparison between the Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity - how big the rovers are, how much their mission lasted (and still lasts), and what were the scientific outcomes.
Even though coal is still Germany's number one energy source, renewable energy is developing incredibly fast, with wind and solar energy catching up fast. If the trend continues, they will soon become the dominant energy source.
If you’re working in a biology lab, you may want to consider firing some of your assistants and hiring some sandcastle worms; they’re pretty good chemists, able to, among others, biosynthesize glue components they use to build the underwater tubular shelters they call home. Now, researchers are creating adhesives inspired from these chemicals that might […]
A recent study conducted by Norwegian researchers found that 8.3 per cent of the Norwegian work force is addicted to work to the point where it becomes a health issue. They show that workaholism is on the rise, and the odds are this phenomenon isn’t limited to Norway. The term workaholic has two connotations attached […]
I’ve given up on watching TV years ago – the occasional documentary or football game (guilty) once in a blue moon will do for me. But recently, there are fewer and fewer quality documentaries being shown on TV; not to say that there aren’t any awesome ones being made – there’s excellent documentaries coming out […]
This musician played the violin while he was having a brain surgery. But why? This is by no means an eccentric fad, but a genuine feat of science. By playing the instrument during surgery, professional violinist Roger Frisch was able to guide his surgeons toward the segment of his brain which was misfiring, causing him […]
If you look at most televisions, you’ll find that climate change deniers get half the air time – or even more. OK, that seems logical, we have to give equal time for both camps in a scientific debate to argue their claims. But the problem is that there is no scientific debate. The vast, overwhelming […]
A new study conducted by Stanford Researchers demonstrates a practical “roadmap” for converting California’s all-purpose energy infrastructure over to renewable sources by 2050. The paper proposes running the state on a mixture of wind, water and sunlight (WWS). To make things even more interesting, the paper does it all with available technologies – of course, […]
Just like squirrels set aside some nuts for winter, so do arctic foxes – they hoard bird eggs and bury them in the Arctic permafrost for when they don’t have enough food. “It appears as if cached eggs are used as a backup for unpredictable changes in lemming numbers,” lead study author Gustaf Samelius of […]
President Obama said he will only allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline’s construction if it doesn’t significantly increase carbon dioxide emissions. Now, a new study has concluded that it will – and by a lot. Keystone XL could cause greenhouse gas emissions four times worse than the U.S. government’s projections. In case you’re not aware […]
Scientists have finished analyzing water samples taken from 12 oceanographic cruises from the past 8 years. Among other startling discoveries, they report that the mercury content in the upper oceans has tripled since the Industrial Revolution began. Interestingly enough, this is the first time we have an accurate, systematic global distribution of mercury in oceans. […]
When you think about fish oil, you probably wouldn’t think of the English countryside – but that’s exactly where scientists are trying to grow it; yep, grow it! They’re using Camelina sativa plants genetically modified to produce long chain omega-3 fatty acids—the primary component of “fish oil.” Things you didn’t know about fish oil Most of the fish […]
A study conducted by researchers from Leicester University shows how an entire generation of children in Gaza is traumatized by PTSD and anxiety. “Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” – Varys, A Game of Thrones War is almost never about soldiers fighting soldiers. […]
Scientists have found a way to transform cigarette buds into a material which stores energy cheap and efficiently. The material outperforms both commercial and prototypical materials made from graphene and carbon nanotubes and may be eventually added into computers, smart phones or wind turbines.
The "mysterious" craters in Siberia have actually been caused by methane seeping from the melting permafrost. No rockets, no meteorites, no aliens - sorry, just global warming at it again.
“The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future” By Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway Columbia University Press, 104pp | Buy on Amazon The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Humanity has had countless warnings, and acknowledged the threat of changing climate, but it failed to act. Soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, […]
Designs for a device called a “microwave thruster” were proposed in 2006. While the device was physically sound and followed the principles of relativity, it has been dismissed by researchers who claimed that such a functioning device would defy the law of conservation of momentum. A team from NASA set out to trial the device and see […]
I remember when once upon a time, wi-fi could barely reach from one room to the other. It wasn’t even regarded as a serious technology by some back then – but oh my, how times have changed! Now, wi-fi is almost ubiquitous in the developed world, but the problem still remains the same – the […]
If fully developed, driverless cars are faster, cheaper, safer and more eco-friendly than human drivers. The only problem is, if you want them to work fine, you have to test them in real conditions – and few cities are willing to volunteer for that. But with California approving self-driving cars in 2015, and China also investing […]
The new study concludes that an aspirin a day for middle-aged people could save 130,000 lives over 20 years in Britain alone, by reducing cancer risk. Aspirin was most effective in cutting cancer risk in people from 50 to 64, and in order for the effects to be felt to the fullest, people should take 1 […]
Gaia is an unmanned space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) which aims to catalog approximately 1 billion astronomical objects (mostly stars), about 1% of the Milky Way population. Gaia will provide a trove of valuable and spectacular data, including a precise three-dimensional map of astronomical objects throughout the Milky Way and map their […]
Austrlian researchers have successfully developed transparent, ultra-thin, foldable solar cells.
The Cariboo Regional District has released troubling video of what can already be called a full-scale environmental disaster following the release of five million cubic meters of effluent from a tailing pond at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine near Likely, B.C., on Monday. Mount Polley is an open pit copper/gold mine with a […]
Beijing and the surrounding area will ban coal by the end of 2020, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. It’s not much, but it’s a start – about 1% of the Chinese population lives in that area, and over one quarter of the energy they use comes from coal, so banning it is […]
Mind blowing timelapse video of a Rose of Jericho blooming back to life after being exposed to moisture for just a few hours - also with scientific explanation.
Researchers have found a cheap and quick way of producing peptides in a laboratory. Producing one of the body's natural defenses against cancer and then implanting it into patients can prove pivotal in the fight against cancer.
Scientists have "reprogrammed" skin cells to act as neurons and then successfully implanted them into the brain of mice. After 6 months, the new nerve tissue was fully functional and there was no sign of rejection or other side effects.
While looking for some Nautiloid representations, I came across a graphical rendering contest from earlier this year, organized by the CG Society. The task was simple – starting from a base model, colorize them and make them your own. The results are stunning (these are the winning illustrations, created by Dirk Wachsmuth): “I would like […]
Geologists working in New Zealand have shown, through isotopic analysis, that rainwater can infiltrate down to 6-8 km, in the lower ductile crust.
Scientists have figured out why a small percentage of people require less than six hours of sleep, whereas the vast majority of humans need at least 8 hours a night to thrive.
Colorado is averaging 2 oil spills per day, but oil companies aren't obliged to inform residents - even if the surface or ground water is polluted.
Big oil companies invest big chunks of their profits (which are bigger than many countries’) into climate change denial. As I wrote a while ago, 9 out of 10 top climate change deniers are linked with Exxon Mobil, the biggest private oil company. Still, there are some brilliant scientists working for oil companies, and they […]
The UN released the Human Development Index for 2014, and it's bad news for the United States - which come in at the 28th place, with huge social and wealth inequality.
Ice melting means waves have more room to develop and grow, and scientists aren't really sure what the consequences will be.
